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?




Category:

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 om November 14th 2025, 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 r...
3 comments
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

What the Maine Temple Announcement Signals

By Mason
 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on December 14, 2025 that a temple will be built in Portland, Maine . The announcement came during a regional Christmas devotional and was delivered by Elder Allen D. Haynie, a member of the Church’s Area Presidency, rather than during a General Conference session or directly by the Church president. What makes this announcement stand out is not the location, but the method. For years, temples were almost always announced during the April or October General Conference, usually by the Church president, at the close of a major session watched by a global audience. Under Russell M. Nelson, this practice became especially prominent, with long lists of new temples read out twice a year. These announcements have often been used rhetorically to imply numerical growth, even in regions with small or stagnant membership.  Announcing a temple outside of General Conference reduces the performative aspect of that claim.   T...
Post a Comment
Read

Early Mormon Criticisms - 3: Delusions

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 brief context to show how critics viewed the new faith as it was unfolding.  -The full series can be found here - In 1831 Alexander Campbell published An Analysis of the Book of Mormon , one of the earliest full-length critiques of Joseph Smith’s new scripture. The piece first appeared as a review in Campbell’s periodical The Millennial Harbinger and was republished the following year, in 1832, as a standalone pamphlet for wider circulation. Campbell was a prominent religious leader and editor, and he approached the Book of Mormon as a text that needed to be tested, line by line, against the Bible it claimed to supplement. Unlike satirical responses such as Abner Cole’s Book of Pukei , Campbell did not parody Mormonism. He treated it as a serious theologica...
1 comment
Read

What is the CES letter?

By Mason
In 2012, Jeremy Runnells was struggling with questions about LDS history that he couldn’t reconcile with what he had learned growing up. He had served a mission, gone to BYU, and lived his life inside of Mormonism, but the sources he was reading didn’t line up with the version he’d been taught. When he spoke with a Church Educational System director about it, he was asked to write his concerns in one place so they could review them together. He sat down and did exactly that. He pulled notes, checked references, and laid out the issues in a document that ended up more than eighty pages long. He sent it back expecting a follow-up. The follow-up never came. That unanswered list of questions eventually became known online as the CES Letter. In April 2013, he shared his document to reddit on r/exmormon under the title “Letter to a CES Director.” The file spread fast because it pulled together problems that members usually encounter one at a time. Runnells later said he wrote it to underst...
1 comment
Read

The 14 Fundamentals in Following the Prophet - A Response

By Mason
   In 1980, Ezra Taft Benson delivered a devotional at BYU that outlined what he called the “ 14 Fundamentals in Following the Prophet. ” The message spread widely within the church and shaped how Latter day Saints came to understand prophetic authority. Even if someone never read the original talk, the ideas appeared in lessons, leadership trainings, and casual conversation across generations. The fundamentals build a system that places the prophet above every competing source of guidance. When read together, they create a model of obedience and hierarchy that rests on the idea that one man speaks for God. 1. The prophet is the only person who speaks for God in everything  This first principle elevates one individual above all other voices. If only one man speaks for God, then any disagreement with him becomes a spiritual issue rather than a difference in interpretation. The structure relies on absolute trust in a single leader. 2. The living prophet is more important than script...
Post a Comment
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

There Is No Curse, Part 5: Then What Is It?

By
We need to talk about the current apologetics attempting to downplay the Lamanite curse. Nephi Sees Our Day In preparation for my next topic, I was reading 1 Nephi 13:15 , where Nephi sees a vision of the future for his own civilization and the European conquest of America. This passage stuck out to me: And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain. This is in direct contrast to 1 Nephi 12:23 : And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations. You might notice that there is ample ambiguity in both passages, but in juxtaposing these two peoples, we see a contrast that I just can’t reconcile if the curse is only “symbolic” or “spiritual.” In comparing Gentiles to Lam...
Post a Comment
Read

Influencers for Zion

By Mason
 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced fourteen new members of the Young Men General Advisory Council , a group that aids the Young Men General Presidency in council and leadership of boys ages twelve to eighteen. The announcement has cause quite an online stir in Mormon spaces as several of these men already have established online followings. Religious youth retention is slipping and institutional messaging struggles to compete with platforms where teens spend most of their time.  Youth these days have a tendency to put a lot of trust in creators, sometimes even more than official statements. By calling men with YouTube channels, filmmaking schools, and large digital classrooms, the Church gains access to people who already know how to package a message and keep an audience engaged. These are essential skillsets for any organization to have in our online world. Who the New Council Members Are Derral E. Eves helped build The Chosen and spent years sha...
Post a Comment
Read

How Does the Church Keep Finding Me?

By Mason
The “Locating Members” page on the church’s Tech Wiki, now removed from the public site, explains that when a member moves without providing a new address, local leaders are expected to try to find out where that person went. The responsibility usually falls to the ward clerk, working under the direction of the bishop. The record isn’t automatically dropped just because attendance stops.  The full set of instructions is found below, but first, here are some points you need to consider about the religion systematically tracking down "lost" members. Form provided by the wiki First, the system does not recognize disengagement as a valid outcome. The wiki makes clear that when someone stops attending or moves without updating records, the organization treats this as missing data, not a personal decision. Silence is interpreted as a problem to solve. That alone creates an unhealthy dynamic because it removes a person’s ability to quietly exit. Second, the responsibility is instit...
1 comment
Read
Link copied!