By Melissa Antoinette Garza
Though I think cults are awful, I am often compelled to read stories about them and those who escaped them. I’ve read countless books about Jonestown and David Koresh. Of course, now the focus is on that pedophile scumbag Warren Jeffs who thankfully is in jail.
The atrocities that so many endured and continue to endure in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are something that horrifies me. Still, I am intrigued by the topic. I’m curious how people were able to get sucked in and how seemingly normal people could offer their children to be child brides because psychos like Jeffs says so. The cults that involve child abuse, awful punishments, multiple wives against the will of the women involved, or keeping people on a commune prohibiting them from talking to the outside world are dangerous and need to be shut down.
This is what I thought the book was going to be. I thought the author Judy Robertson had been a member of a cult like FLDS and heroically left with her family.
Instead, the book was just a hate filled, pretentious, preachy piece of trash that I was so appalled by I had to keep reading to the end. To be perfectly clear, as you can probably guess by me writing for this site, I’m not Mormon. If I had to classify myself as anything I’d say I was a knowledgeable agnostic. I’ve read the Bible (different versions) at least 20 times from front to back. I went through a phase in my late teens and early twenties to find the truth so I read the book to try to obtain some clarity. I just left with more questions and curiosity. So please know, I am not bias when it comes to defending Mormonism, Christianity or any religion at all. I just dislike when someone puts down someone’s faith because it is different than their own. Robertson goes even further and holds sermons warning people away from them, calling them a false religion and even going as far as to say the devil led her to the religion basically implying that Mormons are demonic.
What irritated me about the book is that Robertson’s contention is she was lured into being a Mormon under false pretenses and then she found out that their belief in Jesus was different than the standard Christian faith, that one could ascend to a God if following the faith, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. She was upset she had to keep a year’s worth of food on hand. There were other things that irritated her. There was an undergarment that she had to wear at all times which made it appear like she had no boobs. She felt awkward at ceremonies and disagreed with the teachings, but she kept staying. She could have left at anytime. No one forced her to leave and when she did leave, though people were sad to see her go and hoped she’d come back, there were no threats or abuse.
My issue is that there was never abuse within the church. From her own book, the religion acted in the way every organized faith does. There isn’t a way to introduce any religion’s beliefs in the first day. It’s a learning process and if at any time there’s a level of discomfort, you have the right to leave the church.
This entire book was just a way for her to say, “my faith is the truth and Mormonism is not true.” It is fine for her to believe that. Most people involved in a religion have the belief that their interpretation of the Bible and the way in which they follow it is the correct way. The issue is when one attacks another religion which is all she did. She grew upset and offended when her friends that were Mormon didn’t want to read a list of contradictions she had written. If someone is happy in their faith, they will often opt not to read something that opposes it. If I wrote a list of contradictions within her faith or a letter attacking her faith, for example promoting evolution, and asked her to read through them, I would be surprised if she did with any real thought.
What irritated me is that she over-dramatized her experience acting as though the Mormons tortured her because they asked her to carry enough food for one year.
I don’t believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, but I respect the right of the Mormon community to disagree with my sentiment.
I read this book from beginning to end, where she advises those who want to leave the Mormon faith to write a letter where it read they left of their own volition and was not excommunicated, as if it mattered. You left the church, now shut up.
She talks about how horrible it was that her husband lost his job at the bank where Mormons had said they would bank elsewhere if he kept holding sessions slandering their religion. The bank even offered him another job where he wouldn’t be working in a branch, but he declined – and somehow that’s the Mormons fault.
If I held an account at a bank and one of the head honchos held seminars about how women should be barefoot and pregnant, I would do the same thing.
I’m shocked this book got published. It’s discriminatory in every way. There’s nothing wrong with changing faith or leaving a church, but to make it your mission to destroy the faith is psychotic.
I wouldn’t suggest reading the book unless you want to get angry or There’s nothing wrong with changing faith or leaving a church, but to make it your mission to destroy the faith is psychotic.
I wouldn’t suggest reading the book unless you want to get angry or you hate Mormons. Otherwise, skip it. Thankfully, I found this at a discount store for $2.00. I still think I spent too much.
