Centennial Park group (Second Ward, Mormon fundamentalist)
Active Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous community of approximately 1,500 members located in Centennial Park, Arizona, formed in 1986 when the 'Second Ward' broke from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) over leadership and doctrinal disputes. The community continues to practice polygamy under the doctrinal authority of the Council of Priesthood Holders. Distinct from but related to FLDS, the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB), the Kingston Order, and the LeBaron-clan polygamist groups — each profiled separately in the catalogue. Documented in academic monographs (Janet Bennion 1998 and subsequent) and in sustained Arizona regional press.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
+0 — There is no adjudicated criminal conviction of the Centennial Park group as an organisation or of its current leadership in the principal academic and journalistic source base. The community's 1986 split from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) was a leadership-and-doctrinal dispute and did not arise from adjudicated proceedings against the Centennial Park group. The assessment rests on documented internal control patterns recorded in Janet Bennion's academic monograph 'Women of Principle: Female Networking in Contemporary Mormon Polygyny' (Oxford University Press, 1998) and subsequent scholarship, in sustained Arizona regional press coverage, and in scholarly comparative work on Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous communities. No modifier is applied; the BITE-axis scores carry the assessment.
Profile facts
Documented risk patterns
Operational patterns drawn from the cited sources. Each tag links to a forthcoming tactic-hub page explaining how the pattern appears across different high-control contexts.
- leader-worship
- dating-and-marriage-control
- isolation-from-family
- financial-control
- Information control
- exit-costs
In context
The Centennial Park group is an active Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous community of approximately 1,500 members located in Centennial Park, Arizona (in Mohave County, near Colorado City and Hildale on the Arizona–Utah border). The community formed in 1986 when the 'Second Ward' — a substantial faction of the broader Mormon-fundamentalist community then organised under the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) leadership — broke from the FLDS over leadership and doctrinal disputes, particularly around the FLDS's emerging consolidation of authority under the Jeffs family lineage and over questions of plural-marriage doctrine and community governance. The Centennial Park community continues to practice polygamy under the doctrinal authority of a Council of Priesthood Holders rather than under a single 'prophet' figure, distinguishing it from the FLDS structure under Warren Jeffs.
Janet Bennion's academic monograph 'Women of Principle: Female Networking in Contemporary Mormon Polygyny' (Oxford University Press, 1998) is the principal academic account of the Centennial Park community and documents the community's polygamous-marriage doctrinal framework, the women's-networking structure that supports community organisation, and the documented patterns of leadership-directed marriage arrangement (often referred to within the community as 'placement marriage'). Bennion's subsequent academic work has extended that account. Sustained Arizona regional press coverage (Arizona Daily Star, Arizona Republic, Salt Lake Tribune, KSL TV) has documented the community's continuing operation and its distinct identity from the FLDS during and after Warren Jeffs' federal proceedings 2006–2011. The community has not been the subject of substantial federal or state criminal proceedings; documented patterns within the community include leadership-directed marriage arrangement (including, in the historical record, arranged marriages of underage women in the 1990s subsequently reformed under community-internal pressure), restrictive financial expectations on community members under doctrinal framing, and centralised teaching authority through the Council of Priesthood Holders.
The Centennial Park community is profiled here as distinct from but related to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS, under Warren Jeffs); the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB); the Kingston Order / Davis County Cooperative Society; the LeBaron-clan polygamist groups (Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times, and the Church of the Lamb of God under Ervil LeBaron); and the various smaller Mormon-fundamentalist polygamist groups covered in the catalogue's umbrella entry. Readers seeking coverage of those specific cases should navigate to the individual profiles. Ordinary current Centennial Park community members are not accused in this profile of any wrongdoing and are explicitly distinguished from documented organisational practices at the leadership level; the site-wide /right-of-reply route remains available.
Key control doctrines
- Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous-marriage doctrinal framework continuing from the pre-1986 community
- Council of Priesthood Holders as the doctrinal authority structure (distinguished from the FLDS single-'prophet' model)
- Leadership-directed marriage arrangement ('placement marriage') practice
- Closed-community geographic and social organisation in Centennial Park, Arizona
- Restrictive financial expectations on community members under doctrinal framing
Recovery resources
- Sound Choices Coalition — Utah-based support and advocacy network for survivors of Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous communities.
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and cult-aware therapist directory; long-standing coverage of Mormon-fundamentalist cases.
- Reclamation Collective — Religious-trauma-aware therapist network; relevant for post-exit identity-rebuilding.
- Religious Trauma Institute — Religious-trauma clinical research and clinician directory.
- Freedom of Mind Resource Center — Steven Hassan's organisation; BITE-model resources and family-side exit guidance.
See the full curated list at /resources.
Legal cases & controversies
- No adjudicated criminal conviction of the Centennial Park group as an organisation or of its current leadership in the principal source base
- Documented historical record of arranged marriages of underage women in the 1990s (subsequently reformed under community-internal pressure per the academic record)
- Documented Arizona regional press attention to the community's continuing operation during and after the FLDS / Warren Jeffs federal proceedings
- Documented organisational continuity through the 1986 split from FLDS and the 2006–2011 FLDS federal proceedings period
Evidence by BITE axis
- Documented leadership-directed marriage arrangement ('placement marriage') in the community's polygamous practice
- Documented closed-community geographic and social organisation near the Arizona–Utah border
- Documented restrictive financial expectations on community members under doctrinal framing
- Documented Council of Priesthood Holders structure directing community-level decisions
- Closed authoritative teaching system in which the Council of Priesthood Holders is the central interpretive authority
- Documented historical framing of mainstream LDS Church and external observers as having departed from the apostolic Mormon-fundamentalist tradition
- Documented limited internal critical engagement with the polygamous-marriage doctrinal framework
- Documented community-internal information environment with restricted external religious or media inputs
- Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous-marriage doctrinal framework as the central interpretive reference
- Council of Priesthood Holders structure as the doctrinal authority distinct from the FLDS single-'prophet' model
- Documented internal disagreement-handling pattern that frames doctrinal disagreement as spiritual failure within the community framework
- Documented framing of mainstream LDS Church as having departed from the original Mormon-fundamentalist tradition
- Documented family-displacement patterns when individual community members leave the polygamous-marriage doctrinal framework
- Documented exit costs evidenced by the closed-community structure and by sustained academic and press accounts of post-exit accounts
- Documented strong in-group identification with the Centennial Park community and the Council of Priesthood Holders structure
- Sustained academic and press record of ex-member accounts of long-term post-exit identity-reconstruction work
Lifton's 8 criteria of thought reform
Robert Jay Lifton's 1961 framework, complementary to BITE. Criteria this group exhibits according to the cited sources.
- Demand for PuritySharp world split into pure vs impure; relentless pressure to conform to an absolute standard.
Timeline
- 1929Mormon-fundamentalist movement begins as a series of splinters from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints over the continuation of polygamy
- 1950s–1980sMormon-fundamentalist community organised under the broader 'Short Creek' / Colorado City / Hildale leadership structure that becomes the FLDS
- 1986'Second Ward' breaks from the FLDS over leadership and doctrinal disputes; Centennial Park community forms in Arizona near the FLDS settlement
- 1990sCentennial Park community continues separate organisational development under a Council of Priesthood Holders structure rather than a single 'prophet' figure
- 1998Janet Bennion, 'Women of Principle', published by Oxford University Press
- 2006–2011FLDS / Warren Jeffs federal proceedings; Centennial Park community organisationally distinct continues operation
- 2010s–2020sCentennial Park community continues operation; community-internal reform of historical underage-marriage practices documented in academic and press follow-up
- PresentActive community of approximately 1,500 members under continuing leadership of the Council of Priesthood Holders
Sources
- Janet Bennion, 'Women of Principle: Female Networking in Contemporary Mormon Polygyny' (Oxford University Press, 1998) — principal academic monograph search ↗
- Janet Bennion — subsequent academic work on Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous communities including the Centennial Park group search ↗
- Arizona Daily Star sustained regional coverage of the Centennial Park community search ↗
- Arizona Republic regional coverage including continuing operation during and after the FLDS / Warren Jeffs federal proceedings search ↗
- Salt Lake Tribune regional coverage of Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous communities including Centennial Park search ↗
- KSL TV regional coverage of the Arizona–Utah border Mormon-fundamentalist communities search ↗
- Academic comparative work on Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous communities (Anne Wilde, Stephen Mansfield, Marion Smith) search ↗
- Centennial Park community public statements and organisational publications (where available) search ↗
We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗ runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.
Change history
Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.
- 2026-05-29Published from Stage-12 sixth-wave editorial draft pipeline (data/draft-profiles.ts, draftSlug draft-centennial-park-second-ward). Pre-publication checks confirmed: editorial review against Janet Bennion 'Women of Principle' (Oxford University Press 1998) and subsequent academic work; sustained Arizona regional press (Arizona Daily Star, Arizona Republic, Salt Lake Tribune, KSL TV); academic comparative work on Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous communities. Legal review observed religious-minority framing; no adjudicated criminal conviction of the Centennial Park group recorded in the principal source base; historical underage-marriage record framed against the academic record with community-internal reform also noted; ordinary current community members explicitly distinguished from documented organisational practices at the leadership level. Right-of-reply via site-wide /right-of-reply route. Confidence high — Bennion's principal academic monograph plus subsequent scholarship plus sustained Arizona regional press plus comparative academic work on Mormon-fundamentalist polygamous communities. Modifier +0 — assessment rests on the BITE-axis scores alone.
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
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