Martha Beck

Martha Beck
Born Martha Nibley
(1962-11-29) November 29, 1962
Provo, Utah
Occupation Sociologist, life coach, author, speaker
Alma mater Harvard University
Spouse John Beck (1983–2004)
Partner Karen Gerdes
Children 3
Website
marthabeck.com

Martha Nibley Beck (born November 29, 1962) is an American sociologist, life coach, best-selling author, and speaker who specializes in helping individuals and groups achieve personal and professional goals. She holds a bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies and master's and Ph.D. degrees in sociology, both from Harvard University. Beck is the daughter of deceased LDS Church scholar and apologist, Hugh Nibley. She received national attention after publication in 2005 of her best-seller, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith in which she recounts her experiences of surviving sexual abuse. In addition to authoring several books, Beck is a columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine.

Biography

Early life and education

Martha Nibley was born in Provo, Utah, in 1962, the seventh of eight children of Hugh Nibley and Phyllis Nibley, and raised LDS in a prominent Utah family. Her father was a professor at Brigham Young University. She received a BA degree in East Asian studies, along with an MA and a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.[1]

Career

During her academic career, Beck worked as a research associate at Harvard Business School, studying career paths and life-course changes in today's economic and social environment. Before becoming a life coach, she taught sociology, social psychology, organizational behavior, and business management at Harvard and the American Graduate School of International Management. She has published academic books and articles on a variety of social science and business topics.Her non-academic books include the New York Times bestsellers Expecting Adam and Leaving the Saints, as well as Finding Your Own North Star: Claiming the Life You Were Meant to Live, Steering by Starlight, and Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaiming Your True Nature.

Beck has also been a contributing editor for popular magazines, including Real Simple and Redbook, and has been a columnist for O, the Oprah Magazine since July 2001. Her latest book, The Martha Beck Collection: Essays on Creating Your Right Life, Volume 1, includes essays from her O, the Oprah Magazine column. Beck is president of Martha Beck, Inc., which offers a life coach training and certification program based on Beck’s books and experience for individuals looking to acquire life coaching skills and tools. In addition to life coach training, Martha Beck, Inc., offers live events, products, and resources related to life coaching strategies.

Personal life

Beck met John Christen Beck, a fellow Mormon from Utah, during her undergraduate studies at Harvard. They married in the LDS Salt Lake Temple on June 21, 1983, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and they eventually had three children together.[2]

After the birth of their second child, Adam, who had been diagnosed with Down Syndrome prior to his birth, Beck returned with her husband and children to Utah to be closer to family and support. Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth and Everyday Magic is Beck's story about her decision to give birth to and raise Adam.[3]

In 1990, soon after the birth of her third child, Beck, as a part-time faculty member at Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah, taught a course on the sociology of gender in the Department of Social Science. During her time as part-time faculty member at BYU, five faculty members were excommunicated from the LDS Church as a consequence of public writings that were deemed critical of the church; the group became known as the September Six. She and husband John Beck also made critical public statements about both the excommunications and other church and BYU matters, which led to first John, then Martha herself, leaving the LDS Church in 1993.[1][4]

Since leaving the LDS Church, both Martha Beck and her now ex-husband subsequently came out publicly as gay. In 2003, Beck separated from her husband, divorcing him in 2004.[2] She now lives with her partner Karen Gerdes, a social worker and professor, and her son, Adam, on her North Star Ranch in San Luis Obispo County, California.[5]

Controversies

Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior

Beck's first book, coauthored with her husband, John Beck, Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior, treated homosexuality as one of several "compulsive behaviors," like bulimia.[6][7] However, both Martha Beck and her now-ex-husband subsequently came out publicly as gay[8] and have stated that they no longer consider homosexuality a form of compulsive behavior.[9]

Leaving the Saints

In 2005, she received national attention for her bestselling[10] book, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith.[1] According to Sunstone magazine,[11] the book may have originally been conceived as a novel, loosely based on her life (with a male main character), but was changed to recount her personal experiences, with the encouragement of her publishers. Ultimately released in March 2005, the book is a narrative in which Beck describes recovered memories of alleged sexual abuse by her father,[7] prominent LDS academician Hugh Nibley; her experiences teaching at Brigham Young University; cultural dissonance and anomalies in Utah; her spiritual journey leaving the LDS Church.[1]

Articles were published in response to the book, including a critical essay by the Mormon author, Boyd Jay Petersen. Petersen, Beck's brother-in-law and Nibley's biographer,[12] stated: "Throughout this book, as with her other books, it is obvious that she distorts the record as much as or more than she reports it, jumps to conclusions more than provides evidence leading to conclusions, and blurs fact and fantasy."[13] Beck responded to some of these criticisms by stating that she began having memories of her traumatic events prior to the use of any therapy (including hypnosis), that her vagina had scarring that may have been the result of sexual abuse, and that her memories were vivid and intrusive.[14]

Some members of Nibley's surviving family also challenge Beck's allegations by pointing out inconsistencies in her descriptions of events to various media sources[13] and her use of self-hypnosis to intentionally recover the memories.[15][13] Rebecca Nibley, Beck's sister, reported that Marsha Beck encouraged her to attempt to recover her own memories of abuse, without success.[7] Beck acknowledged consulting recovered-memory therapist and self-hypnosis advocate Lynne Finney, although only after recovering her memories of abuse.[7] Hugh Nibley's family claimed that Beck's experiences of sexual abuse recounted in her book were false[15][16][7] and expressed "outrage" after the book's publishing.[17][18] They furthermore expressed their dismay that Martha Beck has refused to speak with them, while claiming the reverse was true.[15][19]

Although most of the criticism from LDS church members in support of Nibley centered around Beck's allegations of sexual abuse, a substantial portion of the book involves a discussion of the LDS Church and its policies. BYU professor Robert L. Millet criticized Beck's portrayals of Nibley as "nonsense," "ludicrous," and "paranoia," saying that she "seems to be a magnet for improbable happenings" and "equate[s] weird anomalies in Mormon culture with the norm."[20] Kent P. Jackson describes her description of Mormon culture as "outlandish", saying "Beck’s depictions of the church and BYU are so far removed from reality that it is clear that from the start she ruled out BYU faculty, other academics, and informed Latter-day Saints as potential readers. There was obviously no attempt made to establish credibility with those groups. ... this book was written for those who like stories about people victimized by powerful men and powerful institutions. Yet those who really know what she has written about will have a very hard time believing anything in the book."[16] He proceeds to list a number of claims Beck made in the book which he asserts can be verified as false with readily available public information.[16] Dan Wotherspoon, editor of the independent Mormon magazine Sunstone, similarly states "She says a lot of things in there that anyone who lives in Utah will just know is wrong."[18]

Works

Books
  • Beck, Martha Nibley; Beck, John C (1990). Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company. ISBN 978-0-87579-290-3. OCLC 20799870. 
  • —— (1997). Breaking Point: Why Women Fall Apart and How They Can Re-create Their Lives. New York: Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8129-6375-5. 
  • —— (1999). Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic. Times Books. ISBN 978-0812929805. 
  • —— (2001). Finding Your Own North Star. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8129-3218-8. 
  • —— (2003). The Joy Diet: 10 Daily Practices for a Happier Life. Crown Publishers. ISBN 978-0-609-60990-3. 
  • —— (2005). Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith. Crown Publishers. ISBN 9780609609910. OCLC 55494925. 
  • —— (2007). The Four Day Win: End Your Diet War and Achieve Thinner Peace. Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Books. ISBN 978-1-59486-607-4. 
  • —— (2009). Steering by Starlight: The Science and Magic of Finding Your Destiny. Rodale Books. ISBN 978-1-60529-864-1. 
  • —— (2011). Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want. New York: Free Press. ISBN 1-4516-2448-4. 
  • —— (2013). The Martha Beck Collection: Essays on Creating Your Right Life (self-published). Volume 1. San Luis Obispo, California: Martha Beck, Inc. ISBN 978-0989306706. 
  • —— (2016). Diana, Herself: An Allegory of Awakening (self-published). San Luis Obispo, California: Cynosure Publishing. ISBN 978-1944264000. 
Thesis
Multimedia

Beck is also creator of a number of non-book products, primarily digital recording services that offer education and various life coaching strategies.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Beck, Martha N (2006). Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith. Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-307-33599-9.
  2. 1 2 Martha Nibley Beck v. John Christen Beck, FC 2003-006435 SUPERIOR COURT OF ARIZONA MARICOPA COUNTY (2003).
  3. ↑ Beck, Martha N (2001). Expecting Adam. Platkus Books. ISBN 978-0-7499-2190-3.
  4. ↑ Tanner, Jerald and Sandra (November 1993). "MORMON INQUISITION? LDS Leaders Move To Repress Rebellion". Salt Lake Messenger (85). Utah Lighthouse Ministry. Retrieved 2013-08-18.
  5. ↑ "Bio - Martha Beck". Martha Beck. Retrieved 2016-03-03.
  6. ↑ Beck, Martha Nibley; Beck, John C (1990). Breaking the Cycle of Compulsive Behavior. Deseret Book Company. ISBN 978-0-87579-290-3.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Wyatt, Edward (24 February 2005). "A Mormon Daughter's Book Stirs a Storm". New York Times. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  8. ↑ Beck, Martha. "Discussions with Martha Beck: What Comes Next". Leaving the Saints Book Website. Archived from the original on 2 July 2005. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  9. ↑ Clark, Jason (27 February 2005), LDS Couple Who Dubbed Homosexuality "Addiction" Come Out, Affirmation: Gay & Lesbian Mormons, archived from the original on 2012-07-24, retrieved 2007-04-24
  10. ↑ "The New York Times Books Best-Seller Lists—Hardcover Nonfiction". March 27, 2005. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  11. ↑ Lyon, Tania R (2005). "An Exhaustive Memoir of Reading "Leaving the Saints"" (PDF). Sunstone Magazine. pp. 70–75. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
  12. ↑ Peterson, Boyd Jay (2002). Hugh Nibley: A Consecrated Life. Greg Kofford Books. ISBN 1-58958-020-6.
  13. 1 2 3 Peterson, Boyd Jay (2005). "Response to "Leaving the Saints"". FAIR: Defending Mormonism. Archived from the original on 18 March 2005. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  14. ↑ Beck, Martha (2005). "Setting the Record Straight: Physical Evidence & Memories From My Childhood". Archived from the original on 2 July 2005. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  15. 1 2 3 Nibley, Paul; Mincek, Christina Nibley; Nibley, Tom; Nibley, Michael; Nibley, Alex; Nibley, Rebecca; Petersen, Zina Nibley (22 February 2005). "Nibley family response to Martha Beck's Leaving the Saints". Archived from the original on 1 March 2005. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  16. 1 2 3 Jackson, Kent P. (2005). "Leaving the Facts and the Faith" (PDF). FARMS Review. 17 (1): 107-121. ISSN 1550-3194. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  17. ↑ Lythgoe, Dennis (2005-02-05). "Nibley siblings outraged over sister's book". Deseret News. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  18. 1 2 Reid, T. R. (8 May 2005). "Daughter's Denunciation of Historian Roils Mormon Church". Washington Post. pp. A03. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  19. ↑ Peterson, Boyd Jay (6 August 2005). "As Things Stand at the Moment: Responding to Martha Beck's Leaving the Saints". FairMormon. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
  20. ↑ Millet, Robert L. (July 1, 2005). "They Leave It, But They Can't Leave It Alone: The memoir of a disaffected Mormon". Books & Culture. Christianity Today. Retrieved 7 April 2017.
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