Escaping Polygamy Season 3 Trailer: Prepare to Be Horrified

A new season of Escaping Polygamy is coming in about two weeks. With it, we"ll get more heartbreaking stories of people victimized by controlling religious cults.

Hopefully, as the title suggests, we"ll also get the stories of people escaping and starting news lives.

The trailer for the new season is below, and it gives us a glimpse at the horror stories that this season will confront. Brace yourselves.

First of all, if you haven"t watched Escaping Polygamy before, it"s an A&E docuseries about helping people who want to be free of their fundamentalist lives to break away.

Ten years ago, Andrea, Jessica, and Shanell escaped their fundamentalist cult, The Order, based in Salt Lake City with the help of their aunt.

In a nationally publicized court case, the girls managed to make their escape permanent.

Now, these three sisters have devoted their lives to helping others — not only other women and children, but also men — escape from these harrowing cult situations that feel inescapable.

It"s important to remember that these groups are very controlling, so help is certainly needed for someone to be brave enough to break away.

It"s even more important to remember that, while many members do sign up for these lives, many more are born into these isolationist communities and never know the outside world.

Many don"t know what they"d do if they got out into the world.

So there"s more that these girls and others who do this sort of work can do to help people to step away than just offering them a ride back to civilization.

Admittedly, calling it Escaping Polygamy is a somewhat misleading title.

(Though it"s a super eye-catching one)

The problem with "polygamist cults" like the Order or the FLDS isn"t that people have multiple partners or even spouses.

Polyamory can and does lead to wonderful and fulfilling relationships that last just as long as monogamous ones.

And some polyamorous relationships are purely polygamous — where there"s one man in a relationship with two or more women.

But that"s not what these groups are at all.

The problem with them is that their particular fundamentalist beliefs involve carefully controlling its members lives, oppressing women, and sexually preying upon underage girls under the guise of a religious mandate.

"Escaping Fundamentalism" would be a more controversial and less salacious title for some Americans, however.

This season, the girls are helping members of the FLDS, a fundamentalist offshoot of Mormonism that was until very recently ruled (yes, ruled) by the infamous Warren Jeffs.

One of the people featured in this season, as you"ll see in the trailer below, is Warren Jeffs" own son, who very appropriately has zero kind things to say about his father.

And he does not mince words:

"My father molested girls."

Yes, Warren Jeffs is absolutely in prison where he belongs, which is the very least that he deserves.

(Current leadership of the FLDS following his incarceration isn"t publicly known, but there are four possibilities — one of which being that Jeffs, as the cult of estimated 10,000 members" Prophet, is still the church"s leader from behind bars)

The trailer also shows us a very emotional man admitting that he wants to leave, but that he cannot leave without his family.

The season will feature more, however.

According to a press release for the series, we can expect to see:

"A mother hoping to find her daughters who have been hidden within an elite group in the FLDS community."

Horrifying.

As unthinkable as it is for us, some people can"t take their children with them when they escape — or are forced out.

(We don"t know if she fled or was excommunicated)

Sometimes, the best way to help someone whom you love is to seek out help, even though our justice system is woefully unequipped to protect the welfare of children.

And there"s more from that press release:

"And a young girl who desperately wants to rescue the love of her life in a dangerous mission that further exposes the dark and treacherous realities of polygamy."

Well, we"ll be having nightmares just from this trailer.

But this is a docuseries where the drama and suspense doesn"t have to be fabricated by producers.

If you"re tired of the manufactured tension on reality television but still want to see real people in their unscripted, human stories, Escaping Polygamy might be the series for you.

At the very least, you might want to check out this trailer.

You should hear these people"s stories in their own voices.

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Sister Wives Stars March to Legalize Polygamy: We"re Family, Not Felons!

Sister Wives is a quality reality show, full of relationship drama, family drama … just all the drama, really.

And the vast, vast majority of that is because of the family"s beliefs: namely the belief that polygamy is the way to be.

Kody Brown has four wives — Meri, Janelle, Christine, and Robyn — and he has children with each of those wives. He"s legally married to Robyn, but he calls the other three his "spiritual wives."

And in Utah, where the family is originally from, that"s against the law.

That"s why all those crazy Browns packed up and moved to Las Vegas a few years ago. If they didn"t, they risked being arrested, simply because of the way they choose to live.

But this weekend, they went back to Utah. And they went for a fight.

See, bigamy has always been illegal, but there"s a bill in Utah that makes it illegal not only to have multiple legal wives, but to have multiple spiritual wives.

On one hand, it makes sense. Many women and children have been abused and mistreated in polygamist families.

But on the other hand, there are families like the Browns. They may be strange, but they"re all consenting adults who"ve made a choice to live a certain way, and should that really be a felony.

A local news station in Utah caught Kody at the march, and he was able to outline his issue with the bill.

Check out Kody do his thing in the video below:

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Escaping Polygamy: Reading Books Is Sinful! So Is Country Music!

Your heart breaks for the people featured on A&E"s Escaping Polygamy.  One woman, Lizzy hasn"t seen her daughter in three years because the young girl is pure and Lizzy is not.

That is, according to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Us Weekly featured a clip from the August 14th episode, in which Lizzy explained that her daughter, Julie was selected to be part of the United Order, a special group made up of only the church"s purest members.

Because of this, Lizzy is prohibited from seeing Julie, who is now 13.

"My oldest daughter, Julie, is the good girl — she"s very beautiful, inside and out," Lizzy said quietly during an interview.

"She"s always been my right-hand girl — she"s a hard worker, she"s sweet," Lizzy continued as photos of her beautiful daughter flashed across the screen.

"Of course, I haven"t seen her for three years, so she"s perfect."

What"s that, now?

It turns out that Lizzy has a whole list of sins for which she must repent, so until she is perfect, she is not allowed to see Julie.

Lizzy is not part of the United Order "because I"m not perfect — there"s things in my life that I need to repent of."

Like…?

"Like, I have a hard time waking up by 5 a.m., but I"m working on it."

Oh girl.

Lizzy talked about losing her mother at 13, something that still stings to this day, and how she knows that Julie needs her very badly.

But, Lizzy admits, she has a lot of work to do in order to become perfect. 

"My mother used to read a lot, and I inherited that weakness," Lizzy admitted.

"Sometimes, I"ll find a novel, read it — I"ve been trying to overcome that."

"And my boy sometimes listens to country music," she added.

Watch Escaping Polygamy every Sunday at 10 p.m. on A&E.

Escaping Polygamy: Reading Books Is Sinful! So Is Country Music!

Your heart breaks for the people featured on A&E"s Escaping Polygamy.  One woman, Lizzy hasn"t seen her daughter in three years because the young girl is pure and Lizzy is not.

That is, according to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Us Weekly featured a clip from the August 14th episode, in which Lizzy explained that her daughter, Julie was selected to be part of the United Order, a special group made up of only the church"s purest members.

Because of this, Lizzy is prohibited from seeing Julie, who is now 13.

"My oldest daughter, Julie, is the good girl — she"s very beautiful, inside and out," Lizzy said quietly during an interview.

"She"s always been my right-hand girl — she"s a hard worker, she"s sweet," Lizzy continued as photos of her beautiful daughter flashed across the screen.

"Of course, I haven"t seen her for three years, so she"s perfect."

What"s that, now?

It turns out that Lizzy has a whole list of sins for which she must repent, so until she is perfect, she is not allowed to see Julie.

Lizzy is not part of the United Order "because I"m not perfect — there"s things in my life that I need to repent of."

Like…?

"Like, I have a hard time waking up by 5 a.m., but I"m working on it."

Oh girl.

Lizzy talked about losing her mother at 13, something that still stings to this day, and how she knows that Julie needs her very badly.

But, Lizzy admits, she has a lot of work to do in order to become perfect. 

"My mother used to read a lot, and I inherited that weakness," Lizzy admitted.

"Sometimes, I"ll find a novel, read it — I"ve been trying to overcome that."

"And my boy sometimes listens to country music," she added.

Watch Escaping Polygamy every Sunday at 10 p.m. on A&E.

Sister Wives Request Denied: Judge Rules Polygamy Is Still Illegal!

Sometimes, you just can’t have it all.

Such is the case for Kody Brown and his four wives, who all star on TLC’s Sister Wives.

Janelle, Christine, Robyn and Meri learned on Friday that a federal appeals court had “denied a request to reconsider its earlier dismissal of a decision that decriminalized polygamy in Utah, according to The Salt Lake Tribute.

Last month, three judges on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Co ruled that the Browns could not sue the state for banning polygamy.

The Browns had requested a rehearing, but on May 13th the judges were like “nope.  No thumbs up on plural marriages.”

What to do when the justice system tries to get in the way of a good time?

Take it national.

The family’s attorney, Jonathan Turley stated that the reality stars would take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“While disappointed, the Brown family remains committed to this case and the struggle for equal rights for all families in Utah,” Turley said.

The Browns sued the state of Utah in 2011, “alleging the state’s bigamy law violated their constitutional right to privacy by prohibiting them from living together and that the law criminalized their sexual relationships.”

A Police investigation forced the family to move from Lehi, Utah to Nevada in order to avoid prosecution.

In 2013. a judge gave the Browns a break by striking down the cohabitation portion of the bigamy law, stating that it forced the family  “to leave Utah and violated their rights to privacy and religious freedom.”

“The 10th Circuit panel ruled that a prosecutor can publicly declare a family to be felons, keep them under criminal investigation, and denounce them for their religious beliefs without fear of being held accountable in a court of law,” Turley said.

Utah law, according to the Tribute states that “people are guilty of third-degree felony bigamy if they hold multiple marriage licenses or if, when already married, they cohabit with another consenting adult in a marriage-like relationship.”

tl;dr – polygamy is still illegal.

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Christine Brown: Sister Wives Star "Miserable" With Kody, Polygamy!!!

Polygamy isn’t for everyone.

Just ask Sister Wives’ Christine Brown’s aunt, Kristyn Decker.

Decker defected from the Latter Day Saints polygamous sect, Apostolic United Brethren, which the Browns – Kody, Christine, Meri, Janelle and Robyn – happen to belong to.  According to Radar Online, Decker’s father, Owen Allred was once the leader of the sect.

Decker told Radar recently that she doesn’t “believe” Christine is happy, and it’s showing.

“I call it ‘miserable happiness.’ That truly describes those that were in polygamist marriages and those that left,” Decker said.

“I think they are just miserable and the show started showing it.”

From watching the TLC series, Decker notices a “lack of connection between the women.

“They don’t know where to stand when they’re talking about their relationship with the other women. They don’t get the quality time they want with their husband. Neither do the children. The spousal connection isn’t there.”

I’m no expert on the subject, but I can’t imagine polygamy makes it easy for a husband and wife to connect when there are at least two other women involved.

“They are happy because they believe they are serving God or their God. But it is miserable happiness,” Decker went on.

“I think the Browns are precious people. They are just misled like I was.

“They were born and raised with it. They are not representing the majority of polygamy.”

Decker didn’t elaborate on that last quote, which begs the question “What exactly does the majority of polygamy look like?’

Last year, Meri was caught up in a catfish hoax; she got involved in an online relationship with a woman from Oklahoma who pretended to be a man.

The woman then made threats to Meri, forcing the reality star to come clean on air.

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Kody Brown, Sister Wives to Be Prosecuted For Polygamy?

It has been a rough several months for the Brown family of TLC’s Sister Wives fame, but might there be a light at the end of the tunnel?

At least from a legal standpoint?

Given some of the events we’ve watched play out over the past six months, fans are wondering what more can go wrong for the family.

After patriarch Kody’s divorce and remarriage, wife Meri’s catfish-cheating scandal, and reports that three wives are dumping Brown?

They’re up against quite a bit.

One more straw could break the proverbial polygamous camel’s back, but family reportedly received good news from the justice system:

Bill HB281 was just passed by the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee in Utah and will soon be put up for a vote.

The bill would change bigamy from a felony to a misdemeanor, meaning their lifestyle is getting closer to being recognized as legal! 

Brown is legally married to and only banging Robyn these days, but he and his three other wives all fled Utah for Nevada a few years ago.

The move was prompted by Utah’s polygamy law, which they are suing over, and waiting for the 10th Circuit court to hear their case.

Under the new bill, the practice would not be legal, but the crime classification for having plural marriages would be drastically reduced.

It “redefines bigamy as purporting to marry ‘and’ cohabiting with another person while married to someone else or with someone else who is married.”

In a controversial move, Kody divorced Meri in 2014 and married Robyn that year, then adopted her children from a previous marriage.

Of course, whether polygamy is legal or not may not hold the family together if reports of Janelle and Meri leaving Kody are to be believed.

Not to mention rumors of Kody courting a secret lover on the side. Did we mention dude has 18 kids as well? There’s a lot on his plate.

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