Carrie Sheffield’s Shocking Childhood

Carrie Sheffield is known within conservative journalism circles as a talented columnist and broadcaster. She is a graduate of Harvard University and a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum, but many who have followed Sheffield’s work were surprised to learn of her harrowing childhood, detailed in her new memoir. 

Growing up, Sheffield attended 17 public schools in addition to sometimes being homeschooled. She and her seven siblings spent much of their childhood living in a motor home with a father who believed he was a prophet, a challenging reality that inspired the title of Sheffield’s book, “Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness.” 

Sheffield reveals on the “Problematic Women” podcast that her family often lived in “Third World” conditions within the U.S.

I describe the existence as “careening between a Third World and a First World existence” quite frequently. So, sometimes we did have houses, and we were living in a regular house. But then we would be back living in the motor home, and then sometimes we’d be living in a tent.

So, my mom gave birth to my brother when the family was living in a tent. When I took my ACT exam to go to college, we were living in a shed with no running water. It would be piped in from one of those greenhouses, so it was really unstable. I would say that’s probably the strongest—or the most consistent word was inconsistency. 

And the reason we lived this way is because my dad claimed that he was a prophet. He was excommunicated from the official Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints … . But his philosophy and kind of theology is part of the broader kind of Mormon diaspora.

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There are lots of different offshoot groups, and my dad just kind of became a self-styled homegrown Mormon prophet—self-proclaimed.  

Through a series of events, including her brother attempting to rape her, Sheffield made the decision as a teen that she needed to leave home. 

“I told my dad that I wanted to go away to college, and he raised his right hand … like he was making an oath,” Sheffield recalls, “and he said, ‘I prophesy in the name of Jesus that you’ll be raped and murdered if you leave.’ So, at that moment, it was a crossroads. Do I stay and face physical violence potentially from my brother again or do I leave and have the potential of this prophecy coming true? I decided to take my chances and left home and my dad.” 

Sheffield’s road to becoming a successful professional was not instantaneous after she left home. In her memoir, she details many of the challenges she had to overcome and how her childhood has affected her as an adult. 

Sheffield’s determination in the face of hardship and abuse, and her desire for truth, has rightly earned her the title of “Problematic Woman.” 

Catch the conversation with Sheffield on this week’s edition of the “Problematic Women” podcast below: