Ex-FLDS member tells life story

Brian Mackert is on a journey.

An ex-member of the Fundamentalist LDS Church, and an ex-member of the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the born-again Christian is telling his life story in a book aimed at Christian audiences.

"It's about the healing power of Christ and the healing power of forgiveness," he said Friday.

Mackert is promoting "Illegitimate" at a book signing at the Lifeway Christian Bookstore in Murray today.

"I still think they should have done it," he said of the raid on the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch, but later added that "not every polygamous home is an abusive home."

"I'm not disappointed that so few cases of abuse were found," he said Friday. "I'm glad that the cases of abuse that were found, were recognized and are being dealt with. I don't want to see people unjustly persecuted or prosecuted."

Mackert documents his life in the FLDS Church and why he left, became a member of the LDS Church, left, and became, as he put it: "a beer-swilling, drug-doing atheist."

"What I found was that the teachings of Christ in the Bible drew me to Christianity," he said.

"Illegitimate" joins a growing list of books authored by ex-members of polygamous sects. But some polygamists are also writing in defense of their beliefs.

Stacie Lee Hewitt authored "He Loves Me, She Loves Me Not: A Polygamist Wife's Story," which is being sold on Amazon.com. Writing under a pseudonym, Hewitt documents the ups and downs of plural marriage.

"I want to show people that we are real people — just like all of you," she wrote. "We have good days and bad. We struggle to live our religion and our beliefs, that we aren't weird and peculiar — we just believe differently on this one point."

E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com