Mormon Stories #1180: Join us for the March to End Child Abuse - 10/5/19, 8:30am, Salt Lake City

The March to End Child Abuse: Examining Institutional Responsibility in Religious Communities

Every day brings another headline about a trusted authority figure accused of harming a child. For many in Utah's religious communities, the question is no longer whether abuse occurs within institutional settings, the documented evidence is clear, but rather what systemic changes might actually prevent it. In October 2019, activist Sam Young organized a public march through Salt Lake City aimed squarely at this crisis, using General Conference weekend as a platform to demand policy reforms across religious institutions, with particular scrutiny directed at the LDS Church's existing safeguarding protocols.

The march represented something unusual in Mormon spaces: organized, sustained public pressure on church leadership to address child protection policies. According to the Mormon Stories podcast episode announcing the event, Young and co-organizers argued that institutional resistance to oversight and digital communication restrictions had created preventable vulnerabilities. This wasn't fringe criticism, it was grounded in the documented patterns of grooming and institutional silence that had surfaced repeatedly in the prior decade.

Background: Institutional Responses to Abuse Allegations

For decades, abuse disclosures within the LDS Church followed a predictable pattern. Survivors reported incidents to ecclesiastical leaders, bishops or stake presidents, who often acted as gatekeepers rather than mandated reporters. The church's historical approach prioritized institutional reputation management and internal discipline over victim support or law enforcement notification.

By 2018-2019, cracks were appearing in this system. Media scrutiny intensified following high-profile cases and documentary releases. Some individual church leaders began breaking ranks, privately supporting victim advocates. Yet official church policy remained, in Young's assessment, inadequate.