Robert Alan King - A Biography of False Prophet Warren Steed Jeffs and a History of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS)

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Copyright 2012 by King & Associates. AllRights Reserved.

Published by King & Associates, CasaGrande, Arizona.

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Table of Contents

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-Day Saints (FLDS) owns walled and fenced compounds acrossthe United States and Canada complete with watchtowers in an effortto keep evil outsiders from entering and isolate their righteousfollowers within. Their supposed prophet Warren Steed Jeffs towers6'3" with short brown hair and wide brown eyes often peering outfrom a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. Though Jeffs is now doing alife sentence in a Texas prison, he still controls the FLDS sectwith approximately 10,000 followers and has at least 77 wives stillunder his control.

This book will tell the strange story of theFLDS by examining its original roots in the Mormon Church and thenexplain how it formed from the major faction of Mormonfundamentalists after the 1890 church manifesto that bannedpolygamy. We will examine the sect's growth and early years as itmorphed from a priesthood council of seven men to a one-man prophetdictatorship. The three major splits within the faction will alsobe discussed.

At last we will travel along with thepedophile Warren Jeffs and witness his sexual perversion and lustfor power as he takes away the innocence of young children and ripsapart the families of his followers under the guise of ensuringsalvation of his flock in the name of God. You will also be able towatch the inability of law enforcement to effectively lock Jeffs upfor good until hoax phone calls from a woman in Colorado providesthem with the break that finally uncovers the evidence they need toput him away in prison for the rest of his life.

As in any bibliography or history there arealways some discrepancies due to differences of opinion, inaccurateavailable information, and contrary accounts in the memory ofdifferent people. I have done my best to narrow down the facts asmuch as possible with actual dates and references for thoseinterested in a more thorough study. For those looking for a basicunderstanding of Warren Jeffs and FLDS Church, this book shouldprovide you with enough facts and details to tell the story.

The religion of Mormonism is based on aseries of spiritual visions Joseph Smith supposedly experienced in1920s. He also translated the Book of Mormon from supposed goldenplates that he unearthed at the instruction of an angel and wasthen forced to bury them again. Over the years that followed, Smithbegan to formulate what he considered as a restoration of the earlyChristian church, officially founding the Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-Day Saints on April 6, 1830. It is believed bymost scholars that Joseph Smith and others in the Mormon Churchbegan to practice polygamous relationships in secret during theearly 1930s.

Under the guise of spiritual revelation andsupposed religious significance, Joseph Smith and other leaders atthis time were basically carrying on promiscuous affairs with dupedwomen who were usually not even taken into the home as a genuinewife might be. As the practice began receiving attention from thepublic, the Mormon Church faced opposition and criticism but deniedthe claims. Joseph Smith was eventually jailed for alleged treasoncharges against the state of Illinois. On June 27, 1844, whileawaiting trials, Smith was assassinated at the Carthage Jail by amob.

In 1852, the second Mormon Church PresidentBrigham Young delivered a sermon publicly acknowledging thepractice of polygamy and it became an officially accepted doctrineof the church. After this there was extensive opposition to thepractice and the Republican Party even made it a major part oftheir platform at their first national convention in 1856. In 1862, the Morill Anti-Bigamy Act was passed bycongress, making bigamy illegal in U.S. territories likeUtah. Yet, Young and the Mormon Church feltthat polygamy was permissible based on the FirstAmendment to the Constitution.

Then in 1879, two years after BrighamYoung's death, the United States Supreme Court ruled that while thebelief in polygamy was protected by the Constitution, the practiceitself was not. Thus began serious problems for the Mormon Church.The church meanwhile continued to resist the government on theissue and in January 1880 apostle Wilford Woodruff even insisted hehad received a revelation damning all those who try to stop thechurch from practicing polygamy. Within three years, Congress passed the Edmunds Act where the practice ofliving in bigamous cohabitation became amisdemeanor and polygamy a felony. Many polygamous Mormons in theUtah territory were arrested. Others began to conceal theirlifestyle and hide their polygamous practices. And in 1886, thethird Mormon Church President John Taylor, while hiding in exile,supposedly received a revelation from God and Joseph Smith implyingthat polygamy must always be practiced by the true church. He laterdied that same year, but his statement was not published until 1912by Lorin Calvin Woolley.

The government then passed theEdmunds-Tucker Act in 1887 that enabled them to take propertybelonging to the Mormon Church, an act that was affirmed by theSupreme Court in 1890. In addition, they began taking other actionsagainst the Mormon Church that were responsible for rapidlydiminishing its power and financial worth. Over 1,300 people hadalready been arrested and even the fourth MormonChurch President Wilford Wilson was in hiding.

The very existence of the Mormon Church andall that they owned was now being threatened by government action.In addition, banning polygamy was also a necessary action in orderfor Utah to achieve its long desired goal of statehood. As Doughertyexplains, "Repeated attempts by the Utah territory to become astate beginning in 1849 were rejected by Congress, largely overconcerns about polygamy." In order to ensure its survival andachieve its future goals, the Mormon Church was forced tocomply.

It was under such duress that Woodruff, bythen president of the church, issued a September 24, 1890,manifesto via press release urging Mormons "to refrain fromcontracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land." It seems Woodruff had done a complete turnarounddespite his previous revelation of warning in 1880 that damned allopponents to the church's practice of polygamy. This manifesto wasfollowed by additional warnings over the following years forMormons not to participate in any new polygamous marriages. Asthings got worse and opposition to the practice intensified, somepolygamous families were split apart. This surrender by the MormonChurch was the catalyst for the rise of the fundamentalists whoeventually left the church and formed their own fundamentalistsects or groups. Though Utah was finally recognized as the 46thstate in the Union in 1896, the effort to stamp out bigamy was justbeginning.

Though there are believed to be at least38,000 fundamentalist Mormons today that embrace the practice ofpolygamy, the largest group is The Fundamentalist Church of JesusChrist of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). The groupconsists of approximately 10,000 members throughout the UnitedStates and Canada, with the largest group residing in the twincities of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

When the Mormon Church abandoned polygamy inthe 1890s, it was seen by many Mormons as unacceptable and againstthe true tenants of Mormonism that taught polygamy. This resultedin the eventual exodus of many church members who formulated theirown sects, the largest eventually becoming the FLDS Church. AsJanofsky reports, "The fundamentalists consider mainstream Mormonsthe renegades, for abandoning the original Mormon teachings tosolve a political problem." But the mainstream Mormon Church sawthe fundamentalists as the rebels and still sees them this waytoday. Though the two groups both claim Joseph Smith as theirfounder, they are generally opposed to each other. The FLDS andother fundamentalists believe that John Taylor's supposed 1886revelation about the permanent nature of polygamy invalidatesWilford Wilson's 1890 Manifesto.