Like the dozens of other people who were said to reside there, my mom’s neighbor lived in a trailer on 476 acres of packed dirt—surrounded by ankhs, obelisks, sphinxes, and other Egyptian motifs—that the residents called Tama-Re and that, after York’s arrest, the media dubbed “Egypt of the West.” In articles, some people said the then fifty-six-year-old York claimed complete control over the lives of his congregation. He rationed their food. Women weren’t allowed to leave the compound. Sometimes there was no electricity. Soon there was talk that five children, as young as four years old, said
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