Shackles breaking away. arranged marriages, underage brides. religious freedom. all on trial! but it was also the first time that someone inside of the flds would speak up publicly in a criminal case against the prophet. the grainy courtroom camera rolled, as the process s alleging he enticed 14-year-old elissa into marriage, and insisted that she obeyed her husband and the sexual demands. that man performed a ceremony and told her to multiply and replenish the earth. that s why the defendant is an accomplice to rape. but the defense team
This was my wedding dress. there was no courtship, no romantic proposal, just a short ceremony to, of all people, the prophet himself. uncle rulon jeff s, rebecca was his 19th wife. in the flds, world, the age does not matter. the standing with the prophet. how pure, of obedient, and honorable he is. in my case, this faithful man was the prophet himself. rebecca s father told us that she wanted to marry the prophet, but it was an honor, but oh no, says rebecca, her father was wrong. it was more of a horror. i did not want to marry rulon jeffs. he s an octogenarian.
rapidly, short creek changed, said andrew chatwin. paranoia wormed its way through the commune. warren, he is not a stupid man. and that is what is so dangerous about him. it s like he made sure that every single person had just enough dirt on them to keep them uncomfortable from speaking up. and that is what s allowed all of that to flourish. rebecca was 26 by then. a widow. and she believed, vulnerable. i no longer had a layer of protection from the prophet. and warren had absolute say. so for me it was scary. what were you scared he was going to do? my biggest fear was that he was gonna force us to be remarried. to somebody? to anybody. especially him. sure enough, in short creek, warren jets wasted little time arranging weddings for dozens
Motivational speaker Rebecca Musser talks about her life in The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and what made her leave the.
Of the prophet s widows. when he did start to marry his wives off. it was like a locomotive out of control. i would see them walk behind him the next day and realized another one is married. it was very troubling. and it felt like being sets to auction. rebecca, perhaps the prettiest of all the prophets wives. but no friend of warren. felt she would be next. i was very concerned about marrying him. i had seen how he had treated his wives and his family. and i knew that even the little freedoms that i had would be taken. and then one day, rebecca and a young man named ben, a member of the flds, went hiking