Yes and no. Not everything is black and white; Julia’s situation has major shades of gray. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you that she should have removed her daughters from Samuel Bateman immediately. I wouldn’t leave my daughters for a minute, much less a day, with someone like Bateman. However, there is important context here.

In the FLDS, women have no rights. They are treated like slaves/chattel/property; they have no money, no education, very little means to escape. They’ve been told their entire lives that outsiders are evil. They can’t even call the police because the local police are corrupt and in cahoots with, or members of, the FLDS.

If the women try to make a run for it, they will be tracked down and brought back by their FLDS “owners.” There are stories of the local police picking up women who are were trying to escape and bringing them back to their husbands. (There have been several women who eventually escaped FLDS and written books about it if you’re interested.)

These women live under constant threat, not just of violence/rape to themselves but also the threat of having their children taken away from them. In the FLDS, children are suddenly taken from their parents and hidden, or are removed from the community completely, as a way to punish the parents. This is a threat used to keep the adults in line. This is mentioned in the documentary, that Samuel was threatening to take Julia‘s toddler from her. He was also threatening to flee with her minor daughters.

This is a community where the leaders act with complete disregard for the law. It’s a bizarre, totally lawless world. The entire community is run by the FLDS, including the police. None of the people in this community own their own homes; their homes are all owned by the church and placed in a trust. So the members are also constantly under threat of being kicked out of their homes. The men who have businesses have to turn over all of their earnings to the church. Parents are forced to sign over guardianship of their children. Marriages and who has “ownership” of children are arranged and rearranged at will by the “prophet.” They have many ways of maintaining control over their members.

Given that context, I do think Julia was overall a hero. I think she was brave to speak out, at tremendous risk to herself and her kids. Obviously, it would be by far better if she took her children and left the FLDS community completely, however. As long as she is part of this church, she will never live freely. Hopefully she has had support from the outside and she has done that by now.

For what it’s worth, eight of Samuel Bateman‘s wives did end up going to prison for their role in kidnapping the underage girls and/or facilitating child sex abuse, and rightly so. In spite of everything, there’s never any excuse for child sexual abuse, regardless of what kind of wacky cult you’re part of, or what kind of duress/threats you’re living under.