Escape

This “Escape” has nothing to do with personal ads, pina coladas or walks in the rain.

I’ve been devouring news coverage about the FLDS raid in Texas. Certainly, this isn’t the first I have heard about this religious sect or polygamy for that matter. This is the first time I’ve taken such interest in learning more about it, though.

I guess I can blame that on HBO’s “Big Love”. Do you all watch that show? To me, it’s like Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York City”. Both shows are like a train wreck, but I can’t stop watching no matter how bad it gets.

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to live that lifestyle, but I wasn’t raised that way. The people in the Texas FLDS were born into that and that’s what they’ve been taught from infancy is the right and chosen way to live. I can't necessarily argue with that. It's pretty much true of all of us.

While I do support religious freedoms, I do not support turning the other way on child and spousal abuse, statutory rape, welfare fraud, denial of education, medical treatments and personal freedoms and Lord only knows what else, because it’s happening in a deemed religious community.

That's what the news wants us to believe, anyway, and I know there's usually more to the story. In order to learn more about the subject, I went and picked up Carolyn Jessop’s book, Escape. She was the fourth wife of Merril Jessop, who is now one of the leaders of the Texas FLDS compound.

Carolyn wanted to attend college, and she was one of the few that did, but first she was awoken at 2 AM and told she was going to become wife #4 of a 50 year old man. She was 18.

After years of suffering emotional abuse, she realized her children were being physically abused by some of the other wives and children in the house. She had had enough and in the middle of one night when her husband was away, she packed her eight children in a van and escaped, deciding that if she would go to hell because of her actions, it couldn’t be worse than living like that.

That’s the long story short. Her story is captivating and provides an eagle eye view into her life of polygamy and how horrific it had become under Warren Jeffs.

I can’t say that things like Carolyn describe are happening in every polygamist household. In fact, I saw an interview on the news with people who do live that lifestyle and they do seem very happy and well adjusted. One woman said her sister wives were her closest friends and that she feels sorry for people in traditional monogamous relationships because we do not have the committed relationships that they have.

Seriously, I couldn’t do it, nor would I want to. As terrible as this may sound, I look at that and see a complete lack of commitment.

I guess it depends on one's definition. All I know is if I had to share my husband with eight other women, I’d definitely have to be committed. To a mental hospital.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.