OurColony.net

Elissa Wall is a pilar of strength to women of all walks!

Customer Rating:
I just finished reading Stolen Innocents by Elissa Wall. From the moment I opened the front cover I was pulled into a story of strength and very real trauma that Elissa was subjected to in her childhood. Elissa's account of her life makes your heart ache for her and makes you feel as if you were right there with her but like many other people in the story unable to help her and you are left feeling as desperate as she did. The strength and survival instinct Elissa displayed is amazing. I encourage anyone to read this book, there are lessons for ever man and woman. Elissa is a role model of what can be achieved when you are trusting of the process and are not willing to be defeated! A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this book go to MJ Fund , a fund designed to help other people in the situation. That alone is a great reason to purchase this book. God bless you Elissa, and thank you for filling my heart and showing women not to back down and be defeated.

VERY GOOD BOOK

Customer Rating:
I felt this book was a very good book very well written......one can only imagaine what that poor girl went through.....peace be with her!!!! overall it was a very good book!!!!

One Fascinating and Shocking Story!

Customer Rating:
This was a long story of how Elissa grew up in the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints community, how her life was controlled by a man called "The Prophet" whom she was taught to believe spoke for God and how she eventually broke free. She was forced to marry at age 14 against her will, was raped and finally left the community and brought charges against "The Prophet." This book gives the reader an inside look into the workings of a polygamous cult and shows how difficult it is for people to leave. It is shocking that this really happened in America in recent times.

Stolen Innocence

Customer Rating:
I've recently read three books on life in the polygamous sect, the FDLS, and this is by far the most readable of the three. Elissa Wall's story is contemporary. She recounts the mental and physical pain of living under the leadership of Warren Jeffs and the difficulty of breaking away from a religious community in which one has been raised. A fast read, this is a fascinating book that gives insight into the recent court cases concerning this fundamental group.

Courageous Story About Overcoming Abuse and Brainwashing

Customer Rating:
Elissa was forced to marry her 19-year-old first cousin at age 14 while living in a polygamous sect. Eventually a nearby stranger helped her break free at age 18, after which she provided crucial court testimony against sect leader Warren Jeffs.

Elissa remembers when her father, a respected geologist, engineer and entrepreneur, obtained his third wife. Having three wives was required to achieve the highest level of heaven.

Two wives had already created a climate of suspicion and distrust involving issues such as parenting style, spending priorities, and the access to the lone husband. Sect fathers lived in fear of local prophets - if considered a threat to the faith they could be expelled from the colony and lose both their family and home. Not being able to bring peace to a home could also qualify for expulsion. (This happened to Elissa's father, who then spent much of his life attempting to regain them.) The sect prophet also had the power to compel wage-earners to quit their job and move closer, even to sell a business to designated buyers (eg. the prophet's relatives), with most of the proceeds going to the church.

Members were expected to dedicate Saturdays laboring on churchwork projects. Outside "non-worthy" books and TV were banned.

There were 22 children in the family at the time. Elissa went to private sect school in a converted 20+ bedroom home. Her mother was an herbalist, and as a consequence Elissa rarely saw a doctor. Her older sister was married to the 81-year-old prophet.

Women had no rights vs. a husband. Elissa eventually recognized that getting married and having children was a sect means of disciplining - she would then be under the threat of having her own children taken away. Regardless, by age 16 she had had 2 miscarriages and a stillbirth.

Eventually the people Jeffs had abused got together for revenge; they saw Elissa as a valuable tool to be used through the courts. Jeffs was arrested, tried and convicted of being an accomplice to rape of a minor, and sentenced to a minimum of ten years in prison, with another trial scheduled in Arizona. However, it was also disconcerting to read that some in the community then refused to work with her husband.

Elissa is to be commended for rebelling, taking a public stand against Jeffs and the sect, and helping end or at least curtail these practices. Additional "good news" is that rebellion ran in her family - her brothers and several sisters also escaped, despite their parents' strong opposition.