MISSISSIPPI
Hattiesburg American
Written by
Robyn Jackson
American Staff Writer
When Beth Taylor decided to tell the story of her childhood sexual abuse, she knew she had to be brutally honest, but that didn’t make it any easier to bare her soul in writing for the world to read.
“As the author, I could not be honest about some parts and dishonest about others,” Taylor said. “The reader deserves to know the accurate story, or not be told the story. As a journalist, I was always honest with my viewers and readers. If a journalist is not honest, then she or he has no business being a journalist. The same was true in writing the book, honesty was a given.”
Taylor, a former Hattiesburg resident, business owner and WDAM sports reporter, shares the story of her abuse by a priest — and the lasting repercussions of the abuse in her life — in “Bless Them Father, For They Have Sinned.” She will speak about the book at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Oak Grove Public Library.
Taylor was 5 years old when she says a Catholic priest first molested her at St. Anthony of Padua Church and School in New Orleans, and was 12 years old when she says it ended.
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