I’ve seen a lot of commentary online about the recent Netflix documentary, Trust Me: The False Prophet. It details the rise and fall of Samuel Bateman, a self-proclaimed successor to Warren Jeffs in the FLDS church¹. It follows on the heels of Keep Sweet, Pray, and Obey of a few years ago that documented the downfall and arrest of Warren Jeffs himself.

I’m not going to discuss the details of either of those series except as it pertains to some larger issues I think we need to understand. And while some of the things I have to say may come across as negative to faithful members of the mainstream LDS church², I want to make it clear that nothing I say here (or in any of my blog posts to date) suggest you should leave the church. The best people I’ve ever known are Mormons³ and it’s undoubtedly the case that many people are able to improve their lives through teachings of the church.

With that, let’s dig in.

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