[bksvol-discuss] Just Submitted

  • From: Mike Pietruk <pietruk@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 23:16:47 -0400 (EDT)

Leaving the Saints : how I lost the Mormons and found my faith /
by Martha Beck

as a .rtf file.


So there he stands, not five feet away from me. He
looks almost unchanged since the last time I saw
him, ten years ago fabulous, for a man now in
his nineties.
"I thought this day would never arrive," my
father says, still wearing his most cheerful smile.
"I thought you'd never come to your senses."
He assumes I've come to recant. He's wrong.
I'm here for two reasons: to sew up the loose
threads I left hanging when I fled my past and to
make sure, as far as I can, that my father isn't
afraid to die.
Leaving the Saints is an unforgettable memoir
about one woman's spiritual quest and journey
toward faith. As "Mormon royalty" within the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
Martha Beck was raised in a home frequented
by the Church's high elders-known as the
apostles-and her existence was framed by
their strict code of conduct. Wearing her sacred
garments, she married in a secret temple ceremony-but
only after two Mormon leaders
ascertained that her "past contained no flirtation
with serious sins, such as committing murder or
drinking coffee." She went to church faithfully
with the other brothers and sisters of her ward.
When her son was born with Down syndrome,
she and her husband left their graduate programs
at Harvard to return to Provo, Utah, where they
knew the supportive Mormon community would
embrace them.
However, soon after Martha began teaching
at Brigham Young University, she began to see
firsthand the Church's ruthlessness as it silenced
dissidents and masked truths that contradicted its
published beliefs. Most troubling of all, she was
forced to face her history of sexual abuse by one
of the Church's most prominent authorities. This
book chronicles her difficult decision to sever her
relationship with the faith that had cradled her
for so long and to confront and forgive the person
who betrayed her so deeply.
This beautifully written, inspiring memoir
explores the powerful yearning toward faith. It
offers a rare glimpse inside one of the world's
most secretive religions while telling a profoundly
moving story of personal courage, survival,
and the transformative power of spirituality.



This should be an easy validation as I got the book to just under a 100.00 
K1000 rank spelling score. Headers are stripped, all pages accounted for, 
and the book is thoroughly read and edited.


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