We look forward to seeing you on your next visit to the library. Find a location near you.

Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published:
HarperAudio 2021
Status:
Available from OverDrive
Description

Educated meets The Vow in this story of liberation and self-empowerment—an inspiring and stranger-than-fiction memoir of growing up in and breaking free from the Children of God, an oppressive, extremist religious cult.

Faith Jones was raised to be part a religious army preparing for the End Times. Growing up on an isolated farm in Macau, she prayed for hours every day and read letters of prophecy written by her grandfather, the founder of the Children of God. Tens of thousands of members strong, the cult followers looked to Faith's grandfather as their guiding light. As such, Faith was celebrated as special and then punished doubly to remind her that she was not.

Over decades, the Children of God grew into an international organization that became notorious for its alarming sex practices and allegations of abuse and exploitation. But with indomitable grit, Faith survived, creating a world of her own—pilfering books and teaching herself high school curriculum. Finally, at age twenty-three, thirsting for knowledge and freedom, she broke away, leaving behind everything she knew to forge her own path in America.

A complicated family story mixed with a hauntingly intimate coming-of-age narrative, Faith Jones' extraordinary memoir reflects our societal norms of oppression and abuse while providing a unique lens to explore spiritual manipulation and our rights in our bodies. Honest, eye-opening, uplifting, and intensely affecting, Sex Cult Nun brings to life a hidden world that's hypnotically alien yet unexpectedly relatable.

Also in This Series
Formats
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
Works on MP3 Players, PCs, and Macs. Some mobile devices may require an application to be installed.
OverDrive Listen
Need Help?
If you are having problem transferring a title to your device, please fill out this support form or visit the library so we can help you to use our eBooks and eAudio Books.
More Like This
Other Editions and Formats
More Copies In LINK+
Loading LINK+ Copies...
More Details
Format:
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen
Edition:
Unabridged
Street Date:
11/30/2021
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780062952523
Reviews from GoodReads
Loading GoodReads Reviews.
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Faith Jones. (2021). Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult. Unabridged HarperAudio.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Faith Jones. 2021. Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away From the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult. HarperAudio.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Faith Jones, Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away From the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult. HarperAudio, 2021.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Faith Jones. Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away From the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult. Unabridged HarperAudio, 2021.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
LibraryOwnedAvailable
Shared Digital Collection55
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
840519dc-e478-402d-f74f-2b3d4d8e6cbb
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Dec 01, 2021 15:51:21
Date Updated:
Oct 31, 2022 22:29:06
Last Metadata Check:
Apr 18, 2024 05:25:35
Last Metadata Change:
Jan 30, 2024 07:46:45
Last Availability Check:
Apr 18, 2024 05:25:37
Last Availability Change:
Apr 18, 2024 05:25:37
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Apr 19, 2024 02:10:42

OverDrive Product Record

images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/6CD/7D8/2D/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/6CD/7D8/2D/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
formats
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062952523
      • name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
      • id: audiobook-mp3
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062952523
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
mediaType
Audiobook
primaryCreator
    • role: Author
    • name: Faith Jones
title
Sex Cult Nun
dateAdded
2021-12-01T20:28:00Z
contentDetails
      • href: https://link.overdrive.com/?websiteID=141&titleID=6143363
      • type: text/html
      • account:
          • name: Sacramento Public Library (CA)
          • id: 1151
sortTitle
Sex Cult Nun Breaking Away from the Children of God a Wild Radical Religious Cult
crossRefId
6143363
subtitle
Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult
id
6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91
starRating
3.7

OverDrive MetaData

isPublicDomain
False
formats
      • duration: 13:16:57
      • fileName: SexCultNun_9780062952523_6143363
      • partCount: 12
      • fileSize: 379746970
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062952523
      • rights:
            • type: PlayOnPC
            • value: 1
            • type: PlayOnPCCount
            • value: -1
            • type: BurnToCD
            • value: 1
            • type: BurnToCDCount
            • value: -1
            • type: PlayOnPM
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferToSDMI
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferToNonSDMI
            • value: 1
            • type: TransferCount
            • value: -1
            • type: CollaborativePlay
            • value: 0
            • type: PublicPerformance
            • value: 0
            • type: TranscodeToAAC
            • value: 1
      • name: OverDrive MP3 Audiobook
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: audiobook-mp3
      • onSaleDate: 11/30/2021
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: audiobook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=6cd7d82d-7073-4746-90a3-1e502f082e91&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
      • duration: 13:11:02
      • fileName: SexCultNunBreakingAwayfromtheChildrenofGodaWil-173
      • partCount: 0
      • fileSize: 379699821
      • identifiers:
            • type: ISBN
            • value: 9780062952523
      • name: OverDrive Listen
      • isReadAlong: False
      • id: audiobook-overdrive
      • onSaleDate: 11/30/2021
      • samples:
            • source: From the book
            • formatType: audiobook-overdrive
            • url: https://samples.overdrive.com/?crid=6cd7d82d-7073-4746-90a3-1e502f082e91&.epub-sample.overdrive.com
creators
      • role: Author
      • fileAs: Jones, Faith
      • bioText:

        Faith Jones is a lawyer, activist, entrepreneur, and business advisor. She began her career as an attorney with Skadden Arps representing clients in a wide variety of cross-border corporate transactions and has worked with businesses and government leaders in the Pacific Rim. Faith has been a featured TEDx speaker, has traveled the world, and has done humanitarian aid work in Kazakhstan, Russia, Japan, and Taiwan.

      • name: Faith Jones
      • role: Narrator
      • fileAs: Lamchick, Jaime
      • name: Jaime Lamchick
publishDate
2021-11-30T00:00:00-05:00
edition
Unabridged
isOwnedByCollections
True
title
Sex Cult Nun
fullDescription

Educated meets The Vow in this story of liberation and self-empowerment—an inspiring and stranger-than-fiction memoir of growing up in and breaking free from the Children of God, an oppressive, extremist religious cult.

Faith Jones was raised to be part a religious army preparing for the End Times. Growing up on an isolated farm in Macau, she prayed for hours every day and read letters of prophecy written by her grandfather, the founder of the Children of God. Tens of thousands of members strong, the cult followers looked to Faith's grandfather as their guiding light. As such, Faith was celebrated as special and then punished doubly to remind her that she was not.

Over decades, the Children of God grew into an international organization that became notorious for its alarming sex practices and allegations of abuse and exploitation. But with indomitable grit, Faith survived, creating a world of her own—pilfering books and teaching herself high school curriculum. Finally, at age twenty-three, thirsting for knowledge and freedom, she broke away, leaving behind everything she knew to forge her own path in America.

A complicated family story mixed with a hauntingly intimate coming-of-age narrative, Faith Jones' extraordinary memoir reflects our societal norms of oppression and abuse while providing a unique lens to explore spiritual manipulation and our rights in our bodies. Honest, eye-opening, uplifting, and intensely affecting, Sex Cult Nun brings to life a hidden world that's hypnotically alien yet unexpectedly relatable.

reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from August 23, 2021
        In this outstanding debut, Jones recounts her upbringing in and escape from the infamous cult, the Children of God. Founded by her paternal grandfather, David Brandt Berg, in 1968, the group, later referred to as “the Family,” was notorious for its “radical practices,” which required members to become full-time missionaries, forgo income, and submit to the “Law of Love,” a doctrine which encouraged spouse sharing and sexual relations with children, and used female “disciples” as sex “bait” for followers. By the time Jones was born in Hong Kong in 1977—the seventh child in her parents’ polygamous family—the cult had fanned around the globe with around 10,000 members. In thrilling detail, she describes a childhood spent off the grid throughout Southeast Asia—where her family prepared for the “end times,” opting for prayer over education—and how, after years of struggling and incidents of sexual abuse, she emancipated herself at age 23 and, through self-taught study, was later accepted into Berkeley Law school. As Jones transports readers from Macau to Kazakhstan to the United States, Jones skillfully provides the mental framework to understand her past as an indoctrinated individual in hopes of helping others “stand up for themselves.” This remarkable account of self-liberation is not to be missed. Agent: Becky Sweren, Aevitas Creative Management.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        October 15, 2021
        A lawyer and entrepreneur details her experiences growing up in the Children of God as the granddaughter of its founder, David Berg. Serving God was all Jones knew in a home dominated by a missionary father who ruled his two wives and children with a strict hand. Members of a secretive Christian sect that called itself the Family, the author's parents warned of interactions with "Systemites," nonbelievers who wanted "to stop them from doing the Lord's work." That "work," as defined by her "Prophet" grandfather, Berg, was to save souls through the Law of Love, which legitimized sex outside of marriage, justified polygamy, and made all women--including young girls--the sexual property of Family men. Jones, her family, and other church members lived apart from society "like [sexualized] nuns and monks" who witnessed and participated in sex acts from an early age. Berg's communications to his followers became increasingly "militaristic about putting God first" over time as Family leadership crumbled. By the time Jones entered adolescence, couples and families (including the author's own) were split apart, and Jones was forced to move from her home base in Macau to Thailand, the U.S., Kazakhstan, and, later, China. The author began to question the Family and its patriarchal doctrines, especially concerning teen marriage, which made her the target of abusive treatment meant to coerce her into subservience. Education and a love of learning became the road to freedom, and Jones attended Georgetown and UC Berkeley Law School and eventually reconciled with her parents. "It takes my parents more than a decade after leaving the Family before they are willing and able to admit they were wrong," she writes. Complex and richly detailed, the book provides fascinating insights into a secretive religious organization while offering often heartbreaking details about the nature and repercussions of growing up indoctrinated in a cult. A powerful and disturbing memoir.

        COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        Starred review from November 1, 2021

        In this exceptional debut, Jones recalls growing up within the Children of God cult (founded in 1968 by her grandfather David Berg). Berg's Children of God blended free-spirited hippie ideals with teachings from the Bible--but only those passages he deemed worthy. He and his followers eventually settled in Southeast Asia, primarily Macau, where Jones was raised. Jones recounts the frequent changes in Berg's teachings and the church's rules, and candidly explores the impact of growing up in an environment where women couldn't pick their own sexual partners and girls were groomed for abuse from a young age. The only education Jones received was provided by Berg himself, in the form of letters he periodically sent to each Children of God family. Jones's book is a truly inspirational account of questioning her upbringing (the only life she knew) and becoming a successful lawyer. She writes that her will to succeed pointed her toward a new, independent way of life that she was proud to call her own. VERDICT A must-read memoir of self-discovery and reinvention that readers will find impossible to put down. Pass along to fans of Tara Westover's Educated.--Elizabeth Ragain, Rogers Heritage H.S., Fayetteville, AR

        Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        November 1, 2021
        Faith Jones' memoir of growing up in the Children of God religious cult is shocking and, ultimately, life-affirming. Founded by Jones' paternal grandfather, David Berg, in the late 1960s, the cult (known as "the Family") is hounded by U.S. law enforcement, partially because of their "Law of Love," which includes polygamy, adults having sexual relations with children, and women using sex to lure in converts. As members disperse around the globe, Jones' family lives as missionaries in Hong Kong, where she was born in 1977. For the next 20 years, she lives a life devoted to God and the Mo Letters, publications from Berg containing edicts and warnings about the End Times. The level of abuse is horrifying and while Jones believes, she also questions. As she gets older and experiences a bit of life outside the Family, she longs for an education and through sheer determination is able to break free and even ends up attending law school. An eye-opening account sure to please those who love a good cult book or just a good memoir.

        COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

popularity
2130
links
    • self:
        • href: https://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L1BWwAAAA2I/products/6cd7d82d-7073-4746-90a3-1e502f082e91/metadata
        • type: application/vnd.overdrive.api+json
id
6cd7d82d-7073-4746-90a3-1e502f082e91
starRating
3.7
images
    • cover:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-100/0293-1/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img100.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • thumbnail:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-200/0293-1/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img200.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover150Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-150/0293-1/6CD/7D8/2D/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img150.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
    • cover300Wide:
        • href: https://img1.od-cdn.com/ImageType-400/0293-1/6CD/7D8/2D/{6CD7D82D-7073-4746-90A3-1E502F082E91}Img400.jpg
        • type: image/jpeg
isPublicPerformanceAllowed
False
languages
      • code: en
      • name: English
subjects
      • value: Biography & Autobiography
      • value: Religion & Spirituality
      • value: Nonfiction
publishDateText
11/30/2021
otherFormatIdentifiers
      • type: ISBN
      • value: 9780062952455
mediaType
Audiobook
shortDescription

Educated meets The Vow in this story of liberation and self-empowerment—an inspiring and stranger-than-fiction memoir of growing up in and breaking free from the Children of God, an oppressive, extremist religious cult.

Faith Jones was raised to be part a religious army preparing for the End Times. Growing up on an isolated farm in Macau, she prayed for hours every day and read letters of prophecy written by her grandfather, the founder of the Children of God. Tens of thousands of members strong, the cult followers looked to Faith's grandfather as their guiding light. As such, Faith was celebrated as special and then punished doubly to remind her that she was not.

Over decades, the Children of God grew into an international organization that became notorious for its alarming sex practices and allegations of abuse and exploitation. But with indomitable grit, Faith survived, creating a world of her own—pilfering books and teaching herself...

sortTitle
Sex Cult Nun Breaking Away from the Children of God a Wild Radical Religious Cult
crossRefId
6143363
subtitle
Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult
publisher
HarperAudio
bisacCodes
      • code: BIO022000
      • description: Biography & Autobiography / Women
      • code: BIO026000
      • description: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs
      • code: REL020000
      • description: RELIGION / Cults