Sexually Assaulted by My Mormon Missionary Companion - McKay Johnson Part 1 - 1492

McKay Johnson entered the Mormon missionary training center believing he was answering a divine call. Within months, he would find himself trapped in a nightmare of sexual violence perpetrated by the very companion assigned to watch over his spiritual welfare. Johnson’s account, detailed in a lengthy interview with Mormon Stories Podcast, exposes how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ missionary system creates isolated power dynamics that predators exploit while institutional shame silences their victims.

Background: The Making of a Perfect Victim

Johnson’s path to trauma began long before his mission call. Born in Ottawa and raised in post-9/11 Utah Mormonism, he absorbed a doctrine where missionary service functioned less as choice and more as compulsory priesthood duty. He recalls childhood lessons emphasizing President Thomas S. Monson’s declaration that missionary work represented a responsibility "expected of us who have been given so very much."

This pressure merged with a toxic sexual shame culture. Johnson remembers receiving anti-masturbation messaging at age four, creating what he describes as an impossible standard. Church leaders and family members held up his "rebellious" older brothers as cautionary tales while casting Johnson as the family’s "Nephi," the righteous son. This binary framing left no room for normal adolescent sexuality, driving curiosity underground and teaching Johnson that his body was inherently sinful.

The church’s youth indoctrination machinery further cemented his vulnerability. Annual participation in the Nauvoo Pageant, which Johnson describes as "Mormon LARPing," immersed him in theatrical depictions of obedient martyrdom. At youth conferences, emotional manipulation replaced rational inquiry. Johnson recalls standing to bear his testimony during a manufactured spiritual peak, shaking with anxiety while interpreting physiological stress as confirmation of divine truth. By the time he received his mission call, Johnson had been conditioned to equate obedience with righteousness and doubt with moral failure.

Key Claims: Anatomy of Missionary Vulnerability