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Oct
25
Book Review: Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck
2008 at 5pm Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Long before she was an Oprah-famous life coach (whatever the hell that is), Martha Beck was the daughter of a well-known (at least in certain circles) Mormon apologist, which made her almost Mormon royalty and made her life more than a little bit complicated.
Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith is Beck’s memoir of losing her faith, moving back to Provo, Utah to find it again after her second child, Adam, was born with Down syndrome, and of the unexpected memories of sexual abuse that resurfaced in the process, causing her to question everything her childhood and faith were built upon. The book begins with Beck confronting her father in yet another unsuccessful attempt to get him to discuss the abuse she remembers and that he attributes to “false-memory syndrome.” The conversation of this confrontation provides the frame for the rest of Beck’s story, told as a linear series of flashbacks to her childhood and young adult life, which are presented in alternating chapters.
It’s an interesting format and one that works well for a story like this. Just as you get tangled up in Beck’s descriptions of the bizarre (and often unproven) claims of Mormon theology, she brings you back to the hotel room in which the confrontation takes place, describing her father’s refusal to acknowledge abuse she not only remembers but has physical scars from, and when that becomes uncomfortable, she takes us again back into her history, where we learn of her father’s extensive scholarly work, the great lengths the Mormon Church has gone to to suppress material that disproves its founder’s claims and original documents, and the constantly conflicted lives of Mormon academics—including Beck and her husband—who believe in teaching and speaking the truth but have been threatened mafia-style by Church officials.
When Beck experiences the resurgence of long-suppressed memories of being sexually abused by her father, she slowly begins speaking about it to her family, who turn against her, and, eventually, to fellow survivors. In the process, she is threatened by Church higher-ups, and it is implied that whether or not her claims are true, she should keep quiet because to reveal the alleged abuse would be to tarnish her father’s name…and with so many Mormons attributing their “testimonies” to his scholarly writing, that would simply be too damaging. Beck begins to suspect that the Mormon Church has a long history of ignoring abuse committed by its important members and of threatening those who “commit publicity” by speaking of the alleged abuse and damaging the reputation of important Mormons and the Church as a whole.
These are just a few of the reasons that Beck decides to lose the Mormons, officially renouncing her faith in public, and find her own path back to faith.
It wasn’t slavery, but it was a powerful form of bondage: the belief that God had ordained a patter of secrets and silence, that religious authority always trumped one’s individual sense of right and wrong, that the evidence of the senses must bow to the demands of orthodoxy, no matter how insane. It was a kind of institutionalized madness, and its shackles were all the more confining for existing almost entirely in the human mind.
Throughout Beck’s retelling of her life story, she inserts interesting and surprising bits of Mormon history that I, being fascinated with all things Mormon, found remarkable and eye-opening. The other books and memoirs I’ve read on Mormonism have dealt primarily with fundamentalist Mormonism (the FLDS Church) and polygamy, so it was nice to read something about modern “ordinary” Mormonism. I was disturbed by many of the practices Beck mentioned—the institutionalized ignorance, the Church’s suppression of controversial materials, the willingness to turn a blind eye in order to continue believing what one wants to believe—and I learned a lot.
I’ve spent some time reading other material this week to corroborate the historical and scientific questions Beck raises, and all of her details appear to be true. And that’s more than we can say for her father’s famous work, much of which is based upon fabricated footnotes (as we learn from a former fact checker who confronts Beck in the supermarket), or for some of the more flighty pieces of Mormon theology he worked to defend. In fact, it is Beck’s thesis that her father was mentally ill, driven mad partly by post-traumatic stress from his experiences in World War II and partly by the huge cognitive dissonance of a life spent defending a theology he knew on some level to be at least partially made-up, and that his abuse of her, which resembled a bizarre religious sacrifice, was borne out of this illness.
Ordinarily, I would scoff at the idea of an individual recovering repressed memories. It was big pop-psychology fad in the 80s and early 90s and was summarily done away with after rigorous research showed that therapists could and did implant memories in their patients. However, Beck reminds us throughout the book that she had extensive unexplainable scarring in her pubic region that existed long before she gave birth, that she was not in therapy when the memories began to resurface, and that her mother even believed her and confirmed her suspicions before she (and the rest of Beck’s family) turned on her and focused on protecting their patriarch. Much of what Beck shares in this book is opinion, but I’m convinced that her memories of sexual abuse are evidence of fact.
All in all, this was a fascinating life story to read about. Leaving the Saints is two-thirds memoir, one-third new agey inspirational self-help, and I could have lived with a little less flowery language describing her religious experiences, but overall, this was a good read. I appreciated the educated skepticism Beck brought to investigating the claims of Mormon theology (it would be interesting to see what she would do with other prominent systems of belief), and I thought she told her painful story with a healthy dose of humor and a great deal of insight. Be warned, though, that her flashbacks are pretty vivid, so this might not be a good selection for anyone for whom that is a trigger.
Beck’s writing is clear and straightforward, and her voice is unique and insightful. For me, this wasn’t a life-altering read, but it was interesting and informative, and I’ll give it 3.75 out of 5.
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Wow, amazing review! I’ve never heard of this book, but I want to read it now. I’m really interested in Mormonism as well.
I grew up in that church, and this book was pretty shocking to me. Great review. You went into a lot more detail than I did.
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