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Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements. FLDS History. Name: Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints large Mormon denomination plural marriage Split
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Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements
FLDS History • Name: Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints • large Mormon denomination • plural marriage • Split • Where: Utah, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, Creston and Bountiful, BC
LDS vs FLDS • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS; Mormon Church) is notaffiliated with the FLDS Church. • LDS polygamy punished by excommunication • FLDS Church believes LDS Church has forsaken the original teachings of the early leaders of Mormonism
Warren Jeffs • On FBI’s Most Wanted list from May-August 2006 • Leader until November 20, 2007 • Guilty of two counts of accomplice to rape. • 10 years to life • Resigned as President of the corporation
April 2008 Raid • March 30, 2008: call to Flora Jessop • tip to Texas Child Protective Services • CPS took custody of all children at Yearning for Zion Ranch • April 3-10: Texas Rangers in control of YFZ • Rozita Swinton charged with filing a false report • May 29: Texas Supreme Court: • Texas CPS not justified • orders children to be returned
Media bias? FLDS on Oprah (8:00)
Plural marriage and placement marriage • plural marriage • multiple wives • to receive the highest form of salvation. • minimum of three wives • patriarchal doctrine • wives subordinate to husbands. • placement marriage • Husband assigned by revelation to the prophetic leader of the church • prophet takes and give wives to and from men according to their worthiness
Dress • Men • plain clothing • long-sleeved collared shirt • full-length pants. • women • No short hair • No makeup • No pants • No skirt above the knees. • monochromatic homemade long-sleeved "prairie dresses," • hems between ankle and mid-calf • long stockings or trousers underneath • hair coiffed. • No tattoos or body piercings
Property ownership • FLDS land on the Utah/Arizona owned by “United Effort Plan” (UEP) • UEP was once a subsidiary organization of the church. • UEP owns most of the business property controlled by FLDS members • The church views this "United Order" as a means of living the traditional Latter Day Saint doctrine of the "Law of Consecration." • Utah Attorney General wants distribute UEP assets to FLDS members and ex-members • 2005 court order froze the UEP, worth $100 million.
Home schooling • In 2000, Colorado City Unified School District had more than 1200 students. • Jeffs ordered FLDS members to remove their children from public schools • number declined to around 250
Lost Boys • Polygyny: problematic for a closed community • equal numbers of boy and girl babies are born. • Policies to control: • expulsion of excess males • importing additional females • genetic disorders due to inbreeding • Teenage women • restricted education • matched up with older men • before interested in boys their own age.
Education • According to The Economist, Canadian FLDS schools provide minimal education. • Boys: farm and forest laborers. • Girls: brides and mothers. • Children normally leave school at 13 or 14.
A teenWe offer an opportunity of a lifetime into the exclusive unseen world of, Eliza, a teenager inside the most controversial Polygamist community in the world. This is from Eliza’s first hand perspective. 2 mothers, 26 siblings and her daily activities.– cleaning, hiking and obedience. There is no TV, music, nor internet. The only thing she’s allowed is sew, hike in “the narrows” and help the family. On occasion she helps with the family’s rabbit “meat” business saying “the rabbits get boring. There’s about 500 of them, Father takes them to California once a month.” (Giggling). When Eliza is not doing this, she goes in and out of the community and does “the forbidden”. FLDS Eliza
FLDS/Canada's marriage practices (http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_poly1a.htm) • Subsequent marriages are unregistered • new wives apply for welfare • Media allegations: • teenage women exported from U.S. to Bountiful, BC
Marriage Beliefs (http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_poly1a.htm) • Men need three wives and many children • to enter highest level of heaven • to evolve into a God • taught by Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons • marriage ceremony: • woman places her hand in the man's hand • "the patriarchal grip." • woman's role: • serve a man • be submissive to his needs • Disobedient women will burn in Hell for eternity. • wife can attain highest heaven if invited by her husband • pressure on women to please husband
Marriage Beliefs (http://www.religioustolerance.org/lds_poly1a.htm) • No sexual intercourse if pregnant • FLDS defense: • plural marriages are celestial, not legal unions • FLDS men are not legally polygamists • they are only adulterers • Adultery is not a criminal act. • However: • Check the specific wording of the Law prohibiting polygamy in Canada. .
Criminal Code of Canada, Section 293 • Every one who: • (a) practises or enters into or in any manner agrees or consents to practise or enter into • (i) any form of polygamy, or • (ii) any kind of conjugal union with more than one person at the same time, whether or not it is by law recognized as a binding form of marriage, or • (b) celebrates, assists or is a party to a rite, ceremony, contract or consent that purports to sanction a relationship mentioned in subparagraph (i) or (ii), • is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years. • Where an accused is charged with an offence under this section, no averment or proof of the method by which the alleged relationship was entered into, agreed to or consented to is necessary in the indictment or on the trial of the accused, nor is it necessary on the trial to prove that the persons who are alleged to have entered into the relationship had or intended to have sexual intercourse.
Review: FLDS • FLDS History: Split from main Mormon church 100 years ago • Where: Utah, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, South Dakota, Creston and Bountiful, BC • Warren Jeffs • Leader until November 20, 2007 • April 2008 Raid • March 30, 2008 tip • April 3-10: Texas Rangers in control of YFZ Ranch. • May 29: Texas Supreme Court rules orders children to be returned. • Plural marriage and placement marriage • a man having multiple wives is ordained by God • wives are required to be subordinate to their husbands. • Women are assigned a husband by revelation to the prophet. • Social implications of polygyny • excess males must leave (teen years) • Importing females • genetic disorders • Females marry young before develop an interest in boys their own age. • New unregistered wives can apply for welfare as single mothers. • minimal education