![]() For instance, Laake describes a series of Mormon bishops, or spiritual advisors, as stupid, rigid, insensitive and occasionally voyeuristic. There were reasons Mormon elders couldn't abide the book, which makes them - and Mormonism - seem silly and cruel and dangerous. Laake even became a hit on the talk show circuit, where, beyond fielding questions about masturbation, she tried to explain why her religion very nearly destroyed her.īut the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not react happily to "Secret Ceremonies." After its publication, church leaders excommunicated Laake for apostasy. Her book was one of the first to cash in on the ongoing memoir craze and was best known for Laake's mocking, detailed revelation of top-secret Mormon temple ceremonies and, oddly enough, for her lengthy account of years of obsessive-compulsive masturbation, which she blamed indirectly on Mormonism. ![]() She jumped atop a table and joyfully relayed her literary accomplishment to the other patrons. ![]() ![]() (It still sells well in predominantly Mormon towns like Gilbert, Ariz., or Park City, Utah.) When Laake first heard she'd made the bestseller list, she was in a bar in Texas. Seven years before my colleague Deborah Laake slaughtered herself, she wrote a famous Mormon-bashing book, "Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond." After it was published in the spring of 1993, Laake's book was an immediate success, whizzing onto the New York Times bestseller list, where it remained for 15 weeks. ![]()
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