Difference between revisions of "Jared Garrett: Mormon Author"

Revision as of 17:50, 14 January 2021

Jared Garrett is the author of the bestselling sci-fi thriller series Beat (Beat, Push). He has won awards for his writing, including first place in the Vera Hinckley Mayhew contest and honorable mention in the Writers of the Future contest. He is also the author of Beyond the Cabin, The Seer (which appeared in a multiauthor series titled The Thirty-Six), and The Guide and the Sword series (Lakhoni, Usurper, Red Prince).

He is also a former “child orphan” from a nomadic Scientology splinter cult, and now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He teaches groups about overcoming trauma, the creative process, and the power of belief.[1] Beyond the Cabin is a fictionalized account of his departure from the sect.

In 1970, Jared’s father joined the Process Church while he served in the National Guard near Boston, Massachusetts. At the time, young people were demanding change and had lost faith in traditional religion. His father was drawn to the teachings that human beings had chosen evil over good. The leaders of his preferred new religious group taught that the only way to move forward was to isolate from society, seek spiritual enlightenment, and wait for the world to burn. Jared was born into the Chicago community of this sect in 1974.

Originally called The Process Church of the Final Judgment, later the Foundation Faith of God, the Process Church was founded in London, England, by ex-Scientologists turned Satanists, Mary Ann MacLean and Robert de Grimston. After being accused of brainwashing its approximately 30 members, they left England, traveled to the Bahamas, and then to a remote Mexican village. Branches of the sect then settled in Boston, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dallas, and Chicago, and grew to about 150 people. By the time Jared was born, the Process Church “had began to schism.” The founders divorced and left with only a few followers. Those who remained gave up some of the tenets of the faith and tried Christianity for a time. The group renamed itself and eventually grew tired of religion. In the mid-1980s, they founded an animal rescue group now known as the Best Friends Animal Society based in Kanab, Utah.

In the Process Church, families were considered obsolete and parents were not allowed to raise their children. Children were fed and sheltered but lived a childhood with little kindness or love. The adults and parents of the community were more focused on their own spiritual development. The leaders of the sect believed that breaking up families was the ethical thing to do. Jared said, “I have been overlooked by these people all my life.” He remembers speaking to his mother only twice a year.

Jared had been living in Dallas with the community there. He had spent summers with his mother in Utah working at the shelter in Kanab. When the Dallas branch rebelled and the remaining members relocated to Utah, Jared’s mother called him and offered him the choice of moving to the sect’s headquarters with her or he could move in with his father for his last year of high school. None of this religion made sense to him, so he had had enough, and chose his father. He packed his bags and separated himself from this religion. God made no sense to him and he believed he was done with religion.

His father stayed with the sect until the early 1990s. His mother remained with the religion until her death from cancer in 1999.

After high school, he got a job and moved into an apartment with friends. Then some missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints knocked on their door. Jared agreed to let them teach him, but it was religion, and he didn’t want religion. But the “sense of welcome and community he found in the church, however, pulled him in.”

“When I walked into the church for the first time, here comes this tall, former lumberjack. He had a big smile on his face and he said, ‘Jared, we are so glad you’re here,’” Garrett recalled. “And he shakes my hand and puts a warm hand on my shoulder. That’s the first positive touch I’d gotten from a dude ever in my life. And I was like, wow.”

He was baptized, served a mission in Brazil for the Church, and studied at Brigham Young University.

Garrett and his wife, Annemarie, are the parents of seven children. He is the founder of H2M Creatives where he creates training solutions for corporations around the world. He has also been an instructional designer with Amazon, Bluehost.com, and American Express. He was recently an instructional designer at BYU, but now is a stay-at-home dad and writes novels. He holds a master’s degree from Brigham Young University in TESOL/Instructional Design. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in linguistics.

• Jared Garrett recounts his experiences on this podcast.

Sources for this article

• Religion News Service, “‘Reluctant cultist’ survives an end times cult turned pet rescue group to find his own faith”
• Jared Garrett’s website