cbr16 bingo cults
This book went on my To-Read list decades ago, when the Warren Jeffs scandal was still new. For me, I couldn’t understand why a woman would put up with this. This on-the-ground account is revelatory and explains the dynamics that are still at work today.
Carolyn Jessop was a sixth generation Mormon, and not your mainstream Mormon, but a member of FLDS, a fundamentalist cult (since it has been disavowed by the mainstream church, I’m gonna call it what it is.) At the age of 18, she was married to a man older than her father, who already had three other wives. Let’s just say it was not a particularly sisterly group. Fifteen years later, she has eight kids, who she loves dearly, including one with special needs. But she has come to loathe her husband, and is starting to worry about the fate of her daughters, as they approach puberty. Fortunately, she has been able to work as a teacher from time to time, and has committed the major sin of squirreling a good part of it away. I did wonder about the dubious legality of all this, but as she points out, it’s not bigamy if you never take out a marriage license. It’ just a lifestyle choice.
What finally takes her over the edge is the spiraling out of control of Warren Jeffs, leader of the cult. As he takes control of the sect, he pushes the men to take on more and more wives, and producing more children. Underage brides have become the norm, and teenage boys are abandoned by the side of the road, because they have become unnecessary and a burden on the main goal of the babymaking of the elite. Jeffs ended up with 87 wives (one of which was 12 at the time of marriage, which is why he is now in jail) and over 60 children. Jessop finally takes advantage of one of her husband’s trips out of town and packs all her kids in a beat up car with half a tank of gas (oldest daughter protesting vehemently) and heads for an older brother’s home, near Salt Lake City. Since all the police and local officials in this part of the state are part of the cult, she cannot let herself have any excuse for them to stop her. Even when she gets to her brother’s home, she and the kids have to go into hiding, as his property is repeatedly searched and watched. It’s quite a harrowing experience.
Can we all just agree that patriarchy, no matter which variation, is just never acceptable?