My “Wicked” Mormon Journey - Abbie Clark | Ep. 1966

When Family Betrayal Becomes Faith Crisis: The Wicked Journey of Abbie Clark

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the ideal Mormon narrative follows a predictable arc: faithful family, temple marriage, children raised in the covenant, eternal progression. But what happens when that narrative shatters? Recent episodes of the Mormon Stories Podcast feature Abbie Clark, whose seemingly textbook Mormon upbringing, complete with pioneer ancestry, devoted parents, and deep church involvement, collapsed under the weight of family trauma. Her story, now shared publicly, raises uncomfortable questions about how institutional faith responds when personal betrayal becomes theological crisis.

Clark's account, featured in Mormon Stories Podcast Episode 1966, offers a rare window into how a single family catastrophe can unravel decades of religious certainty. The details are painful: discovering her father's fraud, infidelity spanning half his marriage, forged documents, and the resulting financial devastation. But more significantly, Clark's experience illuminates a lesser-discussed phenomenon in faith-crisis literature, the moment when a parent's loss of faith becomes weaponized against a vulnerable child, and when the institutional church's response to family dissolution compounds rather than heals the damage.

The Perfect Mormon Girl, Until Everything Broke

Clark describes herself as the archetypal oldest daughter: a rule-follower who thrived within the church's structured framework. She excelled in Young Women's, loved primary, and embraced the behavioral guardrails that many Latter-day Saints find comforting. Her family lived in Sandy, Utah, a demographically Mormon community where most peers shared her faith background. Church wasn't unusual or burdensome; it was simply the water she swam in.

At thirteen, federal agents arrived at her family's door. Her father faced IRS investigation for fraud. The financial consequences were immediate and devastating. But worse was the eventual disclosure: her father had been unfaithful throughout her mother's pregnancy with Clark's younger sister, a betrayal spanning roughly two decades of marriage. He was subsequently excommunicated.