Skip to main content

Floodlit: Shedding Light on Sexual Abuse

Image
By Mason
Sexual abuse within religion is not limited to one faith or one culture. It appears in churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques around the world. 

The same systems that promise moral direction and community can also aid abusers in hiding their wrongdoing. When power is concentrated in spiritual authority, questioning leaders can feel like questioning God. That fear keeps many victims silent for years.


Across history, investigations have revealed deep problems in multiple religious institutions. The Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others have faced reports of abuse and cover-ups.

The pattern is painfully consistent across the board. Allegations are dismissed, offenders are quietly moved, and victims are told to stay quiet for the sake of the church’s reputation. Each time the truth surfaces, it raises the same questions:

-How could this happen?
-Who allowed it to continue?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now facing similar scrutiny. Survivors and journalists have begun documenting how sexual abuse has been handled within Mormon communities and leadership structures. 

One project at the center of this effort is Floodlit.org, a public database that compiles survivor accounts, court filings, and verified news reports. Floodlit exists to make sure these stories are not buried again. It gathers evidence in one place, giving survivors a voice and helping others understand the scale of what has been hidden.

Floodlit is a volunteer-run website built to track sexual abuse cases linked to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The project serves as both a database and a record of survivor accounts, collecting information from court filings, verified media, and public records. Its purpose is to document what has often been hidden and to help survivors and researchers access credible information in one place.


Mission

Floodlit’s mission is to expose how abuse has been handled inside the LDS Church. The creators aim to document every case involving members, leaders, or church institutions accused of sexual crimes or of concealing them. The site exists to make sure these stories don’t disappear into sealed court documents or forgotten local reports. It encourages open access, accountability, and a space for survivors to be heard.

What the Site Offers

Case Database:
The searchable database lists individuals accused of abuse or misconduct. Each entry includes names, charges, locations, and links to verified sources like court filings or news coverage. This helps connect scattered information and shows the scale of the issue.

Survivor Stories:
Through survivors.floodlit.org, individuals can share their stories anonymously. These personal accounts bring human perspective to the data and allow others to see how widespread and damaging the problem has been.

Public Records Access:
Floodlit gives readers direct access to original court documents and filings. Removing paywalls and barriers allows independent verification by journalists, scholars, and the public.


Maps and Data:
An interactive map displays where reported incidents have occurred. It helps visualize how abuse and church responses have appeared across time and location.


Why It Exists

Floodlit was created to end silence. Many abuse cases within the LDS Church were previously handled quietly, leaving victims without a voice and communities without information. The site counters that silence with transparency, bringing together evidence that reveals patterns of neglect and concealment. It’s meant to protect future victims by ensuring that past ones are not forgotten.

Floodlit continues to grow as more survivors come forward and more records become public. It’s part of a wider effort by survivors and advocates to demand honesty and reform in religious institutions. By gathering facts, stories, and documents in one place, Floodlit helps turn what was once private pain into public truth.

Check Your Understanding

Test your understanding of how sexual abuse has been handled in religious institutions and why projects like Floodlit.org exist.

1. What is one major reason abuse continues within many religious institutions?




2. Which pattern is commonly seen across multiple religious institutions?




3. Which groups are mentioned as having faced investigations and reports of abuse?




4. What kind of resource is Floodlit.org?




5. What is the mission of Floodlit?




6. What does the Floodlit case database provide?




7. How does Floodlit support survivors directly?




8. Why was Floodlit created?




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The "Mormon" Trademark is About to Expire

By Mason
 The request for Mormon Stories to rebrand has spread quickly through Mormon spaces. Followers learned that the LDS Church had reached out with claims that the podcast was infringing on the “Mormon” trademark. The demand leaned on the legal idea that the Church owns the word.  The request was shared on social media by @mormstories, but those posts seem to have been removed. Fortunately, copies of the email were  shared on reddit. But there is a significant detail sitting behind this entire dispute. The Church will have to renew the "Mormon" trademark in the 2026 to 2027 window.  Source: USPTO database When that time comes, they must prove that they still use the word “Mormon” in active commerce. USPTO rules are clear on this point. A trademark only survives if the owner can show that it is still printed on actual goods or services that are still being sold or distributed. The official guidelines spell it out at uspto.gov under “ Keeping your registration alive .” He...
3 comments
Read

Are You Temple Worthy?

By Mason
Temple worthiness isn’t just about "good behavior" in Mormon teaching. It’s a gate that determines who qualifies for the highest blessings the religion offers. The church teaches that only people judged worthy can enter the temple, make covenants, and receive the ordinances that lead to exaltation, which is the belief that humans can become like God and live forever with their families in the celestial kingdom.  This makes worthiness interviews a spiritual checkpoint that can shape someone’s identity, their standing in the community, and even their hope for eternity.    Are You Worthy to Enter a Mormon Temple? Are You Worthy of the Mormon Temple? Yes No Restart Enter the Temple
6 comments
Read

Code Names and Church Finances

By Mason
Members of the Mormon church are expected to give ten percent of their income as tithing. It’s treated as a basic requirement of faithful membership. But even though members contribute a significant portion of their earnings, they aren’t given a clear accounting of how that money is used.  The Utah church does not release detailed budgets, financial reports, or yearly accounting. Members of the church donate fully on trust, without the kind of transparency they would expect from almost any other major charitable organization. Ensign Peak This lack of transparency became harder to overlook during the Ensign Peak investigation. For years the church separated its investment funds into thirteen shell companies and failed to fulfill federal reporting requirements.  The SEC found that this structure used by the church was designed to conceal the true size and unity of Ensign Peak’s holdings.   Per the SEC's 2023 report: " The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced c...
Post a Comment
Read

Early Mormon Criticisms - 1: Caution Against the Golden Bible

By Mason
This series looks back at how early critics of the church reacted to the rise of Mormonism. Some mocked it, others warned against it, and a few tried to make sense of it. Each post features a real historical excerpt and some quick context to show how critics viewed the new faith as it was unfolding. For this first article, we are going to look at one of the first known in-depth public criticisms of the Book of Mormon, which appeared before the book itself was publicly available.  On February 20, 1830, Cornelius Camden Blatchley, a New York physician and writer known for his skeptical views on organized religion, published an article titled “Caution Against the Golden Bible” in the New-York Telescope . Written only weeks before the Book of Mormon’s official release in March of that year. Most of his arguments are still being used to this day. The Complaints Presented by Blatchley He specifies reading the Title page as well as   pages 353–368 of the original Book of Morm...
Post a Comment
Read

Early Mormon Criticisms - 2: The Book of Pukei

By Mason
This series looks back at how early critics of the church reacted to the rise of Mormonism. Some mocked it, others warned against it, and a few tried to make sense of it. Each post features a historical excerpt and some quick context to show how critics viewed the new faith as it was unfolding. Part 1 can be read here In 1830 a man by the name of Abner Cole published a criticism of Joseph Smith called the Book of Pukei in the Palmyra Reflector, published under the name "Obadiah Dogberry Esquire".   Cole had access to Grandin’s print shop and saw early pages of the Book of Mormon before the public did. His reaction took the form of a mock scripture that rewrote Joseph Smith’s story into a  joke. That choice wasn’t random. He was simply recounting the events surrounding Joseph smith in a pseudobiblical style, Cole shows us that he likely recognized the Book of Mormon as part of that same genre. Events Parodied in The Book of Pukei     1. Angel Moroni – Cole rewr...
Post a Comment
Read
Link copied!