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Arizona-Utah border. Shem Fisher alleges that Jeffs acted because Fisher supposedly no
longer adhered to the FLDS faith. (Pamela Manson, Salt Lake Tribune, Internet, 3/12/05)
Move to Check FLDS
Texas State Rep. Harvey Hildebrand has filed bills aimed to control the activities of the new
settlement, in San Angelo, of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints. He would raise the minimum age of marriage with parents‘ consent
from 14 to 16, make it illegal for stepparents to marry stepchildren, and make stricter
residency rules for public office seekers. One bill would allow the local county hospital
district to switch from at-large to single-member district to prevent the FLDS from
controlling the hospital board and its money.
The legislator says he wants to prevent the growth of a community like the ones on the
Arizona-Utah border from which the FLDS settlers have come. An FLDS attorney says it is
impossible to enact laws against the group because sect members believe their salvation
depends on practicing polygamy, and ―there‘s not a lot the state can do to stop someone
who thinks their eternal salvation is at stake.‖ (Bill Hanna, Knight Rider News Service in Salt
Lake Tribune, Internet, 3/28/05)
Texas House Committee Inquiry
Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff has told the Texas House Juvenile Justice and Family
Issues Committee that he spent most of his last term in office trying to bring charges of
pedophilia, child sexual abuse, and welfare fraud against Warren Jeffs, the leader of the
Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS),
which is building a large settlement in Texas.
John Krakauer, who has written a book about the FLDS, told the committee that FLDS
women are assigned husbands by leader Warren Jeffs, prohibited from gaining a formal
education, and cut off from contact with much of the outside world.
Rep. Toby Goodman said: ―I hope this group doesn‘t think it can come to Texas, which is
kind of a law-and-order state, and commit acts of sodomy and child abuse. This state will
literally go after these people.‖ (Cox News Service in Oxford Press, Internet, 4/14/05)
Added to Hate Group List
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups and extremist activities, has
added the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to its list
because of leader Warren Jeffs’ remarks that blacks are the ―seed of Cain‖ and ―uncouth
or rude and filthy ...low in their habits, wild and seemingly deprived of nearly all the
blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed on mankind.‖ (Pamela Mason, Salt
Lake Tribune, Internet, 4/21/05)
Senate Rejects Broad Grounds for School Takeover
The Arizona Senate has voted to limit to ―financial mismanagement‖ the possible grounds
for state takeovers of dysfunctional school districts. The legislators acted in response to
reform calls stemming from allegations that the school district, staffed mainly by members
of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was not in
compliance with many state regulations. One senator said that state funding for Colorado
City‘s public schools ―supports the polygamist community and, indirectly, the victimization
of young women.‖ (AP in Mohave Daily News, Internet, 4/29/05)
State Seizes Funds
A Utah court has temporarily frozen $100 million in land, housing, and other assets of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) because of

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2005, Page 49
―sufficient evidence‖ that FLDS head Warren Jeffs, and several of his associates in a
controlling trust, committed a breach of faith by selling property to church insiders at less
than market value. The attorney general of Arizona, which is home to an FLDS community,
called the ruling ―a major step toward reducing the arbitrary power of Warren Jeffs and
protecting the trust from his manipulation, liquidation [Jeff‘s appears to be moving his
headquarters settlement to Texas], and misuse.‖ (Robert Anglen, Arizona Republic,
Internet, 5/28/05)
Buildings Disappear in Wake of Judgment
Two buildings in the adjoining Arizona and Utah communities of the Fundamentalist
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have been dismantled and carted away in
the wake of a Utah judge‘s order to freeze the assets of the trust that controls most of the
property and assets in the polygamous communities. (AP in KSL NewsRadio 1160, Internet,
6/2/05)
AG Says He Can’t Prosecute Polygamy
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff says, ―There‘s no way we have the resources‖ to
prosecute polygamy in Utah. The number of polygamists in the state, between 30,000 and
40,000, are too many to move against and put in jail, he explained. And the upshot, if the
state were to act, he said, would be to leave 20,000 children without parents.
―Shurtleff‘s comments seem particularly disingenuous in light of the fact that Utah has in
the past found resources to create a porn czar, and regularly puts away people for
significant periods of time for crimes as small as drug possession.‖ His claim that action
against polygamists would put thousands of children on the welfare roles ignores the fact
that many are already on welfare, fraudulently. (The Spectrum, So. Utah, Internet, 6/5/05)
Women Taught to Conform to “The Principle”
Women raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are
taught to conform to ―The Principle‖ that men must have at least three wives to reach
heaven‘s highest level. They are also taught that ―we would become goddesses beside the
man we were assigned to because he would be a God,‖ to them, said Debbie Palmer,
formerly in a polygamous marriage, who added that women are forced to have sex during
the fertile period of their menstrual cycle. FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs also teaches that a
woman can be exalted and live with her children after death only if she is married to a man
with at least three wives.
Palmer said her newborn son was given away to be raised ―to be a man in the priesthood‖
by another of her husband‘s wives, 150 miles away. ―When they bought the boy back three
months later, I was in shock and I was afraid to get attached.‖ When her husband fell out of
favor with FLDS leadership, she was released form the marriage and given to another, who
abused her and molested two of her children, she said.
Children are told that their only father is their mother‘s new husband, which destroys the
genealogy. As families and last names are confused, blood relatives will increasingly marry,
according to attorney Roger Hoole, who is prosecuting a civil suit against Jeffs. (Deborah
Frazier and Gwen Florio, Rocky Mountain News, Internet, 7/16/05 Roger H. Hoole, Opinion,
Salt Lake Tribune, Internet, 6/11/05)
Jeffs Charged with Sexual Misconduct
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leader Warren Jeffs,
who has not been seen in public for 18 months, was recently charged in Arizona with the
felony of arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and a 28-year old married man,