SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Daily Herald
Mark Thiessen ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALT LAKE CITY -- A new memoir detailing alleged child sexual abuse in a prominent Mormon home has been discredited by both the church and the author's siblings.
It's one thing for any Mormon woman to say in public that she had been sexually abused, but it was quite another for Martha Beck, whose roots with the church date back to the beginning: Her great-great-grandfather
was the personal dentist for Joseph Smith, founder of what is now the nation's fifth-largest denomination.
The author of the best seller "Expecting Adam," the 42-year-old Beck also is the daughter of the late Brigham Young University professor emeritus of ancient scripture, Hugh Nibley.
In his role as a Mormon apologist, he was one of the church's leading authorities and chief defenders against intellectual attacks. His prolific writings now number 15 volumes of collected works, and will likely reach 20 volumes.
Beck chronicles her difficult and dramatic break from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her spiritual quest and details confrontations she had with her father because of the alleged abuse in "Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith."
Posted by kshaw at March 12, 2005 05:57 AM