History of Fundamentalist Mormon Movements: Part 4

I will use the FLDS, formerly and possibly still headed by Warren Jeffs as an example since it is the central and probably best known fundamentalist group but it is the same in several other groups as well. The "prophet/president" (Warren Jeffs actual title was/ may still be, "President and Prophet, Seer and Revelator") controls the property of the group. This includes the land, housing, money and wives. He, and it is always a man since only men can hold the priesthood in all of Mormonism, then assigns everything to his male followers. This includes living quarters, jobs, cars to drive, and wives. In many cases, but not all, wives can be "reassigned" as punishment. However, it is usually not phrased as a "punishment," there will usually be something about the wife having been given into the mans "safe keeping" for "spiritual guidance" and the man having "failed at his task." Therefore she must be reassigned to another man "who is better suited to the task."

Not all of these groups do this and a few do respect the Mormon tradition of a marriage being a "sealing" of a man and a woman "for time and eternity." FLDS is one of the extremist groups in which the leader may reassign everything including wives. As stated earlier, in the extreme groups, in which the leader exercises total control as "the prophet of god," the women are given little or no say in the matter. This is where the trouble comes in, particularly when the "woman" in question is 13, 14, 15, or 16 years old and is being forced into an unlawful marriage (the marriage is unlawful on two counts, the female is a minor, below the age to lawfully wed, and the marriage is polygamous).

To this is added another tidbit, Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints have sites in three states; at Hilldale, Utah; Colorado City, Arizona and Eldorado, Texas as well as two foreign countries, Mexico and Canada. The young girls may be shifted from site to site, across state and even international boundaries in order to keep them form being tracked by law enforcement or social services. Other fundamentalist groups have similar setups, though few have as extensive a network as the FLDS. The next and final article in this series will look at other issues with fundamentalist Mormon groups.