FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)
Polygamist sect that broke from the LDS Church after the 1890 Manifesto. Under Warren Jeffs (Prophet 2002–present, imprisoned 2011) the FLDS practised forced underage marriages, expulsion of teen 'lost boys', and total community control. Heavily documented in court records and federal raids.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
+2 for documented child sexual abuse, forced underage marriages, and severe exit costs.
Profile facts
In context
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints traces its identity to Mormon fundamentalists who refused to abandon plural marriage after the LDS Church's 1890 Manifesto renounced polygamy. The movement organised formally in the 1930s and built its base in the twin towns of Short Creek, later Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, which endured a mass 1953 raid by Arizona authorities that removed children from polygamous households, an event the community still frames as persecution. Warren Jeffs became FLDS Prophet in 2002, succeeding his father, and consolidated an unusually absolute form of personal authority even by the standards of other splinter Mormon sects.
Under Jeffs, the Prophet claimed direct revelatory authority over which men could marry, how many wives they could take, and to whom girls, some documented as young as 12, would be assigned as brides, effectively converting marriage into an instrument of leadership control rather than personal choice. Teenage boys who might compete for wives were systematically expelled from the community, a pattern widely reported as the "lost boys," leaving them without family support or preparation for outside life. Members were taught to "keep sweet," a phrase demanding cheerful, unquestioning obedience, and community life extended to control of jobs, housing, and even the reassignment of wives and children between households at the Prophet's direction, alongside tight restrictions on contact with the secular world.
The 2008 raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado, Texas, removed more than 400 children from FLDS custody and triggered a wave of prosecutions. Jeffs was convicted in Texas in 2011 of child sexual assault tied to his marriages to underage girls and sentenced to life plus 20 years in prison, a verdict that remains the movement's defining legal milestone. Former members Carolyn Jessop and Elissa Wall published widely read memoirs describing forced marriage and communal control from the inside, and the group's practices later featured in the Netflix documentary series "Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey." Other FLDS-linked entities have separately faced civil penalties, including fines tied to child-labor violations.
Jeffs continues to direct the church's remaining followers from prison through a small inner circle, and Short Creek and Colorado City remain a much-diminished but functioning FLDS stronghold. The case is frequently cited as one of the clearest modern illustrations of how a charismatic leader can fuse doctrine, marriage, and criminal exploitation into a single system of total communal control, established not by allegation alone but by raids, convictions, and an extensive court record.
Key control doctrines
- Plural marriage (polygamy) as essential for exaltation
- 'Keep sweet' obedience teaching
- Prophet's absolute authority over marriages and assignments
- 'Re-assignment' of wives and children at Prophet's direction
Recovery resources
- Holding Out Help (Utah) — Direct services for FLDS exiles in the Hildale / Colorado City region — housing, education, employment, and post-exit family support.
- Sound Choices Coalition — FLDS exit-support and advocacy founded by ex-FLDS members; supports women and children leaving polygamous communities.
- Cherish Families — Support for families and children exiting Mormon-fundamentalist polygamist groups across Utah and Arizona.
- ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) — General referral and information service; cult-aware therapist 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.
Notable public ex-members
- Carolyn Jessop
- Elissa Wall
- Sam Brower (investigator)
- Brent Jeffs (Warren's nephew)
Legal cases & controversies
- Texas v. Jeffs (2011)
- BC Polygamy Reference (2011 Canadian court ruling)
- Multiple 'lost boys' civil suits
- YFZ Ranch raid 2008
Evidence by BITE axis
- Forced marriages of girls as young as 12 to older men
- Expulsion of 'lost boys' (teenage males) to maintain polygamy ratios
- Total Prophet authority over members' marriages, jobs, housing
- Children removed from biological parents and reassigned
- Extreme isolation from outside world
- Plural marriage (polygamy) as essential for exaltation
- 'Keep sweet' obedience teaching
- Prophet's absolute authority over marriages and assignments
- 'Re-assignment' of wives and children at Prophet's direction
- +2 for documented child sexual abuse, forced underage marriages, and severe exit costs
- Criminal record-keeping on members
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
- 1890LDS Manifesto ends polygamy; fundamentalist Mormon offshoots persist
- 1953Short Creek raid by Arizona governor Howard Pyle
- 2002Warren Jeffs becomes FLDS Prophet
- 2008Texas raid on YFZ Ranch removes 462 children
- 2011Jeffs convicted; sentenced to life + 20 years
Evidence matrix
Structured sources cross-linked to the claims they document. Tiered per the source hierarchy. For free-text citations see the Sources section below.
Sources
- Texas v. Jeffs (2011) search ↗
- Carolyn Jessop, 'Escape' (2007) search ↗
- Elissa Wall, 'Stolen Innocence' (2008) search ↗
- Netflix 'Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey' (2022) search ↗
- FLDS Church Members Fined $2 Million for Alleged Child Labor Violations — https://abcnews.go.com/US/flds-church-members-fined-million-alleged-child-labor/story?id=30916213 open ↗
- Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find Help — https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/us/09polygamy.html open ↗
- "This Will Someday Be the Head and Not the Tail of the Church": A History of the Mormon Fundamentalists at Short Creek — Journal of Church and State (2001) — https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fjcs%2F43.1.49 open ↗
- Imprisonment, Defiance, and Division: A History of Mormon Fundamentalism in the 1940s and 1950s — Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (2005) — https://doi.org/10.2307%2F45228177 open ↗
- Who Shall Raise the Children? Vera Black and the Rights of Polygamous Utah Parents — Utah Historical Quarterly (1992) — https://doi.org/10.2307%2F45063508 open ↗
- Photos From a Notorious 1953 Raid on a Polygamist Arizona Town — https://time.com/3879612/short-creek-raid-photos-arizona-polygamy-mormon/ open ↗
- Polygamist 'prophet' to serve at least 10 years in prison — http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/20/jeffs.sentence/ open ↗
- Timeline: History of Polygamy — http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/bustupinbountiful/timeline.html open ↗
- From Hunting Ground To Polygamist Ranch — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/from-hunting-ground-to-polygamist-ranch/ open ↗
- Polygamous Community Members Indicted — https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E0DD103DF930A25754C0A9639C8B63 open ↗
- Leader of Polygamist Sect Guilty in Rape Case — https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/us/25cnd-jeffs.html open ↗
- Polygamist 'prophet' to serve at least 10 years in prison — http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/11/20/jeffs.sentence/index.html open ↗
- Judge Orders FLDS Nursing Mothers to Foster Care With Infants — http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/23/ng.01.html open ↗
- Raid shines light on secretive polygamous sect — http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/08/texas.ranch.ap/index.html open ↗
- At the green gate, and then a glimpse of the polygamist's life — http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/15/at-the-green-gate-and-then-a-glimpse-of-the-polygamists-life/ open ↗
- A New Prophet for the Polygamists? — http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1823656,00.html open ↗
- Jailed sect leader retakes legal control of church — https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-24-jeffs-church_N.htm open ↗
- The turncoat: 'Thug Willie' spills secrets of FLDS and its 'prophet — https://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/25/us/jessop-flds-warren-jeffs-short-creek/index.html open ↗
- Warren Jeffs' hold on community — http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/08/video-warren-jeffs-hold-on-community/ open ↗
- FLDS Church Dealt Another Blow — http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/flds-church-dealt-another-blow open ↗
- Polygamist Warren Jeffs' Texas ranch being seized by state officials — http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/us/texas-yfz-ranch-seizure/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 open ↗
- Inside a troubled fundamentalist Mormon sect — http://www.salon.com/news/religion/?story=/mwt/feature/2011/03/05/inside_flds_trouble_brewing open ↗
- Jeffs' brother will take over: Ex-FLDS member — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffs-brother-will-take-over-ex-flds-member/ open ↗
- Sources: Jailed polygamist retakes control of church, ousts 45 members — http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-24/justice/texas.polygamist.jeffs_1_flds-sexual-abuse-marriages-with-older-men?_s=PM:CRIME open ↗
- Sam Bateman: Who is the breakaway Mormon polygamist who married nine underage girls? — https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/sam-bateman-polygamist-underage-girls-b2240212.html open ↗
- Three wives will guarantee you a place in paradise. The Taliban? No: welcome to the rebel Mormons — https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1444578/Three-wives-will-guarantee-you-a-place-in-paradise.-The-Taliban-No-welcome-to-the-rebel-Mormons.html open ↗
- Why Do They Dress That Way? — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-do-they-dress-that-way/ open ↗
- Warren Jeffs and the FLDS — https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4629320 open ↗
- Child Brides, Inegalitarianism, and the Fundamentalist Polygamous Family in the United States — International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (2005) — https://doi.org/10.1093%2Flawfam%2Febi028 open ↗
- Polygamist sect 'demands husbands watch while seed bearers impregnate their wives — https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/polygamist-sect-limits-sex-to-seed-bearers-according-to-leaders-estranged-wife-charlene-jeffs-a6675151.html open ↗
- The lost boys, thrown out of US sect so that older men can marry more wives — https://www.theguardian.com/usa/story/0,12271,1505997,00.html open ↗
- Polygamist community faces rare genetic disorder — https://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0727298120070614 open ↗
- The FH mutation database: an online database of fumarate hydratase mutations involved in the MCUL (HLRCC) tumor syndrome and congenital fumarase deficiency — BMC Medical Genetics (2008) — https://doi.org/10.1186%2F1471-2350-9-20 open ↗
- Fumaric aciduria: Clinical and imaging features — Annals of Neurology (2000) — https://doi.org/10.1002%2F1531-8249%28200005%2947%3A5%3C583%3A%3AAID-ANA5%3E3.0.CO%3B2-Y open ↗
- Plural marriage and Mormon fundamentalism — https://doi.org/10.2307%2F45226443 open ↗
- The 1948 Secret Marriage of Louis J. Barlow: Origins of FLDS Placement Marriage — https://doi.org/10.2307%2F45227157 open ↗
- Cópia arquivada em 5 de novembro de 2007 — http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2006-04-49.csv open ↗
- The Primer - Helping Victims of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse in Polygamous Communities — http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/cmsdocuments/The_Primer.pdf open ↗
- Pentagon paid $1.7 million to firms of polygamy bosses — http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/17/polygamy.pentagon/index.html open ↗
- HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN? FBI Announces New Top Tenner, FBI Headline Archives — https://www.fbi.gov/page2/may06/jeffs050606.htm open ↗
- lire en ligne — http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822887,00.html open ↗
- Short Creek: "A Refuge for the Saints" — Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (2003) — https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/45226924 open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://doi.org/10.2307/45226924 open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.nytimes.com/1944/03/08/archives/50-taken-in-raids-to-end-polygamy-federal-and-utah-authorities-join.html open ↗
- The 1948 Secret Marriage of Louis J. Barlow: Origins of FLDS Placement Marriage — Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (2007) — https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/45227157 open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://doi.org/10.2307/45227157 open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2008/05/31/en-1953-deja-le-raid-de-short-creek_1052138_3222.html open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.nytimes.com/1953/07/27/archives/arizona-raids-polygamous-cult-seeks-to-wipe-out-its-community-cult.html open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.nytimes.com/1953/07/29/archives/wider-polygamy-charged-arizona-men-said-to-have-had-wives-in-other.html open ↗
- LeRoy Johnson, Head of Arizona Polygamist Sect — https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-11-27-fi-13508-story.html open ↗
- Modern Polygamy: Arizona Mormon Fundamentalists Seek to Shed Stereotypes — https://abcnews.go.com/US/modern-polygamy-arizona-mormon-fundamentalists-seek-shed-stereotypes/story?id=19322087 open ↗
- With God On Their Side — https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/with-god-on-their-side/ open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/us/polygamous-community-defies-state-crackdown.html open ↗
- Polygamist Leader Warren Orders Only 15 Men To Father FLDS Kids — https://abcnews.go.com/US/warren-jeffs-jailed-polygamist-leader-issuing-sex-orders/story?id=16621158 open ↗
- lire en ligne — https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2004/07/08/hunting-bountiful open ↗
- Mormonen-Sekte: Die verlorenen Söhne der Polygamisten. — https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/mormonen-sekte-die-verlorenen-soehne-der-polygamisten-a-360307.html open ↗
- Sekte in Texas: „Polygamie, Inzest, Missbrauch“. — http://faz.net/s/RubCD175863466D41BB9A6A93D460B81174/Doc~E13911EFE8C304AEDA2B10AF242BE6276~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html open ↗
- Have You Seen This Man? FBI Announces New Top Tenner. — https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2006/may/jeffs050606 open ↗
- Warren Jeffs and the FLDS. — https://www.npr.org/2005/05/03/4629320/warren-jeffs-and-the-flds?t=1581799788402 open ↗
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). — http://www.apologeticsindex.org/4568-warren-jeffs open ↗
- Sex claims hit US polygamy sect. — http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4091354.stm open ↗
- Warren Jeffs Indicted – Shurtleff Applauds Mohave County’s Investigation. — http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/414.html open ↗
- Texas Seizes Polygamist Warren Jeffs' Ranch. — https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-seizes-polygamist-warren-jeffs-ranch-n83736 open ↗
- The lost boys, thrown out of US sect so that older men can marry more wives. — https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/14/usa.julianborger open ↗
- The polygamous town facing genetic disaster. — https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170726-the-polygamous-town-facing-genetic-disaster open ↗
- Sekte in Texas: „Polygamie, Inzest, Missbrauch“. — https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/sekte-in-texas-polygamie-inzest-missbrauch-1539399.html open ↗
- Texas high court: Removal of sect kids ‘not warranted’. — http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/05/29/texas.polygamists/ open ↗
- Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs gets life in prison. — https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2011-08-09-polygamist-sect-leader-warren-jeffs-life-sentence_n.htm open ↗
- Ein Mann, 24 Frauen: Frühere Mormonen-Bischöfe wegen Polygamie verurteilt. — https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/mormonen-in-kanada-ex-bischoefe-wegen-polygamie-verurteilt-a-1159533.html open ↗
- 9 Things You Didn’t Know About the FLDS Church. — https://abcnews.go.com/US/things-didnt-flds-church/story?id=30827256 open ↗
- Jeffs' brother will take over: Ex-FLDS member — http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/05/earlyshow/main20088583.shtml open ↗
- From Hunting Ground To Polygamist Ranch — http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/18/national/main4028781.shtml open ↗
- Child Brides, Inegalitarianism, and the Fundamentalist Polygamous Family in the United States — International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (2005) — https://dx.doi.org/10.1093%2Flawfam%2Febi028 open ↗
- The FH mutation database: an online database of fumarate hydratase mutations involved in the MCUL (HLRCC) tumor syndrome and congenital fumarase deficiency — BMC Medical Genetics (2008) — https://dx.doi.org/10.1186%2F1471-2350-9-20 open ↗
- 10.1002/1531-8249(200005)47:5 3.0.CO;2-Y — https://dx.doi.org/10.1002%2F1531-8249%28200005%2947%3A5%3C583%3A%3AAID-ANA5%3E3.0.CO%3B2-Y open ↗
- Plural marriage and Mormon fundamentalism — http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm/ref/collection/dialogue/id/10141 open ↗
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.
- 2026-05-22Phase 1 Batch A: per-group recovery resources curated. Added 5 verified entries (Holding Out Help, Sound Choices Coalition, Cherish Families, ICSA, Freedom of Mind) tailored to FLDS-context exits.
- 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: court records. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
- 2026-05-20Marked as canonical_group following Stage-2 cluster consolidation. Reverse-aliases now surface in the Related Entries module on this profile.
- 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.
Key terms in this profile
Related entries
Entries that document specific branches, splinters, or leader eras of this entity.
Later entities that succeeded this one.
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
You may also want to explore
Frequently asked questions
Q.Is FLDS a cult?
CLCI Hub deliberately avoids the binary label "cult." Instead it places groups on a transparent 0–40 spectrum of documented control using Steven Hassan's BITE model (Behaviour, Information, Thought, Emotional). FLDS scores 39 out of 40 — "Destructive / Extreme", at high confidence. The score describes documented control patterns, not a judgement of members' sincerity or beliefs; many members do not personally experience the patterns listed.
Q.What is FLDS's CLCI score?
FLDS scores 39 out of 40 on the Cult-Like Control Index, which falls in the "Extreme" band. That total is the sum of four BITE axes — Behaviour 10, Information 9, Thought 9, Emotional 9 — plus a signed modifier of +2 for aggravating or mitigating factors.
Q.Why does FLDS score 39 on the CLCI?
The score reflects publicly documented patterns including: Forced marriages of girls as young as 12 to older men; Expulsion of 'lost boys' (teenage males) to maintain polygamy ratios; Total Prophet authority over members' marriages, jobs, housing; Children removed from biological parents and reassigned. These map onto the BITE axes of behaviour, information, thought, and emotional control, and a signed modifier of +2 is applied for factors such as financial demands, leadership accountability, and exit costs. Every claim is backed by the citations in the Sources section on this page.
Q.How reliable is the FLDS rating?
This profile is rated High confidence. High confidence means the score is backed by court records, academic work, and/or sustained investigative journalism. CLCI scores are not fixed — they are revised whenever new public evidence appears, and groups that reform can score lower over time.
Q.Where can I get help regarding FLDS?
If you or someone you care about is affected by FLDS, start with the Recovery resources listed on this page. General cult-aware support is available from the International Cultic Studies Association (icsahome.com) and the Freedom of Mind Resource Center (freedomofmind.com). CLCI Hub is an educational resource, not a crisis service — if anyone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.
Found something wrong on this profile?
We accept correction requests from anyone — current and former members, researchers, journalists, family members, and the listed organisation. Submissions are reviewed by an editor; we do not auto-publish.