The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement, and it is America's largest polygamous group. The church is not affiliated with the more prominent Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from which it splintered in the early 20th century. The current leader of the church is Warren Jeffs, who became leader on the death of his father Rulon Jeffs in 2002. The headquarters are in Hildale, Utah, which is a twin city with Colorado City, Arizona.
Membership and headquarters
The number of members of the church is unknown; however, their population is estimated at between 6,000 to 8,000 in the twin communities of Colorado City, Mohave County and Hildale, Washington County. The church also has a colony in Bountiful, Canada. In each of these towns, the church is the primary influence and reason for being.
Distinctive doctrines
The church teaches plurality of wives as a general requirement for the highest eternal salvation of men. It is generally believed in the church that a man should have three wives to fulfill this requirement. Leader and Prophet Rulon T. Jeffs married 22 women and fathered more than 60 children. Critics of this belief say that its practice leads unavoidably to bride shortages and likely to child marriages, incest, and child abuse.
The church currently practices "The Law of Placing" under which all marriages are assigned by the prophet of the church. Many outside of the church, and some inside, view this practice as unduly authoritarian though it helps address by edict the problem of wife shortages. Under the Law of Placing, the prophet elects to give or take wives to or from men according to their worthiness.
According to FLDS accounts, Brigham Young visited the site of Hildale and Colorado City and stated that "this is the right place [and it] will someday be the head and not the tail of the church [and]...the granaries of the Saints."
History
The area of Hildale and Colorado City have a long history of polygamy, dating from the early decades of the 20th century. The cities were once known as Short Creek, founded in 1913 as a ranching community; however, it soon became a gathering place from polygamist members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1935, the LDS Church excommunicated Short Creek's polygamist residents who refused to sign an oath renouncing polygamy, after which the FLDS Church was organized by John Y. Barlow, who would be the leader, and his friend Joseph White Musser. The location on the Utah-Arizona border was ideal because the group could avoid raids by one state by moving across the invisible state line to the other.
In 1953, Arizona police authorities organized what became known as the "Short Creek Raid", in which numerous leaders were arrested and taken to Kingman, Arizona. However, public sentiment turned against the authorities after newsreels showed children being taken from their mothers and fathers being thrown in jail.
In 2003 the church received increased attention from the State of Utah when police officer Rodney Holm, a member of the church, was convicted of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old and one count of bigamy for his marriage to and impregnation of plural wife Ruth Stubbs. The conviction was the first legal action against a member of the church since an ill-fated 1953 raid from Arizona that doomed the political career of Governor Howard Pyle.
In November 2003, church member David Allred purchased "as a hunting retreat" the 1,371 acre (5.5 km²) Isaacs ranch 4 miles northeast of Eldorado, Texas on Schleicher County Road 300 and sent 30 to 40 construction workers from Colorado City-Hildale to begin work on the property. Improvements soon included three 3-story houses--each 8,000 to 10,000 square feet (740 to 930 m²), a concrete plant and a plowed field. After seeing high-profile FLDS critic Flora Jessop on the ABC television program Primetime Live on March 4, 2004, concerned Eldorado residents contacted Jessop. She investigated and on March 25, 2004 held a press conference in Eldorado confirming that the new Eldorado neighbors were FLDS adherents. On May 18, 2004, Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran and his Chief Deputy visited Colorado City, and the FLDS church officially acknowledged that the Schleicher County property would be a new base for the church. It has been reported in the media that the Church is building a temple at the YFZ Ranch, which has been supported by evidence including aerial photographs of a large stone structure (approximately 88 feet wide) being built. A local newspaper, 'The Eldorado Success', reported that the temple foundation was dedicated January 1, 2005 by Warren Jeffs. If true, the FLDS will be the third Latter Day Saint denomination to build a temple, and the first outside of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to operate a temple for live ordinances besides baptism.
In October 2004 disaffected members of the church reported that David Allred purchased a 60 acre (240,000 m²) parcel of land near Mancos, Colorado (midway between Cortez and Durango) about the same time he bought the Schleicher County property. Allred told authorities the parcel is to be used as a hunting retreat.
On January 10, 2004, the church suffered major upheaval when Dan Barlow, the mayor of Colorado City, and about 20 men were excommunicated from the church and stripped of their wives and children (who would be reassigned to other men), and the right to live in the town. As a result, a few teenage women reportedly fled the towns with the aid of anti-polygamy advocates. Two of the young women, Fawn Broadbent and Fawn Holm, soon found themselves in a broadly publicized dispute over their freedom and custody. They fled state custody together on February 15, and have been on the run in multiple states since.
Allegations of welfare fraud, tax fraud, incest, statutory rape, physical, emotional and psychological abuse--hidden by a veil of secrecy, isolation, and deprivation--in the FLDS dominated communities have been widely reported in 2004 throughout United States media. It has been estimated that 33% of the men, women and children in the group are receiving state and federal aid, though 0% unemployment was reported in the 2000 census.
Allegations also have been made that in the four and a half years ending in 2004, the FLDS has excommunicated over 400 teenaged boys, some as young as 13, for seemingly trivial offenses. Former members claim that the purpose of these excommunciations is that in a polygamous society these young men present competition to the older men for multiple wives, and that the boys must go. Six such teenaged boys have filed a conspiracy lawsuit against Jeffs and Sam Barlow, a former Mohave County deputy sheriff and close associate of Jeffs, for a "systematic excommuncation" of young men to reduce competition for wives.
External links
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Religion News Blog Current and archived news articles on the FLDS, collected by Apologetics Index
Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13
