Leaving the Cult - Extreme Mormons
Posted by:
S_Byers666
()
Date: July 06, 2010 05:19AM
Documentary which tells the story of three teenage boys who manage to escape a polygamist Mormon cult in Utah. As they struggle to come to terms with life in the real world, we learn about the extraordinary lives they used to live - in houses with many mothers, where their sisters may be married off at 14 and, surprisingly, where no-one can wear red in case it offends the Second Coming.
Powerfully emotional and compelling, a fascinating insight to a community it's hard to believe exists.
[www.bbc.co.uk]
Credits
Director Jennilyn Merten Broadcast
Mon 5 Jul 201022:00BBC Four
Can be seen with BBC iPlayer in UK only.
May be uploaded to [www.thebox.bz]
Powerfully emotional and compelling, a fascinating insight to a community it's hard to believe exists.
[www.bbc.co.uk]
Credits
Director Jennilyn Merten Broadcast
Mon 5 Jul 201022:00BBC Four
Can be seen with BBC iPlayer in UK only.
May be uploaded to [www.thebox.bz]
Re: Leaving the Cult - Extreme Mormons
Posted by:
S_Byers666
()
Date: July 09, 2010 02:52AM
[www.independent.co.uk]
The topic of identity surfaced again in Storyville: Leaving the Cult, although this was a case of it being suppressed rather than stolen. The documentary followed, over several years, three boys who had run away from their suffocating lives, in Colorado City, Arizona, with the Fundamental Church of Latter-Day Saints. The FLDS is a sect of the Mormon faith that still practises polygamy, and whose bizarre way of life is fictionally chronicled by the HBO drama series Big Love.
Mind you, as an insight into the grim realities of life with the FLDS, this compelling Storyville film was worth any number of seasons of Big Love. The cult routinely exiles boys who wish no longer to be part of a religion that encourages men to take up to 50 wives, some of whom are comfortably young enough to be their granddaughters, and expects women to bear children as often as they can, evidently without the slightest concern for their health.
The exiles are known as the "Sons of Perdition", and it was heartrending to see how much, even having had the courage to leave, they remain in thrall to obviously crackpot FLDS ideas. Actually, if the film failed in any way, it was that no real attempt was made to explain why anyone wouldn't want to leave the FLDS, which is led by the so-called prophet, Warren Jeffs.
We heard Jeffs solemnly intoning some of the cult's odd beliefs, and it was truly hard to understand how anybody could listen to him and not consider him anything other than delusional. Yet he is worshipped, and I suppose that's what cults are. He is also, incidentally, in Utah State Penitentiary, serving a minimum of 10 years for being an accomplice to rape. Depressingly, though, his followers do not consider his halo dislodged. Prison, indeed, has only emphasised his messianic status.
Religious fundamentalism produces, of course, greater perils than those faced by the followers of Warren Jeffs. 7/7: Saved by a Miracle looked at some of the stories of those who survived the London bombings five years ago this week, but it was a tawdry affair, cheapening the dignified testimonies of the survivors and bereaved by continuing to film them when they started crying, but most of all with an overwrought narration. "Trapped in bombed, mangled Tube trains, helpless among the carnage of a shattered bus, this is the darkness that cloaked the morning of 7th July." It's not easy to make the narrative of that awful day sound like a bad novel, but this programme managed it.
=-=-=-=-=-=
[www.theartsdesk.com]
Storyville: Leaving the Cult, BBC Four
Monday, 05 July 2010 23:14 Written by Howard Male
Sam and Joe dwelling on either the cost of freedom or the price of beer Joe, Sam and Bruce may be three callow teenagers from southern Utah but they’re still smart enough to realise that the only world they have ever known is wrong, deeply wrong. So wrong, in fact, that they make the hardest decision of their lives by leaving their family, friends and community behind forever, as this is the only way to escape the madness. Directors Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merton deserve credit for being such invisible presences in a film which simply bears witness to the lives of the boys once they have escaped the sinister-sounding “crick”, a Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints community fronted by "Prophet" Warren Jeffs - a man who is now serving 10 years to life for being an accomplice to rape, incest and sexual conduct with minors. It’s clear what kind of film Leaving the Cult (released in cinemas as Sons of Perdition) is going to be from the moment we hear the first notes of the ominous ambient soundtrack, and 17-year-old Sam tells us of his family’s attitude to his departure. “For them it would have been better for me to die than to leave,” he tells us matter of factly. Joe, also 17, is chillingly succinct in summing up what it’s like to have been in the crick (although his words could equally apply to being in the bosom of any religious extremist group.) “You’re not taught to think about this life, you’re taught to think about the next life.” Indeed. This of course gives licence to the male elders of the FLDS to make the lives of their women a living hell. Under the umbrella of love and responsibility to the community, they have as many as 50 wives which they essentially use as breeding machines, while earning new (often illegally young) wives, rather than gold stars, for good behaviour.
But these three likeable young men now have a freedom of sorts, and we get to follow their lives for two-and-a-half years as they discover hair gel, beer, free-thinking girls, convoluted hand shakes and daft dances. Measom and Merton (tellingly ex-Mormons themselves) drop in occasional snippets of Jeffs’ taped voice (sounding like a woozier version of Stephen Hawking’s voice simulator) with bits of the Gospel according to Jeffs. At one point he intones, “Men have many wives, and that is the way men become like gods and their wives become heavenly mothers.” He might as well have meant that last part literally, as these poor women tend to be in an almost permanent state of pregnancy, bearing children until they can no longer do so.
'This film wasn’t just about one sick man’s hold over one small community, it was about the extreme followers of every deity-specific religion on the planet'
Because of the film’s admirable lack of sententiousness we are given some space to think for ourselves on what we have witnessed. We can summon up our own feelings of outrage at the ruined lives of people who think they are doing the right thing, but have got it all so horribly wrong because their hearts and minds have twisted up by a bunch of warped, anachronistic and sadistic ideas delivered in the name of God. But really this film wasn’t just about one sick man’s hold over one small community, it was about the extreme followers of every deity-specific religion on the planet. Although that’s not to say the chillingly rational Richard Dawkins and his ilk are right either. My take on all this is by all means hypothesize or wishfully think that there may be more to life than this veil of tears, just don’t be fooled into thinking any dumb human has ever known, or ever will know, what shape the unknown and the unknowable takes.
Surely common sense and a little knowledge of biology and history should make us formulate the question; if our major religions are only, on average, a couple of thousand years old, and mankind is at least 200,000 years old, why weren’t we given our holy instruction manuals a lot sooner? But hey, now I’m the one preaching; it’s such an easy trap to fall into. But if nothing else this straight-forward question should lead you to suspect that God (take your pick on which one) is pretty perverse to let us carry on unguided, raping, pillaging and – in a state of ignorance we really can’t be blamed for – worshipping false idols. And yet the most blindingly obviously of false idols, such as the despicable Warren Jeffs, can still get thousands of individuals to do his every bidding. And not only that, but it’s the nature of faith that even now that he’s behind bars his flock are as loyal as ever, embracing his new role as martyr. What’s wrong with us human beings? And I do say us, rather than them, because the intelligence, sensitivity and good humour of these three kids shows that any of us could have had the misfortune to be born into the kind of purgatory on Earth that they were fated to.
But at least there’s a happy ending for these boys who, ironically, took a leap of faith to escape their polygamous faith. They manage to assist in the emancipation of other members of their family, and all end up going to college. But let’s leave the last word to the incarcerated Jeffs. At one point his creepy disembodied voice calmly informs us that all of today’s musicians and film-makers are, “the most filthy, immoral, adulterous people on the face of the Earth today". Has that kettle-insulting pot ever been blacker?
3 comments
Wednesday, 07 July 2010 09:58 posted by Louise I have never been so affected by a documentary. These boys are brave, yes, because they took that leap of faith and left. They show a wisdom towards life that you will never find in contempory societies adults- never mind teenage boys of a similar age. You would assume that by them being brought up in a sheltered community that they're growth- intellectually as well as spiritually- has been stunted (or more aptly stolen by this Prophet) but it has not. They have a remarkable faith in their decision to leave and they have a powerful understanding that even though it is the most painful thing that they have ever done they know it was right for them. They are remarkable individuals and I hope that they can keep a grasp of who they are and continue on to a bigger and brighter future- as one of them highlighted that it through this experience that they really got to know who they are. I wish them all the very best!!
Tuesday, 06 July 2010 21:24 posted by Barbara Weed I agree with Howard Male that "really this film wasn’t just about one sick man’s hold over one small community, it was about the extreme followers" but I would say they are followers of every cult, not just "of every deity-specific religion on the planet." Many cults are religious but not all, by any means. One example of a non-religious cult is the online "philosophy" community Freedomain Radio run by Stefan Molyneux. As an atheist, Molyneux does not preach religion but he shares the cult leader's taste for power over his followers and his greed for their money. The "lost children" in the film had escaped or been thrown out of Jeffs' community. The "lost children" of Freedomain Radio have been persuaded to "escape" their families and to follow Stefan Molyneux's teaching of personal freedom. Both Jeffs and Molyneux exercise power and cruelty over their victims for their own sick purposes.
Tuesday, 06 July 2010 20:41 posted by Lynne H I left the "mainstream" Mormon church when I was well into adulthood. Even the "mainstream" church has many hallmarks of a cult, too many to fit into this space. I live in Utah, and while I don't broadcast my apostacy, I don't make a secret of it either. And, though we are all "adults" (notice I didn't say "grownups"), my family refuse to acknowledge that my husband, children and I are at peace and so much happier now that we've left. In short, I feel shunned by my family and by some of my coworkers. But I at least had access to books and television and movies and the internet and was fully grown and living independently when I decided to leave. These young men had no resources whatsoever. My heart goes out to them and to all the "lost children" who escaped or were thrown out. Incidentally, there is a disproportionately high number of homeless gay teens in Utah who were kicked to the curb by their loving xtian Mormon parents. So the mainstream church does a better job of hiding its cultishness, but they still do damage to people's lives.
=-=-=-=-=-=
The topic of identity surfaced again in Storyville: Leaving the Cult, although this was a case of it being suppressed rather than stolen. The documentary followed, over several years, three boys who had run away from their suffocating lives, in Colorado City, Arizona, with the Fundamental Church of Latter-Day Saints. The FLDS is a sect of the Mormon faith that still practises polygamy, and whose bizarre way of life is fictionally chronicled by the HBO drama series Big Love.
Mind you, as an insight into the grim realities of life with the FLDS, this compelling Storyville film was worth any number of seasons of Big Love. The cult routinely exiles boys who wish no longer to be part of a religion that encourages men to take up to 50 wives, some of whom are comfortably young enough to be their granddaughters, and expects women to bear children as often as they can, evidently without the slightest concern for their health.
The exiles are known as the "Sons of Perdition", and it was heartrending to see how much, even having had the courage to leave, they remain in thrall to obviously crackpot FLDS ideas. Actually, if the film failed in any way, it was that no real attempt was made to explain why anyone wouldn't want to leave the FLDS, which is led by the so-called prophet, Warren Jeffs.
We heard Jeffs solemnly intoning some of the cult's odd beliefs, and it was truly hard to understand how anybody could listen to him and not consider him anything other than delusional. Yet he is worshipped, and I suppose that's what cults are. He is also, incidentally, in Utah State Penitentiary, serving a minimum of 10 years for being an accomplice to rape. Depressingly, though, his followers do not consider his halo dislodged. Prison, indeed, has only emphasised his messianic status.
Religious fundamentalism produces, of course, greater perils than those faced by the followers of Warren Jeffs. 7/7: Saved by a Miracle looked at some of the stories of those who survived the London bombings five years ago this week, but it was a tawdry affair, cheapening the dignified testimonies of the survivors and bereaved by continuing to film them when they started crying, but most of all with an overwrought narration. "Trapped in bombed, mangled Tube trains, helpless among the carnage of a shattered bus, this is the darkness that cloaked the morning of 7th July." It's not easy to make the narrative of that awful day sound like a bad novel, but this programme managed it.
=-=-=-=-=-=
[www.theartsdesk.com]
Storyville: Leaving the Cult, BBC Four
Monday, 05 July 2010 23:14 Written by Howard Male
Sam and Joe dwelling on either the cost of freedom or the price of beer Joe, Sam and Bruce may be three callow teenagers from southern Utah but they’re still smart enough to realise that the only world they have ever known is wrong, deeply wrong. So wrong, in fact, that they make the hardest decision of their lives by leaving their family, friends and community behind forever, as this is the only way to escape the madness. Directors Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merton deserve credit for being such invisible presences in a film which simply bears witness to the lives of the boys once they have escaped the sinister-sounding “crick”, a Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints community fronted by "Prophet" Warren Jeffs - a man who is now serving 10 years to life for being an accomplice to rape, incest and sexual conduct with minors. It’s clear what kind of film Leaving the Cult (released in cinemas as Sons of Perdition) is going to be from the moment we hear the first notes of the ominous ambient soundtrack, and 17-year-old Sam tells us of his family’s attitude to his departure. “For them it would have been better for me to die than to leave,” he tells us matter of factly. Joe, also 17, is chillingly succinct in summing up what it’s like to have been in the crick (although his words could equally apply to being in the bosom of any religious extremist group.) “You’re not taught to think about this life, you’re taught to think about the next life.” Indeed. This of course gives licence to the male elders of the FLDS to make the lives of their women a living hell. Under the umbrella of love and responsibility to the community, they have as many as 50 wives which they essentially use as breeding machines, while earning new (often illegally young) wives, rather than gold stars, for good behaviour.
But these three likeable young men now have a freedom of sorts, and we get to follow their lives for two-and-a-half years as they discover hair gel, beer, free-thinking girls, convoluted hand shakes and daft dances. Measom and Merton (tellingly ex-Mormons themselves) drop in occasional snippets of Jeffs’ taped voice (sounding like a woozier version of Stephen Hawking’s voice simulator) with bits of the Gospel according to Jeffs. At one point he intones, “Men have many wives, and that is the way men become like gods and their wives become heavenly mothers.” He might as well have meant that last part literally, as these poor women tend to be in an almost permanent state of pregnancy, bearing children until they can no longer do so.
'This film wasn’t just about one sick man’s hold over one small community, it was about the extreme followers of every deity-specific religion on the planet'
Because of the film’s admirable lack of sententiousness we are given some space to think for ourselves on what we have witnessed. We can summon up our own feelings of outrage at the ruined lives of people who think they are doing the right thing, but have got it all so horribly wrong because their hearts and minds have twisted up by a bunch of warped, anachronistic and sadistic ideas delivered in the name of God. But really this film wasn’t just about one sick man’s hold over one small community, it was about the extreme followers of every deity-specific religion on the planet. Although that’s not to say the chillingly rational Richard Dawkins and his ilk are right either. My take on all this is by all means hypothesize or wishfully think that there may be more to life than this veil of tears, just don’t be fooled into thinking any dumb human has ever known, or ever will know, what shape the unknown and the unknowable takes.
Surely common sense and a little knowledge of biology and history should make us formulate the question; if our major religions are only, on average, a couple of thousand years old, and mankind is at least 200,000 years old, why weren’t we given our holy instruction manuals a lot sooner? But hey, now I’m the one preaching; it’s such an easy trap to fall into. But if nothing else this straight-forward question should lead you to suspect that God (take your pick on which one) is pretty perverse to let us carry on unguided, raping, pillaging and – in a state of ignorance we really can’t be blamed for – worshipping false idols. And yet the most blindingly obviously of false idols, such as the despicable Warren Jeffs, can still get thousands of individuals to do his every bidding. And not only that, but it’s the nature of faith that even now that he’s behind bars his flock are as loyal as ever, embracing his new role as martyr. What’s wrong with us human beings? And I do say us, rather than them, because the intelligence, sensitivity and good humour of these three kids shows that any of us could have had the misfortune to be born into the kind of purgatory on Earth that they were fated to.
But at least there’s a happy ending for these boys who, ironically, took a leap of faith to escape their polygamous faith. They manage to assist in the emancipation of other members of their family, and all end up going to college. But let’s leave the last word to the incarcerated Jeffs. At one point his creepy disembodied voice calmly informs us that all of today’s musicians and film-makers are, “the most filthy, immoral, adulterous people on the face of the Earth today". Has that kettle-insulting pot ever been blacker?
3 comments
Wednesday, 07 July 2010 09:58 posted by Louise I have never been so affected by a documentary. These boys are brave, yes, because they took that leap of faith and left. They show a wisdom towards life that you will never find in contempory societies adults- never mind teenage boys of a similar age. You would assume that by them being brought up in a sheltered community that they're growth- intellectually as well as spiritually- has been stunted (or more aptly stolen by this Prophet) but it has not. They have a remarkable faith in their decision to leave and they have a powerful understanding that even though it is the most painful thing that they have ever done they know it was right for them. They are remarkable individuals and I hope that they can keep a grasp of who they are and continue on to a bigger and brighter future- as one of them highlighted that it through this experience that they really got to know who they are. I wish them all the very best!!
Tuesday, 06 July 2010 21:24 posted by Barbara Weed I agree with Howard Male that "really this film wasn’t just about one sick man’s hold over one small community, it was about the extreme followers" but I would say they are followers of every cult, not just "of every deity-specific religion on the planet." Many cults are religious but not all, by any means. One example of a non-religious cult is the online "philosophy" community Freedomain Radio run by Stefan Molyneux. As an atheist, Molyneux does not preach religion but he shares the cult leader's taste for power over his followers and his greed for their money. The "lost children" in the film had escaped or been thrown out of Jeffs' community. The "lost children" of Freedomain Radio have been persuaded to "escape" their families and to follow Stefan Molyneux's teaching of personal freedom. Both Jeffs and Molyneux exercise power and cruelty over their victims for their own sick purposes.
Tuesday, 06 July 2010 20:41 posted by Lynne H I left the "mainstream" Mormon church when I was well into adulthood. Even the "mainstream" church has many hallmarks of a cult, too many to fit into this space. I live in Utah, and while I don't broadcast my apostacy, I don't make a secret of it either. And, though we are all "adults" (notice I didn't say "grownups"), my family refuse to acknowledge that my husband, children and I are at peace and so much happier now that we've left. In short, I feel shunned by my family and by some of my coworkers. But I at least had access to books and television and movies and the internet and was fully grown and living independently when I decided to leave. These young men had no resources whatsoever. My heart goes out to them and to all the "lost children" who escaped or were thrown out. Incidentally, there is a disproportionately high number of homeless gay teens in Utah who were kicked to the curb by their loving xtian Mormon parents. So the mainstream church does a better job of hiding its cultishness, but they still do damage to people's lives.
=-=-=-=-=-=
Re: Leaving the Cult - Extreme Mormons
Posted by:
S_Byers666
()
Date: July 09, 2010 03:03AM
[Moderator's note: I have honored the request of the filmmaker regarding the link to download]
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2010 03:15AM by rrmoderator.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2010 03:15AM by rrmoderator.
Re: Leaving the Cult - Extreme Mormons
Posted by:
tmeasom
()
Date: July 14, 2010 02:51AM
This is the producer of the film "Leaving the Cult" (or, as it is known in the States Sons of Perdition). Thank you for your interest in the film and your kind words. The film will be released in the US before the end of the year. In the meantime, could you please kindly remove the post that has the bit torrent download suggestion. It is one thing to illegally download someone's film, it is quite another to promote it. Thank you and look for updates on the film shortly.
Comments from news coverage of Warren Jeffs
Posted by:
corboy
()
Date: December 11, 2013 06:35AM
[news.yahoo.com]
Leap From Faith: Warren Jeffs’ Nephews Helping Young Women Leave Polygamist Group
Leap From Faith: Warren Jeffs’ Nephews Helping Young Women Leave Polygamist Group
Quote
Two nephews of jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs say he uses God's name to brainwash others and is still calling the shots from prison.
Matt Jeffs, 20, and Zack Jeffs, 18, are brothers who broke free of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS. The group is led by self-described prophet Warren Jeffs, who married more than 80 women, and is serving a life sentence in prison after being convicted of two counts of sexual assault against two underage girls.
ABC News accompanied Matt and Zack as they returned to the notorious community in Hildale, Utah, for the first time since fleeing. Despite standing on a public road outside the FLDS, the message is clear – no outsiders are welcomed. A "God Squad" truck, Jeffs' private security force, roams nearby to make sure no unwanted visitors make it inside the highly guarded community.
To live there is to turn back the clock a hundred years. No Internet, no television, no contact with the outside world. Matt and Zack say every aspect of life -- what people wear, what they eat, even whom they marry -- is still controlled by Jeffs, a man people within the community call their prophet.
A raid in 2008 on the group's Yearning For Zion compound in Eldorado, Texas, brought the FLDS community into the national spotlight. Authorities found a polygamous community and pregnant child brides. In 2011, Jeffs was convicted by a Texas jury of having sex with two girls who were 15 and 12 years old. DNA evidence at the trial proved Jeffs had fathered a child with the 15-year-old girl.
"He's using God's name to brainwash them," Matt said. "I was brainwashed where I was terrified of leaving the community."
In the FLDS community it is believed a man with more wives is more likely to go to heaven.
"My dad has nine wives and around 62 kids," Zack said, as Matt rattled off a list of the mothers' names.
The brothers are featured on TLC's "Breaking the Faith" – a show that follows a group of young people after leaving the FLDS. Matt and Zack are part of a group of former FLDS members on a mission to help others who may want to leave the community. The brothers' father is Lyle Jeffs, a bishop in the FLDS, according to the show's website.
"The family will just look at us like we're the most wicked people on earth," Matt said.
Ben, 20, another former church member featured on the show, says young women don't have the ability to pick up and leave the FLDS as easily as it may sound.
"The only thing they know is their bedroom, the laundry room and the kitchen. And that's it. That's all they know," Ben told ABC News.
The church disputes many of the allegations made against them and their practices seen on the show. According to TLC, the show is based on actual events and situations, but some "incidents and timelines" have been altered to protect former and current church members.
Matt and Zack said that from behind prison walls, Jeffs continues to issue edicts.
"There have been no marriages because he's the only one who can do the marriages," Matt said.
"They can't have kids right now either," Zack added, who says as far as he knows, no woman has had a child since Jeffs was jailed.
When asked if Jeffs is a prophet, Ben bluntly states, "No. He's a psychopath that's in prison for life."
While the brothers are discussing details about the FLDS, a "God Squad" car interrupts the interview.
"That's the typical God Squad right there," MattQuote
triclops3 hours ago
I work around polygamists in eastern Nevada and western Utah. These are the most disreputable people I have ever seem. They treat woman no better than livestock, and cheat and steal from any outsiders they run across. Short of arresting and imprisoning them, they have no respect for the law.
Good luck to anybody who can get free of them.Quote
Abby3 hours ago
If the Mormon Church really disapproved of this version of LDS, they would have offered sanctuary, and help along time ago. Taxpayers are paying for Jeff's wives and children, and I for one am tired of paying for religious zealots.
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