She was born into polygamy. Her family followed the teachings of Joseph Smith, including plural marriage.
Like many young girls, she had been promised to a man who was her father's age.
But she ran away. She chose hell over the life of polygamy.
That girl was me. I was lost, alone, desolate.
Then Jesus Christ found me and rescued me.
In His love, I found real freedom. He is a shield to all who will take refuge in Him.
This is why I can look back and ask, polygamy, what love is this?
Welcome to Polygamy What Love is This. I'm your host, Doris Hansen.
And when we ask the question, what love is this, we are referring to the fact that God is love.
And we wonder what kind of love is it that commands the abusive practice of polygamy,
where love is totally absent from most of the marriages and women and children are denied most of their basic human rights.
Before we get started, we'd like you to know that we do help people leave polygamy,
and we help them discover that God has never been angry at anyone for leaving polygamy and for getting away.
You can call our toll free number for 877-425-9993 for a private and confidential discussion of your situation
and how we can help you. Go to our website, shieldandrefuge.org, for more information about our ministry.
And you can contact us about any of our shows, or if you'd like to be a guest on our show,
by emailing us at email at whatloveisthis.tv.
Also, audio versions of our program are available to download. Just go to our website, main page for information,
or go to soundcloud.com slash whatloveisthis for instructions.
Also, our show is also available on iTunes Podcast.
We have a very special guest today. She's the daughter of the infamous polygamist leader, Irva LaBearon.
She grew up in a polygamist family with over 50 children, and her father had 13 wives.
She's written a book about her life, how she got away from the polygamy environment,
and how she has been healed from the trauma that she suffered.
We are grateful to have as our very special guest, Anna LaBearon.
Thank you, Anna. Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Doris. It's an honor to be here.
And it's an honor to have you here, and to tell your story. It's so important for us to get our stories out to people.
Not only those who are still in groups, but those who have left, and those who wonder,
well, what's all the hullabaloo about, anyway?
Right.
So your book is about your life born and raised in the LaBearon group.
What's the name of your book, and where can people buy a copy?
It's called The Polygamist's Daughter, and it's available at bookstores everywhere and online as well.
It's either your favorite bookseller or retailer.
Online, like Amazon.com.
Barnes & Noble, Target.com, Walmart.com, several different retailers.
Books a million are all selling it.
Oh, good. That's great.
And do you have a website where people can go and find out more about you and your book?
Yes, AnnaLaBearon.com.
Okay. And they can interact there in a certain special way, I understand.
Yes, they can email me. I'm also on social media, on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.
AnnaK LaBearon.
Okay, great. So explain why you wrote the book and why now.
Well, I knew for a long time that I wanted to share my story.
So I've known for decades that this is what I wanted to do.
However, I needed to go through the healing process before I could tell the story without being re-traumatized in the telling of it.
Yes.
And not a decades-long healing journey.
It takes a long time. And not only in the writing of the book, but times like this.
When you re-talk it over and over again with interviews and people.
So you've got to be healed from it. I understand that too.
Our show encourages people who are currently in polygamy groups, or those who have left,
to check out everything they've ever been taught.
How does your book help them discover the truth about forced religious polygamy?
Well, I don't go into the doctrine so much because a lot of that has been covered in many of the books that have been written about my family already.
My story is told from the perspective of a child born into and raised in that environment.
And the abuses that we endured and the things that happened to us from the viewpoint of a child.
I am the first child of Irva LaBearon to tell their story.
And so I believe that anyone who's curious about what that was like would benefit from reading it.
And I do go into the healing part of my journey towards the end and share with the reader the process that I went through.
And just part of it. I couldn't tell decades of stories.
But I shared enough to give people an idea of what that healing process was like for me.
And how has the response to your book been?
From family members or from people that you know?
Or for the public, how has the response been?
It's been very, very well received.
And people have read it and reviewed it online.
So on Amazon or Goodreads, you can go and see what people have said about it.
There has been some negative feedback, but we expected that.
Of course.
And so we're just, I'm happy with the response that I've received.
My family has been very supportive.
I would say most, 90% of my family has been very supportive of me being able to tell my story.
And a lot of them, because there have been so many books written about Irva in his family,
it's been a process where each time another book comes out, people have to kind of...
Wonder how much you're going to tell.
I mean, it is a little bit nerve wracking.
You wonder who's saying what about who and did they get the story straight.
And from your perspective, you have a perspective no one else has, too.
Correct.
In the prologue of your book, you wrote that the typical marriage age was 15 years old.
And that you and your sisters were pawns to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Would that have been just in Irva's family, or was that in the entire Liberian group?
The marriageable age within the Liberian groups that...
And then one thing I will say is I was very young.
And so I was never married off because I escaped when I was young at 13.
However, anyone that I...
You would have been.
I would have been.
And as soon as a girl turned 14, 15 years old, that's when they talk began about who you would be married to eventually.
And then normally girls did not make it to age 18 without having been given to a man in marriage.
I know Susan Schmidt was married to Berlin, and you know who she is.
And she was married just after she turned 15, if I recall.
Correct.
Most of what you wrote resonated with me because I was born in the Kingston group, raised in the Kingston group.
And it resonated with me not because our lives were the same, but because the doctrine was the same,
that the atmosphere is the same, the same fears and the guilt trips and the silence and the same kingdom of God.
Of course, we were the only kingdom of God.
You guys weren't.
We weren't the right ones, right?
You said no one was allowed to question your father's authority.
Oh, no.
I understand that.
But like the others, you obeyed.
In fact, you said that even though this life made your stomach ache, you never said a word.
What made your stomach ache?
What fears specifically made your stomach ache?
Well, as you know, when my father began doing...
following the practice of blood atonement, which his own brother was the first one that he had blood atoned,
I was just three years old when that happened.
And so our family and our group and the, you know, the herbal labyrinth faction was, all of a sudden,
very fearful and afraid of the authorities.
I mean, they were always afraid of the authorities because they were practicing polygamy.
Right, right.
This brought on a whole different level of fear.
Yeah.
And it was palpable.
I didn't know what was happening among the adults, but the children could sense it.
You can tell.
You can tell.
You can tell.
So, just living in that environment where there was so much fear that was just palpable
and the adults were, you know, always skittish about who said what and who was being seen
and who was being watched and who was coming and going.
You could sense it.
And then that would make your stomach ache.
Oh, yeah.
Anxiety does that.
Ervel had 13 wives.
What wife number was your mother?
And explain how she became his plural wife.
Was she already married?
Yes.
My mother had been married before and was married when she met my father.
And he convinced my mother and her husband to join the colony down in Mexico.
So, my mother traveled with her children to the colony and left her husband behind to
sell the house and, you know, tie up the loose ends.
Uh-huh.
Well, by the time he got down there, my father had had a revelation that my mother was to
be one of his wives.
And so, when her then current husband arrived, he no longer had a wife.
And he came down there and his wife was taken by Ervel.
And he came down there and his wife was already taken by Ervel.
So, my mother became Ervel's spiritual wife.
And how did he react to that?
Well, I didn't know him.
And so, I only know based on what I've read.
And my father gave him other wives.
To pick up for it?
I guess.
My goodness.
And that's what Joseph Smith did, though.
He took other men's wives like that.
So, God told me that I'm supposed to live polygamy and you're supposed to be my wife.
God's given me to you.
He gave him you to me.
Yes.
And that's what Ervel did.
Yes, that's what he did.
And what number wife was she?
She was number four.
Number four of thirteen.
Okay.
Um, they talk, you talk about building God's kingdom.
It's a phrase that you use in the book.
It's a phrase I heard all the while I was growing up.
What does building God's kingdom mean in the Liberian group?
I guess having more wives and lots of children and growing the numbers.
Growing the numbers.
And converting more people and having more people being involved in our group.
Was the focus on money, building the kingdom of God based on economics part of it?
Well, I know from reading other books about my father that he was very interested in that topic.
And, but I wasn't aware again, I was a young child.
So that part was didn't impact my life as much being young, one of the younger kids.
So, but I do know that, you know, they were proselytizing and I actually did want on the
handful of times I got to spend with my father.
I got to go on one of his long winded, you know, preaching sessions and listen to that
and experience that.
It's interesting.
I mean, the Christians did not proselytize there.
They're building the kingdom was economic and wives and kids, of course.
But we could have used more economics.
Yeah, from everything I've read and heard about that, I think you could.
But it didn't make our life any easier at all because we were still in poverty.
So we couldn't spend any money.
So they could get it all.
And again, there's so many parallels with all children growing up in polygamy groups,
although there are different groups that parallels are there.
You talked about the FBI and you were taught what to say in case the FBI came and raided.
We were taught the same thing, how to lie to the police authority.
Of course, we weren't afraid of an FBI raid like you were for that reason,
but for because we live polygamy because we were a polygamy group.
Explain exactly what you were taught about being God's persecuted people.
What to say when the FBI came, what were you supposed to say, what kind of coaching did you get?
Well, because my father was wanted by the law and other group members that were part of his group
that had committed some of the atrocities that he ordered, they were wanted.
So we were taught that we were God's chosen people that were being persecuted
because we were God's chosen people and not that people had committed crimes.
Right.
And they were wanted by the law.
You said it became easier, lying became easier as you grew older.
Oh yeah, you became more practiced at it.
And you know, as outsiders would ask you questions, even just a teacher or a neighbor
or anyone that lived that was observing your family, you know, they would say,
well, who's your father?
Yeah.
You know, oh, I don't know.
And we were taught to say I don't know to everything.
So when you're really young, they can't really coach you on answers and lots of details.
So they can't come up with a story and expect you to remember it.
But they can teach you to say I don't know.
Right, exactly.
So we were coached and taught and rehearsed.
Do you think that added to your fear to rehearse something that wasn't true?
It wasn't necessarily because it wasn't true.
It was just that it was an impending possibility that we were going to be questioned
and we couldn't say anything.
And the fear that if you said anything that got anybody in trouble, it would be all your fault.
Oh, yeah.
There was a responsibility put on us children that should never, no child should have to bear.
I agree.
I agree.
It was really terrible.
I remember we were told what not to say.
If we said anything wrong, they would come and take us kids away.
So we had to be very careful.
But you know what?
I begged in my mind that somebody would come and take us away.
I wanted to be taken away from the family.
It never happened because nobody ever came and got us.
So you moved frequently and sometimes unexpectedly.
And you said it was kind of a way of life that you didn't understand, but you understand now.
Explain why you moved so frequently and how that affected you.
We were wanted by the law.
Did you know you were wanted by the law at that time?
We knew we were being persecuted for being God's chosen people.
That's what we understood and that's what we were told.
So we would move very often and in the middle of the night usually and almost always leaving behind our possessions.
And you know, my dad would have a revelation and then everybody would just jump and move and off we'd go.
And it was in the middle of the night.
It was under frightening circumstances usually.
More quiet. Don't ask any questions. Come on, let's go.
So was this in the US or Mexico or both?
You were traveling all through.
Into and out of Mexico all over the United States.
Mostly California, Colorado and Texas for me.
For you.
But other siblings also Arizona was involved in that.
But all over Mexico as well.
Many people, especially children raised in polygamy groups, don't know who their real father is.
Did you know that Ervel was your dad, that that man was your father and did you see him often?
And when you did, how did you identify with him in a positive or negative way while you were a child?
We were taught to revere him and that he was God's prophet and God's mouthpiece on earth.
So we had a sincere reverence for him.
And I didn't know what he looked like.
There were so few times where he was actually in the same home as I was.
And there's only twice that I remember talking to him.
And did you know he was your father?
Yes, I was taught that to my father was.
However, we were taught, if we were asked what his name, you know, to refer to him as Theo, which is uncle in Spanish.
Oh.
So we were taught to refer to him as that he was our uncle.
Okay, okay.
It's funny how the polygamy groups, how the little thread of sameness goes through.
Because that's what we were taught to, and the first wife was my aunt.
Right.
She really wasn't.
But that's what we would call them.
And my half-brothers and sisters were my cousins.
Yes.
Isn't it funny how you have to raise-
Very similar.
So when you did, when you were around him, did you have fear or reverence or negative or positive?
Did you have any experiences, close personal experiences with him at all?
The two times that I was in the same room as him and actually got to speak with him were actually positive.
Well, one of them was more positive than the other.
I talk about those in the book and go into detail about what those experiences were like for me.
The first one where he woke me up and asked me to make him coffee.
That was a very positive experience for me, even though I'm serving him at nine years old.
But you were useful to your father in that.
It felt good to be useful and to make myself helpful.
So I was proud of the fact that I figured out how to make coffee for him, even though I had never made coffee before.
He asked me if I knew how to make coffee and I told him I did.
Only because I had observed others making coffee and I figured I could figure it out.
Okay, well, you must have done a good job because he drank it.
Yeah, and he woke me up several more times asking me to refill his cup.
So I figured I did a pretty good, decent job.
So you were only with him twice that you can remember?
Only twice where I had interactions with him.
And there was probably a handful of times where he was in the same home and that I was aware of it.
He came and went in the night because he was wanted.
Right.
And most of the other people came and went and our homes were very a mix, a chaotic mix.
Yes, I get that.
So when you went to bed at night, you weren't sure who was going to still be there in the morning
and who will have arrived in the middle of the night.
Wow.
So you would wake up to new faces.
Sometimes people...
No boredom there, huh?
Sometimes people we didn't even know.
Ervel had promised Raphael that he could have you as a plural wife.
Who was Raphael and how old were you when you discovered that you'd been promised to him and how did that make it feel?
It was a very confusing time.
I was nine years old living in Mexico without either of my parents, not my dad or my mom.
And that was a very...
It was a sad time for me being separated from my mom for that extended period of time.
He was a recent convert, so he still only had one wife and he had two small children.
So they were a young couple.
And you were nine and your dad promised you to him.
Was that a promise for him to convert or was that just...
No, he had already converted.
But the funny part was that he had promised me to other men as well.
It wasn't like he was just making a promise to one man.
It was just whoever would be in favor with him when I was of marriageable age would be the one.
How'd that make you feel?
When you were old enough to understand the impact of all that.
At nine it was really confusing to have old grown men approaching you and making inappropriate comments and inappropriate touching.
Sure.
You know, wanting to kind of woo you and trying to woo a nine-year-old girl.
And they already thought, well, she's mine, so...
One day you'll be my wife.
What do you think about that?
You know, just inappropriateness between a grown male and a nine-year-old girl.
So were you uncomfortable around him?
Did you have any say about whether you could even be around him or not?
Were you around him very much?
Well, I lived in their home.
So it was not easy to not be in that situation.
But after some things happened that were frightening to me,
I learned to avoid being left alone and to ask to go with the wife when she would do errands or something.
To keep yourself safe from the situation.
And I didn't even know what I was really keeping myself away from.
I just knew I didn't want to be with him alone.
Looking back at it now, and we all do this,
where we know that the men do promise the girls to other men,
and sometimes they make deals.
I know in the Kingston group they've made deals.
If you do this and this, I'll give you so-and-so my daughter for your wife.
And they do it just arbitrarily for their own benefit,
just like your father promised you to several men.
Looking back at it now, express your thoughts on that kind of attitude
that men have on women, about women.
Women wear commodities, especially the young girls.
Young girls, especially, were just commodities to be bought and sold,
or to be earned, and then disposed of it.
And so your value, in one of those groups, your value is so small.
Except that they did want to have the young wives.
So in that regard, you were wanted, but not because of who you were.
And not as an equal partner.
Oh, not at all.
I never experienced being married in a plural marriage.
But I observed plenty.
Yes, and that's the same with me.
I never got married either.
And I've spoken with sisters and other family members who have lived it.
And your mother was a plural wife, and my mother was a plural wife.
So we did see a lot of that.
So I observed plenty, and then heard a lot more than that too.
Oh, yeah.
I want to quote something that you wrote on page 43,
and we'll put it up on the screen so our viewers can also read along with me.
Can we just show that the page numbers might not match up perfectly with the finished book?
Because you were reading an advanced reader copy.
Just so that the reader might not be confused if they can't find it.
Okay, it's around page 43.
Anyway, you wrote,
The women in our family were never allowed to make up their own minds.
Girls had even less freedom.
We were commodities.
I was too young to understand sexually motivated overtures.
Sadly, I couldn't get away from that place,
and I had no dad or mom to protect me,
which is basically what you just said.
There were basically no human rights or women's equality
that you experienced in the Liberian group.
No.
Has it gotten any better, do you know?
Well, the group that I was born and raised in has now disbanded.
So there's no more people practicing or believing that Ervel was an actual prophet.
Not that Ervel was, but they still have.
There's a few that still believe in the practice of polygamy.
Yeah.
And so they're part of a different group now
and have become part of a different community.
And in those communities, it's not violent.
So I'm grateful for that.
I remember when Ervel was on the rampage
and he threatened to kill the leader of the Kingston group, too.
And they put armed guards out in front of the buildings
and in front of the—when they had Sunday services
and had people watching out for Ervel coming to shoot him down.
You were just a young girl when you found out
that your father had ended up in prison
because of the Rulan Allred murder.
And you said that after that time,
your mother and your sister-wives were fearful for their own safety,
which we've kind of covered already.
What explanation were you given for your father's arrest and conviction?
Did they tell you?
No, I was not aware as a young child.
And that's why on the book cover they show my eyes being censored with censor bars.
Because I did not know and I was not aware that anyone had died.
So the censor bars are on your face, on your eyes, and on your mouth
because you couldn't know and you couldn't see and you couldn't speak.
Right.
You just—
So I was in my mid-teens after I'd actually gotten out
when I found out what my father had been responsible for.
So you didn't know it at the time at all that you were in there.
You just knew he was in prison and that was persecution.
That was persecution.
Because we were God's chosen people.
And you mentioned—I think we're going to talk about this in the next part,
but you do mention that you wondered why the persecution,
if you're God's special people, why are you treated so badly?
And we had that same problem.
We were God's special people in the Kingston group.
Nobody in the whole world, all the billions of people in the world,
ever even had a chance to go to heaven unless they became part of the Kingston group.
Right.
And I always wondered, well, why?
Why would God have that kind of a plan?
Well, I was taught that I was a celestial child
because I was born of the prophet, Ervela Baron.
And yet we were treated so poorly.
My father believed he was, quote, the one mighty and strong and not Joel.
And that's why when Joel wouldn't kind of turn his power over to him,
that's why he had him killed.
So you didn't know Joel then?
You were too young.
I was too young to know him.
But I'm sure there was a lot of talk.
I'm sure you heard a lot about what happened.
Well, I did not know about, like I said, I did not know that people had died.
We were shielded from all of that knowledge.
Oh, okay.
You didn't know any of that at all?
I did not know that people...
Until after you were gone?
Until after I had gone out.
Okay.
Well, we have to close on this one.
We're going to do part two.
So I want to thank you for the information here.
We are talking with Ervela Baron and it's great privilege to be able to do this.
You know, being raised in this culture, we're all aware of the unwritten doctrine of lying for the Lord.
And it was rampant with Joseph Smith's polygamy and it's rampant to this very day in polygamy groups.
But children should never be taught to tell lies and they should never be allowed to think that it's okay with God for the lie for any reason.
And too many escapies from polygamy groups have been taught lies about God, about who he is and about his kingdom and how to get there.
But we encourage those who leave a polygamous community to reject everything that is tainted with Mormonism and turn to the purity that is found only in Jesus as taught in the Bible.
God brings people into his kingdom by grace alone, through faith alone, and the works of polygamy is a terrible scourge that has nothing to do with heaven or eternity.
See you for part two with Anna Laverne.
Thank you.
Thank you.
