Imagine having no control regarding who you're going to spend the rest of your life with, who you will have children with.

You wake up one morning as a normal high schooler, and then later that day your parents get word that the Messiah has chosen a husband or a wife for you.

And by Messiah I mean an egomaniacal Korean con artist that you've probably never even met,

but your parents have had a shrine to him in your house for years.

Within a matter of days, you find yourself at the Messiah's house in upstate New York,

where the Messiah lives, of course, crammed into a giant ballroom with dozens, if not

hundreds of other people your age, some of whom you recognize

from church. Others you don't. They speak in unfamiliar languages. They might be Korean,

or Norwegian, or German, and they might be your future spouse you just don't know yet

finally an elderly Korean man enters and you feel like the air has gone out of the room

with one hand he starts pointing at the crowd

matching up couples you and you you and you two by two they leave the room headed into

their futures headed into eternity as you've been taught your entire life.

And you want to scream, you want to flee.

Something about this does not seem right.

You're only 16, maybe 17, you can't consent to get married, you're terrified that you won't like the person and more than anything

You're terrified of showing any of your emotions on your face right now because if you say no to this elderly man

You are saying no to the Messiah you are saying no to your

families got this might sound like a fictional handmaids tale type of

situation but for hundreds of thousands of people over several decades.

It was very, very real.

It was happening all around the world to members of a church,

...