God’s Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for
Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian
Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18
Women Who Escaped
Andrea Moore-Emmett
San Francisco: Pince-Nez Press, 2004. ISBN
1930074131 (paperback), 234 pages, $16.95
Enter the world of polygamy!
The world of plural marriages, poverty, spousal
rape, childhood incest, and all forms of physical
and emotional abuse! All are alive and well and
thriving in fundamentalist Mormon communities,
and in a few fundamentalist Christian groups, as
well, according to Andrea Moore-Emmett. These
current practitioners maintain that polygamy was
foretold by scripture and commanded by doctrine.
According to the author of God’s Brothel,
the practice of polygamy still appears to be
tolerated by mainstream Mormonism and ignored by
the U.S. government. Despite the fact that
some of their practices fly in the face of civil
and human rights, these societies appear to have
protection under the First Amendment. God’s
Brothel is a journey into the abyss where
perhaps thousands of women and children dwell,
victims of a patriarchal system so oppressive as
to rival the abuses of the Taliban.
God’s Brothel is a
peek into the lives of eighteen women who lived
polygamy and left, often at great peril to
themselves. Of various ages and circumstances,
the women have in common the experience of being
among the plural wives of the men of various
fundamentalist Mormon communities. These poignant
stories speak of the unspeakable, of a society in
which primitive impulses, normally relegated to
fantasy life, are allowed to run rampant,
unchecked by the taboos, laws, and morals of a
civilized society.
Andrea Moore-Emmett begins
her book with an introductory chapter on the
background of the fundamentalist Mormon sects, a
“complex and convoluted issue” that can be
understood only by shedding light on its
historical roots. The practice of polygamy comes
out of the vision of Joseph Smith, founding
prophet of the Mormon Church, who revealed that
polygamy was the only way to achieve eternal
salvation, and furthermore, that a man had to
have at least three wives for this to be
accomplished. In contrast, the only way a woman
could enter into heaven was to be escorted by her
husband. Thus, a woman was dependent upon the
good will of her husband, and obedience was
assured. The doctrine of polygamy became
scripture and sacred to the Mormon faithful,
eventually resulting in a split among believers
as the practice ran up against the laws of the
land.
In 1890, Wilfred Woodruff,
the then-president of the Mormon Church, realized
that the only way the Utah Territory would be
allowed to join the union of states was to comply
with the laws that prohibited polygamy. He
delivered a Manifesto declaring to the U.S.
government that the practice had ceased, thus
paving the way for Utah statehood. However, the
Manifesto created an uproar amongst the faithful,
with many fearing that Woodruff had “plunged the
church into apostasy.” Remaining loyal to the
original scripture and their plural families,
resistant Mormons broke off from the mainstream
Mormon Church and continued to practice polygamy.
Several families emigrated to Mexico and Canada,
where communities thrive even today. However,
most of these fundamentalist groups reside in
Utah and the western United States, living their
polygamist lifestyle behind a collusive veil of
secrecy.
In Chapter 1, Moore-Emmett
identifies the major fundamentalist groups
currently in existence. Many of the groups are
interrelated because splits occurred and various
charismatic men formed their own communities.
Chapter 1 also includes a summary of the “current
legal maze,” providing the reader with an
overview of some of the issues, lawsuits, and
players involved in prosecuting cases related to
polygamy, and spousal and child abuse. Each of
the following eighteen chapters tells the
individual story of as many women’s journeys out
of polygamy and into freedom, where life is still
tough but their own. These are the women of
Tapestry Against Polygamy, a grass-roots endeavor
whose function is to assist women in leaving
their lives of oppression and beginning new lives
in which they make their own choices. Because of
the doctrine of “blood atonement killings” (death
for one’s sins), several of these women live in
hiding and fear for their lives and the lives of
their children.
The plight Moore-Emmett’s
book describes, of the women and children growing
up in this patriarchal system, defies intelligent
reasoning. Required by doctrine to have “one
child per year” (without the benefit of prenatal
care), the women exist in a chronic state of
pregnancy, their lives devoted to child rearing
and the care of their husbands. However, the men
are not required to support their multiple wives
and children. Families survive on welfare and
food stamps, rationalizing that they are
“bleeding the beast” (i.e., the U.S. government,
considered the enemy). Food supplies are
supplemented by “dumpster diving” in garbage
cans, a task accorded to the women. If the women
complain about their plight, they are told that
they are ungrateful, that they have been given a
wonderful opportunity to learn to be independent.
In addition, poverty is considered a blessing to
make them more perfect and to “refine their
souls.” Despite the fact that some polygamous
organizations are quite wealthy (e.g., assets of
the Kingston group are estimated at around $200
million), this paradox seems to have eluded the
group. Husbands and fathers come and go at will,
deciding with whom they will sleep on any given
night, while the other women lie awake in
emotional agony listening to the sounds of their
husbands making love to their “sister-wives,”
sometimes in the same room.
Most of the women who become
plural wives have been reared from birth to
accept this practice and to think of it as their
means of salvation. Boys, too, are reared to
believe that having multiple wives is their
obligation and birthright. In some sects, sons
are expected to give their wives to the
patriarch, their own father, if he so desires.
Thus, fathers and sons may be married to the same
woman; fathers also may marry their own
daughters, and brothers may marry their own
sisters. One of the most extreme examples exists
in the Kingston group, a Utah-based sect, in
which the practice is based upon the claim that
the leaders are direct descendants of Jesus
Christ. Using his dairy herd as the model for
ensuring that the purity of the bloodline
continues, the leader John Ortell Kingston has
declared intra-family marriage to be a sacred
doctrine.
Given the inbreeding of the
various clans, a high proportion of children are
born with birth defects, mental retardation, and
physical deformities. One of Moore-Emmett’s
narrators reports that, in the Kingston group,
birth defects are viewed as “God’s punishment of
mothers who are not sufficiently submissive to
their husbands or faithful to the church” (p.
68). A narrator from a different group, however,
said that mothers hope for a Downs’ syndrome baby
because that means another $500 per month in
government subsidy, as well as a more compliant
child (p.173). Moore-Emmett states that her
interviews revealed that many of the disfigured
and disabled children in that group, afterward
referred to as “poofers,” had disappeared under
mysterious circumstances.
Under the “Law of Sarah,”
subsequent wives are permitted to essentially be
treated as slaves by the first wife. As in the
Old Testament, where Sarah, first wife of
Abraham, held sway over Hagar, his concubine, the
first wife is sanctioned to control relations
between her husband and additional wives. The
normal jealousy that would be expected in one
having to give her husband to another woman is
played out in often-vicious treatment among the
women, assuring that alliances are never
cemented.
The secrecy surrounding
multiple “marriages” has several consequences.
The subsequent marriages are neither legally
sanctioned nor publicly recognized. At the
weddings of additional wives, earlier wives are
often relegated to the background as “friends of
the family” to preserve the lie of monogamy.
However, the new bride is often prohibited from
having any wedding pictures taken because any
record of the marriage would blow the
polygamists’ cover. Children are often not told
who their father is because they might
inadvertently reveal the family secret. They
believe the stories concocted by their mothers,
of truck-driver fathers who will one day come
home. They wait eagerly in anticipation and
wonder at every truck that passes by. Brothers
and sisters think they are cousins or not related
at all, despite their living in the same house.
This social system is kept
in place through inbreeding, indoctrination, and
ignorance. The control of women begins in
childhood. Under the guise of modesty, girls and
women are required to wear long dresses that
cover and “shame the female form.” In some
groups, they remain dressed in “frilly frocks and
pinafores, white socks, and long hair in curls
and bows” (p. 112); in others, they wear
“long-sleeved, ankle-length dresses over leggings
so they are completely covered” (p. 125). Rarely
are young women allowed to continue their
education past the age of 14. They may be given
in marriage as young as 9, and often to men twice
or three times their age. Children are used as
barter: If a man wants to marry the young
daughter of his friend, he may give his own
daughter in exchange. While women are allowed
some say in the matter, the issue of choice is
questionable. As Moore-Emmett states:
There can be no consent when girls are born into
polygamy and, through isolation and limited
education, do not know of any other choices.
There can be no consent when women are recruited
and go thru the conversion process without
understanding how mind control takes place
physically and mentally. (p. 40)
If the first wife should
protest the marriage of a second wife, polygamous
Mormons use the scriptures to enforce compliance.
First wives are reminded about Emma, first wife
of Joseph Smith, who (so the story goes) is told
by God that she will be destroyed if she does not
accept polygamy. Guilt and fear are powerful
motivators.
The book also exposes some
of the ineffectual attempts by the Department of
Children’s Services and the District Attorney’s
office to protect the children from physical and
sexual violence. Moore-Emmett states that “The
state legislature is consistently 90% Mormon …,
and several polygamist men serve in local
government positions, including as mayors … and
councilmen” (p. 31). Asserting that “the attitude
between Mormons and Mormon fundamentalist
polygamists is that of kissing cousins with more
similarities than differences” (p. 30),
Moore-Emmett suggests that the heavily Mormon
Utah government is unduly tolerant of polygamy
and reluctant to acknowledge the abuses such a
lifestyle seems to breed. And although the
official stance of the mainstream Mormon Church
is against polygamy, several of the women’s
stories reveal leaders who looked the other way
at the deviant sects and blamed the women who
came to them for help. Whether these officials
are simply misinformed, incompetent, or fear for
their lives remains to be established.
Although the book does not
explore the full picture of the psychological
consequences of polygamy, it alludes to symptoms
easily recognized as post-traumatic distress.
Flashbacks, isolation, eating disorders,
depression, suicidality, anxiety, and low
self-esteem are a few of the indicators mentioned
in passing.
In summary, this little
240-odd-page book is packed with important
information for anyone interested in polygamous
groups. Seen through the eyes of eighteen
courageous women, the underworld of polygamy
unfolds in all its dimensions. A glossary of
terms is provided for the reader so that the
various practices, beliefs, and jargon are made
understandable. The book reads like a novel and
touches the heart. |
