An extremist Mormon YouTuber with millions of subscribers could serve up to 30 years in prison for abusing her children. She used religion to justify her actions — just like my extremist Mormon father, a cult leader excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), who justified his abuse of my seven siblings and me while we lived in motorhomes, sheds, tents, and trailer parks.
Ruby Franke, mother of six, as well as her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, members of the LDS, both pleaded guilty to child abuse. Authorities arrested them after Franke’s son escaped to a neighbor’s home, begging for help.
The county attorney noted that the women cloaked themselves in religious zealotry to validate their abuse. “This is a case about religious extremism,” he said. “The defendants appear to have fully believed that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined ‘sins’ and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies.”
My heart broke as I read this story and learned about the particular form of trauma the children suffered. God does not condone this sinister behavior. However, it took me decades to realize that — to differentiate between God and abuse under the guise of religion.
My violent, mentally ill, street-musician father called himself a prophet who would someday become president of the United States and insisted that Satan “reassigned” lesser demons to personally torment our family. We lived a transient lifestyle, skirting child custody
