Summary of Bad Mormon a Memoir by Heather Gay

By Willie M. Joseph

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This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of Bad Mormon a memoir by Heather Gay

 

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Heather Gay is a bestselling memoir about her departure from the Mormon Church and her success in business, television, and single motherhood. She recounts the difficult discovery of the darkness and damage that often exists behind a picture-perfect life, while examining the nuanced relationship between duty to self and duty to God. Bad Mormon is a captivating read in the vein of Untamed, Educated, and Me Talk Pretty One Day.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willie M. Joseph
• Release date: Mar 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215489246

Willie M. Joseph

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AUTHOR’S NOTE

The name of the Mormon church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was given by revelation from God to the prophet Joseph Smith in 1838. In 1990, one of the church's apostles, Russell M. Nelson, spoke out against using the term Mormon and instead encouraged members to use the church's full and proper name. In 2018, Nelson proclaimed that the Lord had impressed upon his mind that using the proper name of the church was not negotiable and commanded that members stop referring to themselves as Mormons and instead only as members of the Church. He also asked the rest of the world to respect this new commandment and refrain from using Mormon’ and Mormonism" when referring to church members, doctrine, culture, and lifestyles.

PROLOGUE

The narrator is facing a life-altering moment as they prepare to appear on a reality television show. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the girl who grew up on MTV's Real World and Lauren Conrad's The Hills is euphoric, believing this could be her golden ticket. However, years of reality television consumption have taught them that nothing can be hidden from the cameras, and the viewers will see right through them. I was indoctrinated to think in terms of binaries, black or white, right or wrong, and God or Satan. When an opportunity like this came along, I had to decide which route to take.

I thought about my life, what I had imagined it would be and what it had become, and how the fairy tale had all imploded. This was my way out, and I grabbed it with both hands. The whole truth is like the story of a wave unfurling.

PART ONE

BAD DAUGHTER

FEELS LIKE HOME

The narrator is a six-year-old girl living in a suburban Colorado cul-de-sac in an unassuming cottage rambler on quiet Ivy Way. They are surrounded by a six-foot-tall teakwood fence with a private gate, which allows them to access the undeveloped land preserve bordering their property and keep their home private from the passing tra c and the vast landscape. The narrator has been reading the book Incident at Hawk's Hill and is inspired by the story of young Ben, who is nurtured, cared for, and fed from the teat of a wounded badger separated from his cubs. The narrator is convinced that a lost child could be living in the eld outside their suburban Denver neighborhood, but they are afraid to leave the safety of their bedroom. The protagonist is a six-year-old boy who has been dreaming of a badger den and an actual feral child to rescue and raise as his very own.

After weeks of gazing out his window imagining his destiny, he decides to try to open the forbidden gate. However, once he steps through, the gate slams shut and the lock clicks back into place. He is locked out of his life, locked away from his family, and abandoned in the lone and dreary world. Screaming for help would reveal his disobedience and go unnoticed, so he keeps his head down and hides his shame. On the other side of the gate, it is clear that outside the gate is bad and inside the gate is good.

I was the third child and the second daughter born into what I believed was one of God's chosen families. I was planned for, prayed for, and prepared for long before I even knew it was my turn on earth. I had a good nine or ten years of absolute, egocentric, ignorant bliss until I realized that the world was created for more than just me. I vowed never to tell a soul and never to leave the sanctity of my kingdom again. I learned that the rules were there to keep me safe, not to stifle my ambitions.

The narrator was born in the covenant, a daughter of the Most High God sealed for time and all eternity to devout, temple-married parents. They were natural heirs to the blessings of the priesthood and part of a strain of sin-resistant souls with special promises and responsibilities. Their faith came with perspective, balance, and humor, and they were service oriented and had fun. They loved pinewood derbys, road shows, and girls' camp, and their youth leaders indulged them with water balloon ghts and ice cream socials. The most important details in this text are that the church was the one and only true church on the face of the earth, and that it had the restored gospel, the priesthood, the Book of Mormon, and a living prophet that spoke to God.

The speaker was taught that people who loved God like that were fanatics, and that they had a way of life with a plan of happiness, a proven system, and perfect love. The speaker wanted to share the gospel with those who were less fortunate, and they had the answers to all the tests, leading them to their front porch with a pitcher of sweet tea and a smile. My parents both grew up in Utah surrounded by members of the church and Mormon culture, but they eventually moved away. My father started his career in the FBI investigating bank robberies and eventually found his way into Russian counterintelligence. My mom, his wingman and wife, happily followed, creating homes without complaint in multiple states around the nation until she said, Eight is enough. My dad left the FBI and accepted an assignment with the Bureau of Land Management, hunting thieves of historical indigenous sites in Denver, and my mom settled in to make the Mile High State her home sweet home for good. My mom was a BIC, born in the covenant, like me and like the generations before her, and her ancestors were oxcart pioneers that had traveled across the plains and settled in Ogden, Utah.

In high school, my mom was a member of the 4-H Club and a white-gloved song leader. She was self-reliant and resourceful, working after school every day and saving up to buy her own braces and contact lenses. When she met my dad, he was a smooth-talking Sigma Chi who wore