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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Other Protestant & Nonconformist Churches > General
From the Preface:
"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.
I was one of twenty-eight children born to my dad and his three
wives. Indoctrinated to believe that the outside world was evil,
and that I resided among the righteous, I was destined to marry a
man chosen for me by the Prophet. I would then live in harmony with
my sister-wives, bear many children, and obey and serve my future
husband in this life and throughout eternity. But my innocence
didn't last long. While still a child, I understood that the church
of the righteous was nothing but a church of lies.
When I was eight years old my father sexually molested me for
the first time, raping me when I was twelve. I tried to kill
myself. Beaten, molested, taunted, and abused by family members
alleging they only wanted to save my soul became a daily routine, I
ran from this abuse more than once in my early teens--even
attempting to cross the desert on foot. My family hunted me down. I
thought government agencies would provide me safety if I reported
my father. Instead, police and social services colluded with the
FLDS to return me to my family and I ended up back inside polygamy,
right where I started."
Flora goes on from there to tell the dramatic true story of how
she ultimately escaped and has been fighting against frustrating
obstacles with hard fought successes in rescuing women and children
from the FLDS. It's a story you can't put down.
Christian punk is a surprisingly successful musical subculture and
a fascinating expression of American evangelicalism. Situating
Christian punk within the modern history of Christianity and the
rapidly changing culture of spirituality and secularity, this book
illustrates how Christian punk continues punk's autonomous and
oppositional creative practices, but from within a typically
traditional evangelical morality. Analyzing straight edge Christian
abstinence and punk-friendly churches, this book also focuses on
gender performance within a subculture dominated by young men in a
time of contested gender roles and ideologies. Critically-minded
and rich in ethnographic data and insider perspectives, Christian
Punk will engage scholars of contemporary evangelicalism, religion
and popular music, and punk and all its related subcultures.
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