In a recent post titled, “The Short Creek Effect”, we cited resource material from “Escape” written by Carolyn Jessop. (“Escape”- authors Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer, Copyright©2007 by Visionary Classics, LLC, published by Broadway Books, ISBN 978-0-7679-2756-7). We are continuing on with references found in the chapter titled “Child’s Play”. Jessop recounts the games and adventures of her childhood. She grew up a part of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS) which practices polygamy.
The game she explains in detail was “apocalypse”. “It was magic, our version of hide-and-seek… We grew up knowing a lot about the end of the world. It had been drilled into us in Sunday school that we were God’s chosen people. When the end times would come, we would be saved.” (page 24) As I read this I remembered how many other religious cults taught that they “were God’s chosen people”. Do I need to list them? My perspective also comes from my time in Word of Faith Fellowship (WOFF). Teachings about the end times were sporadic and at times murky in WOFF. But, no doubt we were God’s chosen people. Well, if you pressed on to know the Lord, stayed at WOFF and kept submitting to the authority of God- which was embodied in Jane Whaley. Your place in the will of God was always tied to your continued attendance at WOFF. After all, why would God tell you to leave “the will of God”? So, even if the exact words were not used consistently, it was clearly understood and said that “there may be other folks walking in the Truth, but, we had not found them yet.” Being at WOFF made you special. We move on.
Jessop continues, “When the end times would come, we would be saved, the wicked killed, and the world destroyed. I was too young to question these ideas; they were my spiritual ABCs. Contrary to what most would think, we were not taught the end of the world was a bad thing. Not at all. It was a good thing because it would usher in a thousand years of peace… There was one caveat; before God slaughtered the wicked, he would allow them to try to kill his chosen people. (It should have made us wonder, but we didn’t.) We were taught the government (which was wicked) would move into our community and try to kill every man, woman, and child. But since we had been faithful to God and kept his word, he’d hear our prayers and protect us.” (page 24) Again, as we read this, remember that these ideas were taught over and over to the young children. It became accepted and so common place that at least from Jessop’s account there was very little doubt expressed or even the least bit of critical thinking in reference to these FLDS “truths”. Why should that shock us? Why should it shock me? As a result of the mind control methods used in this group, critical thinking was for the most part non-existent.