Lighting Up the Dungeon of Hatred

‘Keep Sweet’ brutally serves up the reality of cults and the power-mad males who run them

This Netflix documentary didn’t dazzle me in episode one, but it picked up speed like a runaway train.

Keep Sweet, Pray and Obey is an extremely disturbing dive into the daily cult life among Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS).

We know about cults, but Keep Sweet exposes the playbook for abuse and perhaps most importantly, challenges each viewer to confront the consequences of inequality.

FLDS was a sect of Mormonism when a creepy sociopath named Warren Jeffs ascended to power in 2002. The all-seeing Prophet's slimy tentacles would eventually reach into every home in the community, and his crimes are a disgusting testament to male oppression.

In the process of reporting on Jeffs’ depravity, Filmmaker Rachel Dretzin exposes the consequences of humanity’s original sin: inequality.

In the book The Dawn of Everything, the authors try to understand where and when inequality took root while detailing its destructive swath, a tornado that continues to tear human civilization into fragments.

They conclude the damage is vast — emotional, economic, and ecological — and the victims include all of us, the oppressed as well as their oppressors.

In Short Creek, Arizona, just south of the Utah border, the doctrine of inequality was written in the blood of young women.

Unbelievable Courage

Several frightened but determined young women stood up, escaped the confines of Short Creek, and left their families behind.

The small town is set against a stunning backdrop of terra cotta rock faces, but life inside its borders was a suffocating series of rules and church services. By the time the two heroines profiled in Keep Sweet fled, the practice of marrying teen girls to men in the 30s, 40s, and beyond was widespread.

Warren Jeffs (AKA The Prophet) relished marrying off ‘independent’ girls while they were young.

Warren was a gawky beanpole who, according to former church members, strategically positioned himself to become the only heir after his father Rulon finally passed on.

Rulon died in his 90s, surrounded by a stable of embarrassingly young brides. His favored offspring swooped in to become the all-powerful, all-seeing FLDS Prophet.

She was in her early 20s when she hiked up her pastel-colored dress, so long it trailed on the dusty ground, and hopped a fence. She trekked until she met up with her brother, who had been cast out months prior for the crime of being a young man.

The fence-hopper from Short Creek moved with her brother to Oregon, where she was met with the harsh realities of life outside Short Creek. She could sew and play the violin but these skills felt inadequate. She had entered a foreign country called modern America.

She took a job but described her life in Oregon as incredibly lonely.

She left partly because she wanted to save her younger sisters from being married off as young teens, a practice Warren Jeffs was now using regularly as a means to reward and manipulate his faithful male followers.

The second woman who escaped Short Creek was running from an abusive marriage. Jeffs married her off to a cousin when she was barely 15. She had always despised this cousin.

A tiny bit of freedom — being able to drive a car — led to her escape. After breaking down on the road one day, another FLDS member stopped to help. She formed a friendship with him, fell in love, and the two would flee to a nearby town.

When the phone call came, neither woman hesitates. They were ready and willing to assist authorities.

The documentary suggests that without their courage, Jeffs may never have faced justice.

This next section includes spoilers.

Warren Jeffs and His Sex Cult

When Jeffs eventually went on the run, he began using his millions — taken from his flock, every week, and built from free labor — to drive and fly around the country.

He fled Arizona after authorities put FLDS under a microscope.

On the road, Jeffs dressed like a ‘gentile’ in cargo shorts and T-shirts. He went to Disneyland, traveled with a large entourage, including his many young wives, and eluded authorities for years.

He built a new compound in Texas, where the local newspaper began reporting regularly on his activities.

When the authorities finally gathered enough evidence to charge him with felony rape, they raided the Texas compound.

Both women guided lawmen through the compound, explaining where to dig us Jeffs’ secrets.

What Texas Rangers found was shocking.

The Prophet didn’t just traffic in young girls, separating them from their parents. He didn’t just ruthlessly ex-communicate boys and men from the church. Jeffs had built a bizarre chamber within the new church, with a bed as its altar.

Both women predicted there would be a room with all the church documents. and authorities eventually located a vault.

When lawmen jackhammered it open, the vault revealed boxes of church records. Audiotapes provided clear proof that Jeffs was raping women and recording himself doing it. One of the girls on the tapes was 12 years old.

He is now in jail for life plus added years.

FLDS continues, and followers still believe the imprisoned Jeffs is The Prophet.

Some Pigs are More Equal than Others

Women in this extreme Mormon cult were little more than livestock when Warren Jeffs took the throne. Girls had limited roles and almost no ability to choose their husbands.

After he ascended, the rules got more extreme and bizarre:

— Girl’s hair must be perfectly braided in one of a few styles — No denim or slacks — The color red was banned — All women must wear long underwear, top and bottom

Trained from birth to ‘keep sweet’ and never show displeasure or personal opinions, children were raised in a psychic prison. Many are still living there.

In FLDS, having three wives gets a person (man) to heaven, where he becomes a celestial body and a God. Jeffs had the power to reward some men with immortality, while others toiled in an effort to get that third wife.

He rewarded his faithful minions with more wives, as young as they would like. He punished his enemies, exiling them from their children, wives, and the church.

A woman had no say over who she married, when she married, her pregnancy, and ultimately — if she could keep her kids.

In this bizarre society, the evils of inequality led to an inevitable final act in which Jeffs, believing himself a God, indulged his appetites fully.

Abortion rights are human rights

The right to an abortion is about healthcare and self-determination, but various religious cults have influenced this nation’s politics to an alarming degree.

Now we have laws condemning women to jail, injury, death, and fear for seeking a medical procedure. In the America South, fundamentalist religion is part of most people’s daily lives and abortions for any reason are illegal.

The men who wield power are happy, just like Warren Jeffs, to continue using women as currency.

What does true equality look like in the modern world? Do we know? Even societies that allow abortions have been touched by the plagues of misogyny, racism, and homophobia.

We do know that prior to the SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, we had states passing laws to restrict sexual education, defund public schools, and ban the teaching of critical race theory.

In Short Creek, kids learned nothing about sex growing up. When they finally had sex after marriage, they had no idea what it was.

In Short Creek, all school was religious and The Prophet lectured regularly.

And in Short Creek, they were told the outside world of gentiles was evil.

In modern America, we now have 10 states where abortion is banned even in the case of incest and rape. In four more states, there is a six-week ban. SCOTUS has intimated gay marriage is next on the chopping block.

Our next US President may be a Republican who believes Warren Jeffs was a victim of an unfair legal system, and pardon him.

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Jean Campbell recently started her first Substack newsletter to laser focus on getting her book, City of Lies: A Street Hustler’s Omaha Journey published.