Church of Lies

CHURCH OF LIES: How Flora Jessop Escaped the Slavery and Sexual Abuse of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

"My name is Flora Jessop. I’ve been called apostate, vigilante, and crazy bitch, and maybe I am. But some people call me a hero, and I’d like to think they’re right too. If I am a hero, maybe it’s because every time I can play a part in saving a child or a woman from a life of servitude and degradation, I’m saving a little piece of me, too.”

– Flora Jessop, from the introduction to Church of Lies

One of the past decade’s most noteworthy headlines was the raid on a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) compound in Eldorado, Texas that removed nearly 400 children from their homes. And at the forefront of the story, there was anti-polygamist activist and author Flora Jessop who had been the recipient of the phone calls that prompted Texas Rangers’ investigations.

Flora Jessop’s rise to fame began when she was featured in Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven as the stunning young girl who escaped from Warren Jeff’s polygamous sect and then returned to rescue women and children who were being sexually abused. Never before now has she agreed to tell her harrowing life story in her own words. With a gritty and fearless voice, CHURCH OF LIES: How Flora Jessop Escaped the Slavery and Sexual Abuse of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Dedicated Herself to the Continuing Rescue and Successful Liberation of Women and Children from this Notorious Sect (Jossey-Bass, a Wiley imprint; March 2010; $14.95 / Paper; ISBN: 978-0-470-56546-9), by Flora Jessop and Paul T. Brown, is a gripping account of growing up in one of the most notorious cults in our nation’s history, the FLDS, and how it led to a life of impassioned activism.

Now in paperback, CHURCH OF LIES is a raw, heart-breaking, and hopeful story you won’t soon forget. According to Publishers Weekly, “Readers will be repelled at some of what Jessop has to say, but in the end, they will be heartened by her efforts to free others in the grip of the FLDS leadership.”