Sunday, April 25, 2010

WHEN MEN BECOME GODS by Stephen Singular

It feels funny giving a full review on Non-Fiction.  So, I'll just comment and post the book blurb. 
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I read STOLEN INNOCENCE by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer a while back and mentioned it here.  The events in WHEN MEN BECOME GODS run almost alongside that one, time-wise, because it was Elissa's testimony which brought down the false prophet, Warren Jeffs, on two counts of accessary to rape.
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Without a doubt, what gets me about this is the fact that these creeps rape children in the name of God.  As a Christian and a lifelong childcare professional, I am outraged by that.  Here in the United States of America children are raped and people use religion to justify it.  Well, I've read the Bible and the United States Constitution and I know there is absolutly no justification in either for raping a child.  In fact, the Bible says that God is love.  It also says that 'Love is patient, love is kind,' that love is not self-seeking and it always protects. (1 Cor. 13)
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By the way, when I say 'child' I'm not just talking about 15 year olds, who are still legally children.  At least one of Warren Jeffs' 'brides' was only twelve years old.  A couple more were only 13.
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As with all religions, I think it's important to point out that not all practioners are monsters, just the ones who use that religion to commit crimes against other human beings.  The others may very well be loving and sincere.  It's also important to note that the Mormon church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints disavowed polygamy over a century ago.  The Mormon church's policy is to expel members known to practice polygamy.
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Book Blurb from Amazon.com:   "As president, prophet, seer, and revelator of the Hilldale, Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), Warren Jeffs sought to preserve the perquisites of office and the religious practices he inherited from his father and predecessor in office, Rulon Jeffs. His interstate flight to avoid prosecution on charges related to arranging plural marriages between adult men and underage girls (some of them first cousins) in his congregation threatened to disrupt his plans in a big way. Eventually apprehended and convicted of being an accessory to rape, Jeffs resigned his church offices. Singular takes us into Jeffs’ world and the two-year manhunt for him throughout FLDS territory in southern Utah, in which nineteenth-century attire and inbreeding were the rule. In bringing Jeffs to justice, prosecutors first had to gain access to the isolated, reclusive people of Jeffs’ empire. They were aided in this by a heroic group of women who left plural marriages and sought to liberate other young women from them, and this story is their absorbing story, too."
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Author's Website-   http://stephensingular.com/
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Amazon Link-
http://www.amazon.com/When-Men-Become-Gods-Polygamist/dp/0312564996/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272200333&sr=1-1
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The Polygamy Page at the Salt Lake City Tribune newspaper website-
http://www.sltrib.com/polygamy
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STOLEN INNOCENCE by Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer-   http://enduringromance.blogspot.com/2009/03/stolen-innocence-by-elissa-wall-and.html
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Trailer for the film, SONS OF PERDITION, about the boys who are pressured or kicked out so the old men can have the young girls to themselves-   http://www.tribecafilm.com/virtual/video/?fr_chl=f6317dd113b3e5801c994558ef07ff58479abf9e&fr_story=a3ae830745c2f915fd07f43cb362be79e5714396
Can't have the girls falling in love with boys their own age, you know.  They might imagine a life better than the one they're ordered into and leave.  These young men are also known as 'The Lost Boys.'

2 comments:

Nayuleska said...

I enjoy reading non-fiction every now and then. This sounds like an emotional book to read, but a good one. (Not that any book on this topic is 'good').

Kimber Li said...

It is emotional just because of the subject matter. However, it's not nearly as emotional as the books by the women who endured and escaped. So, if you want to learn about this cult, I recommend this book as a good overview. If you want to get to the heart of it, read the survivors' books.