Recent News Regarding Utah Polygamy
May 2011 • By Rev. Dave Roberts.+
Joseph Smith, the founder of
Mormonism, claimed to be a prophet
and, in the 1820s, said that God told
him all Christian churches were apostate
and Christian leaders were false.
Therefore, God’s solution, according to
Smith, was to restore the true Christian
church on the earth. (A little known
fact is that even after “God” told him
that all churches were false, he sought
out membership in a local Methodist
church not even a couple of years later).
To this day, many Mormon missionaries
will ask you how you can know
which church is true why there are so
many of them in conflict with each
other. This is a misstatement because all
Christian churches and denominations
who look to the Bible and the standard
of the Faith set out in the Apostles’
Creed or the Nicene Creed, do agree
with one another and there is a lot of
free-flowing fellowship across denominational
lines. Also, the word “Church”
actually means the Body of Christ –
anyone who is a Christian believer,
worldwide, from any age, past, present
and future. Some also refer to the Body
of Christ as the Bride of Christ. But the
“Church” means the believers, not a
group, denomination, building or
organization. By playing on the misdefinition
of the word, Mormon missionaries
and other Latter-day Saints (LDS)
have been able to play on peoples’ ignorance
to convince them that there is
only one true church and it is the LDS.
The problem for them, however, is when
I ask LDS people, “Which Mormon
church?” They look surprised but you
see, since 1830, when Joseph Smith
finally organized the LDS Church, they
have splintered into more than 200 separate
groups, each claiming to be the
true church, with little fellowship
between them, unlike Christian denominations.
The have to stay separate
because each one claims to have the
true authority from God, things that
were supposedly restored through
Joseph Smith. But consider that what
Smith accomplished wasn’t to whittle
down all these numerous denominations
into the correct one but rather
spawned a movement that has had
more splinter groups than the number
of years Mormonism has been in existence!
And add to that are all the independent
Mormon men who may not
have a splinter group to which they
belong, but have their own family, often
with multiple plural wives, living right
in our neighborhoods here in Utah!
The polygamist groups are numerous
through the state and also in Arizona,
Texas, Alberta, Idaho and other places.
Their existence is a public relationship
disaster for the main LDS Church
which would like to see a Mormon president
in the White House one day,
maybe even by 2012. They just have not
been able to escape their polygamist
roots even though they banned it in
1890 “for a season.” (What was not
reported is that a lot of the LDS Church
leaders at the time continued to practice
it on the side, well into 1900s because,
if they were going to be true to the
teachings of their LDS prophets, they
could not hope to gain exaltation to
become gods themselves and begin their
own planets to rule over unless they had
“practiced the Principle,” which means
polygamy.) I deal with it often and three
of us at our home church have dedicated
ourselves to watching things
progress, and sometimes unravel, within
the various fundamentalist groups of
Mormons. The FLDS are the largest and
most infamous because of their notoriety
of women in pioneer dresses being
carted off by the feds with scores of
children out of their compound in
Texas. But there are other groups too,
like the Kingstonites and the Allredites.
I could write a book just on my experiences
with Mormon polygamy and its
people, all of whom, as Christians, we
see as victims of the legacy of Joseph
Smith and Brigham Young.
Only a few people reading this will recognize
Doris Hanson’s name but she
was born and raised in the Kingstonites,
a polygamous branch of Mormons
based in this area. Doris became a
Christian (her testimony is covered in
the excellent video, “Lifting the Veil of
Polygamy,” put out by a small group of
Christians up in Brigham City, Utah),
left polygamy and began a ministry
called A Shield & a Refuge to those trying
to leave the United Order (Joseph
Smith’s form of theocratic communism)
and fundamentalist
Mormonism. Their ministry is struggling
to survive but Doris has faithfully
continued on and even has a program
on Salt Lake’s one Christian TV station,
Channel 20, where she takes live, actual
calls, from people, some of them
polygamists, calling in to debate, correct,
rebuke or curse what she is doing.
We are honored to know her, because
she has drawn a line in the Utah sand
that needed to be drawn and has seen
good fruit come from her ministry
despite incredible hardships.
Her monthly newsletters are particularly
informative but the March issue was one
that had two short articles in it that I
wanted to pass on to those of you who
don’t realize how pervasive and evil the
practice of polygamy is in Utah. She
mentions two groups, the first one from
Hildale, Utah, where it is probably 100%
polygamous, and is dominated by their
prophet, Warren Jeffs. That group goes
by the name of The Church of the
Firstborn but is also known as “Colorado
City” (which is on the Utah/Arizona
state line), “Short Creek,” and “the
FLDS.” The second group mentioned is
Doris’ own former group, the
Kingstonites. The following two items
were used with Doris’ permission but
I’m hoping by our publishing them here,
it will give her ministry more renown in
the Christian world. Please pray for her
safety as we understand she has received
threats.
An e-mail from a former FLDS member
who still has family in the Short Creek
group at Colorado City, Arizona: “There
has been a lot of drama going on in the
group lately. When the people went to a
recent meeting, they sat for one hour of
silence and were told to concentrate on
their faith in the prophet [this would be
Warren Jeffs who is currently in prison
in Texas and speaking from a pay phone
installed in his cell]. If they were worthy,
the prophet would speak to them.
After an hour he came on speakerphone
and told everyone that he was alone
now, that he had dismissed the presidency
(Wendell Neilson, Merrill Jessop,
Jim Oler), and that there would be
more thrown out in the future. How
about that for scaring people? If that
wasn’t enough, he told them that the
people in the FLDS were not worthy of
raising their children and that the
priesthood [polygamist leadership]
would have to. I don’t know what that
means but it makes me a little upset to
think that the men are expected to work
hard for them and every week hand over
their paychecks to pay Warren’s lawyers
and then be told they are not worthy to
raise their own children. Also, the people
have been told to take inventory of
everything in their homes and turn in
the report. At a recent priesthood meeting
all the men had to write down their
phone numbers and the carrier with
which they have service. Now what do
you think that’s about? I know all the
people live in fear and unrest.”
Then Doris writes, “It has come to our
attention that a suicide pact has been
made among a select few people within
the Kingston Polygamy group.
Beginning in April of this year, one person
per month is supposed to take his
own life. Both males and females are
being recruited to participate and no
one is to know who the others are. We
have no other information. We believe
it consists mostly if not entirely of
young adults who are tired of having
absolutely no say in their lives. They are
directed by leadership in everything
they do including marriage, education,
employment, friendships and every
other aspect of their lives. Many are
physically abused as well as huge and
deep emotional struggles develop. We
have mentioned this on our television
show more than once, hoping that
someone will come forward and identify
what is going on. So far, we’ve had no
one with enough courage to talk. We
dread another ‘Kool-Aid’ event may be
in the making and ask for our readers to
pray that God will undertake on behalf
of these hurting, mixed-up people.”
Since then, I received this e-mail from
Doris: “The suicide pact in the Kingston
group has been broken up, only one person
remains who claims she is adamant
about doing this. I'm praying God will
do otherwise with her. I've offered her
several alternatives. So far, she has
refused further communication.”
Copyright 2011 by Rev. Dave Roberts.+