Church of Lies, Flora Jessop and Paul T. Brown (3.5)
Even after reading John Krakauer’s book, ‘Under the Banner of Heaven’, I was still shocked by the extent of abuse chronicled here by Flora Jessop. This is a non-fiction account of her childhood in, escape from, and battle against the fundamentalist group of Mormons (FLDS), specifically the group living near the border of Utah and Arizona. While the horrors she experienced herself and witnessed all around her was bad enough, the secondary lack of assistance and support from the government system and people feels like a second round of abuse. Once finding the courage to escape from the ‘compound’ and then be returned to it or informed on by the very people who were to protest you was heartbreaking. It felt like something out of a movie script, and not something that could occur in the present day! I did find that Ms. Jessop was able to explain clearly the cause of the enablers, the wives and mothers who allowed the abuse to occur, which I’ve always found unbelievable. She also talked at length about the Post Traumatic Stress type behavior of the children who do escape. They only know what they’ve been spoon-fed by the ‘wise’ men of the cult. Once out, they have no idea what to believe. I found this book sad and scary and it left me with a feeling of disappointment. We fear and condemn fundamentalists in other countries and have mostly ignored one group under our noses. If her story is to be believed, and I have seen no reason to doubt it, they are breaking many laws, take welfare money while paying virtually no taxes, and have managed to keep law enforcement at arm’s length. Very disappointing.
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