It's surprising because truly, this book didn't hold my interest like I thought it would. I picked it up early this morning to read because I couldn't sleep, and surprisingly, have already finished it. I was working at the library and saw this book as I checked it out to a patron. And I'm sure it felt like one to her once she left.Īnd, when you're finished reading the book, read this: I mean, they literally turned their back to her when she walked by. And, once she left the church she was shunned by former friends. She was finally able to get the help she needed once she well and truly left the church. She had to mime slitting her own throat should she divulge any of the secrets outside of the temple. Now, with billions of Mormon's all over the world, I realize that one man's kooky is another man's sacred, but still. The 'Secret Ceremonies' she describes are the rituals from the Mormon church that a woman must participate in before she is able to be married. The dilemma that cuts to the quick - could she leave the church but not leave God? Most of the time she felt like the answer was 'no'.

So difficult to separate the notion of a loving God from the nonsense that the church was pushing on her. 'If only you were a better wife you wouldn't be so unhappy!' Add to this the complication (in my mind, a complication) that the fundamentalist church leaders were from the Mormon church and it was definitely very difficult for her. Yet another memoir by a woman who desperately needed mental health support but, guided by fundamentalist church leaders (all men) was told to cleave tighter to her church and submit to and obey her husband. So I read up on it and also ordered this book. And Joseph Smith was a Mason, his father before him possibly was, his brothers certainly were. It sounds like the Freemasons, right? But it's the Mormons. I have to admit I was one of those devout Mormons who very quickly denied it if anyone revealed anything about the church.'Īnd they have a secret handshake and wear ceremonial aprons. (Amazon review) 'Yes, the Mormon church used to require its patrons to take blood oaths by demonstrating their throats being slit, their hearts being cut out, and their bowels being spilled from their guts. It is obviously true, you wouldn't even think of something like this to make it up1 So she doesn't know (at 19) what it is but is afraid it has affected her purity so they go to a Mormon gynaecologist together to find out what it was. She is on the bed with her fiance, they are kissing and she says they are 'bumping pubic bones' (what the rest of us call dry humping or similar) when she has her first orgasm, which sets him off.

Secret Ceremonies by Deborah Laake