A Protestant Christian sect known as Mormons openly practiced polygamy throughout the 19th century. In 1890, faced with seizures of their churches and other property under the new federal polygamist act, the Church of Latter Day Saints officially denounced polygamy. Shortly thereafter, the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Days Saints was formed by those who refused to adhere to the new policies. Today their traditions of forced marriages and multiple wives for each man continue.
Located throughout the North Western United States, there just under 40,000 members of the FLDS, with several hundred located just over the border in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The largest FLDS community, some 10,000 strong, call Colorado State home. Shrouded in secrecy and living off the grid of mainstream society, they’ve popped on and off the radar for years. Recently, their practices have once again been brought into the light of day.
In April of 2008, a 15 year old girl ran away from a colony in Colorado and reported her plight to the police. Their polygamy was silently accepted, but the forced marriage of a minor now on official record was not. An investigation ensued and not long afterward more than a dozen church members were indicted for having sex with a minor. Suddenly, the secluded community was on the nightly news for all to see. People watched these odd looking people protesting the arrests, their members dressed as though they were homesteaders from a hundred years past. Their communal farming colonies cut off from the outside world were exposed for all to see; so was their habit of routinely marrying girls as young as 14 years of age. Many women in the sect have 3-5 children by the time they are 21 , as a woman’s primary role if to bear as many children as possible. It is believed this will build up what they refer to as the celestial family that will remain with them forever.
The first defendant was convicted in November of 2009, with other trials to come in 2010.
Warren Jeffs is considered by members to be the living Prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. Calling himself a prophet and claiming to be God’s mouthpiece here on earth, Jeffs placed himself in a role of unconditional power. Jeffs was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct with a minor as well as incest in 2006. Found guilty he was sentenced to 15 years to life in 2007.
The number of wives for those men closest to the prophet in the church’s hierarchy moves well into double digits. Church lieutenants have more than 20 wives. Jeffs was thought to have as many as 80 at the time of his arrest.
The FLDS, despite arrests and convictions of some it members, continues its long-standing tradition of polygamy to this day. Only men deemed Godly by the church hierarchy can take more than one wife. They can also have their wives and children re-assignedto other men if afterwards there are deemed unworthy. Church Elder Joe Jessup has 5 wives, 46 children and 239 great grandchildren. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Jessup declared in a recent interview.
Many young boys leave the colony, unofficially excommunicated due to the fact there are no wives for them to marry. The elder guard of the Church take most young girls for themselves and in turn, solidify their position of power over the younger men.
The latest rash of arrests built off the complaint of a 15 year old girl from a Colorado colony has once again produced convictions, but there is little to suggest the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints will ever stop such behavior. For more than a century they have defied the law and one can only assume they will continue to do so in the future.
From David Anthony Hohol…
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