1976
Handbook and recommend questions take their modern shape
The 1976 handbook asked temple-recommend candidates whether they were "morally clean" and whether any "major transgression" had not "been confessed and adjusted." Later the same year the question was narrowed to any "transgression relating to the law of chastity" that should have been confessed and was not. The 1976 handbook was also the first to address abortion, an indication of how directly handbook revisions tracked outside legal and social change.
1978
“Unnatural sex acts” language, and the instruction that followed it
The First Presidency added to the recommend instructions a statement that a person who had not repented of "impure, unholy, or unnatural sex acts" could not receive a recommend. The addition prompted inquiry by many bishops into the specific sexual activities of married couples, and the First Presidency sent follow-up instructions that bishops "should never inquire into personal, intimate matters involving marital relations between a man and his wife." That cautionary language has remained in the interview instructions since.
October 1978
Packer sets limits on the interview from the pulpit
In "The Blessing of Church Interviews," Boyd K. Packer told priesthood leaders that "there must be nothing immodest or degrading in your interview" and that "our interviews are not to be indelicate, or offensive, or pornographic in any way." He added: "It is not in order for a priesthood leader to list in detail ugly, deviant, or bestial practices and then cross-examine a member of the Church as to whether or not such things are practiced." He noted the Church received occasional reports of leaders who had been "very indiscreet or indelicate" in interviews.
5 January 1982
The First Presidency letters on recommend interviews
Stake presidents and bishops were advised to ensure that recommend candidates refrained from oral sex, treated as an "unnatural, impure, or unholy practice." Less than a year later a second letter cautioned local authorities not to pry into marital relations, while the recommend instructions retained a question about refraining from "unnatural, impure, or unholy practices" and supplied a paragraph to be read verbatim to anyone who asked what that meant.
5 July 1984
The earliest documented abuse suit against the Churchhinge
A civil suit was filed in Maricopa County, Arizona, concerning abuse by Church member Richard Kenneth Ray, who told Arizona police that year that he had molested at least 33 children over roughly two decades and had confessed to bishops as early as 1968. In 1988 the Arizona Court of Appeals held that Ray's own disclosures to police waived the privilege, compelling Church officials to testify; the suit settled in 1990. FLOODLIT recovered the 1984 filing date from court records in 2025.
Why this is a hingeIt shows the Church was litigating reporting and privilege questions a decade before the help line existed, and it is the documentary basis for the charge that the Church later misstated its own litigation history.
Disputed FLOODLIT presents the 1984 filing as contradicting a 2012 sworn declaration by the Church's risk-management director that the first such suit came in 1989; the Church has not published its own account of the case.
April 1992
Scott's conference address on abuse
Richard G. Scott told the Church that a victim of "another's acts of violence, perversion, or incest" is "not responsible and you must not feel guilty." In the same address he cautioned against two therapeutic practices: "excessive probing into every minute detail of your past experiences," and "blaming the abuser for every difficulty in your life," warning that leading questions could produce accusations later shown to be false.
Disputed The same passage is read by the Church and FAIR as pastoral care and by critics and survivor-advocates as counsel that discourages disclosure and litigation.
1994
Hinckley on the cost of abuse cases
President Hinckley spoke against physical and sexual abuse in the October general conference. At a leadership meeting in Calgary, Alberta, he told local leaders that abuse cases "are costing the Church millions of dollars in lawyers' fees and settlements." The same year a former General Authority, George Lee, pleaded guilty to attempted sexual abuse of a child.
Disputed The Calgary remark reaches the corpus through FLOODLIT's timeline citing contemporary reporting; no transcript is held.
1995
The abuse help line is establishedhinge
The Church produced a revised "Responding to Abuse: Helps for Ecclesiastical Leaders" and set up a telephone help line for Church leaders faced with child abuse cases. Bishops and branch presidents are instructed to call it when they learn of abuse. It operates 24 hours a day and is staffed by legal and counseling professionals; the legal advice is supplied by attorneys at Kirton McConkie, the Church's outside counsel.
Why this is a hingeIt created the single mechanism through which nearly every subsequent dispute about Latter-day Saint abuse reporting runs.
Disputed The Church describes the line as ensuring that legal reporting requirements are met; plaintiffs' complaints describe it as routing disclosures to defense counsel.
October 1996
The help line is described publicly for the first time
Reading his interview with Mike Wallace into general conference, President Hinckley answered a question about what the Church was doing to reduce child abuse: "We are doing everything we know how to reduce it. We are teaching our people. We are talking about it. We have set up a course of instruction for our bishops all across the nation. All last year we carried on an educational program. We have set up a help-line for them where they can get professional counseling and help with these problems."
1998
Handbook adds record annotation; a Texas jury awards $4 million
A new Church Handbook of Instructions was published with updated abuse policies. One change required annotation of an abuser's membership record, a marker that bars callings involving children or youth and can be removed only by the First Presidency. The same year a Texas jury awarded $4 million to a boy molested at age eight by a Church member.
2001
Oregon: the first publicly disclosed settlement figurehinge
The Church agreed to pay $3 million to Jeremiah Scott, abused at age eleven by a ward member whose history of abusing children the family said their bishop knew and did not disclose when they asked his advice about taking the man into their home. The plaintiffs settled only on condition that they be free to discuss the evidence they would have presented; it was the first LDS abuse settlement amount ever disclosed publicly. Church attorney Von Keetch defended the annotation system: an admitted abuser "may be able to repent and come back and be a member of the Church, but what I can't do is ever work with children again."
Why this is a hingeIt put a dollar figure and the Church's record-annotation defense on the public record for the first time, and established the pattern of confidentiality that later settlements would follow.
April 2002
The help line described from the pulpit
In "Personal Worthiness to Exercise the Priesthood," President Hinckley said the Church had "issued publications, established a telephone line where Church officers may receive counsel in handling cases, and offered professional help through LDS Family Services," adding: "Professional counselors, including lawyers and social workers, are available on this help line to advise bishops and stake presidents concerning their obligations in these circumstances." He also acknowledged "some very limited expression of this monstrous evil among us."
2010
Handbook 1 states the governing policy
The 2010 handbook told leaders that "the Church's position is that abuse cannot be tolerated in any form," that abusers are subject to Church discipline and may not hold callings or a temple recommend until discipline is resolved, and that "a person whose membership record is annotated for having abused a child sexually or physically must not be given any calling or assignment involving children or youth." It stated that "in instances of abuse, the first responsibility of the Church is to help those who have been abused."
January–February 2012
West Virginia: a mission ends, and no report is made
After two children disclosed abuse to their mother, who reported it to the West Virginia State Police, Church officials brought Michael Jensen home from a mission within about a week. According to the complaint later filed, no Church leader reported to West Virginia authorities, despite mandated-reporter status under state law; a bishop said he had called the abuse help line to consult officials in Utah about the police investigation. Ward and stake leaders did not inform members why Jensen had returned.
Disputed These are the plaintiffs' allegations as pleaded. The case settled mid-trial in 2018 without a verdict, so no jury found them proved.
October 2012
Oaks: “Protect the Children”
Dallin H. Oaks devoted a general conference address to institutional and civic duty toward children, saying that "children need others to speak for them, and they need decision makers who put their well-being ahead of selfish adult interests," and that his subject carried "implications for the choices being made by citizens, public officials, and workers in private organizations."
2013
Conviction, excommunication, and a six-family suit
In July 2013 Michael Jensen was sentenced to 35 to 75 years in a West Virginia prison; the Church excommunicated him in August. On 16 September 2013 six families sued the Church, a stake president, another leader and the Jensen family in Berkeley County Circuit Court, alleging civil conspiracy, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. More than 90 depositions followed over four years.
December 2017
The Bisbee case reaches its criminal end
Paul Douglas Adams, a Border Patrol employee in Bisbee, Arizona, was arrested by Homeland Security agents in 2017 after Interpol traced material he had posted online. He was indicted on eleven counts of child sexual abuse and died by suicide in pretrial detention in December 2017. His wife pleaded no contest in 2018 to two felony counts of child abuse for failing to protect the children, was sentenced to prison and released in October 2020. The children were adopted into other families.
26 March 2018
The First Presidency changes the interview policyhinge
After a sustained public campaign by former bishop Sam Young and his organization Protect LDS Children, the First Presidency announced changes governing how bishops and stake presidencies conduct interviews with women and children and how they counsel abuse victims. Children, youth and women may now invite an adult to join them in what had traditionally been one-on-one interviews. Current Handbook guidance directs a leader meeting with a child, youth or woman to ask a parent or another adult to be in an adjoining room, foyer or hall.
Why this is a hingeIt is the only structural change to the bishop's interview in this record produced by organized pressure from ordinary members rather than by litigation.
Disputed The Church presented the change as one of a set of instructions on interviews and abuse counselling; Young's organization and FLOODLIT present it as the direct result of the campaign.
April–July 2018
West Virginia settles mid-trialhinge
The Church settled the six families' suit during trial. FLOODLIT later established from court records that the settlement was $32 million and that the Church had spent more than $27 million defending the case — nearly $60 million in total, and the largest known payout tied to abuse in the Church. Roughly 12,000 pages of the record remain sealed under a 2016 order of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Why this is a hingeIt is the largest documented abuse payout in Church history, and the figures became public only years later and only because the Church sued its own insurers.
September 2018
Sam Young is excommunicated
Six months after the interview policy changed, the Church excommunicated Young, the former bishop whose campaign had pressed for the change. He had gathered and published accounts from members describing sexually explicit questioning of minors in bishops' interviews.
November 2020
Three of the Adams children sue in Cochise County
Attorney Lynne Cadigan filed an 87-page complaint on behalf of three of the six Adams children, alleging that two bishops and a Sunday School teacher — who was also a former Border Patrol agent — failed to report, and that the clergy-penitent privilege did not apply because the defendants had knowledge outside any confidential communication. The Church's answer asserted that it owed the children no duty. A Cochise County grand jury investigation, disclosed in December 2021, delayed proceedings.
Disputed Whether the bishops had independent knowledge was the central factual dispute; the trial court found no evidence that they did.
4 August 2022
The Associated Press publishes its investigationhinge
Michael Rezendes reported that when a Bisbee bishop learned a member was sexually assaulting his five-year-old daughter, he followed Church policy and called the help line, and that attorneys who staff it told him he was legally bound to keep the matter secret. The bishop later told federal investigators: "They said, 'You absolutely can do nothing.'" The abuse continued for as many as seven more years and extended to a second daughter born after the bishops knew. The AP said it had obtained thousands of pages of sealed court documents.
Why this is a hingeIt converted an internal procedure into a national controversy and set the terms of every argument that followed, on both sides.
Disputed The Church says the story has "significant flaws in its facts and timeline"; the AP has not retracted it.
5 August 2022
The Church answershinge
Church Newsroom published a statement saying: "The nature and the purpose of the Church's help line was seriously mischaracterized in a recent Associated Press article. The help line is instrumental in ensuring that all legal requirements for reporting are met." A second, longer statement followed, itemizing what the Church said the AP got wrong and stating a leader's three responsibilities: assure that child sexual abuse is stopped; help victims receive care, including from professional counselors; and comply with whatever reporting is required by law.
Why this is a hingeIt is the Church's own account of what the help line is for, in its own words, and the text every later defence returns to.
August 2022
The call log names an attorney and a legislator
AP reporting based on two pages of a call log and a deposition transcript, filed with the Arizona Court of Appeals by the plaintiffs, identified Merrill F. Nelson — then a Republican member of the Utah House and a Kirton McConkie lawyer — as the attorney who took the initial help-line call and who spoke with two bishops over roughly two years. In the same period Church spokesman Sam Penrod said: "As clergy, the bishop was required by Arizona law to maintain the confidentiality of the father's limited confession."
8 November 2023
Summary judgment for the Church
Judge Timothy B. Dickerson of Cochise County Superior Court granted the Church defendants' motions for summary judgment, holding that there was no evidence Church officials had knowledge independent of confidential communications with Adams, and that Arizona's reporting statute is overridden when the only source of the information is a confession or similar conversation. Through attorney William Maledon the Church said: "Contrary to some news reports and exaggerated allegations, the court found that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its clergy handled this matter consistent with Arizona law."
10 February 2025
Oregon: a federal failure-to-report complaint
Julie Doe v. Corporation of the Presiding Bishop (D. Or. 6:25-cv-00222) was filed in the Eugene Division, alleging that a bishop of a Vancouver, Washington branch was informed of a girl's abuse by her adopted father and did not report it to police or child welfare, and that months of further abuse followed. The suit seeks $25 million. The adoptive father was separately convicted of sexual abuse charges.
Disputed This is a filed complaint. Its allegations against the Church are unadjudicated.
March 2025
Coordinated litigation in California
A San Jose law firm filed 91 or more civil suits against the Church in California in 2024, pleading nearly identical causes of action including negligent supervision, negligent hiring and retention, and breach of mandatory duty. In September a petition sought coordination in Riverside County Superior Court; by 3 March 2025, 28 federal cases had been gathered before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation as MDL No. 3150, In re: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Sexual Abuse Litigation.
Disputed These are pleadings. Many of the California suits have been settled out of court without findings of liability.
3 April 2025
A federal court finds the Church had a duty — in an insurance case
The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah ruled for two insurers who had refused to reimburse the Church's West Virginia costs, holding that the underlying claims arose from multiple occurrences rather than one. The decision states: "Once the Church had knowledge that Mr. Jensen posed a risk of abuse to Church members, the Church had a duty to its members to prevent the abuse. The Church had multiple opportunities to act and failed to do so." The Church appealed; on 28 July 2026 the Tenth Circuit reversed and remanded, reviving the claim against the insurers.
Disputed The district court's language about duty was reasoning within a coverage dispute between the Church and its insurers, not a finding of liability to victims; the Tenth Circuit has since reversed the judgment.
30 July 2025
The Arizona Supreme Court decides who defines a confessionhinge
A unanimous court, Vice Chief Justice John R. Lopez IV writing, ended the Adams children's suit. It held that whether a communication is a "confession," and whether keeping it confidential is "reasonable and necessary within the concepts of the religion," are questions of religious doctrine that the First Amendment bars fact-finders from reviewing: "We may not substitute our interpretation of Church doctrine for the Church's reading of its own doctrine." The ruling reinstated the 2023 trial-court judgment and vacated a 2025 appellate decision that had sent the case toward a jury. Amicus briefs supporting the Church came from the Catholic dioceses of Phoenix, Tucson and Gallup, the Church of Scientology International and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, among others.
Why this is a hingeIt settles, in Arizona, that the clergy member decides what counts as a confession and that no court may second-guess that judgment — the broadest legal outcome in this record.
Disputed FLOODLIT stresses that the court "did not rule on whether the church behaved decently"; the Church treats the ruling as vindication of its handling of the case.
7 August 2025
The Church's counsel defends the help line in public
At the FAIR conference in Lehi, Utah, Kirton McConkie attorney Randy Austin and Latter-day Saint Family Services clinical social worker Kerri Nielsen described the help line as providing 24-hour legal and counselling advice to 31,000 bishops and branch presidents worldwide. Austin said: "Far more abuse gets reported when the bishop calls the helpline than if we didn't have one," and "A child's safety always comes first. We never, ever, ever, ever leave a child in harm's way, ever." He said he had done the work for thirty years and was himself a survivor of child sexual abuse. He cited 37 U.S. states with a clergy exception and argued that studies show protecting the privilege yields more reported abuse, not less.
Disputed Austin's empirical claim that privilege increases reporting is asserted, not sourced in the coverage the corpus holds; no study is named.
