In her memoir "Out with Consequences," Debbie L. McDaniel, a disfellowshipped Jehovah's Witness, details a childhood of sexual abuse suffered at the hands of an elder whom the church refuses to punish.

As a child McDaniel learned how deep cultures of shame, denial, and hypocrisy can be when she is made to suffer a years-long cycle of sexual abuse at the hands of a church elder. When simultaneously speaking out and admitting her homosexuality gets her disfellowshipped, McDaniel is shunned by not only the congregation, but also her family-all while her abuser remains in good standing with...