The Fundamental Mormons are a subculture with a worldwide population under 60,000 primarily located throughout the Western United States and Western Canada. While the Fundamental Mormons set themselves apart with their interpretation of scripture and isolation from society, it is the unusual practice of plural marriage that sets them apart. The practice of polygamy was abandoned in the 1800’s in an effort for the Mormon religion to adjust to the behaviors of the dominant culture. The abandonment of polygamy led to the division of the Mormon religion into modern-day Mormons and Fundamental Mormons. Isolation, arranged marriages, polygamy, and child abuse are some of the characteristics of the subculture of Fundamental Mormonism.
How does the
…show more content…
The isolated FLDS community consists of about 10,000 people who are sheltered from the realities of the modern-day world. The president and Prophet of the FLDS church is named Warren Jeffs. In order to keep the masses from thinking independently and straying from the ideas of the prophet, Warren Jeffs discourages any access to television, the internet, newspapers, and outside entertainment. By limiting the people’s exposure to outside news sources, Jeffs can control the information the community receives, and therefore alter their perception of events occurring in the world. Members of the FLDS church are taught to hate outsiders and are fed false information about the events and people outside of the compound. The members of the church live within the confines of the church in a commune community where gates and walls keep the people in, and the outsiders out. FLDS women and girls are known to wear extremely modest prairie style dresses with long uncut hair typically worn …show more content…
However, there is evidence of negative conditions that result from the practice of plural marriage. Firstly, “Polygamy has long been associated with gender inequality… and this remains the case.” (“The Practice of and Reasons for Polygamy” para. 13) Women who practice Fundamental Mormonism with the FLDS church are taught that their main purpose in life is to bear children and tend to their husband’s needs. They are required to fulfill these expectations without exception or choice. Moreover, “Social scientists studying various societies often reiterate that the practice of polygamy leads to women being oppressed, threatened or disempowered.” (“The Practice of and Reasons for Polygamy” para. 15) In the case of the FLDS church, women have no choice in who or when they marry, when and how many children they bear, they have limited access to education, and no opportunity for work outside of the home. In order to ensure women in the community live up to these expectations, the church requires women to keep quiet and breaks down their ability to think
"We are a peculiar people," Elder Bruce R. McConkie once said (McConkie 25). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of a few "odd" Christian religions. Many of its practices have created much persecution and political reaction, polygamy being one of these. It created much social and political persecution of the Mormons.
The FLDS is a breakaway sect from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and was established after a group of Mormons refused to renounce polygamy, which in their eyes, was the only way to reach salvation. According to the FLDS mindset, the only way a man could reach heaven and have status in the community is through having multiple wives. The FLDS community functions as a hierarchy, at which the prophet stands atop of the pyramid as the crowning jewel of God’s favored people. For the past few decades, Rulon and Warren Jeffs have ruled over the church as the prophets, taking unprecedented power over...
Scott, Donald. "Mormonism and the American Mainstream." Teacher Serve. National Humanities Center, Aug. 2004. Web. 20 Mar. 2014. .
religious persecution from the rest of America, as they were unable to. lead normal lives in Central America. What is the non-Mormons attitude towards Polygamy? Polygamy (in a large proportion of American’s opinions) was seen to be. wrong in the eyes of God.
The Mormons' Success in Setting Up a New Community The Mormons are a religious group in the United States of America. Their full name is The Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints. Joseph Smith founded them. Joseph Smith was the man who founded the Mormons. He translated the golden plates and wrote the book of Mormon.
Perry, Seth. "An Outsider Looks In At Mormonism." Chronicle Of Higher Education 52.22 (2006): B9. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.
A characteristic not many people have is courage. Courage can be difficult to obtain or it can be easy. Acting upon fearful choices makes a person courageous. Courageous figures are the 2000 Stripling Warriors. These young men were morally straight, courageous, faithful, and brave. Anybody can be courageous through actions and morals. One of the most important attributes is courage.
"Growth of the Church - LDS Newsroom." LDS News | Mormon News - Official Newsroom of the Church. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. .
“History of Fundamentalist Mormons.” Wheat & Tares. Wheat and Tares, 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
The Mormon population holds true to their unique religious beliefs. Most Mormons are similar to those who practice Christianity, however there are some differences. Over the past two centuries that Mormonism has been founded by Joseph Smith, this faith has expanded across the United States. Even though the faith has been powerful to many believers it is becoming less frequently practiced. This religion not only practices God and Jesus as separate people but also believes that God is seen in everyone. Since, Mormons are very religious and godlike we have to be competent to these differences when working with this population. There is very little information about how to perform Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) with a child that is practicing
Terry Tempest Williams is fully aware that she is contradicting the church when she writes “women have no outward authority,” yet she still chooses to take part in a ritual of healing that can only be performed by the men. Williams, however, does so in privacy and in the “secrecy of the sisterhood.” The word secrecy hints at the idea of doing something which is not accepted and against certain beliefs of today’s church. She was born and raised in a home of devout Mormons who follow the traditional beliefs of their faith. She acknowledges that the Mormon Church places great importance on obedience. In college she began to question her faith and today would not consider herself an “orthodox Mormon,” although Mormonism still has an impact in her life and work. In her writing, Williams continually contradicts the values of the Mormons.
While polygamy is illegal in America, there are roughly 30,000 to 50,000 people who live in polygamous families. According to an article in the International Business Times, about “forty thousand people in America are self-described Mormon fundamentalist who practice plural marriage and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints remains the largest organized fundamentalist group in the world.” Jeffs grew up in a religious community known as FLDS, a radical branch from Mormonism, but it is not recognized within the mainstream Mormon Church....
Polyamory, like polygamy, refers to the state of conducting multiple romantic relationships at once; however, there are many distinctions between the terms. The most blatant difference is that polygamy specifies the participants are all married to each other, whereas polyamory encompasses a spectrum of relationships ranging from casual to committed. Furthermore, polygamy has its roots in religious and highly patriarchal systems, such as the Abrahamic faiths or the notorious Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Quite distinctly, the lifestyle we now know as polyamory grew out of the hippies’ free love movement in the 1960s, with considerably different values. In its modern form, it is a secular alternative lifestyle that is gradually gaining in popularity. It is estimated that there are over half a million openly polyamorous families in the United States alone.
Many people would happily accept an opportunity to have their daily stress reduced by employing help with not only their children but also with daily household responsibilities of cooking and cleaning. Especially in this fragile economic state the average family living in America cannot afford the luxury of hiring a house cleaner, cook or nanny. However, there are polygamists families in America have the abilities of multiple adults contributing to the same household because of the lifestyle choice of having multiple spouses. The extra help comes at a price for woman, by having to share her husband with other woman and raising her children in the difficult and uncommon lifestyle. Polygamy takes a total acceptance and understanding of it by the mothers, in order for polygamy not to have a negative psychological impact on her children. Children are the innocent victims of polygamy; consequently, they grow up witnessing a tense environment filled with their mother’s insecurities and rivalries with the other wives, which sequentially end up harming the child in the end. Furthermore, polygamy can be psychologically damaging to children because of the increased rates of not only welfare fraud, domestic violence, and underage marriages but also child abuse and neglect.
In today’s society the assumption asserts that there must be only two adults integrated in a relationship, however in polygamous environments, having more than one spouse is traditional. Some may argue that Polygamy is simply just an alternate lifestyle. This, however, ceases to be true. Young girls are being forced to marry older men and sometimes relatives. Little boys are often abandoned because it appears to be competition for older men. Children are victims of sexual and physical abuse. Whereas, for women, they generally become stripped of their money and experience competition against the multiple wives a husband. Although Polygamy is viewed as immoral by society, the main focus point should be saving young children and women because