[.ca] The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys ... (ISBN 0307355888)

Amazon.ca:
Comparing a group to the Taliban is heavy stuff. But in her gripping Secret Lives of Saints, Vancouver Sun journalist Daphne Bramham has plenty of strong words for the polygamous Mormons of Bountiful, B.C.; Hildale, Utah; and Colorado City, Arizona. She characterizes followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) as extortionists, misogynists, racists, child abusers, and pedophiles. Not for nothing did American FLDS leader Warren Jeffs occupy a spot opposite Osama bin Laden on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List before his capture outside Las Vegas in 2006: he would eventually be found guilty of two counts of rape as an accomplice. Meanwhile, Winston Blackmore, the so-called Bishop of Bountiful, has publicly admitted to having sex with minors, but has yet to be charged. Bramham demonstrates that only a few watchful reporters, prosecutors, and escaped former-FLDS members seem especially outraged about the questionable practices of the FLDS. "How is it," she asks, "that two nations, so clear-sighted in recognizing human rights atrocities in other countries … have been so blind to the human rights violations committed against their own women and children?" How, indeed. Bramham provides a brief history of Mormonism, following the divide at the end of the 19th century when "the mainstream church renounced polygamy \oand\c dissidents splintered off and continued to practice plural marriage." As Bramham shows, the one man/multiple wives equation is enormously problematic, resulting in acute poverty, subjugation, and--most troublingly--teenage brides bequeathed to geriatrics in the name of procreation. Clearly, such practices have to stop. While this story has been told before--notably by Jon Krakauer in Under the Banner of Heaven and in various high-profile TV exposés--Bramham adds new voices and the Canadian perspective to this troubling tale. Moreover, she makes readers angry--and when it comes to prompting change, anger trumps ambivalence every time. --Kim Hughes

An utterly horrifying read:
Well done, Daphne Bramham! Finally, a journalist who gives a damn enough to expose the disgustingly sexist and corrupt system that exists within the polygamous Mormon sect of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I couldn't agree more with Ms. Bramham's statement that while Canadian troops are currently in Afghanistan, in part to defend that country's women and children's rights, everyone seems to tolerate the tyranny imposed on women and children by the FLDS on North American soil. As a Canadian, I'm furious.