The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) is against all forms of abuse–spiritual, physical, and emotional. Abuse is any hurtful form of treatment of another, including humiliation, domination, physical, psychological or spiritual harm inflicted on another person. The Lord never condoned any like behaviors but was and is an Advocate of peace and harmony for His children. (See Abuse)

In an interview with LDS practitioners discussing “spouse abuse,” John Nelson describes what is deemed inappropriate behavior:

Spouse abuse involves inappropriate acts of one spouse over the other. It may involve coercive acts in which an abuser forces a person to do something that he or she normally would not do, with no particular concern for the victim. Abuse may also include the use of threats, name calling, yelling, and intimidation.

Mormons believe in equality of gender and while the husband is said to preside in righteousness within the family, “presiding” implies love and inclusion rather than force and exclusion. Mr. Nelson goes on to clarify this principle:

In some cases abusers misunderstand or misapply the concept of leadership in the home. I want to make it very clear that it’s not the concept of a presiding leader in the home that is wrong; it’s the misapplication of it. The 121st section of the Doctrine and Covenants speaks of that specifically: “The rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, … but when we … exercise control or dominion or compulsion … in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves” (D&C 121:36-37). (“A Conversation about Spouse Abuse, ” Ensign October 1999.)

Mormons believe in healing from this and other types of abuse, both for the victim and the inflicter of the injury.

Modern apostle of the Lord, Elder Richard G. Scott, speaks of the need to trust in the love and help available through Jesus Christ for the abused.

Unless healed by the Lord, mental, physical, or sexual abuse can cause you serious, enduring consequences. As a victim you have experienced some of them. They include fear, depression, guilt, self-hatred, destruction of self-esteem, and alienation from normal human relationships. When aggravated by continued abuse, powerful emotions of rebellion, anger, and hatred are generated. These feelings often are focused against oneself, others, life itself, and even Heavenly Father. Frustrated efforts to fight back can degenerate into drug abuse, immorality, abandonment of home, and, tragically in extreme cases, suicide. Unless corrected, these feelings lead to despondent lives, discordant marriages, and even the transition from victim to abuser. One awful result is a deepening lack of trust in others which becomes a barrier to healing (Elder Scott, “Healing the Tragic Scars of Abuse,” Ensign, May 1992).  See also Elder Scott’s recent General Conference address titled “To Heal the Shattering Consequences of Abuse”.

Praying for help, seeking counsel from trusted Mormon Church leaders, and allowing the Spirit of the Lord to work in incremental ways, helps the abused one heal through the atonement of Jesus Christ. And, in addition to healing for the victim, there is forgiveness for the abuser who seeks it wholeheartedly.

And for those who have not been touched by the cycle of abuse, let us help free others who have been. Let us help the innocent children, as called upon to do by President Gordon B. Hinckley, the 15th Prophet and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often errantly called “The Mormon Church”):

How great is our responsibility, how serious the responsibility of Christian people…to reach out to ease the plight of suffering children, to lift them from the rut of despair in which they walk.

Surely after all of the history we have read, after all of the suffering of which we have been told, after all of the exploitation of which we are aware, we can do more than we are now doing to lift the blight that condemns millions of children to lives that know little of happiness, that are tragically brief, and that are filled with pain (“Save the Children,” Ensign, November, 1994)