Church of Lies

Changing the pace from fluffy girl novels, I next read this book on the FLDS and polygamy in the United States by Flora Jessop, a former FLDS member and current activist against the group.

Again, I love this stuff - these people are so messed up, and reading about how they've been manipulated interests me to no end. This isn't my first volume (as is evidenced in my blog history) on the topic, but it is probably the most angry. By all accounts, the author led a very horrific life, both prior to leaving the cult and afterwards, in her drug abuse and dead-end relationships.

While I am sure that everything she speaks of actually happened to her, it was written with a mix of self-congratulation and a great deal of not-unjustified anger. Most memorably, it was a bit bizarre and completely horrifying to read explicit details of her father's sexual abuse of her. While I think that it is necessary for the truth of how these girls, women (and men and boys) are abused and manipulated to be told, I think she loses some gravitas in her arguments just by writing with such a strongly biased tone. Of course, she IS biased, based upon her own personal history, but I think her issues have blocked the accessibility of her book which will ultimately do a disservice to those people that she is trying to help.

Other than that, I thought she had some valid points. The one that sticks in my mind most is her thought that the only people to come out of the FLDS and stay out successfully are for the most part the kids. By the time women reach adulthood, they are too strongly brainwashed against the outside and, for the most part, can not function in the real world. I think there is some truth in that - it seems that only those who have questioned the lifestyle since early childhood can make a life outside with any degree of success and adaptability. Everyone else seems doomed to go back into what essentially amounts to a form of slavery.

I am giving Church of Lies two ratings - two crazy religious rants out of five for the writing, but four holy pairs of underwear out of five for the message. P.S., Flora, I think you should fire your ghostwriter.