Customer Reviews

When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is an indepth look at the creation of the Fundementalist Church of the Latter Day Saints, the offshoot of traditional Mormonism that has its roots on the border of Arizona and Utah. This group has recently been in the news because after their move to Texas, the authorities there swept in and took away over 400 children in order to investigate charges of forced marriages by underage girls. While the case there has fizzled out, perhaps it wouldn't have if the entire country read this book. The FLDS embraced polygamy and left the LDS church when it abandoned it in return for Utah achieving statehood in the late 1890s. The people of Colorado City Arizona and Hildale Utah are deeply under the spell of their leader Warren Jeffs. Jeffs, who took command of the group after the death of his father, put the entire community under his spell and after reading and studying Hitler and Napoleon, began breaking up families and using his power to reward those most faithful to him. All of the property in the entire community was turned over to him, and the group "bled the beast" by taking hundreds of millions of dollars in state welfare aid each year. Women who fled the cult started exposing the dirty secrets of Jeffs: his 180 wives, girls married at the age of 14, schools closed down, young men kicked out of town so they wouldn't compete with the older men for wives. The sins of Jeffs are many, and Singular does a terrific job of enumerating them. He lays out the case that put Jeffs on the FBIs most wanted list and eventually brought about his capture. Jeffs was found guilty of abetting a rape in late 2007, and charges against him are still pending. Singular offers up some hope for the communities he writes about, but I wish that he had been able to give more information about the YFZ (Yearning for Zion) Ranch in Texas where many of the staunchest holdouts have taken refuge. For more information about this read Carolyn Jessop's fantastic memoir, Escape, and watch Laurie Allen's DVD Banking on Heaven. Taken all three together, they are excellent exposes of this cult-like group. I give this book 5 stars.

Singular here presents, with his customary thorough research and straightforward reporting, an example of using the process of law to deal with resolving differing religious beliefs and practices when they come into conflict with constitutional law. This book chronicles how the Utah and Arizona authorities overcame their mistakes in the 1953 raid on the FLDS community by carefully investigating the present situation at length and targeting only those individuals and specific acts which violated the law, and building a case. This stands in sharp contrast to the recent Texas raid on the Yearning For Zion ranch, which was an indiscriminate attack upon the FLDS way of life - a sledgehammer approach more like the 1953 raid.
By following individuals as the book progresses, Singular brings the reader into the narrative while explaining the legal processes at work. He does not pass judgment upon the basic beliefs of the FLDS, but does expose their practices of brainwashing, polygamy, and child molestation as well as their financial abuses.
In his afterword, he points out the parallels to the way we are dealing with other patriarchal cultures with differing religions abroad. When Men Become Gods is an examination of the difficult choices we must make at the intersection of freedom of religious beliefs and practices with human rights. If we are to live our Constitution, we must respect the rights of others and not let legal authority become a tyranny itself if we value our own freedoms.

In a time when understanding differing cultures has never been more important, this book has valuable insights to ponder.

The author explains how the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS) church began. When people began following the teachings of Joseph Smith, and believed him to be a Prophet of God, they followed his teachings and were polygamists, because Smith told the people that a revelation from God told him that men were to take multiple wives in order to build up the kindom of God by allowing unborn soles bodies in which to incarnate. This continued until the United States outlawed multiple wives and began to imprison men who were practicing this. At that time the standing leader of the LDS (Mormons) said he had had a revelation from God that pologamy would no longer be accepted.

Many men and women did not believe these revelations, and moved around hiding their pologmany. From this, two cities on the borderline of Colorado and Arizona were "born," and the people migrated to this region. Nestled away near the desert, this group lived in peace for years under the leadership of a President AND several men who made up the governing board of the FLDS church. Problems existed for women and children even with the governing body.

Warren Jeff's was a man who liked to study Hitler, and how he controlled his victims. As the elder men died, Jeff's was put in as the current Prophet. Jeff's was able to disolve all the committee men, and ruled himself with no one watching what he was doing. Under his leadership, the people lived in total fear. All their money was taken and placed in a community fund that Jeff's controlled. Children were molested by Jeffs, both boys and girls, and it was not uncommon for him to knock on a member's door and demand they allow their 13 or 14 year old daughter to marry someone HE had picked out, stating that God directed him.

During his reign, all pets were taken out of town and killed on one day, boys were kicked out literally on the streets for minor offenses in order to keep the young girls available to be married to old men.

The police force, judge, county government, etc were all FLDS members and ruled by Jeffs. Men who complained were sent packing, and their wives and children were given to other men.

Men, boys, women and young girls began to speak out, and eventually the FBI became involved.

The author tells the story well, ending with the conviction of Jeff's for the rape of two 14 year old girls, and sodomizing a boy. It is well written, interestering, and answers a lot of questions that arose recently with the government taking 400 children from the compound.

I know, I know, I should wait until I finish reading this. But I am 2/3 of the way through this book, and it gets better every day. I can't wait another moment. I bought it because I worked with Mr. Singular in Denver 25 years ago. He was a great writer then, and he's better now.

This book goes way beyond everyone's repulsion at the sex-with-a-minor charges or the polygamist-cult aversions most of us have. It drills way down into the history of all of the players in this drama. A saga like this doesn't grow and build for as many years as this one has unless it's complex and has a huge cast of characters with a variety of needs/lusts.

It covers the willingness of the U.S. government to turn a blind eye for many decades (and still seems to be doing so, in many cases). It names names, and introduces us to the people who got passionately involved in exposing Jeffs and his cohorts for what they really stand for. And, perhaps best of all, Singular tells us the stories of the women who were (are) victimized by this man and his way of life. It shows us how they each came to the realization that the way of life they'd grown up with was wrong, and how they extricated themselves. It introduces us to others who have come in from the outside to protect them, and why.

This freak has affected so many people--Singular also goes into great detail about the society of "Lost Boys"--countless "useless" male teens (these communities have an excess of men, who are useless because they can't carry children) he threw out of their homes and cast into the streets with no education, no skills, and no normal socialization experience--and the efforts to save them. Efforts that seem to be working.

Others have written books on this subject, but I venture to say this is the best researched and most detailed. This book shows us how easily a religion becomes a cult. At the end of it all, which religion doesn't have a dark side?

"When Men Becomes Gods" is a portrait of oppression. Wrapped in religion, perhaps, but it's about controlling others. The book, thoughtfully researched and carefully laid out, is a chilling tale. How could so many look the other way? Why did it take so many hard-working private citizens to bring the evidence forward? It made me think: what other issues is government generally avoiding because it's just plain inconvenient? It's obvious courage was needed to break up this sect of the Mormon church, to protect young women, and it's obvious that courage came from individuals working independently--and relentlessly--to bring Warren Jeffs to justice. Sure, the formal wheels of justice finally move in but the key word is "finally." This is a book about heroism but it's played straight, built on solid reporting and research. Singular doesn't play for high drama or sensationalism. His steady reporter's eye writes the facts and facts are in abundance here. "When Men Are Gods" assembles a rich cast of real people on all sides of the equation and yet there is no problem keeping track of all the major and minor players. That's a real feat. He does it with colorful, highly detailed and colorful brush strokes that render the scene and characters in vivid relief. In the end, read "When Men Become Gods" and wonder about overly righteous men who cloak themselves with false power and exert control over the helpless. This is an intriguing, three-dimensional struggle about the power of the individual, the whims of government, and the false pretenses of gods on earth. The detail about the interior of the SUV Jeffs was riding in when he was captured? Well, that just about says it all.

For the record, I am a former member of the LDS church. I was amazed in the first chapters how many basic facts Singular gets wrong. He speaks of the revelation on polygamy being found in the Book of Mormon, routinely confuses meetinghouses with temples, and much else. It sort of leads me to wonder what else he has gotten wrong. The mistakes are quite glaring, given that this isn't esoteric information, but information which is easily available on LDS church websites or other introductory works on Mormonism.

He should have gotten his facts straight. I read the hardcover edition. Perhaps the paperback edition has corrected these problems.

First of all, I need to point out that indeed Warren Jeffs is not a "Mormon Polygamoust." He is a fundamentalist Mormon, which the author does enforce many times throughout the book. I wonder why this is part of the title...

Anyway, I found this book very objectively written, and very respectful of the FLDS members themselves, which I applaud fullheartedly, however, the book wasn't as interesting as I expected it to be. It was full of legal jargon and drawn out courtroom scenes.

This is certainly worth the read if you have read "Stolen Innocence" by Elissa Wall. It puts her story in a different light and very interesting to compare the two books.

This numbers among most of the most shocking books I have ever read and I am 71 years old and have read a great deal. It numbers right up there with works about the Holocaust, Soviet communism, and other disgusting things that have taken place in this world. I appreciate Mr. Singular's expose of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints Church and I would warn regular Mormons that you are going to be painted with this brush, so climb down from your prissy perch. This stuff is going on in the USA!! For God's sake, somebody do something!! For one thing, read this book. I have started reading it the second time and will likely read it several more times.

This book was done before the April, 2008 raid on the FLDS property near San Angelo, Texas, which put the cult back in the news again following the events depicted here. It is essential background in understanding how the Texas stronghold of this religious sect might play out. Why this group appeals to women at all is a mystery to me, but it seems like a good deal for a man, as long as he does NOT cross the self-annointed prophet, who functions as God on earth to the thousands of members. The man can have many women, including teens. The women, or "wives" in a non-legal, spiritual sense, can't contradict or refuse to service their husbands or especially decline to let the husband accept another "wife" into the family. You've heard the name Warren Jeffs, the now disgraced prophet, but this book tells you about his damaged personality, his crimes against his followers, and his short time as the supreme leader. One surprise is that many of the people still living in the twin cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona, the original home of the FLDS, are no longer following the Jeffs' prophet-producing line, or taking underage girls to bed. That's good news. The bad news is that many living members apparently practiced pedophilia, incest, and (in effect) pimping their daughters to curry favor, while abandoning and rejecting their teen sons in order to make more girls available for older men. It is unlikely many of them will ever be prosecuted in this life. If you have even a casual interest in the doings of the FLDS cult, this book will be useful to you. We have not yet figured out why so many people are susceptible to the divine claims of the David Koresh/Jim Jones/Warren Jeffs brand of psychopathology, and this volume does not address that question except to note that if you are born into that belief system, and isolated enough so that contrary views are never presented to you, it is pretty damn hard to break out. The HBO series "Big Love", about a man with three families in an urban setting, is well-written and well-acted by beautiful men and women. Some of the secondary characters represent the darker side of fundamentalist LDS life. This book presents more about the less pleasant folks, and less prominent are the articulate, educated plural wives and hard-working husbands seen in the television show.

When Men Become Gods: Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and the Women Who Fought Back
Review by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.

This is a fascinating book. My sister lives in Kanab, Utah, as I am writing this, and I have driven past Colorado City, Utah, where much of this book takes place, so I know the area. Singular, a New York Times bestselling author, is an excellent writer. This book is educational, gripping, and detailed. Singular traces the rise to power of Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed prophet of the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a sect of Mormonism based in isolated southern Utah, and the effort involved that led to his downfall. Effort involved? It took law enforcement, private investigators, the Feds, and a group of former polygamous wives seeking to liberate young women from arranged marriages to bring him down. To his twenty to thirty thousand followers, Jeffs wasn't merely their pastor but their Prophet, "the only person on earth who took orders directly from God" (p. 3). The prologue of the book discusses his final arrest, but the chapter titles alone give you a hint of the great read ahead: 1) Sex and terrorism, 2) One-man rule, 3) The resistance, 4) In the shadows of Zion, 5) Fallen prophet, 6) Outlasting the sun. In addition, there is a short epilogue and a brief afterword as well. There are no notes, bibliography, nor index. To reveal a taste of his writing style, here Singular explains benefits of polygamy from some of the women he interviewed: "Some of the women mentioned the specific psychological benefits of polygamy. Plural marriage had helped them come to terms with difficult feelings like jealousy, insecurity, competition, and thinking that they `owned' their spouse. Instead of denying these complex emotions, they'd been forced to confront them in order to make their marriages work. They saw all this as a growth experience -- a lifestyle that was not only tolerable, but preferable" (p. 81). This is truly an excellent book, and although you may not like the central character, the subject matter, nor the beliefs and values held by this group, the book offers a solid, well-drawn, footnote not just in the history of this country but in how people like David Koresh, Jim Jones, and Warren Jeffs are able to accomplish their feat of control. Jeffs was a reader of Hitler and Napoleon, wrested leadership from his father, discharged all those who opposed him, and maintained absolute and total control by eliminating all outside influences, thus, if you are born into that belief system, and isolated enough so that contrary views are never presented to you, it is difficult or close to impossible to get out. This is really an incredible read.