Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) / Warren Jeffs
Polygamist Mormon-fundamentalist breakaway centred in the twin towns of Hildale UT and Colorado City AZ (formerly Short Creek) plus the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado TX. Founded 1929–1935 as a polygamy-continuing breakaway from mainstream LDS Church (which had formally ended plural marriage in 1890). Warren Jeffs assumed leadership 2002 after his father Rulon Jeffs's death; convicted 2011 in Texas of two counts of child sexual assault (life+20). FLDS continues under Jeffs's smuggled-from-prison directives; estimated 6,000–10,000 members remain.
CLCI radar
BITE breakdown
Maximum-band Extreme. Warren Jeffs serving life+20 years for child sexual assault since 2011; continues to run FLDS by smuggled directives from his Texas prison cell. Documented forced underage marriages, exile of teenage boys ('lost boys'), total information control via revelations recorded on prison phone calls, and reassignment of wives and children from disobedient men.
Profile facts
In context
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) is the largest Mormon-fundamentalist polygamist organisation, descended from a 1929–1935 schism with the mainstream LDS Church over the latter's 1890 Manifesto formally ending plural marriage. The FLDS settled the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona (then called Short Creek), where the religion's prophet-presidents — John Y Barlow, Leroy S Johnson, Rulon Jeffs, and from 2002 Warren Jeffs — exercised effectively total control over residents through the 'United Effort Plan' communal property trust that owned virtually all land and housing.
Warren Steed Jeffs (born 1955) assumed the prophet presidency on his father Rulon's death in 2002 and immediately tightened control. Within his first three years he excommunicated and exiled hundreds of men (including his own brothers and uncles), reassigned their wives and children to other men, and dramatically expanded the practice of marrying underage girls to older married men. The 'lost boys' phenomenon — teenage boys exiled to reduce competition for the limited pool of marriageable women — was documented in multiple legal and journalistic investigations 2003–2008.
In 2004 Jeffs began constructing the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch near Eldorado, Texas as a relocation site for the most-trusted FLDS families. In April 2008 Texas authorities raided the YFZ Ranch and took 462 children into temporary state custody following a hoax phone call. The Texas Supreme Court ordered the children returned, but the evidence gathered at the ranch — including marriage records and a temple where Jeffs allegedly consummated marriages with underage girls — supported subsequent criminal prosecutions. In August 2011 Jeffs was convicted in Texas state court of two counts of child sexual assault (the youngest victim was 12) and sentenced to life plus 20 years. He remains incarcerated at the Powledge Unit in Palestine, Texas.
Despite imprisonment, Jeffs continues to lead FLDS through 'revelations' communicated to followers via his brother Lyle Jeffs and other lieutenants. Documented patterns 2011–2025 include: continuing forced underage marriages (multiple Utah and Arizona prosecutions); SNAP food-stamp fraud rings to fund the organisation (2016 federal indictments of 11 FLDS leaders including Lyle Jeffs); the United Effort Plan trust seized by Utah and Arizona courts but residents continuing under FLDS doctrine; documented psychological abuse of women and children including ritual humiliation and severance threats; and the 'keep sweet, pray and obey' indoctrination phrase that became the title of the 2022 Netflix documentary series. Estimated current membership is 6,000–10,000 with significant attrition since 2002.
The CLCI 37 (Extreme, top quartile) reflects total information control (members forbidden from internet, television, secular books), comprehensive behaviour control (clothing, marriage, employment, residence, food), complete thought-replacement (Jeffs's revelations as sole legitimate doctrine), and severe emotional manipulation (severance threat, child reassignment, exile). FLDS is the paradigm case of a high-control religious organisation in contemporary North America.
Recovery resources
- Holding Out Help (Utah) — Direct services for FLDS exiles in the Hildale / Colorado City region — housing, education, employment
- Sound Choices Coalition — FLDS exit support and advocacy founded by ex-FLDS members
- Cherish Families — Support for families exiting Mormon-fundamentalist polygamist groups
- ICSA — General high-control-group recovery resources
See the full curated list at /resources.
Notable public ex-members
- Carolyn Jessop
- Elissa Wall (key trial witness)
- Brent Jeffs (Warren's nephew)
- Rebecca Musser
- Ruby Jessop
Legal cases & controversies
- Texas v Warren Jeffs 2011 (life+20)
- Utah v Warren Jeffs 2007 (overturned on appeal)
- 2016 federal SNAP fraud indictments
- 2008 YFZ Ranch raid
- United Effort Plan trust seizure
Evidence by BITE axis
- Forced marriage of underage girls to older married men (multiple Utah / Arizona / Texas convictions)
- 'Lost boys' — teenage boys exiled to reduce competition for marriageable women
- Reassignment of wives and children from disobedient men to favoured men
- Warren Jeffs serving life+20 years for child sexual assault since 2011
- Documented forced underage marriages, exile of teenage boys ('lost boys'), total information control via revelations recorded on prison phone calls, and reassignment of wives and children from disobedient men
- Total information control: members forbidden internet, television, secular media
- Imprisoned prophet continues to direct organisation by smuggled directives 2011–2025
- United Effort Plan trust historically owned virtually all member housing — exit meant homelessness
- 2016 federal SNAP food-stamp fraud indictments of 11 FLDS leaders
- continues to run FLDS by smuggled directives from his Texas prison cell
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.
- Dispensing of ExistenceThe group claims authority to decide who counts as a real human / saved / worthy.
Timeline
- 1890Mainstream LDS Manifesto ends plural marriage; future FLDS founders reject the change
- 1935Short Creek (now Hildale/Colorado City) becomes the FLDS settlement
- 2002Warren Jeffs assumes prophet presidency on his father Rulon's death
- 2004YFZ Ranch construction begins near Eldorado, Texas
- 2006-2008Jeffs on FBI Most Wanted list; captured 2006 in Nevada
- 2008-04Texas authorities raid YFZ Ranch; 439 children removed (early reports cited up to 468 before adults were reclassified out of the count)
- 2011-08Texas conviction: life+20 years for two counts of child sexual assault
- 2016Federal SNAP food-stamp fraud indictments of 11 FLDS leaders including Lyle Jeffs
- 2022Netflix 'Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey' documentary series
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.
Court record
Published court opinions matching “Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” in the CourtListener corpus (Free Law Project) — 115 opinions total, top matches shown. Listing here means the name appears in the case caption, not that any party was found liable.
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Horne698 F.3d 1295 · Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit · 2012
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Horne465 F. App'x 768 · Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit · 2012
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Horne289 P.3d 502 · Utah Supreme Court · 2012
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Lindberg2010 UT 51 · Utah Supreme Court · 2010
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Wisan773 F. Supp. 2d 1217 · District Court, D. Utah · 2011
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. Bradshaw526 U.S. 1130 · Supreme Court of the United States · 1999
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. Bradshaw526 U.S. 1130 · Supreme Court of the United States · 1999
- Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. Williams507 U.S. 1018 · Supreme Court of the United States · 1993
Retrieved 2026-08-06. Opinion metadata verbatim from the CourtListener API; follow the links for the full documents.
Academic literature
Most-cited scholarly works whose titles match “FLDS” in the OpenAlex catalog (1,341 matching works total).
- FLDS: A Comprehensive dsRNA Sequencing Method for Intracellular RNA Virus SurveillanceSyun‐ichi Urayama, Yoshihiro Takaki, Takuro Nunoura · Microbes and Environments · 2016 · 103 citations
Retrieved 2026-08-22. Metadata verbatim from the OpenAlex API; inclusion is bibliographic, not endorsement.
Sources
- Jon Krakauer, 'Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith' (Doubleday, 2003) search ↗
- Carolyn Jessop, 'Escape' (Broadway Books, 2007) — first-person account by Rulon Jeffs's escaped wife search ↗
- Texas v Warren Jeffs trial transcript (51st District Court, 2011) search ↗
- Netflix, 'Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey' (2022) — four-part documentary series search ↗
- FBI Most Wanted listing and 2006–2008 manhunt records search ↗
- Sam Brower, 'Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs' (Bloomsbury, 2011) search ↗
- Utah v Lyle Jeffs federal SNAP fraud indictment (D. Utah, 2016) 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 ↗
- An Ordinance, incorporating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=%2Futhisstat&CISOPTR=1756&REC=4&CISOBOX=incorporating 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 ↗
- Warren Steed Jeffs v. State (2012) — CourtListener — https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2955878/warren-steed-jeffs-v-state/ 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.
- 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: court records, ex-member sources. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
- 2026-05-20Linked to parent entity `flds-fundamentalist-mormon` as leader_specific_regime. Both profiles remain publicly visible; the parent covers the broader movement.
- 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
This entry documents a branch, splinter, or leader-specific era of the parent.
Relevant hubs
Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.
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Frequently asked questions
Q.Is Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 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). Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints scores 37 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 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints's CLCI score?
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints scores 37 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 9, Information 9, Thought 10, Emotional 9 — plus a signed modifier of +0 for aggravating or mitigating factors.
Q.Why does Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints score 37 on the CLCI?
The score reflects publicly documented patterns including: Forced marriage of underage girls to older married men (multiple Utah / Arizona / Texas convictions); 'Lost boys' — teenage boys exiled to reduce competition for marriageable women; Reassignment of wives and children from disobedient men to favoured men; Total information control: members forbidden internet, television, secular media. These map onto the BITE axes of behaviour, information, thought, and emotional control, and a signed modifier of +0 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 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 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 Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints?
If you or someone you care about is affected by Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 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.