Mormons post questions asked during youth interviews

SALT LAKE CITY » The Mormon church for the first time Wednesday posted the list of questions lay leaders are supposed to ask youth during closed door, oneon-one interviews that have come under scrutiny because sexual questions sometimes arise.

Only one of the questions seems directed at finding out about a young Mormon’s sex life: “Do you live the law of chastity?”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints posted the 13 questions that were previously only sent to local leaders along with updated guidelines and a letter from church President Russell M. Nelson encouraging the leaders to share the questions with children and parents before the interviews.

Mormons are taught under that code not to have sex before marriage, engage in passionate kissing, touch another person’s private parts or arouse “emotions in your own body” that are supposed to be reserved for marriage.

Homosexual relations also are forbidden even if a person is married or in a relationship.

In the updated guidelines about the interviews, leaders are told to ensure that “discussions about moral cleanliness do not encourage curiosity or experimentation.”

The religion changed its policy earlier this year to allow children to bring a parent or adult with them to the interviews after a group of Mormons and ex-Mormons demanded an end to the one-on-one interviews and a prohibition on all sexual questions.

Parents were only allowed in a hallway or adjacent room under old rules. Youth can still go in alone if they choose.