International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation ■ Vol. 1, No. 1, 2020 87
harm. Women in cults have often been
controlled by this method when they have
visited their adult children who have left the
group or when they have not succumbed to
their husband’s will (ex-member, personal
communication, June 5, 2012). Recently, a
woman who was ostracized from the
religious community in which she was raised
killed herself, her husband, and her two adult
children—a murder–suicide that her friends
attribute to her being shunned (Baldas, 2018).
Medical Neglect
Women and children are at risk for medical
neglect, which may result in death. This is
especially true when minors give birth. The
risk of mortality, both for the minor and for
her child, increases. Medical attention is
avoided in the FLDS because polygamy and
incest are felonies, so pregnancies are hidden
from authorities (Kent, 2011). Because
marriages are so incestuous in this group,
many infants are born with genetic birth
defects or condemned to live damaged and
debilitating lives (Kent, 2011). Mothers have
to experience the most painful life event one
can endure—burying a child. To compound
their grief, they are often blamed for the
deformities, told that they happened as
punishment for not being spiritual enough,
having doubts, or not being sufficiently
respectful of the elders.
Subservience
Most cultic groups are patriarchal, and
women are groomed to be subservient to
men, as was Sarah. The ISKCON (Hare
Krishnas) group, for example, states, “Ideally
the [married] woman must be completely
submissive and a servant to her husband”
(Daner, 1976, as cited in Kent, 2001, p. 158).
In more recent times, the Quiverfull
movement, which adheres to strict gender
roles and a patriarchal hierarchy, is a case in
point. In the Advanced Training Institute
(ATI), an example of the Quiverfull
movement, a woman is exhorted to be a “godly
wife” by fulfilling seven basic needs, including
“dressing to please her husband, having a joyful
countenance and selecting clothing that draws
attention to it, to honor his leadership, to make
appeals, not demands, and to be grateful”
(Hamilton, 2014, p. 114). In 2014, the founder of
ATI, Bill Gothard, was accused of sexually
assaulting women and teenage girls and removed
from the faculty of ATI. Perhaps it is not
surprising, given the power that men hold in these
groups, that Josh Duggar, an infamous member of
a Quiverfull family, admitted molesting his
younger sisters as a teenager (McFarland, 2015).
One of the ways cults subjugate women is by
tearing down their self-esteem. Sarah’s need
to be perfect caused her to never feel
competent or confident, and the fact that she
was given tasks totally inappropriate for her
age only added to her lack of self-esteem. “I
felt like such a failure when I couldn’t do all
those tasks perfectly,” she says now.
Spiritual Violence
From the foregoing discussion, it is obvious
that spiritual abuse is another type of violence
inflicted on women in faith-based cults.
Under the guise of some religious experience,
either hallucinated or consciously made up,
the exploitation of women’s bodies for the
sexual gratification of the leader is one of the
most abhorrent consequences of cult
involvement. Women who come out of these
cults often feel ashamed that they were so
duped to believe that having sex with the
leader was for their own enlightenment or
salvation rather than simply for his
gratification. Working through this type of
moral injury is another theme in
psychotherapy offices throughout the world.
Current Reorganization
We cannot conclude this section without
mentioning a sea change taking place in
Hilldale, Utah, heart of the FLDS. With
Warren Jeffs in jail, state officials examined
the town more closely and found major
abuses in terms of housing discrimination
harm. Women in cults have often been
controlled by this method when they have
visited their adult children who have left the
group or when they have not succumbed to
their husband’s will (ex-member, personal
communication, June 5, 2012). Recently, a
woman who was ostracized from the
religious community in which she was raised
killed herself, her husband, and her two adult
children—a murder–suicide that her friends
attribute to her being shunned (Baldas, 2018).
Medical Neglect
Women and children are at risk for medical
neglect, which may result in death. This is
especially true when minors give birth. The
risk of mortality, both for the minor and for
her child, increases. Medical attention is
avoided in the FLDS because polygamy and
incest are felonies, so pregnancies are hidden
from authorities (Kent, 2011). Because
marriages are so incestuous in this group,
many infants are born with genetic birth
defects or condemned to live damaged and
debilitating lives (Kent, 2011). Mothers have
to experience the most painful life event one
can endure—burying a child. To compound
their grief, they are often blamed for the
deformities, told that they happened as
punishment for not being spiritual enough,
having doubts, or not being sufficiently
respectful of the elders.
Subservience
Most cultic groups are patriarchal, and
women are groomed to be subservient to
men, as was Sarah. The ISKCON (Hare
Krishnas) group, for example, states, “Ideally
the [married] woman must be completely
submissive and a servant to her husband”
(Daner, 1976, as cited in Kent, 2001, p. 158).
In more recent times, the Quiverfull
movement, which adheres to strict gender
roles and a patriarchal hierarchy, is a case in
point. In the Advanced Training Institute
(ATI), an example of the Quiverfull
movement, a woman is exhorted to be a “godly
wife” by fulfilling seven basic needs, including
“dressing to please her husband, having a joyful
countenance and selecting clothing that draws
attention to it, to honor his leadership, to make
appeals, not demands, and to be grateful”
(Hamilton, 2014, p. 114). In 2014, the founder of
ATI, Bill Gothard, was accused of sexually
assaulting women and teenage girls and removed
from the faculty of ATI. Perhaps it is not
surprising, given the power that men hold in these
groups, that Josh Duggar, an infamous member of
a Quiverfull family, admitted molesting his
younger sisters as a teenager (McFarland, 2015).
One of the ways cults subjugate women is by
tearing down their self-esteem. Sarah’s need
to be perfect caused her to never feel
competent or confident, and the fact that she
was given tasks totally inappropriate for her
age only added to her lack of self-esteem. “I
felt like such a failure when I couldn’t do all
those tasks perfectly,” she says now.
Spiritual Violence
From the foregoing discussion, it is obvious
that spiritual abuse is another type of violence
inflicted on women in faith-based cults.
Under the guise of some religious experience,
either hallucinated or consciously made up,
the exploitation of women’s bodies for the
sexual gratification of the leader is one of the
most abhorrent consequences of cult
involvement. Women who come out of these
cults often feel ashamed that they were so
duped to believe that having sex with the
leader was for their own enlightenment or
salvation rather than simply for his
gratification. Working through this type of
moral injury is another theme in
psychotherapy offices throughout the world.
Current Reorganization
We cannot conclude this section without
mentioning a sea change taking place in
Hilldale, Utah, heart of the FLDS. With
Warren Jeffs in jail, state officials examined
the town more closely and found major
abuses in terms of housing discrimination
