The Witness Wore Red: The 19th Wife Who Brought Polygamous Cult Leaders To Justice Quotes
"Words are like feathers... it is so easy for them to come out, and they scatter on the wind before you know it. But like feathers, our words are not easy to gather back up again."
"Each time her older brother Neil sold potatoes, he would pilfer a bit of money to buy forbidden sodas in town, and bully his younger siblings into silence."
"Little things you do now... grow into big things."
"I decided that like my mother, I would use my words carefully."
"The Prophet of all of our people was dead. He was our shepherd. How would God speak to us now?"
"The role of a woman when played correctly is fulfilling, fascinating, and full of intrigue."
"It was only at Suzuki camp that I felt like there was a place for a female musician in my world."
"We had kept hidden for so many years, trying not to let our old neighbors see who we really were."
"The most romantic thing an FLDS girl could secretly hope for was to be a first wife and enjoy a few precious moments of one-on-one time before additional wives and myriad children arrived."
"The question was, what kind of woman was that? Frail and weak? Or a woman of genuine grace and strength who could make a difference?"
"The only reason a woman should vote is to give more power to her husband and the church."
"I wasn’t interested in boys, except as the perfect Priesthood bride for a man when I was older."
"I could handle anything in this life if it meant my salvation in the next."
"Women were not to try to lead their husbands."
"Those who were trying to toe the line were getting the short end of the salvation stick."
"The girls separated from the boys in Home Economics."
"Boys were taught never to let a woman get the best of them."
"He went back to work in pits, up on scaffolding, framing, and rooftops."
"Fathers and husbands must choose to obey him and none else."
"Our thoughts and actions had to be of the utmost purity so that we could inherit the earth."
"Women must obey their husbands who were faithful to the Prophet and none else."
"The entire history of the world had led to this one point—to Rulon T. Jeffs becoming the Prophet of the church!"
"You notice how happy Christine is at the Prophet’s home, Sis?"
"I was shocked by the double standard the powerful benefited from."
"The greatest freedom you can enjoy is in obedience."
"You will get close to your husband. You must foster a serving relationship with him."
"Warren must have seen something in my eyes, for he said, more firmly this time, 'You will get close to your husband.'"
"We are witnessing the suffering of the people for a Godly purpose. God knows more than we do."
"Before they left, my father took me aside privately. He was furious with me for helping Christine with the timeline."
"Marriages were not divinely orchestrated 'by God’s will to the Prophet’s mouth'—as reinforced by scripture and Warren’s lectures and tapes—but instead decided over dinner conversations by sister-wives and power-hungry fathers."
"I couldn’t imagine what they were in for 'out there.'"
"Guess who wants to marry me now?" gloated Rulon one night at dinner.
"Don’t you realize if it had fallen into the wrong hands, it could have brought the whole FLDS faith under condemnation?"
"I finally decided that I did not like God. Nor could I trust Him."
"We must restrict traveling for fancy and entertainment. Restrict your camping trips and remind your families that this is a time of focus and preparation."
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."
"Warren’s words continued to follow me as I stumbled into the corridor."
"He looked up at me, and then at the floor again. Perhaps not in the girlish, Disney-movie sense of the word."
"Each step I took was deliberate, and I talked to God the entire way up, like I never had before."
"My adrenaline was on high for two days waiting for his call, wondering if he had been caught or hospitalized in his weakened state."
"Suddenly I saw his car. No one else was in sight, so I took a deep breath and pulled up about fifteen feet away from his vehicle."
"If Ben hadn’t been driving, I doubt I would have had the courage to continue."
"I couldn’t help but feel like a dog running away with my tail between my legs."
"I started to tear up. 'I don’t know what I’m going to do!'"
"I didn’t dare to answer, and I noticed a stubbornness within him I hadn’t seen before."
"The knowledge that I was not alone… had that been my baby?"
"To hell with what anyone else thought of my situation! I would be the mother my baby deserved."
"After leaving the FLDS feeling like I would never have close relationships again, I discovered a whole new kind of community."
"Something very deep and meaningful permeated my soul."
"I was able to let go of the fear and get excited."
"If truth is truth, it will stand up to scrutiny."
"Despite my intense terror and shame, that interview was a paradigm shift."
"Even outside the FLDS, there was still major emphasis on appearance."
"Day by day, as Natalia grew, I fell more and more in love with the adorable giant soul inside her little body."
"Anywhere we went, it was as if she had pixie dust!"
"I stopped mopping the floor, with a sudden realization. This man had said the word God at least eight times, and I hadn’t once felt nauseated!"
"Spirituality for me had always been dark, dense, and fraught with fear, but my whole being lightened up just listening to him."
"My anger and bitterness were poisonous and exhausting. I didn’t want to live my life that way anymore."
"The honest fact of the matter is that I realize that Mom cannot protect you girls."
"I realized how important it was to release those once and for all, but I knew I needed help."
"Finally, this loving God, the one I’d met on El Capitan and in the hearts of gracious people around me, knew me and loved me for me."
"We’re trying to keep them together… Why do they tell us so-and-so is this child’s mother, but she runs to another woman when she’s afraid?"
"It wasn’t just because of the lies, but because literally no one was telling the truth!"
"In my heart, I was still Grandmother Becky, and fierce protectiveness washed over me."
"No matter what had happened in the last week, I had to keep fighting for those girls."
"To follow blindly was to shut down our sacred voice of reason and deny the God that lived in each of us."
"I wished they could know they were valuable and exquisite, just for being who they were."
"How was I going to tell Ben that the bill for the previous month was over $700?"
"I know you don’t understand, but this is serious, and I won’t abandon any of them."
"In the burgeoning colors of dawn, the simmering Texas sun suddenly burst out of the thinning clouds."
"To see my fundamental rights listed in black and white created a mammoth shift in my reasoning."
"This was my past, my training, my flesh and blood."
"But change is change, and it is our hope that the scales can be tipped in favor of happiness—away from guilt, shame, and slavery."
"Slavery is no longer legal anywhere in the world, and yet it is more prevalent today than at any other time in human history!"
"Individually, we must not accept slavery into one little section of any part of our hearts, our minds, or our community..."
"I am asking you, as one more person… to do what you can do."
"In both the pages of my past and those of my people, horrendous atrocities have occurred."
"We became enslaved to our denial, and the sickness of our secrecy became a breeding ground for supreme societal control."
"Assertiveness means that you stand up for your rights while honoring the rights of others."
"We are not alone in our struggles and our triumphs in the outside world."
"I think we each have many of those moments in life. It’s what we choose to do with them that counts."
"I will forever believe in miracles and in people."