Desire, Relationships, and Sexual Freedom Theme Analysis

The Kingdom of Matthias documents the rise and fall of a religious cult in the 1800s. However, despite claiming to be religiously motivated, the cult members are often more forcefully motivated by sexual desires. Cult leader Matthews, for example, invents new rules so that he can seduce his follower Benjamin Folger’s wife, Ann. Ann’s involvement in the cult, too, is largely driven by her romance with Matthews: her faith wanes along with her desire for Matthews. Matthews also often manipulates his followers by appealing to their sexual desires. He pairs off cult members who are attracted to each other (regardless of whom they’re actually married to), claiming that he’s enacting God’s will. Some cult members happily comply, while others feel coerced. The primacy of sex and sexuality in motivating the actions of cult members, along with the sexual abuse that ultimately runs rampant through the cult, suggests two things: first, that sexual desire is an innate and powerful part of human experience regardless of religious notions of purity; and second, that because of the centrality of sex and sexuality in human experience, in oppressive or dictatorial contexts sex itself quickly becomes perversely tied up in efforts to assert or maintain power and control.

While Matthews’s cult is originally meant to serve as a religiously pure community in a world of sin, the cult quickly and profoundly shifts to accommodate the sexual desires of its leader. Further, Matthews finds ways to continue to speak in the language of religion while in fact serving his sexual desire. After growing attracted to his follower Benjamin Folger’s wife, Ann, Matthews claims to have visions about which cult members should be together—including him and Ann. For her part, Ann is an ardent believer in Matthews’s religion when she’s sexually and romantically attracted to him, but her commitment to the cult ends when she stops desiring Matthews. Matthews also manipulates disgruntled cult members by pairing them off with people whom they’re attracted to—he uses sexual desire (rather than solely faith) as a motivator in his cult. Shortly after beginning a relationship with Ann, Matthews pairs Ann’s husband Benjamin (who’s the primary financial provider for the cult, and who’s deeply disheartened by losing Ann) with two different women (including his own daughter, Isabella Laisdell) to placate him. After Isabella Laisdell’s husband, Charles Laisdell, retrieves her from the cult, Matthews pairs Benjamin with Catherine Galloway. Benjamin is less satisfied by this second match, and he grows dissatisfied with the cult. From beginning to end, the members of this cult founded for religious purposes are motivated easily as much by sex as by faith.

While some cult members embrace the sexual freedom that becomes characteristic of the cult, for other cult members the sexual fluidity is not a form of freedom at all. Quite the contrary, it’s Matthews—not the cult members themselves—who largely decides who should have relationships with each other. Matthews and Ann begin a relationship without Benjamin’s consent, even though Benjamin is already married to Ann. Ann continues her sexual relationship with Benjamin while she’s with Matthews, but Benjamin feels disheartened, lost, and heartbroken, showing that his boundaries are not respected in this arrangement. Similarly, Matthews pairs Benjamin with Catherine Galloway, but Benjamin is dissatisfied with the match, suggesting once more that his consent is not factored into the arrangement. At another time, Matthews locks a cult member with whom he is annoyed, Mrs. Thompson, into a room against her will while deciding whom to revengefully pair her off with, though her husband rescues her before this can happen. It is clear, then, that Matthews uses the sexual “freedom” within the cult to establish and maintain his power, as well as to satisfy his whims. The sexual freedom of the cult is a fiction, reserved for its leader and used by that leader to manipulate and control his followers.

After the existence of the cult is revealed to public scandal, cult members attempt to hide and obscure the sexual openness with which they operated. For instance, while Ann Folger enjoyed the sexually open aspects of the cult, during Matthews’s trial she delivers damning testimony against him, painting herself as an innocent, chaste victim. Ann’s concealment of her sexual behavior shows her worries about being rejected by society for being too promiscuous. Benjamin conceals his relationships with Isabella Laisdell and Catherine Galloway for the same reason. These characters’ actions suggest a complicated relationship with sex and sexuality. For one thing, their actions suggest that it’s only the fear of social shame that interferes with people engaging in more sexually open ways. Further, it suggests that such shaming can drive people to explore sexually atypical behavior in secret, but that the prospect of being shamed for that behavior can contribute to such sex being used for abusive or exploitative purposes. The Kingdom of Matthias shows how, in the repressive environment of a community like Matthews’s cult, sex becomes a means to assert power and control. But it also shows how the seeming freedom offered by the cult allows people to experiment with a sexual openness not allowed by mainstream society, and therefore implies how the shaming so common in mainstream society makes the sexual opportunities in the cult both initially attractive and prone to abuse. In this way, the book suggests that a freer, more open society would enable people to explore their sexual and romantic urges in healthier ways, without falling prey to nonconsensual and manipulative environments like the cult.