The documentary Glass Temples is having its Utah premier Thursday night. The film examines how leaders in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mishandled yet another case of child abuse.
The subject of the film, Kristy Johnson, said her father molested and raped her and her two sisters while they were growing up. At the time, her father was employed by the LDS Church as a religious instructor and seminary teacher.
Johnson said each time she or her mother told a church leader about the abuse, her father would simply get transferred to a different city and the abuse would continue.
Looking back, Johnson wishes she would have gone to the police immediately.
“It just never entered my mind," Johnson said. "Because being raised Mormon, these bishops and leaders are like God, they speak for God.”
Along with telling her story through a new documentary, Johnson is also suing her father for the years of abuse.
Her lawyer, Craig Vernon, said he hopes this case will encourage Mormon abuse victims to go straight to the police rather than their bishop.
“Bishops should be relieved of that duty," Vernon said. "I feel bad for bishops. They shouldn’t have to be in between all this.”
Vernon is also representing McKenna Denson who is currently suing the LDS Church. Denson said that while she was serving as a young missionary she was raped by her leader at the church’s Missionary Training Center in Provo.
