Polygamy in America
The FLDS make of the majority of residents in Colorado City, Arizona. (Image by Flickr user Ken Lund (cc: by-nc-sa))
An estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people live a polygamist lifestyle in the US, many in sects splintered from the Mormon Church.
This story is adapted from a broadcast audio segment; use audio player to listen to story in its entirety.
According to researchers at Brigham Young University, an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 people live a polygamist lifestyle in the US. Many polygamists live in sects splintered from the Mormon church after it renounced polygamy in the 1800s. Those sects believe that Joseph Smith had a revelation that, in order to replenish earth and the celestial afterlife, men should have as many children and wives as possible.
"Our whole life's goal and aim is to make it to the celestial kingdom, and become gods and goddesses in our own right, and have our own children," said Zelpha, one of 25 wives of a patriarch in a Canadian community profiled in a film on the National Geographic Channel.
National Geographic also gained access to a large polygamist group in America after consulting with Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned prophet of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). Many Americans learned about the group after a raid at Texas' Yearning for Zion Ranch in 2008. That raid led to charges against church members for bigamy and sex with minors.
Journalist Scott Anderson, along with photographer Stephanie Sinclair, spent time in FLDS communities in Colorado City, Arizona; Hildale, Utah; and the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Texas. He wrote about his experience in February’s "National Geographic."
"It's a very wholesome environment; there was very much an outdoor lifestyle; kids helped in the community with projects -- they'd bring in harvests," said Anderson. "But then, whenever it starts feeling very normal, I'd encountered situations like two sisters married to the same man; I interviewed a mother and daughter married to the same man -- it wasn't incest because the mother had been transferred from another husband, and the daughter married the same man six months later."
Within the sect, the practice of reassignment was not uncommon. Reassignment occurs when a man is deemed unworthy by the community's prophet, and his wives and children are transferred to another man. Because of this, says Anderson, the men he encountered in the communities seemed cowed.
"When you have some men who are married to 10 or 20 wives, it means there are other men who are kind of out of the pool, so they're in intense competition with each other," Anderson explained. "And if the prophet is the only person who can ordain these marriages, a lot of the men have this idea that the best way [to] stay on the good side of the prophet is to keep a low profile. It also shows the incredible power that Warren Jeffs had over the followers."
In 2004, Jeffs reassigned 25 families; out of the 25, only one family objected.
While Anderson saw no physical restraints on members in the communities, he felt a tremendous degree of social coercion through isolation. For members, leaving the sect meant walking away from everything they've ever known.
"Certainly the women don't have the kind of life skills to be able to function really in the outside world," said Anderson.
However, he also found members of the FLDS incredibly industrious, and the communities have developed a number of ways to financially sustain themselves.
"The FLDS operates a number of huge farms throughout the area. The men, from a very young age, learn construction -- they're electricians and carpenters. And a huge source of money is from construction companies, and they actually bid on huge construction projects throughout the American west."
Read Scott Anderson's article and view photos on the National Geographic website.
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Perhaps you were thinking of Brigham and Women' Hospital.
Also, there is no such entity known as the Mormon Church. It doesn't exist and never has. You couldn't look it up in the phone book or legal filings and expect to find it. You probably are referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints whose adherents are often referred to as "Mormons."
A little accuracy coming from PRI would be sweet.
I note with interest that the article refers to the splinter group, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, by their proper name. (And "FLDS" after the first instance.)
And yet it is compelling that the Church from whence they sprang is still referred to by the colloquial "Mormon Church." It is compelling because the term originated as a pejorative, and its continued use is reflective of those origins.
The Church has made repeated requests that it be referred to by its actual, proper name. And it is ironic that the polygamous offshoot is cordially afforded that courtesy.
Also of note is that many U.S. minorities are accommodated when they declare certain references to be off-limits. And so we rightly have defamatory terms previously used for blacks, Hispanics, gays, Jews and women that are no longer used in civil discourse.
But for some strange and inexplicable reason, we occasionally can't seem to get so-called serious journalists to call us by our name: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
What gives?
There are no FLDS men that I know who would let his daughter go to just any man.
The Prophet is the matchmaker. He is the last one who has the decision that she is ready. He does choose who marries who. The young ladies are expected to be responsible, kind, and prayerful before they are deemed worthy to marry. The parents of the potential bride are the first to give their blessing to her by bringing her to visit the prophet or his counselors on her behalf.
She had to be willing and able to marry someone she is matched with. She is aware of her decision and is most likely anxious to be placed by a man who is chosen by the preacher/leader.
the man that the girl(usually 18-22) will be chosen for is quite young himself(usually 20-30). There few are exceptions.
Polygamist Mormons from the beginning have never married at such close age differences. It is a standard that as the man gets older the girls stay around 13 to 18. And the girl has absolutely no say in the mater, just look at the time a 16 year old girl that didn’t want to marry a 50ish man, Warren Jeff’s sentenced her to be murdered “blood atonement.” This created a split not to recently involving the Canadian Mormon polygamists. Google it.
Also most people didn’t know that the Mormon Church based out of SLC Utah never renounced polygamy. It’s still doctrine. That is why Utah turns its back to the practice.
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