Watch prophets prey9/14/2023 ![]() ![]() Some of them were just young girls – one interviewee in the film, Ruby Jessops, was married off to a man at just 14. What makes Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey so compelling is its interviews with those women, victims of circumstance forced into marrying older men under the guise of religion. Rulon Jeffs’ wives at his funeral (Photo: Netflix) Under Warren, the FLDS’s already patriarchal society turned even darker and more disturbing. Young girls were taken from their parents without warning (and sometimes even without their knowledge) to be married to older men, hoping to get into Warren’s – and therefore God’s – good graces. Got a young daughter to marry off to one of the Church’s prominent men? Welcome to the inner fold. Women started to become currency in the FLDS community. As the restrictions became harsher, Warren’s wives (he has at least 69) got younger and younger. The rules, unsurprisingly, bore most heavily down on the women – long underwear had to be worn as all times, they had to wear their hair in certain ways and no-one, under any circumstances, could wear red.īut that’s not enough to warrant a Netflix docuseries. In time, Warren started to increase restrictions on his followers, slowly turning the FLDS from a fundamentalist Mormon sect to what the average person would recognise as a cult. Rulon was succeeded by his son, Warren Jeffs, who also decided he was the Prophet and able to speak the word of God directly to his FLDS followers. While Rulon’s marriage to twentysomething-year-old women – and fathering their children – is incredibly difficult for viewers to accept as remotely acceptable, it’s nothing compared to what the FLDS would be expected to defend after his death. That’s enough to tempt even the most casual true crime fans to the story. While being married to more than one person is out of the ordinary, many of the people interviewed seemed genuinely happy to be living under FLDS rules in the 80s and 90s.īack then, the so-called Church was led by Rulon T Jeffs, a self-appointed Prophet who led the group until his death in 2002 at age 93 – he had 65 wives and 65 children. Keep Sweet starts off quite, well, sweet. To God, it apparently doesn’t matter that polygamy is illegal across the United States (though as of 2020 it’s no longer a felony crime in Utah, where the group is based) Love of all things cinema brought me here.The main teaching of the group is that the more wives a man has, the more pleased God will be and more likely he is to let them into heaven. ![]() Detailing the rise to power of a monster in Warren Jeff, Prophet's Prey is a terrifying portrait of a fundamentalist christian community and just how far people are willing to go for their beliefs. One choice by the filmmakers that I particularly liked was the use voiceover of Warren's sermons throughout the film, as his voice hangs over the story-line, a constant reminder of his tyrannical and authoritative grip this man has over his congregation. From a filmmaking perspective Prophet's Prey is a solid albeit unspectacular effort, which relies a little too much on talking heads and a very streamlined, straightforward narrative structure to deliver its powerful tale. With the FDLA it's simple, you are either with us or against us, and the films reveals just how far this group is capable of going, tearing families apart and expelling individuals from society in an effort to maintain control. While there have been a good amount of films about extremist christian groups, Prophet's Prey is able to stand out due to its ability to capture the very simplistic viewpoint of such groups. The monstrocities Warren Jeff is able to commit under the veil of religion is downright sickening, whether it be extorting and/or overworking his congregation, to even more heinous acts like extensive child molestation and rape, Warren Jeff could only be described a tyrant after watching this film, a man of extreme power due to his congregation who blindly follows him. Examining Warren Jeffs life, Prophet's Prey is a harrowing portrait of the extreme dangers associated with blind faith, revealing how Warren Jeff's was essentially a madman leading a super obedient congregation of members who indirectly allowed Jeff to do whatever he wanted out of fear of being punished by god. Focusing on their leader, Warren Jeffs, a man who rose to Prophet in the church, Prophet's Prey details the extreme control and power this man was able to weld in the name of god, expanding the church's practices and his own personal power to levels never seen before in the FLDS. Amy Berg's Prophet's Prey provides an in-depth education on the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, a extremist christian group that split off from the Mormon church due primarily to their desire to continue the practice of Polygamy. ![]()
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