Church of Lies

By: Flora Jessop, Paul T. Brown

Narrated by: Eve Bianco

Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

From the Preface:

"My name is Flora Jessop. I've been called apostate, vigilante, and crazy bitch, and maybe I am. But some people call me a hero, and I'd like to think they're right too. If I am a hero, maybe it's because every time I can play a part in saving a child or a woman from a life of servitude and degradation, I'm saving a little piece of me, too. 

I was one of 28 children born to my dad and his three wives. Indoctrinated to believe that the outside world was evil, and that I resided among the righteous, I was destined to marry a man chosen for me by the Prophet. I would then live in harmony with my sister-wives, bear many children, and obey and serve my future husband in this life and throughout eternity. But my innocence didn't last long. While still a child, I understood that the church of the righteous was nothing but a church of lies. 

When I was eight years old my father sexually molested me for the first time, raping me when I was 12. I tried to kill myself. Beaten, molested, taunted, and abused by family members alleging they only wanted to save my soul became a daily routine, I ran from this abuse more than once in my early teens - even attempting to cross the desert on foot. My family hunted me down. I thought government agencies would provide me safety if I reported my father. Instead, police and social services colluded with the FLDS to return me to my family and I ended up back inside polygamy, right where I started." 

Flora goes on from there to tell the dramatic true story of how she ultimately escaped and has been fighting against frustrating obstacles with hard-fought successes in rescuing women and children from the FLDS. It's a story you can't put down. 

©2009 Flora Jessop and Paul T. Brown (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Grew up in hell

I grew up in emergency foster care and juvenile detention in Los Angeles county. Thank God that there’s someone out there doing what should be done and how the system should be ran.

Fascinating Story

The personal story Flora tells us has fire and intensity. Her unfailing endeavor to rescue women from this dreadful cult was made more powerful since she lived the life the women she was trying to rescue. She is an authority on this cult and has the conviction of its evilness.
The narrator was flawed. When speaking in her normal voice she was fine but when reading men or women’s dialogue it was somewhat irritating. The women outside of the cult often seemed to take on Southern accents. The women in The cult had an irritating screeching speech pattern. Overall the book is well worth reading. I have read several books about this Mormon cult and was pleased to still be drawn into Flora’s story.

wow...

A very powerful and opening book. I hope lots of people take the time to listen to this book.

Great book, sad and horrible for the women and kids

It’s hard to believe what these women and children are brainwashed into believing and the sick pedophiles that are allowed to getaway with abusing and raping girls, even their own daughters! What a sick world we live in.

Great book, but…

The narration was not good! I feel like the narrator’s inflection was altering what the writer was trying to convey.

nothing godly about polygamy!

I've heard defenders of polygamy say that bad experiences like those described in this book are only because it wasn't being practiced at the right time or being done "correctly." There is no correct way to practice polygamy, polygyny, spiritual wifery, or whatever else they want to call it. There is NOTHING Godly about it!!!

A B C D E

F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

great book

Great insight on FLDS from a wonderful woman who survived it. I've lived in an Amish community and have seen a lot of the same child sexual abuse and its awful.

Extremely moving

While sometimes difficult to listen to, it brought to light issues of horror within the flds and polygamy. Flora and her husband Tim are real heroes.

Deeply Disturbing

Reader Beware:
The first few chapters are intensely graphic and deeply disturbing. I felt scarred after listening to chapters 1-3 and feel that these chapters should NOT have been relayed so graphically since one of the characters was a minor. Thankfully, the majority of the book revolves around Flora’s heroic escape and rescue missions. I commend her strength and resistance against a force much greater than she. It is true on many levels and from varied perspectives throughout this book that the actions of one person can make a monumental difference in the lived experiences of oneself and others. Fight the hard fights and always question authority until you understand that which is being ordered/asked of you, and if you don’t agree - push back. On a side note, the narrator portrayed Flora well, but her renditions of male voices and some alternate female character’s voices were sub par (the men all had the same growling voice, even the “good guys”, like her husband, and the alternate female characters were all oddly given a slight southern accent unfitting of UT/AZ).