International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 3, 2012 57
negative attention and legal threats that underage
marriage had brought to the communities back
in Utah and Arizona, the FLDS members
continued the practice in their new locale.
According to a December 2008 Texas
Department of Family and Protective Services
report after the raid, Child Protective Services
found that 12 girls who ranged in age from 12 to
15 were victims of sexual abuse at the [Yearning
for Zion] Ranch with the knowledge of their
parents. The investigation also found those girls
and 262 other children were subjected to neglect
under Texas law. In these instances, the parents
failed to remove their child from a situation in
which the child would be exposed to sexual
abuse committed against another child within
their families or households:
There were 124 designated perpetrators
as a result of this investigation.
Designated perpetrators included men
who engaged in underage marriages
parents who failed to take reasonable
steps to prevent an underage daughter
from marrying an older adult male and
parents who placed their child in, or
refused to remove their child from, a
situation in which the children would be
exposed to sexual abuse committed
against another child. (Texas
Department of Family and Protective
Services, 2008, p. 14)
As a result of evidence gathered from the raid,
eight men associated with the Texas facility
(including Warren Jeffs himself) received
convictions for various forms of child sexual
abuse.3 The practice of underage polygamous
3 In December 2009, Allan Keate received a 33-year prison
sentence for sexually assaulting a child (Waller, 2009). Nearly a
year later, Keith Dutson Jr. received a 6-year prison sentence and a
$10,000 fine for sexually assaulting a child (Waller, 2010). In
August 2011, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs went to jail for life in
reaction to his polygamous marriages to a 12-year-old and a 15-
year-old girl (Pilkington, 2011). Later in the month, Michael
Emack lost an appeal against his 7-year sentence on sexual assault
charges stemming from his marriage to an underage girl (Orellana
&Whitehurst, 2011). On November 1, 2011, Leroy Johnson Steed
went to prison for 7 years on two counts of bigamy and one count
of child sexual assault (Waller, 2011). Less than a week later, a
jury gave Fredrick Merrill Jessop a 10-year sentence for marrying
a 12-year-old girl to leader Warren Jeffs (Collier, 2011). In April
2012, an appeals court upheld the sexual assault conviction of
Raymond Merill Jessop for marrying a 15-year-old girl (Alberty,
2012). The next month (May 2012) a Texas appeals court upheld
marriage simply was too ingrained into their
practice of polygamy for them to cease doing it.
Millenarianism
Another scripturally related set of beliefs that
has facilitated or sanctified pedophilia is
millenarianism—the
belief held by some Christians, on the
authority of the Book of Revelation
(10), that after his Second Coming
Christ would establish a messianic
kingdom on earth and would reign over
it for a thousand years before the Last
Judgement. (Cohn, 1970, p. 15)
Usually, these Christians envision that Christ’s
return will be associated with a terrible battle
that he and his loyal legions will fight against
the evil forces of the Antichrist.
Even in the contemporary era, millenarian
beliefs can have dire economic and emotional
consequences for adherents as people give up
their jobs, their homes, their careers, and their
savings in anxious expectation of “the end.”
What also causes concern, however, is the
frequent abolition of conventional morality that
occurs in some millenarian group environments.
Believers set themselves above and outside of
society’s laws, claiming that they—the
“chosen”—have a divine calling that does not
operate within normal constraints. When the
normal constraints that some millenarian groups
ignore include sexual taboos and laws, then
children and teens often become predatory
targets.
John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida
Community
A clear example of such an abolition of
conventional morality—and the resultant sexual-
abuse variant called ephebophilia (sexual
activity with teenagers)—comes from the
nineteenth century intentional community
named Oneida. It flourished in upstate New
York for about forty years (beginning in 1848)
and at one time had 300 members (Robertson,
1972, p. xi). Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes,
the conviction of Abram Harker Jeffs for a first-degree, felony
child sexual assault in his marriage to a 14-year-old (Waller,
2012).
negative attention and legal threats that underage
marriage had brought to the communities back
in Utah and Arizona, the FLDS members
continued the practice in their new locale.
According to a December 2008 Texas
Department of Family and Protective Services
report after the raid, Child Protective Services
found that 12 girls who ranged in age from 12 to
15 were victims of sexual abuse at the [Yearning
for Zion] Ranch with the knowledge of their
parents. The investigation also found those girls
and 262 other children were subjected to neglect
under Texas law. In these instances, the parents
failed to remove their child from a situation in
which the child would be exposed to sexual
abuse committed against another child within
their families or households:
There were 124 designated perpetrators
as a result of this investigation.
Designated perpetrators included men
who engaged in underage marriages
parents who failed to take reasonable
steps to prevent an underage daughter
from marrying an older adult male and
parents who placed their child in, or
refused to remove their child from, a
situation in which the children would be
exposed to sexual abuse committed
against another child. (Texas
Department of Family and Protective
Services, 2008, p. 14)
As a result of evidence gathered from the raid,
eight men associated with the Texas facility
(including Warren Jeffs himself) received
convictions for various forms of child sexual
abuse.3 The practice of underage polygamous
3 In December 2009, Allan Keate received a 33-year prison
sentence for sexually assaulting a child (Waller, 2009). Nearly a
year later, Keith Dutson Jr. received a 6-year prison sentence and a
$10,000 fine for sexually assaulting a child (Waller, 2010). In
August 2011, FLDS leader Warren Jeffs went to jail for life in
reaction to his polygamous marriages to a 12-year-old and a 15-
year-old girl (Pilkington, 2011). Later in the month, Michael
Emack lost an appeal against his 7-year sentence on sexual assault
charges stemming from his marriage to an underage girl (Orellana
&Whitehurst, 2011). On November 1, 2011, Leroy Johnson Steed
went to prison for 7 years on two counts of bigamy and one count
of child sexual assault (Waller, 2011). Less than a week later, a
jury gave Fredrick Merrill Jessop a 10-year sentence for marrying
a 12-year-old girl to leader Warren Jeffs (Collier, 2011). In April
2012, an appeals court upheld the sexual assault conviction of
Raymond Merill Jessop for marrying a 15-year-old girl (Alberty,
2012). The next month (May 2012) a Texas appeals court upheld
marriage simply was too ingrained into their
practice of polygamy for them to cease doing it.
Millenarianism
Another scripturally related set of beliefs that
has facilitated or sanctified pedophilia is
millenarianism—the
belief held by some Christians, on the
authority of the Book of Revelation
(10), that after his Second Coming
Christ would establish a messianic
kingdom on earth and would reign over
it for a thousand years before the Last
Judgement. (Cohn, 1970, p. 15)
Usually, these Christians envision that Christ’s
return will be associated with a terrible battle
that he and his loyal legions will fight against
the evil forces of the Antichrist.
Even in the contemporary era, millenarian
beliefs can have dire economic and emotional
consequences for adherents as people give up
their jobs, their homes, their careers, and their
savings in anxious expectation of “the end.”
What also causes concern, however, is the
frequent abolition of conventional morality that
occurs in some millenarian group environments.
Believers set themselves above and outside of
society’s laws, claiming that they—the
“chosen”—have a divine calling that does not
operate within normal constraints. When the
normal constraints that some millenarian groups
ignore include sexual taboos and laws, then
children and teens often become predatory
targets.
John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida
Community
A clear example of such an abolition of
conventional morality—and the resultant sexual-
abuse variant called ephebophilia (sexual
activity with teenagers)—comes from the
nineteenth century intentional community
named Oneida. It flourished in upstate New
York for about forty years (beginning in 1848)
and at one time had 300 members (Robertson,
1972, p. xi). Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes,
the conviction of Abram Harker Jeffs for a first-degree, felony
child sexual assault in his marriage to a 14-year-old (Waller,
2012).
