(added after the seventh comment below): the accommodation test: for Christian or 'Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' try substituting X or Y, e.g. atheist, buddhist, conservative, hindu...
Editing, narrating, conjoining words, a few words, though based on 'facts' can stir outrage, pain, offence etc.

It was living in a FLDS compound for a few months as a child that helped me to see how destructuve religion can be. The book I am writing with my mother and sister is about life after this sect. And yes, although I was 6-7 yrs old, I dealt with sexual contact. Luckily it was limited to touch.

Fundamentalist Christians would be outraged by calling this group fundamentalist Christians. Mormonism has almost nothing in common with the statement of faith of any denomination, east or west, that has been known as Christian through the centuries. I say that not as a put-down, but an acknowledgment that we're dealing with a different faith here, to which assumptions of Christian views don't apply.

"...Christians would be outraged by calling this group fundamentalist Christians" -- Masbury


This.

Have amended clip title. I do not mean to outrage fundamental Christians. Thank you for pointing out my error.

A good friend of mines estranged father was arrested in this whole mess. The worse part for him is that they have the same name. I got a text from him a couple of mornings ago telling me to check out MSNBC, and sure enough... his name was plastered on the TV screen.

Except that they are fundamentalist Christians. Just because other fundamentalist sects do not want to claim them, their primary deity is Jesus. Indeed, they believe they even have two additional texts of Jesus' history. Being raised mostly Mormon, and then Christian Scientist, Seventh Day Adventist, and then a slew of others, I can assure you each expouses that they are Christian. You don't think one sect can say who gets to be Christian. do you?

P.S. the date in the title should be day.

Thanks dmegivern. So sorry to both commenters above for personal pains evoked. Sorry too any generalised offence given. Possibly the price of seeing however obliquely, and relatively safely, how basic rhetorical devices in the wider world can and do cause so much human trouble.

I posted my mom's first draft of her writings about why she became a polygamist, if anyone is curious:

http://thewisdomgoldenmean.blogspot.com/2008/04/perfect-obedience-dangers-of-blind.html

Thanks for sharing this. Thanks too for your blog and website which I have visited before. And good to see you recommend Yalom!

Thanks abailart. I appreciate your support.

Actually, the key word is "fundamentalism," not "Christian." The similarities between the "fundamentals" of all major religions (as defined by the fundies, not by whatever scripture they beat their women and children with) are far more telling than their religious distinctions.

(You don't beat your children, your women and your neighbors? Then I'm not talking about you. Don't mean that I'm not talking about the fellow in the next pew, though.)

Essentially, it's all about creating a religious justification to make mandatory behavior that would otherwise be unconscionable. It's called "ritual abuse" and it never was about any particular religion - other than "which one can best be subverted to my ends?"