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| God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who Escaped | 
 enlarge | Author: Andrea Moore-emmett
Publisher: Pince-Nez Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 72730
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 1930074131
Dewey Decimal Number: 289
EAN: 9781930074132
ASIN: 1930074131
Publication Date: June 1, 2004
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Product Description
"I know girls as young as 12 years old who have been forced to marry their stepfathers," Laura Chapman states in Gods Brothel. For the first time, the stories of Laura and 17 other former polygamist wives are being told in book form. Unique among books on this topic, Gods Brothel presents accounts from 10 of the 11 major Mormon polygamist sects and several independent families. This thorough coverage reveals patterns of physical, sexual and emotional abuse common to these groups. In addition to the womens stories, Gods Brothel presents a fascinating discussion of polygamys history in America. Moore-Emmett recounts the prosecution of polygamists and current freedom of religion arguments used to justify its practice. She also provides a coherent breakdown of the major contemporary polygamist groups and places U.S. polygamy in a world context. This background information greatly clarifies much of the confusion surrounding this complex issue. Far from affecting only Utah, Mormon and Christian fundamentalist polygamist groups are found in 30 U.S. states, Mexico, and Canada. Conservative estimates place those living in polygamy in North America at 50,000 to 100,000 and growing. Recently, members of Utahs Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) moved to Texas to escape prosecution after first telling local officials that they were opening a hunting lodge. This event represents just one instance of polygamys spread across the country, a spread that could bring Gods Brothel to a neighborhood near you.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 I thought my eyes were open September 20, 2004
87 out of 101 found this review helpful
to what horrors do go on in polygamous communities. I've read a lot about it and living in Utah and having been raised in the mormon community, I figured I had a good feel for what might go on behind the walls of these compounds and homes. The stories in this book describe pretty much every perversion and abuse I might have guessed could occur in such an environment. All it takes is an understanding of patriarchal cult/religion and power combined with human nature to figure that what these women describe makes sense.
I learned a little bit more about the state of Utah and how far it is from bringing justice and support where it is most needed. With the prevailing mainstream mormon influence within the power structures of this state, it seems they are still in the business of protecting their own polygamous doctrine and history first and foremost.
So far, the most revealing book I've read on polygamy. Others that I've read have left me feeling that there was much untold.
Hell on Earth November 23, 2004
74 out of 83 found this review helpful
Andrea Moore Emmett opens our eyes to a horror that most of us assumed did not exist in modern-day America. How wrong we were. Through heart-wrenching tales told by the women who lived them we learn of a dark, dismal world in which girls are nothing more then human cattle. This is a must read for any one who doubts the existence of polygamy in the Land of the Free. This is an especially important read in light of the current threats to all women's rights.
 An essential but biased sample - Is polygamy the problem or October 12, 2004
67 out of 94 found this review helpful
These 18 first person accounts of life in modern Mormon polygamy make for both a riveting and horrifying read of religious and sexual abuse. Moore-Emmit's anthology is essential reading for those wanting an insider's view of the secret religious and sexual abuses still perpetrated by Mormons upon the family in this century the name of obedience to Gods law. The women who speak out have done so at considerable personal risk. They don't hesitate to name names and give lurid details (the Mormon theology of "blood atonement" justifies murder and some former cult leaders have made threats). Moore-Emmit's interviews are a powerful contribution to the sociocultural literature of polygyny. For this reason alone you should read the book.
However, be advised that the author and contributors have a political agenda. These are a group of women who have suffered horrific abuse as survivors of religious cultism. There is no question that that this cultism must be exposed and the leaders must be held legally and morally accountable. I applaud the authors efforts to end the abuses ( Moore-Emmit is the president of the Utah chapter of NOW). Some of the contributors have formed the political group Tapestry Against Polygamy and have lobbied with some success for stronger enforcement of laws against polygamy - justifiably so.
I certainly agree with the argument to end cultism and religious/sexual abuse. However, the author has gone so far as to generalize her small sample of data and the extremely abusive experiences of this group of Mormon cultists to all non monogamy. In her view these abuses justify calling for an end to all forms of marriage relationships other than monogamy. Not all non monogamists are radical religious cult members. Some even report a very positive experience in adult consensual non monogamist relationships (i.e. polyamorists).
There is also another side to the Mormon polygamy question. Some claim to be having positive experiences living Mormon polygamy. To examine both sides of this debate readers should compare "God's Brothel" with the anthology edited by Batchelor, Watson and Wilde: "Voices in Harmony: Contemporary Women Celebrate Plural Marriage". These two accounts will allow the reader a unique insider's view on the two extremes of this issue voiced by the Mormon women who actually live the lifestyle.
Although I deeply appreciate and sympathize with the victims voices in God's brothel and generally applaud this book, there is a glaring absence of a correct historical analysis of the true root of the problem. Moore-Emmit projects the abuses of Mormon Cultism on all forms of non-monogamy.
In her too brief introductory historical review Moore-Emmit merely identifies Mormon church founder Joseph Smith as the instigator of the Mormon doctrine of polygamy, but she misses the important opportunity of sharing with the reader the essential details of the origins of the "fundamentalist" tactics that are used to abuse her victims. Modern "Fundamentalist" Mormons did not invent the abusive manipulations they use to oppress the women in "God's brothel". The sexual/religious abuse tactics described by all of Moore-Emmit's victims are "textbook" examples of manipulation tactics historically used by Joseph Smith. He was the original master manipulator. He is the instigator of the method and "theology" of religious blackmail that is described in this book and that is the source of the major problem of Mormon polygamy today. His cult methods are merely being mimicked today by Mormon men who use them just as successfully (and unsuccessfully) as Smith did to talk wives into living "the principle". Missing from "God's Brothel" is the essential description of Smith: "God's pimp". There are many documented accounts of how Smith manipulated vulnerable underage girls into becoming his secret sexual partners. For example, the history of 14 year old Helen Mar Whitney clearly documents the religious threats Smith used in arranging with her parents his child marriage to Helen, and how she was pressured to acquiesce to an illegal marriage by powerful psychological religious manipulation in return for a promise of her parent's salvation (see Todd Compton's "In Sacred Loneliness"). Smith set the ugly pattern for all other later "fundamentalist" Mormon cult leaders to follow. This example of blatant religious extortion for sex, along with many others, is readily available to anyone taking the time to research the official historical records of the Mormon Church. These records form a tutorial for modern church elders who get labeled "fundamentalists". Mormon Fundamentalists are merely asking "What would Joseph do?"
The women who were the victims of Smith's secret marriages detail their own accounts of his methods of how he manipulated those around him to act with complicity in a futile attempt to keep these sexual relationships secret from his wife, who abhorred polygamy. In a letter to the New York Sun following Smith's murder, his first wife, Emma, testified: "I never for a moment believed in what my husband called his apparitions or revelations, as I thought him laboring under a diseased mind...I shall educate my children in a different faith" (See Tammy Braithwaite's "A Mormon Odyssey"). Emma Smith was the first victim in "God's Brothel". Moore-Emmit needs to point this out.
Until members of the modern Mormon Church who make the laws and set policy recognize that Smith's cult tactics are still alive and well within mainstream Mormonism, the modern Mormon church will remain blind to the fact that it continues to spawn elders trained in cult methods who get excommunicated for "fundamentalism" by simply mimicking Smith's own methods. Self righteous monogamous Mormons point to these "apostates" as their scapegoats and blindly fail to recognize their own cult practices that lie hidden beneath the carefully constructed public image of "Christian" respectability. As they down record numbers of anti-depressants (Utah has the highest rate of anti-depressant consumption in the nation), mainstream monogamous Mormon women laugh at the suggestion that they belong to a "cult".
Moore-Emmit is in an awkward political position as she seeks to win cooperation in ending abuse from Mormons politicians who make and enforce the laws, and who themselves are covertly (and often unknowingly) complicit with the theology of religious cultism and abuse. Moore-Emmit recognizes that she cannot confront the larger mainstream Mormon enemy and ask the obvious: Why do Mormon public officials still make secret oaths of obedience in Mormon temples to always place church theology above their state oaths of office? Lurking in Utah State Government is Utah's shadow Theocratic State Government that won't bring an end this cultism that results in abuse. In short, Moore-Emmit has done a remarkable job, but she has confused non-monagamy with cult manipulation. Fundamentalist polygamy is merely the illegal child of legal mainstream Mormon cultism (which is been packaged in modern socially acceptable conformity and is hiding out in the guise of monogamy). Maybe Moore-Emmits next effort should document first person accounts of the marital abuses suffered under the hands of cultist tactics disguised as religious doctrine by the Mormon monogamist patriarchy. Would there then be a "Tapestry Against Monogamy?" Maybe what really is needed is a "Tapestry Against Mormon Cultism."
Title is Accurate January 25, 2005
47 out of 57 found this review helpful
I would just like to point out that the Doctrine and Covenants of the Mormon (or LDS) chruch still contains passsage 132, which supports polygamy. The fact that this hasn't been removed indicates that the relationship between Mormonism and polygamy is not simple. If Mormon leaders had totally turned their backs on polygamy, that passage would no longer be in the D and C. Also, referring to the groups in the book as Mormon fundamentalists is accurate because they adhere to all the Mormon texts and in fact believe themselves to be more observant Mormons because they are practicing the pure faith as Joseph Smith wrote it.
Unbelievable. February 5, 2006
42 out of 48 found this review helpful
The book is written by several different women who lived inside different polygamist groups. It was hard for me to believe that this type of practice still exists and it makes me sick that we allow this to continue within any state inside the U.S. I recommend this book to people interested in this subject. I read this book after reading, "Under the Banner of Heaven" and would recommend that book to anyone who hasn't read it yet - it explains the history of this religion and how the polygamy came to exist within it.
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