Sexual Abuse of Children in Religious Cults

I've just finished reading two astonishing memoirs by young women that were born into religious cults. They were subjected to abuse - sexual, emotional, mental and physical. Their families were split up and were forced to obey the perverted teachings of their prophet, God's mouthpiece.

Without the skills to cope in the outside world, they were terrified to escape the cult. They had been taught outsiders were evil. Like butterflies struggling to untangle themselves from a sticky spider's web, they finally broke free, vulnerable and damaged. As young adults, they had no idea of who they were or how to survive in a foreign world.

But survive, they did. They spoke out against their abusers, and were accused of being demon-possessed liars. Their biographies unfold their incredible personal journeys of being born into a religious cult, with no choice about their religion, being abused and escaping their horror. Courageously, they tackling their abusers head-on. Some of their family members remain within cult clutches.

Their stories were different, yet they shared the common thread of cult control and child abuse. Both were a riveting read and when I thought things couldn't possibly get worse, they did.

Stolen Innocence is the memoir of Elissa Wall, born into a polygamous cult that forced her into an illegal marriage at the age of 14 years. She'd had no sex education and sex was forced on her against her will by her new adult husband. She suffered numerous secret miscarriages, which she believed were punishments from God.

Elissa did not choose to become part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). The Mormon church abandoned polygamy in 1890, so that Utah could gain statehood.

Elissa doesn't refer to the FLDS as a cult, but rather as a sect - an off-shoot from mainstream LDS Mormons. The FLDS operates in secret, to continue to practise polygamy, which is illegal in Utah. The FLDS is a classic cult.

LDS distance themselves from FLDS, especially with the negative publicity from courtroom clashes with Elissa and her abusers.

Not Without My Sister is the memoir of sisters Kristina Jones, Celeste Jones and Juliana Buhring. They share the same father and were born into a 'Christian' cult that practised the paedophilic philosophy of their leader.

The three sisters were separated from each other, their mothers and other siblings and subjected to horrific abuse, such as sex with adults.

Kristina, Celeste and Juliana weave their personal stories together to illustrate what life was like in the Family, previously called the Children of God, which originated in California in the 1960s. The cult merged traditional Christian beliefs with the hippie culture of free-love and communal living.

They had fake names that changed as often as their locations - communes scattered around the world, where they had to beg for food from poor people in places like India.

They were raped, molested and had to perform sexual dances on video for their prophet. They were beaten and subjected to other harsh punishments. Their mothers were required to prostitute themselves for Jesus, to win new converts.

In the FLDS, Elissa was required to wear full-length pioneer-style dresses, over religious undergarments, and was not permitted to wear red or cut her hair. Contraception was not permitted and she came from a large family - an extra-large family with 23 siblings, as her father had three wives.

Fundamentalist Mormons such as the FLDS believe that plural marriage is required for salvation. A minimum of three wives is required to gain admittance to the highest of three levels of heaven. Women attain salvation by marriage to her 'priesthood head' - her husband who has been given the authority and power of God. Men observe strict obedience to their prophet, and women to their husband.

Elissa was raised in a world where TV and 'worldly' music (including classical) were considered evil, and apostates and non-whites were seen as evil. She had never heard the words 'sex' or 'rape' and because human anatomy and evolution pages were ripped out of textbooks, Elissa had absolutely no instruction in sexual relationships.

FLDS marriages were arranged by the prophet, who had a revelation from God. The prophet also had the power to split families up. Some of Elissa's older siblings questioned their faith, and were sent to hard labour in freezing conditions, turning trees into poles.

The prophet had a lot of power and if he told someone to sell their house or business to the FLDS (like with Elissa's father), then they did as they were told.

Elissa's father was stripped of Elissa's mother and her children, and they were to assigned to a new priesthood head - not only would their name change, but their blood and DNA would change to match that of their new father too.

Their prophet, Warren Jeffs revealed that God wanted Elissa to marry her adult first cousin. She was just 14 years old and was distraught. She begged the prophet to allow he to wait for a few years. He refused. She prayed for devine intervention, but her prayers went unanswered.

A few years into an unhappy marriage with someone she didn't love, Elissa found love with an ex-FLDS member, who gave her the courage to escape the cult.

She testified against Warren Jeffs in court. Despite Jeff's followers lying to defend him & portraying Elissa as an adulterous wife, Warren Jeffs was found guilty of forcing girls as young as 12 into illegal marriages. He was also accused of raping children, and was hunted by the FBI after a lawsuit was filed by the Lost Boys - the boys neglected and abandoned so the Warren could keep multiple wives to older men, including himself.

Born into the Family/Children of God cult, Kristina, Celeste and Juliana were subjected to abuse from the earliest age.

Their prophet, David Berg, who called himself Moses David or Mo, ruled their lives, even though they never met him, as he kept his location secret. Mo communicated his doctrine through writings called the Mo Letters. Only the Mo Letters and the Bible were allowed to be read.

Berg and his partner 'Maria' (Karen Zerby) introduced a new doctrine called 'Flirty Fishing' which was using sex to win new converts and supporters. Berg's 'Law of Love' was that God is love and love equalled sex.

Adultery, incest, extramarital and adult-children sex were no longer considered sins as done in love. Each of the sisters were forced to have sex with adults as young children.

They were also beaten and subjected to other abuse, such as having to sit in a bathtub full of soiled nappies for as punishment for writing a story or expressing an opinion.

They witnessed absurdities, like people stripping naked and praying in tongues, and people shouting in tongues while having an orgasm. When Berg died, Zerby and her new partner Steven Kelly ('Peter Amsterdam') had a new revelation from God. When having sex with someone, as the Bride of Christ, one was really having sex with Jesus, who was ready to share his glorious 'seeds' in abundance.

One of their sisters, Davida died from an overdose. Many others suffered depression and died from suicide. Zerby's son 'Davidito' (Ricky Rodriguez) ended his life in a murder-suicide. He couldn't get to his mother (one of his abusers), so he killed another one of his abusers. He recorded his angst on video beforehand.

Those that left the cult were called liars and bitter apostates. Their claims were dismissed as exaggerations and they were portrayed as blood-dripping demons. One sister recalls her father praying that her mother would die, because she had escaped the cult - he justified she was better off dead than as a 'tool of the Devil'.

These two cults had common features:

• secrecy, including from law
• leader/prophet who had revelation from God & who was obeyed without question
• brain-washing - with words of the prophet and the Bible
• emphasis on end-times - the end of the world was coming soon
• warped attitudes about sex
• abuse - mental, emotional, sexual, physical
• extreme views - about good/evil
• denial when exposed - victims slandered
• harsh punishments for petty 'crimes'
• those that leave are excommunicated
• dependency on the cult - no skills to survive in 'real' world
• isolation from 'outsiders' including police, social workers, doctors

my blog, godconfusion

Carolyn Jessop fled the FLDS with eight children, including a disabled child. She wrote the books Escape and Triumph. One of her children returned to the FLDS.

Brent Jeffs, the prophet's grandson wrote Lost Boy, where he suffered sexual abuse within the FLDS cult. The boys were frequently abandoned and were prone to depression and drugs. He writes about how he was raped as a child several times by Warren Jeffs, his uncle (who became the next prophet).

Deborah Layton, wrote Seductive Poison. She escaped Jim Jones' cult before it ended in mass suicide. Jim Jones started off as a reverend that started believing he was God. His deadly cult evolved from a 'harmless' christian church that morphed into something like a concentration camp.

Kristen Skedgell wrote Losing the Way - her memoir of The Way International, a cult that its members call a Christian Bible Ministry. She was manipulated into sex with leaders, which they justified with the Bible.

Miriam Williams wrote about her fifteen years as a sacred prostitute in a semi-christian sex cult, the Children of God. Her book is Heaven's Harlots.

Jesus Freaks is an expose by award winning journalist Don Lattin about the fringe-Christian cult the Children of God/the Family, where a young man that was abused committed murder-suicide.

Under the Banner of Heaven is the chilling true story by Jon Krakauer of how two men in a fundamentalist Mormon cult murdered their sister-in-law and infant niece after a 'revelation from God.'