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Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to obey and submit because I

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Speaker 1: didn't want to get in trouble, But I didn't fully

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Speaker 1: grasp for the rest of my life what that meant.

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Speaker 2: For my heart. Podcasts and Rococo Punch. This is the

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Speaker 2: Turning River Road.

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Speaker 1: And then he put the rings on our hands to

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Speaker 1: be worn on our ring fingers. Doesn't fit anymore. This

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Speaker 1: is all goes on now.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't even pass your second knuckle now.

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Speaker 1: Nope, so tiny. Yeah, I was just a kid.

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Speaker 2: In the early two thousands in rural Minnesota, Lindsay became

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Speaker 2: one of the maidens of River Road Fellowship. She was

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Speaker 2: thirteen years old. A ritualistic ceremony married her and nine

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Speaker 2: other girls to their adult leader, and for years they

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Speaker 2: all endured a secret life of physical and mental abuse.

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Speaker 2: It all happened in their community of a hunh hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty people, believers on a commune who saw their

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Speaker 2: leader as an apostle, like God in the flesh. They

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Speaker 2: followed his command for decades.

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Speaker 1: Why did I think that way? Why did I allow

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Speaker 1: myself to get so sucked in by this man and

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Speaker 1: thinking to the point that if I died for him,

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Speaker 1: that would be the greatest honor.

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Speaker 3: I don't care what happens when Jesus Christ comes back,

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Speaker 3: whatever happens to me, it cannot possibly be worse than this.

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Speaker 2: But in twenty fourteen, Lindsay and a friend, the youngest Maidens,

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Speaker 2: made the daring decision to escape. They sparked an international

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Speaker 2: man hunt for the cult leader who had controlled their

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Speaker 2: world for.

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Speaker 1: All those years. You know, he was the predator and

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Speaker 1: I was the prey, and then he became the prey.

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Speaker 1: Listened to The Turning River Road starting on July eighth

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Speaker 1: on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: get your podcasts