PSA: The Mormon Church HIDES Pedofiles

For anyone participating in a high demand religion, I want to share something that all need to be aware of in order to better protect our children. I would not believe that what I am going to share with you was happening within Mormonism had I not personally experienced it.

When I was young I remember hearing about the sex scandals occurring within the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America. I remember being disturbed that these organizations were hiding predators and I was naive to believe that the same was not happening within the Mormon Church, that my own abuser was being protected.

I have discussed on my podcast the reality of my spending a significant amount of time in Mormon bishop offices, confessing what I had been taught was my own “sinful behavior”. It was not until I was about 24 with three small children at home, that a high ranking Stake President, who also happened to be the Superintendent of the school district in our community, asked me during a confessional with him if I had been sexually abused. He was the first adult to ask me such a question and I remember my breath leaving me as I was feeling terrified to speak the truth. With tears falling down my cheeks and in a hushed whisper I responded in the affirmative. This leader leaned back in his chair, hands clasped with his pointer fingers pressed against his lips, to take in my response. He then surprised me by asking, “Was it your father?” As the only other adult I had told the truth to being my now ex-husband, I sat there shaking and crying even harder. I had never spoken the truth to a man in a position of power like this and it took everything in me to give him my response, which again came out in a tear filled whisper. The Stake President leaned further back in his chair to take in what I had just shared as he knew my father very well. My body shook even harder as the silence in the room was thick and heavy and I sat anxiously waiting for some sort of a response. When he spoke there was no sense of feeling from this man, no sense of care for what I had just shared. As is so typical within the system of Mormonism and the dominating male leadership, it was robotic and dismissive. The only thing he told me was that if more was needed from me he would get back to me but if I did not hear anything more from him that all was well - for he was speaking to me more from the space of me being a sinful woman than over my disclosure of having been molested by my father.

Me with my three sons. I am roughly 24 years old here.

I did not hear anything more from that Stake President and given that I was living under the mind control of Mormonism I believed that I was to try to move on in my life. My Mormon trained brain believed that if this high ranking leader did not see anything major about what I had disclosed, then it must mean that it really was not a big deal. Such is the sad reality of belief for so many who are still in Mormonism - they place all their believing faith on those who are called to lead them and are often unaware of how misguided their leaders are. For the next 22 years of my life I was living with an illusion that my father was this really great man, for I was trauma-bonded to him and he was extremely manipulative in keeping me close to him - something I was not aware of until I was in counseling. I cannot minimize the reality that inwardly my soul was very sick and I suffered from severe depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and isolation throughout my adult years while in Mormonism. Truly the thing that kept me alive were my children, for I loved them in such a way that I never wanted to inflict the pain that suicide would if I took that action.

While on vacation in 2023, I received a text message from my mother whom I had not spoken to in over a year. During my counseling process, I had placed a no contact boundary between my parents and I to give myself space to process the reality of my life. I did not want their pressures to act as though all was fine in my life, for such was not the case. My mother broke the no contact boundary and sent me the following message: “I know you don’t want contact with us, but a dejavu occurred a couple of weeks ago and you have set heavy on my mind….I think about being told by the Stake President that you thought that your dad had fondled you sexually when you were younger. I was with dad that night and you had complained so long of an itching bottom that the doctor said to check you when you were asleep to see if you had worms and that’s what dad and I did. Lol……once again as soon as I heard that I should have sat down with you and explained. It’s a heavy burden you’ve carried for many years unnecessarily.” 

I am 24 years old here.

To say that this was the biggest gut punch of my life is a complete understatement for it put me yet again in the fetal position on the floor. To have this message come to me from my own mother, and through a text with an lol, was almost more than I could handle. The boyfriend I had at the time and his teenage children did not help my situation and could not understand why I was struggling as I was on our vacation, berating and shaming me for being so depressed. I do not know how I made it through that trip as successfully as I did for I truly was at the lowest point of my life.

Not only had I been betrayed by my own mother by withholding this knowledge from me for all those years, but to learn that the Stake President had actually gone to my abuser and disclosed what I had told him was almost beyond my comprehension. I did not realize that such evil could exist in the church I had loved and given so much to for so long. My father, instead of owning what he had done, made up a story and did so in such a way that the Stake President and my mother believed it to be true. Of course I would not hear anything more from that Stake President! The Mormon Church hides pedofiles.

Learning this information about the church helped to further confirm my earlier decision in leaving Mormonism and I knew that the course of action I had taken to remove my name from its records was the right thing to do. As one who has spent a good portion of my life in trying to do what is right, it is abhorable to me to discover the hypocrisy occurring within religion, purporting to lead and love as Jesus once did. This is complete and utter bullshit and causes lifelong, serious harm to individuals. I know, for I am one that suffered from the abuse within the system of Mormonism. There was a reason why Jesus was so against organized religion and religious leaders and I can now see why! 

Given where I now stand, my view of religion is such that I see it as a VERY evil and demonic system, built to control its followers, exploit good, honest people by scaring them into paying large amounts of money “to God”, and worst of all - protecting and hiding pedofiles, putting other children at risk of being abused. Even with the disclosure of the fact that my father had abused me, my father continued to be placed in positions of high ranking leadership in the Mormon Church where he was consistently behind closed doors with children and teenagers. He was also a Scout Master, taking young men on overnight trips and attending the summer camp for young women, spending the night there too. I personally participated in a young women’s trip where my father was in charge of the repelling activity for the girls and was assisting them in placing their harnesses on. He was regularly being propped up by the church as a man worth emulating, especially to the youth in the area he lived in. 

I share this with you to bring to your attention the reality of what does indeed take place in the Mormon Church as they are very good at coming across as squeaky clean. Instead of protecting children and women, they protect the men who belong to the “good ol’ boys club”. The Mormon Church is full of hypocrisy and deceit, and what I am sharing with you today is only one layer of the abuse that takes place within that system. It is not a place of safety or peace for many, especially women and children. 

If you find yourself in a position where you have been abused, PLEASE go to proper authorities and avoid disclosing your abuse to religious leaders. Going to religious leaders is often the worst person to report to, as they so often will hide what has been done and will cause you, the victim, further mental and spiritual harm. Do not trust that those who pretend to speak in the name of God have your best interest at heart, especially if you are a woman. Yes, there are anomalies in the system and reporting is done to the proper authorities, but more often than not, the predators are the ones being protected. Report the crime to the police and seek support from those who have walked through a similar journey. 

For those who have been a victim of domestic violence, there are many ready and able to assist you. You do not need to walk alone. Your story matters and your voice deserves to be heard.

The more we stand up and speak, the more we will be heard.

With so much love and support,

The Modern Day Pioneer™