Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 1418

Tonight's special guest is PJ (Pamela Jones) Beacom from Park City, Utah, a NAASCA volunteer who's a survivor of CSA (child sexual abuse) and what she calls 'extreme Mormonism'. PJ was born into a family with strict rigid religious beliefs and practices. She describes her father as a Mormon fanatic. PJ's mother had herself come from a background that included childhood sexual abuse. "As alcoholism and unemployment plagued the family," PJ writes, "it was my mother's pedophile stepfather who provided the roof over everyone's heads." Early on PJ learned that keeping silent was a necessary part of her life. "I tried to look like I was working on perfection." When she was 12 PJ reported the sexual abuse she was experiencing to their bishop, but he and her parents decided to keep her grandfather's molestations secret 'to not embarrass' her. But he kept on molesting kids. So PJ suffered horrific shame, and tried hard to adhere to Mormonism, but in the end married "the most unorthodox returned missionary I could find in the temple." She eventually had three of her own children, despite the fact that there was domestic violence at the hands of her (now ex) husband. For the past two years PJ has been in therapy. "I have coped with amnesia, secrecy and censure by writing fiction," she says, "exploring themes such as gods' tolerance of pedophilia and the humanity in trust." PJ has written her book 'Maleficent Rocks' under the the pen name Ela Leo. "The story is ever evolving, and with each version I find my voice gets clearer." PJ says.