Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2009, Page 59
and other interested parties may lead to a return to FLDS control of land and housing in the
communities. The property was formerly held in a trust by the FLDS, but some of it has
been given over to individuals since the trust was placed in the hands of court-appointed
receiver Bruce Wisan. The apostates, claiming they‘re already being harassed by Jeffs
loyalists, think they may eventually be run out of town. They say, ―The word ...is that the
Colorado City and Hildale will be purified of all unbelievers—a religious cleansing.‖ Shurtleff
says: ―We understand their concerns ...We‘re looking out for them, absolutely. ..Much of
our negotiation has been to protect the minority population down there,‖ where local
government and police are still controlled by Jeffs loyalists. ...
Receiver Wisan has refused an FLDS payment of $192,000 in fees—half of what it owes for
six months occupancy of homes in Hildale and Colorado City—because, he says, the
payment was made under protest, which means to him that the church wants to protect its
legal right to argue against ultimately having to pay at all. A judge will soon decide whether
or not to sell the properties—the FLDS trust holds $114 million worth in Utah, Arizona, and
British Columbia—if the church doesn‘t pay.
Brent Jeffs, one of the ―lost boys‖ [thrown out of the FLDS community to make more young
women available for marriage to older men] has written a book, Lost Boy. The account
focuses on the accusation—the basis of a civil suit filed in 2004— that his uncle, jailed FLDS
leader Warren Jeffs, repeatedly raped him. ―In recurring nightmares, ‗shards of memory‘
were completing a mosaic: He had been abused.‖ Brent says Warren Jeffs told him the
encounters were ―God‘s work,‖ and that if he told anyone about them, he‘d ―burn in hell.‖
Brent‘s heroin-addicted older brother Calyne, who killed himself in 2002, told a
hypnotherapist that, as a child, Warren had abused him, too. ―The book follows a familiar
motif in memoirs by former FLDS members: A dysfunctional family, including a father with
an explosive temper, and dueling plural wives who make life hell.‖
Jancis Andrews, a self-made expert on the Bountiful, British Columbia, branch of the FLDS,
who is campaigning to get the Attorney General to move against the polygamist group, told
a local chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women in March that ―no group in
Canada, religious or secular, has a Charter right to collect women and girls as concubines in
harems, to force sex on them, which is rape, to deny them birth control ...to force boys
out of the community in order to make more concubines available for the elders, and to
threaten anyone who tries to protest with burning for all eternity in Hell.‖ Reasons why the
law is not acting more forcefully than it has include: refusal of women to testify against the
men (although police generally have a right to charge an abuser without the abused
person‘s consent or testimony) a trial of so many abusers would cost millions if every man
living with multiple wives were charged, there would be hundreds of men in jail, leaving
wives with few ways to support themselves and needing state support for them and their
children. (One of Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore‘s wives recently gave birth to his
119th child.) ...
The Canadian government is prosecuting three separate cases against, or involving,
Winston Blackmore, head of the Bountiful, British Columbia, branch of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The first case involves a
criminal charge that he practiced polygamy. This is the first time a Canadian has been
charged with polygamy since the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
which protects freedom of religion. Court documents that will be central to the case trace
Blackmore‘s links to 19 of his contemporaneous wives during 2005–2006. Blackmore says
the government should pay his legal bills if the case proceeds.
The second case alleges that Blackmore, through his construction, logging and farming
business, earned some $1.84 million in taxable benefits during a recent five-year period,
and other interested parties may lead to a return to FLDS control of land and housing in the
communities. The property was formerly held in a trust by the FLDS, but some of it has
been given over to individuals since the trust was placed in the hands of court-appointed
receiver Bruce Wisan. The apostates, claiming they‘re already being harassed by Jeffs
loyalists, think they may eventually be run out of town. They say, ―The word ...is that the
Colorado City and Hildale will be purified of all unbelievers—a religious cleansing.‖ Shurtleff
says: ―We understand their concerns ...We‘re looking out for them, absolutely. ..Much of
our negotiation has been to protect the minority population down there,‖ where local
government and police are still controlled by Jeffs loyalists. ...
Receiver Wisan has refused an FLDS payment of $192,000 in fees—half of what it owes for
six months occupancy of homes in Hildale and Colorado City—because, he says, the
payment was made under protest, which means to him that the church wants to protect its
legal right to argue against ultimately having to pay at all. A judge will soon decide whether
or not to sell the properties—the FLDS trust holds $114 million worth in Utah, Arizona, and
British Columbia—if the church doesn‘t pay.
Brent Jeffs, one of the ―lost boys‖ [thrown out of the FLDS community to make more young
women available for marriage to older men] has written a book, Lost Boy. The account
focuses on the accusation—the basis of a civil suit filed in 2004— that his uncle, jailed FLDS
leader Warren Jeffs, repeatedly raped him. ―In recurring nightmares, ‗shards of memory‘
were completing a mosaic: He had been abused.‖ Brent says Warren Jeffs told him the
encounters were ―God‘s work,‖ and that if he told anyone about them, he‘d ―burn in hell.‖
Brent‘s heroin-addicted older brother Calyne, who killed himself in 2002, told a
hypnotherapist that, as a child, Warren had abused him, too. ―The book follows a familiar
motif in memoirs by former FLDS members: A dysfunctional family, including a father with
an explosive temper, and dueling plural wives who make life hell.‖
Jancis Andrews, a self-made expert on the Bountiful, British Columbia, branch of the FLDS,
who is campaigning to get the Attorney General to move against the polygamist group, told
a local chapter of the Canadian Federation of University Women in March that ―no group in
Canada, religious or secular, has a Charter right to collect women and girls as concubines in
harems, to force sex on them, which is rape, to deny them birth control ...to force boys
out of the community in order to make more concubines available for the elders, and to
threaten anyone who tries to protest with burning for all eternity in Hell.‖ Reasons why the
law is not acting more forcefully than it has include: refusal of women to testify against the
men (although police generally have a right to charge an abuser without the abused
person‘s consent or testimony) a trial of so many abusers would cost millions if every man
living with multiple wives were charged, there would be hundreds of men in jail, leaving
wives with few ways to support themselves and needing state support for them and their
children. (One of Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore‘s wives recently gave birth to his
119th child.) ...
The Canadian government is prosecuting three separate cases against, or involving,
Winston Blackmore, head of the Bountiful, British Columbia, branch of the
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The first case involves a
criminal charge that he practiced polygamy. This is the first time a Canadian has been
charged with polygamy since the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,
which protects freedom of religion. Court documents that will be central to the case trace
Blackmore‘s links to 19 of his contemporaneous wives during 2005–2006. Blackmore says
the government should pay his legal bills if the case proceeds.
The second case alleges that Blackmore, through his construction, logging and farming
business, earned some $1.84 million in taxable benefits during a recent five-year period,
