Fundamentalist Mormons stress polygamy above all else

c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) When more than 400 children were removed from a fundamentalist Mormon compound in Eldorado, Texas, the raid prompted two big questions: who are these people, and how are they different from mainstream Mormons? The roots and beliefs of the Texas sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) When more than 400 children were removed from a fundamentalist Mormon compound in Eldorado, Texas, the raid prompted two big questions: who are these people, and how are they different from mainstream Mormons?

The roots and beliefs of the Texas sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), go back to the founding of the mainstream Mormonism in the 19th century.


In the 1840s, Mormon prophet Joseph Smith taught “plural marriage” was given to him in a divine revelation, ordained by God as sacred. As Mormons migrated west, they took polygamy with them.

But in 1890, after Smith’s death, the mainstream church disavowed polygamy, partly as a means of gaining statehood for Utah. By 1904, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pledged to excommunicate anyone in plural marriage _ a policy that continues today. Modern Mormons in good standing with the LDS church eschew polygamy as an earthly practice, but recognize it as a “divine principle” that may apply in heaven.

But some Mormons continued the practice, believing what was ordained by God could not be revoked by man. “These people believe God doesn’t change his mind,” said Jan Shipps, a prominent historian of Mormonism. “They felt the main church went astray.”

In the early 1900s, polygamous Mormons clustered in the remote southern Utah region called Short Creek in hopes they could avoid church and government oversight. They could not, and all Short Creek polygamists were excommunicated by the LDS church in the 1930s.

Soon, schisms led to multiple polygamist sects, including the FLDS sect a the center of the Eldorado raid. The FLDS church’s teachings and practices include:

_ The Prophet

The group is led by a single man known as “The Prophet” who is believed to receive divine revelations from God. The mainstream Mormon church is also lead by a male prophet (currently Thomas S. Monson) who receives divine revelations. But unlike the mainstream church, nothing is done without the permission or direction of the FLDS prophet, who arranges all marriages.

Scholars are not certain of the identity of the current prophet. Until his arrest and conviction on accomplice to rape charges in 2007, Warren Jeffs was the leader of the FLDS church. Some experts believe he continues to guide the group from prison.


_ Polygamy

FLDS Members believe polygamy is ordained by God and brings blessings and sanctity to its practitioners. First wives are typically taken legally, with a marriage license, while other unions are “sealed” only in the church’s temple.

_ Covenant Children

Children produced in plural marriages are called “covenant children,” a title used by 19th century Mormons to describe their children. They are to help usher in the millennium and pave the way for the biblically-predicted return of Jesus Christ.

_ Sacred Scriptures

The FLDS church and the mainstream church have the same scriptures _ The Book of Mormon, revealed to Smith; Doctrines and Covenants, revelations of the mainstream church’s prophets; and The Pearl of Great Price. But FLDS church members disregard the Doctrine and Covenants after its 1890 revelation against polygamy.

“Up to 1890, any official documents of our church they accept,” said Richard Holzapfel, a professor of church history at Brigham Young University. “But by 1904, they are decidedly rejecting the documents of the (mainstream) church. This is really where they separate from us, because they would not sign the oath against polygamy” required by the LDS church in the early 1900s.

_ Membership

While there are 13 million mainstream Mormons worldwide, scholars estimate about 37,000 polygamous Mormons divided over a dozen fundamentalist groups. The FLDS church has perhaps 10,000 members across the U.S. mountain states, Canada and Mexico.

But their numbers are fluid. “How can you count them?” Shipps asked. “They do not want to be counted.”


Just as their numbers are veiled, so are their religious practices. Like mainstream Mormons, FLDS Mormons perform rites and rituals inside their temple, which is off-limits to all non-church members.

In the Eldorado raid, authorities found beds in the temple. It is unclear what their purpose was, and prosecutors are questioning members and children about their practices. But, like their mainstream counterparts, FLDS members are forbidden to discuss what happens inside temple walls.

The recent raid on the FLDS compound is by no means the first. In 1953, the U.S. government swept into Short Creek and took 236 children into custody. Many adults were arrested and other families fled the region and continued the practice in secret.

That intervention had an unexpected result _ the group, though scattered, gained strength and sympathy.

“Almost everyone will agree that the Short Creek raid was the best thing that ever happened to the FLDS,” said veteran religion reporter Don Lattin, author of “Jesus Freaks,” a look at the Children of God, another polygamous sect. “There was a real public reaction against the raid, that it was an abuse of government authority. They got a few convictions, but considering all the lives that were disrupted, people really questioned the wisdom of it.”

KRE/CM END WINSTON

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