Living in a ‘cult’ was all she knew — until a traumatic birth pushed her to escape
Published By admin with Comments 0
By the age of 30, Tabitha Haugh still hadn’t been to the movies, had a first date, gotten a haircut or graduated from high school.
Most of her very sheltered existence had been spent in Homestead Heritage, a religious community in Waco, Texas, which she left last year.
“I just can’t stress enough how bleak life was there,” she told The Independent.
Around 1,200 people make up the conservative Christian group, some of whom live on a 500-acre compound of crop fields and small homesteads near the Brazos River, surrounded by other farmland. Women have long hair and wear modest ankle-length dresses. Tourists visit Homestead Heritage’s handicraft shops and farm-to-table restaurant, and school children come by on field trips for horse drawn hayrides.
But those who’ve exiled themselves from the community say life inside is far more sinister, with a lack of education, adequate medical care and life options leaving them traumatized.The Independent spoke to six former members, four women and two men, who were born into Homestead Heritage and left the church as adults. Two of the women later filed a complaint with the state against the community’s midwife, who they say is unlicensed, practicing medicine illegally and left one of them with long term debilitating birth injuries.
The community midwife, Amanda Lancaster, told The Independent: “I am deeply sorry that these individuals feel this way and that they’ve chosen to involve the media without ever raising their concerns and grievances to me or others involved in their care.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/homestead-heritage-religion-escape-b2608204.html.
