Carolyn Jessop

I just finished reading Carolyn Jessop's book, "Escape," about her tortured life in the FLDS and subsequent escape.

The amazing part is that it's a true story. The unbelievable part is that it JUST HAPPENED.

The FLDS cults that have thrived in Utah, Arizona, Texas and British Columbia... holy crap, people. It's happening right now. Underage girls are being forced to submit to arranged marriages with old men, and the young men in the community are being abandoned on highways because, well, if you're an old dude with 71 wives, there really is no need for the 70 other guys.

The brainwashing, if it weren't evil, is almost admirable. It's so complete that women feel that they will go to hell if they don't obey their husbands in this lifetime. They are told that they are sealed for all eternity with their husbands, and even if these men beat starve them and their children -- they MUST STAND BY THEM. Or they will burn in hell, and be excommunicated from their peers.

Check out these chicks. Especially the MIDDLE ONE:



They are clearly being forced to say what they do. And the middle one's facial expression makes me want to fly a helicopter directly to her house and rescue her.

"Escape" is an excruciating but fascinating memoir of Ms. Jessop's escape from the community. She is the first woman who ever was able to leave and gain custody of her children. And that happened in 2002.

I also feel like some of the precepts of their organization are good. You can see the underpinnings of the nice parts of Mormonism peeping through the cracks, but power-hungry perverts have wrecked it for everyone, and now they have all these traumatized women and children in full long underwear under massive dresses in the hot sun living in terror of their one shared "Father."

And these women are lousy with fertility. They usually have something like 12 children, and sometimes 20 or so. But they aren't allowed to kiss and hug their kids, so it's not fair all the way around. Their bodies are wrecked by all that childbirth and hard work of raising kids (while wearing long underwear) and they must submit to sex with old guys (while wearing long underwear).

I'm glad that a spotlight has been shone on the injustices the children in this community are facing, and I am glad that the 16-year-old in Texas was brave enough to call the authorities about what was going on. But now, after reading "Escape," I wonder what the heck happened to that child, particularly now that they creepily deny her existence.