Church of Lies

Though Sophia (Kristyn Decker,) wasn?t entirely aware of it until she began writing this book, she had always been on her way out of polygamy. It started with baby steps?from early years of neglect, molestation, and abuse?to giant steps, after marrying at seventeen and then eight years later encouraging her husband to take another wife?and further onward. To avoid feelings of anger, jealousy, and pain, Sophie graciously kept a sweet smile plastered across her face and became a numb but ?righteous? workaholic.

During many tumultuous years as a polygamist wife, mother, leader, teacher, and passionate person, most of her questions and concerns were never fully answered. Her heart struggled with what were deemed God?s commandments and his myriad of puzzle pieces that never quite seemed to fit. Her flight from polygamy truly began to soar when a friend rescued her from years of self-loathing and suicidal depression. Propelling her onward was Sophie?s plight to get her sixteen-year-old daughter off the streets and off drugs. As her daughter began receiving court-appointed therapeutic help, Sophie began to discover herself?a woman she now loves and honors.

After five decades of anguish and lies?of watching herself and others fail a commandment fraught with impossible rules and threats of heaven or hell, Sophie chose heaven.

This is her story.

Please visit her website, fiftyyearsinpolygamy.com

The Secret Lives of Saints paints a troubling portrait of an extreme religious sect. These zealous believers impose severe and often violent restrictions on women, deprive children of education and opt instead to school them in the tenets of their faith, defy the law and move freely and secretly over international borders. They punish dissent with violence and even death. No, this sect is not the Taliban, but North America's fundamentalist Mormons.

Daphne Bramham explores the history and ideas of this surprisingly resilient and insular society, asking the questions that surround its continued existence and telling the stories of the men and women whose lives are so entwined with it—both the leaders and the victims.

But everything changes when Alva is caught giving her long-time crush an innocent first kiss. Beaten, scorned, and now facing a forced marriage to a violent, fifty-year old man, Alva suddenly realizes how much she has to lose--and how impossible it will be to escape.