Table 1
The Authors, Their Memoirs
Name and
Memoir Former Affiliation Family Size
Summary of Relationship With Parents As
Analyzed in Each Memoir
Martha Beck.
Leaving the
Saints (2005)
Mormonism, grew
up in Utah
4 brothers, 3 sisters
2 parents
Parents as most often totally compliant
with religious practices. Beck writes
lovingly of her parents, whom she also
presents as abusive.
Rhoda Janzen.
Mennonite in a
Little Black Dress
(2010)
Mennonite, grew up
in North Dakota
2 brothers, 1 sister
2 parents
Parents as compliant with practices, strict
and loving.
Brent Jeffs. Lost
Boy (2009)
Fundamentalist
Church of Latter
Days Saints, grew
up in Utah
More than 20 half- and full
siblings 1 father, 1 mother
with 2 sister-wives
Parents as initially compliant and loving.
Jeffs was the only author who claimed his
parents eventually left their religious
community in support of their family.
Carolyn Jessop.
Escape (2008)
Fundamentalist
Church of Latter
Days Saints, grew
up in Utah
2 sisters, 1 brother, and
half-siblings 1 father, 1
mother with 1 sister-wife
Close to father and stepmother, somewhat
distant from biological mother. Biological
mother appears as initially compliant, but
eventually supportive.
Flora Jessop.
Church of Lies
(2009)
Fundamentalist
Church of Latter
Days Saints, grew
up in Utah
More than 300 stepsiblings
and half-siblings, 17 full
siblings (7 sisters given to
incontinent uncle) 1
father, 1 mother with 2
sister-wives
Very distant from father, whom she
presents as cruel. Mother as compliant and
unable to protect children.
Brian Mackert.
Illegitimate
(2008)
Fundamentalist
Church of Latter
Days Saints, grew
up in Utah
6 full siblings, more than
24 total siblings 1 father,
1 mother with 2 sister-
wives
Mother as loving and attempting to
protect children by seeking marital
reassignment from the FLDS. Father as
unloving, distant, and abusive.
Erin Prophet.
Prophet’s
Daughter (2009)
Church Universal
and Triumphant,
grew up primarily
in Montana
1 brother, 2 sisters
1 mother who had several
marriages (1 father,
3 stepfathers)
Mother as loving, but prioritizing role as a
prophet over her children’s needs
(especially for daughters). Evidence of
being close to third stepfather, but focused
on mother.
Jallen Rix. Ex-
Gay No Way
(2010)
Southern Baptist,
grew up in
California
1 brother, 1 sister
2 parents
Parents as loving and what Rix considered
normal, but initially caught up in church
community’s stance against
homosexuality.
Julia Scheeres.
Jesus Land
(2005)
Dutch Reform,
grew up in Indiana
2 sisters, 1 brother,
2 adopted black brothers
2 parents
Parents portrayed as largely uncaring,
neglectful, and abusive beyond what
Scheeres presented as religious demands.
Elissa Wall.
Stolen Innocence
(2009)
Fundamentalist
Church of Latter
Days Saints, grew
up in Utah
14 full siblings, 10 half-
siblings 1 father, 1 mother
with 2 sister-wives
Parents as supportive and loving, but
unable to completely protect their children
because of compliance with religious
demands.
20 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015

town in Utah predominantly populated by
Mormons). Rhoda Janzen (2010) was from a
Mennonite family, which held prominent church
positions and followed traditional family roles.
Erin Prophet (2009) was the daughter of the
messenger (prophet) of Church Universal and
Triumphant (CUT), Elizabeth Clare Prophet
(1939–2009). CUT combined Christian beliefs
with Eastern traditions and New Age
spiritualism. Jallen Rix (2010) was the
homosexual son of heteronormative Southern
Baptists. Finally, Dutch Reform parents raised
Julia Scheeres (2005) and her five siblings.
Common themes emerged within these
memoirs’ representation of parental behaviors
and emotions. Most religious groups in this
study regulated families through religious
practices, community norms, and widespread
compliance to those practices and norms. Some
understood their parents through unique cultural
tools, which were specific to their religions and
lives after disaffiliation.
I anticipated most authors would claim to have
experienced abuse by their parents or other
religious adherents or both, which they would
attribute to religious demands. Nonetheless, I
found immense variation among authors’
emotional relationships to their parents, which
fit within common themes.
Analyzing Narratives of Subjectivity, Culture,
and Relationality
I conducted a thematic narrative analysis of the
memoirs, in which I attempted to remain true to
each author’s narrative while comparing the
narratives’ differences and common themes.
First, I read each memoir, compiled a summary,
and highlighted initial themes. I then transcribed
sections of text about authors’ understandings
and emotional responses to what they
represented as their parents’ compliance or
noncompliance with religious demands. Other
important themes pertained to subjectivity and
child abuse. My findings were undoubtedly
influenced by my assumptions and experiences
such that other researchers may have focused on
different themes.
Assumptions that I brought to this project were
based partly on my previous work on new
religious movements (NRMs). For instance, I
had expected most authors to present their
parents as incapable of questioning religious
doctrines. I challenged assumptions by watching
for contradictions and alternative representations
by parents. I paid close attention to authors’
representations of relationality, nonunitary
subjectivity, and cultural influences. These
factors were formative in authors’ changing
assessments of their familial relationships in
comparison to their also dynamic conceptions of
a normal family. I use the term normal
throughout this article to denote the authors’
conceptions of normality, which are based on
their personal and ever-changing standards of
evaluation.
People experience the world in dynamic
sociocultural and historical contexts, which
influence their emotions, interpretations of
experiences, and therefore their nonunitary
subjectivity (Bloom, 1998, p. 98 Bruner, 1995,
p. 163). Authors used their cultural context to
interpret events. In religious organizations, this
context centers on doctrines and social
organization. Moreover, interpretations and
emotions interact with identity, which is
relational (meaning constructed in and from
relationships with others [Eakin, 1999]). As
such, the autobiography of the self is also a
biography of the other despite failing to capture
fully the complexity of subjectivity, narrative
offers immense insight into relationships (Day
Sclater, 2003, p. 322 Smith &Watson, 2010,
p. 216).
The author who most openly represented
another’s voice and relational identity was Julia
Scheeres (2005): “I chose to tell my brother’s
story as a memoir because in many ways, our
story is the same” (p. 352). Scheeres identified
as “we” when describing her life with David, her
adopted black brother and best friend. Likewise,
Martha Beck (2005) explained her relational
identity with her father, which formed during an
emotionally repressed “acquaintanceship” in
which he raped her (p. 122). Yet, she identified
with his physical traits, behaviors, and history of
having been sexually abused.
Relationality was central to all discussions of
family history and early childhood. In addition
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 21