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Date: April 28, 2023 12:05AM
https://msmagazine.com/2022/09/23/uncultured-book-review-children-of-god-cult-girls-women/Daniella Mestyanek Young’s powerfully immersive and exceptionally honest debut memoir Uncultured opens with a scene of Young standing in line to get spanked by Uncle Zephaniah. This man is not her blood uncle, but what the kids in the Children of God cult call the men in the community. The women are called “Aunties.”
Young is 5 years old, the youngest of 22 commune kids in a community of 100. The kids are arranged from oldest to youngest, and Young stands at the end of the line, anticipating her turn.
Suddenly Young spots her mother, Kristie, and speeds over to her, instantly relieved. Her mother, with no warmth in her eyes, barks, “Get back in line.”
At this moment and in similar moments, Young’s mother isn’t her mom but an “auntie,” someone in charge of all the children; just like her stepfather Uncle Zephaniah is a punishment uncle, not a stepfather. Because Young runs over to her mother, she’s punished with nine swats instead of three. After she tugs her underwear back up, she’s forced to hug and thank Uncle Zephaniah for the discipline, as she and all the other kids have been trained to do.
Ultimately, Kristie saved her daughter by teaching her to read, which became Young’s escape from the Children of God.
But the complexity of Young’s mother doesn’t end here. As the memoir continues, we experience more mind-boggling scenes. In the most horrific of all, we are in a room with Young as an Uncle beats her. After he finishes, he rapes her, beats her again and makes her thank him for the beating. He leaves her alone for the night in a room without a bathroom, so little girl Young has no choice but to pee the bed, an utterly humiliating act.