Hugh Nibley - Family Controversy

Family Controversy

Nibley's daughter Martha Beck, is an American sociologist, therapist, and life coach in Arizona. Beck is also a best-selling author and holds an A.B. in East Asian Studies, and an A.M. and a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University. She also had at one time in the 1990s taught in the Sociology Department at LDS Church owned Brigham Young University during the time five faculty members were excommunicated from the LDS Church for their scholarly public writings that were deemed critical of the LDS Church.

In 2005, Beck received national attention after publication of her best-selling book, Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith, in which Beck describes recovered memories of sexual abuse by her father, and details the circumstances of how she left the LDS Church. Hugh Nibley's family, including Beck's siblings, have responded by claiming that the book's accusations against their father are false and have expressed "outrage" at the book and accusations.