Poverty, fifty-eight children, nine sister-wives, and a murderous, rival cult leader brother-in-law
Irene Spencer's life story shows the destructive side of polygamy
Contact: Diane Morrow, 800-927-1517
DALLAS/FT. WORTH, Texas, Aug. 21 /Christian Newswire/ -- Illegal in the U.S. and prohibited by the mainline Mormon church in 1890, the practice of polygamy still survives today and in fact may be on the verge of a resurgence. Those still practicing plural marriage, termed fundamentalists, believe in attaining God-like status based on the number of wives and children a man possesses.
At 16 years old Irene Spencer became the second wife of her brother-in-law Verlan LeBaron in 1953. From a fourth generation polygamous family, it had been drilled into the young girl that plural marriage was required to enter Heaven. A few months later, the government raided one of the polygamists' camps at Short Creek, Arizona and the LeBarons fled to Mexico, joining Verlan's fundamentalist brothers Joel and Ervil.
Some fifty-four years later, Spencer, now in a monogamous marriage, reveals the trials and tribulations of being a polygamist's wife. "I wanted to be able to tell it like it is," says Spencer in Shattered Dreams (Center Street, 1599957191, Aug 2007). "All the books I had read on Mormon polygamy were vivid accounts of sacrificing women who upheld and emphatically stated they loved 'the Principle.' Yet, I was convinced that these committed women had done as I'd been taught to do--to stubbornly maintain its advantages over monogamy."
Irene's obedience, intended to guarantee her a place in Heaven, landed her in Hell on earth for the next twenty-five years, moving to and from various encampments in the Mexican deserts, mountains, Nicaragua and later, California. On the run from LeBaron's brother, Ervil, a psychotic who with his cult followers butchered twenty-five to thirty people including former wives, a daughter, and rival members of polygamous clans including brother Joel, the family-or at least Verlan-moved frequently.
During her twenty-eight year marriage to Verlan LeBaron, who later became President of The Church of The Firstborn, a cult group within the fundamentalist Mormon movement, Spencer bore thirteen of LeBaron's fifty-eight children while sharing her husband with nine other women. Sharing communal chores, moving often, living in sub-standard conditions in remote villages, mass child-rearing-for a time caring for twenty-six children on her own-Spencer's toughest cross to bear was sharing her husband's love.
