CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Polygamous (more accurately, polygyny) groups deriving from LDS are most commonly referred to as Fundamentalist Mormons.

After LDS suspension of polygamy in 1890, some groups moved to Mexico.

An estimated 40,000 individuals currently live in polygamous communities in the U.S. and Canada.

The largest group is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). The FLDS' main concentration is located in Colorado City and Hildale.

CHURCH OF THE LAMB OF GOD

HISTORY

Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr. was one of those who in 1924 moved his family, which included his two wives and eight children, to northern Mexico. The family started a farm called "Colonia LeBaron" in Galeana, Chihuahua.

When Alma died in 1951, he passed the leadership of the community on to his son Joel LeBaron.

Joel later incorporated the community as the Church of the Firstborn in the Fullness of Times in Salt Lake City in 1963 as a haven for polygamous Mormons

The CFFT grew to over 200.

Joel's younger brother, Ervil LeBaron, was his second in command during the early years of the church's existence.

Ervil LeBaron ultimately had 13 wives, at least 25 children.

Ervil LeBaron was ejected from CFFT in 1970 and founded the Church of the Lamb of God (CLG).

LeBaron immediately announced his leadership over all of the polygamous groups that had emerged from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

When members of vival polygamy groups failed to comply, LeBaron responded to non-compliance with a series of threats and murders.
• 1972 - murder of his brother, Joel LeBaron, founder of the Church of the First Born of the Fullness of Times in Mexico. Ervil was found guilty in Ensenada of being the "intellectual author" of the crime and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He served twelve months before a Mexican appeals court overturned the conviction.
• Ervil LeBaron ordered the killing of Verlan LeBaron, Joel’s brother, to whom leadership of the Church of the First Born passed. In 1974, two people were killed and a dozen wounded in a Molotov cocktail and firearms attack.
•1976 – Two of LeBaron’s wives wrote a threatening letter to presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter.
• 1977 – murder of Rulon Allred, leader of the Apostolic United Brethren by two of LeBaron’s wives. Rena Chynoweth was tried and acquitted.

1979 - LeBaron was apprehended by Mexican police, extradited to the United States, convicted of ordering Allred's death, and in 1980, sentenced to life imprisonment.

While in prison, LeBaron wrote The Book of the New Covenants, which included a commandment to kill disobedient church members.

1980s – As many as 20-30 murders have been attributed to LeBaron followers, including leaders and members of rival groups and members of the Church of the Lamb who attempted to leave the group.

1981 - LaBaron died in a Utah State Prison.

Aaron LeBaron assumed leadership after his father's death.

1988 (June) - As "blood atonement" for leaving the group, three former members and one witness were murdered.

1996 - Aaron LeBaron was arrested in northern Mexico.

1997 – Le Baron was convicted of directing the 1988 murders and sentenced to 45 years in prison.

MYTH/RITUAL

The history of Mormon polygamy begins with Mormonism founder Joseph Smith stating that he received a revelation from God on July 17, 1831 that some Mormon men would be allowed to practice "plural marriage".

This was later set down in the Doctrine and Covenants by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ( LDS Church)

LDS founder Joseph Smith reported having been revealed the doctrine in the early 1830s, but took several years before teaching the doctrine privately to a small number of other church leaders.

Mormon polygamy became official church doctrine in about 1840, when the LDS church was headquartered in Nauvoo, Illinois.

In 1852 Brigham Young, the second president of the LDS church publicly acknowledged the practice of plural marriage

Through the 19th century LDS doctrine was that a man had to have at least three wives in order the reach the highest of the three levels of Heaven and eventually become the god of his own universe.

LDS ordered the suspension of new polygamous marriages for an indefinite period in 1890, the "Great Accommodation."
• Even though Mormon polygamy is no longer practiced, Mormons still believe that it is a divinely-appointed practice and it may return in the future if God commands it.
• Celestial polygamy has not been renounced.
• Many plural husbands and wives continued to cohabit until their deaths in the 1940s and 1950s.

Following LDS suspension of polygamy, anti-Mormon sentiment waned, as did opposition to statehood for Utah.

The Reed Smoot Hearings in 1904 spurred the LDS Church to issue a Second Manifesto against polygamy.

By 1910 the LDS Church was excommunicating those who practiced polygamy.

Polygamous individuals and groups are now automatically excommunicated from LDS.

CONTROVERSIES

When Utah became a U.S. territory in 1850, territorial leaders tried to restrict polygamy.

A key plank of the Republican Party's 1856 platform was "to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery."

1862 - The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act was passed, outlawing polygamy in U.S. states and territories. The law was only sporadically enforced.

1878 - The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Reynolds v. United States that polygamy was not protected by the Constitution.

1882 - The Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act was passed. This provision "made the 'cohabiting' with more than one woman a crime, punishable by a fine not to exceed three hundred dollars, and by imprisonment not to exceed six months. The law also revoked polygamists’ right to vote, serve on juries, or hold public office. Over 1,300 men were imprisoned under this statute.

1887 - The Edmunds-Tucker Act was passed, disincorporating LDS, appropriating church property, and punishing polygamy by fine and imprisonment. The act was repealed in 1978.

CLG is rejected as a legitimate religious group by governmental agencies as a result of its policies of violence.

LDS remains on the margin of the Christian community, claiming to be a legitimate Christian group but having that claim rejected by many Christian denominations.

Polygamous groups are automatically excommunicated from LDS.

The CLG is doubly stigmatized as identified with LDS and also rejected by LDS.

CLG faces prosecution for violation of marriage statutes.

CLG faces resistance from child welfare agencies and women’s rights groups on grounds of child and gender abuse.