Divine Revelations and Heavenly Sessions: Tensions of Trauma and Strategic Abuse within the Fundamental Latter-Day Saints

December 6, 2024

After a 2008 raid brought the fundamentalist Mormon community (referred to as FLDS) into the forefront of the news cycle, instances of trauma have been noted repeatedly throughout news coverage, court proceedings, and testimonies. Psychological trauma is the emotional reaction that stems from exposure to a stress-inducing event and continues to cause a lasting (mental, psychological, physical, emotional) after-effect to an individual. The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders notes that the inciting incidents may include “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence” (APA, 2013, pg. 271). In the following paper, this definition will be used, although this definition fails to include stressors relating to life upheaval such as divorce (Pai et al., 2017). Every traumatic experience, as well as its lasting harm or resulting symptomology, is unique to each situation and individual. Trauma occurs when the individual’s ability to manage by themselves is overwhelmed, which may result in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), agitation, issues with socialization and forming relationships, or physical symptoms, such as migraines, bodily aches, or changes in blood pressure and heart rate, among other resulting symptoms (Giller, 2011; Jaeger et al., 2015). The frequency of trauma within this community has only come to be publicly acknowledged in the present century and has been supported by multiple memoirs, documentaries, television shows, films, and books that have been written about or by members of the FLDS. At present, there are no studies in the psychology discipline that focus on the FLDS community. In the existing narratives from the ex-FLDS community found in media, stories of forced marriage, forced birth, child abuse, and incest are common. The following paper will center on a specific FLDS offshoot and familial line that began in Colorado City, Arizona but also extends to Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada. 

“The Mormons had long possessed a strong and spectacular sense of otherness and unity: They saw themselves not only as God’s modern chosen people, but also as a people whose faith and identity had been forged by a long and bloody history, and by outright banishment,” (Gilmore, 1994, p. 10) writes ex-Mormon Mikal Gilmore in the introduction to his memoir Shot in the Heart. Chased out of multiple states, the Mormon faith, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), has continued to bloom around the United States since its mid-19th century creation. When the LDS church decided to ban polygamy at the turn of the 20th century, those who wished to continue the practice were forcibly excommunicated in the 1930s and sought refuge in a deserted area in and around the border of Utah and Arizona. Due to the state lines, this specific community is referred to as either Short Creek, Hildale, Utah, or Colorado City, Arizona, but only the latter will be utilized in the following discussion. This fundamentalist branch continues to practice plural marriage, despite its ban across America, which has resulted in a very hidden and surveilled society. The Colorado City police, mayor, and public school system all report directly to the FLDS president (Krakauer, p. 11-2). In order to avoid detection, FLDS men legally wed their first wife, but ‘spiritually marry’ other women (Krakauer, 2004, p. 12). Due to the size of the group, which CNN estimates had around 10,000 members in the early 2000s, incestuous relationships and underage marriages allegedly ran rampant, (CNN, 2023; Southern Poverty Law Center, 2024). Multiple raids and arrests have occurred, which have landed several once-senior leaders in the group in prison on charges of sexual assault, incest, rape, or underage sexual relations. The president of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs, has been in prison since 2007 on multiple counts of sexual assault and rape of his underage ‘wives.’ Somehow, he is said to still lead the sect (SPLC, 2024).

Very little information is known about the present-day operations of the FLDS church. Within this paper, first names will be used in lieu of last names, as the intercrossing of familial lines appears repeatedly in the literature and may cause confusion. A family tree is available at the end of this paper. However, the court trials for cases like Warren’s have helped to shed light on the incidents that have occurred in the closely guarded habitat. Through tactics such as an FLDS truck constantly surveilling Colorado City’s streets or shunning those who have been excommunicated from the FLDS church, the leaders of the group keep a tight reign on their followers (Krakauer). Those who live (or have lived) in FLDS’ Colorado City community experienced powerlessness, yielding their decision-making to the church’s leaders. Marriage partners, clothing choices, and even friendships are established by the higher-ups of the FLDS (Krakauer). Further, the scholastic system of the community is based entirely upon spirituality, with subjects like math and English being removed entirely from the Colorado City FLDS private school, as of 2012 (Holm Jr., 2013). In the Book of Mormon, Moroni 9:9, a passage about women who have been raped during wartime, states that women must be virginal in order to hold virtue. It suggests that if one’s virginity is taken without consent, the woman remains unpure. This verse was present in a Mormon children’s school workbook and was only removed in 2016 (KATV, 2016). The verse that replaced it is Jacob 2:28, “For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.” After Mormon 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped in 2002 and held for nine months, she spoke out against the abstinence-only education she received at school. Although she was raped multiple times daily, as stated during her 2009 trial testimony, Elizabeth said that she felt dirtied by the situation and guilty due to the teachings she had learned in school (Utah Daily Herald, 2009). Her kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell, stated that he followed through with his actions as he insisted that God had told him to do so (Krakauer, p. 50). In his book Under a Banner of Heaven, which details the state of the FLDS in the early 2000s, author Jon Krakauer talks with two brothers who claimed they were led by God to murder their sister-in-law and her months-old daughter. The younger of the brothers, Dan Lafferty, told Krakauer that Elizabeth should view her traumatic experience as a gift from God and a “blessing” (Krakauer, p. 50). 

While narratives on individual experiences of assault within the FLDS community continue to be written and released to the public, rarely does the writer use the term ‘trauma’ or ‘traumatic.’ ‘Trauma’ is said once in Flora Jessop’s Church of Lies, when she states that she felt PTSD symptoms when reflecting upon her marriage in the present day (Church of Lies, p. 71). Elissa Wall writes in Stolen Innocence that the death of FLDS president Leroy Johnson was more traumatic than when her house burned down when she was four months old (Stolen Innocence, p. 24). Given the current definitions of trauma, these writings should be treated as traumatic experiences. If rape is seen as a simultaneous blessing as well as a removal of virtue, then what other teachings have tainted the trauma-informed perspectives of those who have grown up in the cut-off religious sect?  Through the retellings of these ex-FLDS experiences, this paper will explore how the FLDS has warped an established religion into a cult-like community that manipulates both emotions and piety in order to exert control.

Mormonism became an official religion in 1830, when its eventual leader and President Joseph Smith was only 25 years old (Scott, 2004). Mormonism’s official book, the Book of Mormon, was created and canonized by Smith himself. The legend of its creation has long been argued over, but the overall story is that Smith was led once per year to transcribe a handful of glistening golden tablets using special seeing stones gifted to him by the angel Moroni (Britannica). For four years, Smith was instructed through angelic visions to continue his quest, which came to tell the story of a group of people who left Jerusalem around 600 years before Jesus Christ was born and came to North America by boat. The clan was led by two brothers, Nephi and Laman, the sons of the patriarch Lehi. Upon Lehi’s death, the group was split amongst those who wanted to follow Nephi, who was the more honorable son, and Laman, who actively resisted Nephi (Krakauer, p. 68). In the story, the Lamanites were so disobedient to God that they were cursed with dark skin (Krakauer, p. 69). The gold plates that created this religion have never been found, and the scripture itself states that Moroni took them back once Smith was finished (Krakauer, 69). Despite the errors and inconsistencies included within Smith’s original Book of Mormon (Christians praying to Jesus in 147 BCE and the usage of paned windows, wheeled carts, and seven-day week centuries before they were commonly utilized or even invented), it continues to be used as the primary text for those of the Mormon faith (Willis, 1970; Krakauer, 70). Smith’s saga continued after the religion became official, and led his newfound group across the country into rural Western Missouri, where they believed the Garden of Eden existed and where Adam and Eve spent their final days (Held, 2021). They believed that the second coming of Christ would occur if they created a homeland in an already-pious area. After being banished from the state for attacking a Missouri militia group, they moved to Nauvoo, Illinois where Joseph Smith was killed just five years later. Now led by Brigham Young, they again fled the religious persecution of the Midwest, and found themselves at home in Utah in 1847, which was at that point part of the Mexican territory (Olsen, 1994). Utah became a state in 1890, granted only after the Church agreed to renounce polygamy (Verdoia, 1996). 

Less than a year before Smith’s murder, he had a ‘revelation’ on reclaiming plural marriage. Every single teaching of Smith’s was gained through a revelation, which he said had been told to him through God. This practice has continued with today’s Mormons, as well as the clans of fundamental offshoots. In one of Smith’s final speeches, he informed his congregation, “And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore he is justified” (Doctrine & Covenants 132:62). Upon Smith’s death, a successor had yet to be named. The Mormon community had already segmented into two: one group who saw a chance to ban plural marriage with the patriarch’s death, and the other who saw the practice as a divine rite (Krakauer, p. 194). The seeds for splitting had already been sown. However, 95% of Mormons had no idea that Smith had cemented the practice as a critical step into achieving salvation in the days following his death (Krakauer, p. 195). Young, who had 57 wives, took Smith’s place in 1847 (Turner, 2012).

Polygamy was an important tenet of the Mormon faith. There are many different reasons that scholars have noted for this, such as B. Carmon Hardy believing that Joseph Smith saw it as a path to accelerate salvation (Hardy & Daynes, 2009) while Sarah Barringer Gordon argues that women were only exalted if they became wives (Gordon, 2002). Modern historical theory asserts that plural marriage was seen through God’s will as a divine practice, such as in the biblical stories of Abraham and Jacob. 

Polygamy was commonly practiced up until 1890. The practice of having multiple wives (who were sometimes related) created an expanded family network and allowed women to care for all children similarly, even if they were not her own. Polygamy was the base of the sculpture of Mormonism, its pillar that supplemented all else.

In 1904, Joseph F. Smith, nephew of Joseph Smith and sixth LDS president, published the Second Manifesto, which effectively acted as a formal document to remove polygamy from the structure of the Mormon Church and stated that those who continued to practice plural marriage were to be excommunicated. This followed an earlier manifesto that only banned the practice. Almost happily, Lorin Wooley corralled a group of dissenters and moved to Colorado City, a yet-unincorporated community just far enough from Salt Lake City, from which they were excommunicated. The town acted as a place of refuge for, yes, polygamy, but also sexual abuse of adults and children, murder, rape, sale and exchange of minors, forced childbirth and marriage, incest, homophobia, racism, and child labor. 

For those living in the United States of America, Mormonism caught on partly because of how the newborn country was threaded within the religion. This is coupled with the true American spirit of liberty, independence, and creating one’s own journey. Mormonism was not distinct in the way that their leader received personal statements from God, but it could be argued that due to the ‘divine conversations’ had between early LDS/modern FLDS leaders and their Lord, one’s personal romantic and marital tastes were unrestricted, even when it came to children. 

Five years after Smith’s Second Manifesto, Rulon Jeffs was born in Salt Lake City to a secret polygamous family that considered themselves mainstream Mormons. In his mid-20s, his father revealed to him the extended teachings that had been since banned within the current LDS literature, but were still being actively followed and taught within the FLDS offshoots, which he soon joined (Brower, 2011). Heritage and familial line is extremely important in the Mormon community, but is depended upon even more so within the FLDS. Rulon’s first wife was the great-granddaughter of Brigham Young, who divorced him upon learning that he had secretly taken a second wife in 1940. In 1987, Rulon, now with over a dozen wives by his side, became the 5th ‘President and Prophet, Seer and Revelator’ of the FLDS (Goodwin et al., 2005). Krakauer compares life during Rulon’s reign to Taliban rule, due to the strict prohibitions that he set into place, which included a ban on television, magazines, newspapers, and even pets (Krakauer, p. 11). Until his 2002 death, Rulon encouraged the female residents of Colorado City to “keep sweet, pray, and obey” (Dretzin, 2002, 0:4). When he passed away at the age of 92, Rulon was estimated to have 75 wives. A handful of these wives were only 14 or 15 years old when they were instructed to marry Rulon, who at the time was in his 80s (Krakauer 12). Rulon’s son Warren became FLDS president shortly after his passing. 

While Rulon Jeffs’ Wikipedia page refers to him as an “American polygamist and religious leader…”, Warren Jeffs’ page gives himself the title of “American cult leader” (“Rulon Jeffs”, 2024; “Warren Jeffs”, 2024). Warren’s first action upon taking office was to marry Rulon’s surviving wives, the same women who helped to raise him (Porter, 2022). Between 2002 and 2006, Warren acquired up to an estimated 90 wives (Ibid). One of his most notable wives was Merrianne Jessop, who was 12 years old when she wed the 51-year-old. In 2009, Warren’s nephew Brent Jeffs wrote a book alleging that Warren had raped him, as well as two of his brothers, when he was five years old (Jeffs, Lost Boy; Brower & Krakauer, Prophet’s Prey, 2011).

FLDS only began to be recognized as a cult upon when the community came under Warren’s rule. People who are in a cult typically are not aware that they are in one (Best, 2018). Through repeated acts of control and brainwashing, cults create a sense of community. Individuals join cults because at first, they feel a sense of community, being welcomed into a ‘family’ after being ostracized or alone (Singer and Addis, 1992). Comparing themselves to the all-powerful leader that defines their every move, they may gain a sense of security while in the cult, and they are made to feel hopeful, purposeful, and that they finally have a place to belong. It is only after they have been deeply brainwashed by the corrupt teachings that things that would traditionally be thought of as outlandish or outrageous become just part of their life, possibly due to a warped understanding of ethics, learned from their leader.

Another key aspect of creating and maintaining a cult is disrupting the flow of familial lineage. The original dozen families that have been a part of the FLDS since its 1900s creation have, over the subsequent generations, all become linked through marriage (see family tree). In the case of Colorado City, a man’s plural wives may be his own stepsisters, stepdaughters, cousins, or aunts. As family size swells, the aspect of being related to someone becomes less significant. Hogg and J. Turner (1987) displays that individuals in a group that includes both men and women will bring attention to and liken themselves to those of their same sex, but when the same individuals were placed into a new group consisting of only their own gender, the same splitting did not occur. Best (2018) likens these results to the concept of attaining social class through a dual ingroup/outgroup and ‘us versus them’ approach (Best, p. 13). When group members separate themselves into an in-group and an out-group, the categorization leads individuals to undergo internalization, where one integrates group characteristics or beliefs within their own sense of self (R. Turner et al., 2012). If one does not conform to the beliefs established by their ingroup, they may fear isolation as a result of their insubordination. In a cult, these constant group dynamics can lead to deindividuation. As kin ties become less substantial the bigger one’s family becomes, the dependency and support system that relatedness may provide within a surveilled and/or abusive system disintegrates. This is evident when applied to the remarriage practices of the FLDS, executed by Warren. When a married man was excommunicated or dead, his wives would be married off within hours to another male of the president’s choosing. In January 2004, in what some have viewed as an action to ensure more wives for himself, Warren had 21 men removed from the Colorado City community, ripped away from their families in the middle of the night with no response as to what the men had done (Weyermann, p. 158). Their homewares were also taken, to be later distributed to Warren’s estate and his wives, leaving the husband-less women and their biological brood in crowded vans, where they were carted away to their reassigned husbands.

Around 2003, Warren led 500 of his followers to Eldorado, Texas, where Yearning for Zion Ranch (YFZ) had been freshly built. While Warren remained president of the FLDS, Merril Jessop served as the YFZ’s bishop. Merril is Merrianne’s father and went to jail for officiating her marriage to Warren. A whitewashed and barren walled compound, YFZ allowed the most headstrong FLDS followers to continue their ways. However, it also allowed Warren to evade law enforcement by living in a state different from the two that had already begun to create cases around him. Warren spent years out of sight, seeking asylum inside the hidden community that his father had helped to create, until he was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list in May 2006 (FBI, 2006). His charges were split between Utah and Arizona and consisted of counts of sexual assault on a minor, conspiracy to commit sexual misconduct with a minor, fleeing law enforcement, and rape (Ibid.). As FLDS president, Warren was tasked with arranging all marriages as well as conducting the ceremony, which is what led him to be charged with conspiracy. He is currently incarcerated, serving two different life sentences, in addition to other shorter sentences (Brower, 2011, p. 59). In 2008, YFZ Ranch was raided by Texas law enforcement after a woman who identified herself as a 16-year-old girl called 911 to report that she had been abused there (Campo-Flores and Skipp, 2008). The woman who made the call, in actuality, had nothing to do with the FLDS community or YFZ and had never been there, but the call did launch the final sweeping investigation of the FLDS. The raid found 12 girls (aged 12 to 15) who claimed they had been sexually abused with their parents’ knowledge, 274 children who were neglected according to Texas law, and 124 ‘designated perpetrators,’ which included the husbands of these girls as well as the parents of underage wives (Kent, 2012). The YFZ ranch created an even more isolated system for the trauma and abuse to continue, under the guise of community. During this raid, 462 children were removed from the property and taken into Texas state custody and held at a nearby rodeo stadium (Boyle, 2008). During this, 47 mothers were separated from their children (Ibid.) In the 2020 obituary of Cathleen Barlow Jessop, Merril’s faithful fifth wife, it is noted that the “critical trauma imposed upon her family during the “The 2008 Raid” in Texas” (The Spectrum, 2020) had a large impact on her later life. However, five of the highest-ranking FLDS officials were sent to prison for sexual assault of a female minor off of information gained from the raid (Boyle). 

Boasting 239 grandchildren at the time of its publication, Merril’s brother Joe C. Jessop and his mega-family was featured as National Geographic’s February 2010 cover story. Within the piece, Joe talks about his “blessed life” (Anderson, 2010). A decade earlier, Joe had impregnated his 12-year-old daughter Flora (Weyermann, 2011, p. 144). In her 2008 memoir, Flora writes about the spells of vomiting that she began to experience. In response, her aunt retorts that the pain that she is experiencing is due to her ‘sins’ (Jessop, 2008), and informs the preteen that she is pregnant. In a combined state of pain and confusion, Flora begins to connect the multiple encounters in which her father raped her with the concept of becoming pregnant, stating, “I just hadn’t made the connection” (Ibid). Her aunt then sticks an unidentified object inside of the girl, aborting the fetus. Flora continues, writing that whenever her menstrual cycle was late, she would smack her stomach repeatedly so as to remove the fetus. Even after her own crude abortion, Flora remained unaware of how pregnancy even worked. Days after the ‘procedure,’ two boys from high-ranking FLDS families attempted to rape Flora and her friend. During their sixth-grade class, the friend passed a note to one of the boys, threatening police intervention. The teacher took the slip and showed it to the Colorado City marshall. During her subsequent police interview, Flora confirmed the attempted assault but also informed them of her father’s incestuous activity. A court case came a year later, but Flora’s own uncle bribed the judge, and the abuse continued. She acted out at school and was subsequently kicked out, which resulted in a complete shunning by the FLDS community. Flora writes, “Everyone saw me as evil except Dad, who continued having sex with me whenever he could catch me” (Ibid). 

Merrianne Jessop is the girl, now woman, behind one of the charges of sexual assault on a minor. Her older sister, Naomi, was one of the wives passed down from Rulon to Warren, and nine of her other sisters were wedded directly to Warren. During his time as president, Warren had amassed so many underage brides that he began to hold ‘heavenly sessions,’ where he would instruct them through sexual intercourse. The FLDS private school system teaches only abstinence, a decision that Warren himself made, as he served as the principal of the school for 20 years. Through this, Warren was able to have complete control over his brides’ concept of sex, more specifically in the cases of the inexperienced young girls who he ‘wedded.’ 

In a 2004 audiotape used in Warren’s trial, five young girls, aged 12-15, are intimate with Warren at the same time. A reporter at the trial noted that the girls would hold each other down, forcing the others to continue, while Warren spoke, “Very few of my ladies have been allowed to assist me. To assist me because it takes a heavenly gift. You have to pray more than ever” (Ibid.). With Warren’s own status as head FLDS prophet, his words were seen as God’s own. By controlling the idea of sex as well as likening it to a religious rite, Warren was able to exploit the salvatory power that his followers believed that he possessed by warping the act of sexual intercourse in order to fill his own needs. Kent (2012) writes that the aura that a cult leader is viewed with can reinforce and strengthen his pull over his members (Kent, 2012, p. 57). He argues that this aura has spilled over, in the FLDS community, into the other men present in the group as well as the parents of the girls who become wives while still underage. During the YFZ raid, beds were found inside hidden hallways of temples (West, 2008). This fact, coupled with Warren’s audio statements conflating religion with sexual pleasure, shows that sex was seen as a path towards salvation, but only when performed with a leader of the church. Krakauer writes that sex education in the FLDS schooling system taught youth that their bodies were objects of disgrace that should be hidden from others (Krakauer, p. 35). All people within the society were forced to wear long clothing that covered arms and legs, including the Mormon ‘temple garments’ present in the mainstream faith. These garments are reminiscent of long underwear, but cover the entire chest down to above the knees, and “serv[e] as protection against temptation and evil” (Ephesians 6:22-18). According to the Mormon Law of Chastity as outlined in the Book of Mormon, sex is forbidden outside of marriage, and within marriage, is only allowed when the woman is ovulating (Krakauer, p. 35; Benson, 1987). 

Due to these laws, sexual repression is common within these communities. Debbie Palmer, a member of the FLDS offshoot in Bountiful, Canada, tells Krakauer that teenage boys would take girls aged four and above into a barn, where they would leave crying (Krakauer, 35). Debbie is the step-aunt of the Bountiful leader Winston Blackmore, a man who some of their shared sisters went on to marry, and the ex-wife of Ray Blackmore, whom she married at age 13. Due to her mother’s remarriage, Debbie was also her own stepgrandmother. Debbie’s stepdaughter Alaire is seven years older than her, but Winston (Debbie’s nephew and Alaire’s uncle) set Alaire up to marry her own adoptive father Ray (Krakauer, p. 35). Alaire then became simultaneously Debbie’s stepdaughter as well as her co-wife. In Debbie’s conversation with Krakauer as he details in the book, she drives him around the mountain town, pausing only to point out where she was raped at age six by her stepbrother, at age four by a different stepbrother, and the three locations where she attempted to take her own life. When Ray died, Debbie was re-married to Sam Ralston, who abused the 19-year-old widow. When she sought guidance from LeRoy Johnson, the man who Rulon succeeded as FLDS president, he told her that she must stay with Sam, as it would inspire him to continue his priesthood. At this point, Debbie tells Krakauer, she realized that God had not made this decision, but the men in charge. Even still, she returned to Sam, but visited her father’s home on the way back. She had taken many sleeping pills and asked for her dad to comfort her before she went back. Her father then raped her. After she was hospitalized following a suicide attempt, Michael Palmer came to visit the young woman. They fell in love and Debbie soon became his third wife (her two stepsisters were the other wives). Rulon ex-communicated Michael in 1986 due to his occupation being located outside of the community, and in turn, Michael sexually assaulted Debbie’s own son and daughter, as well as another young boy. Their daughter was then set to be married to Winston, her uncle. After multiple instances of threatening Winston to no avail, Debbie burned down her home and left with a van full of her children.

What led Debbie to finally leave, after countless incidents of sexual abuse either done to her or witnessed by her, was her contemplation of God’s will and His supposed support of assault. Debbie was raised in the FLDS community and knew nothing else of the outside world. Her only tool during her struggles was her mind, as that was the only privacy that she was allowed. Abuse was normalized and even allowed to continue, with the common occurrence acting as just one segment of the day between prayers and study. The closed environment of the FLDS community actively disbanded family units, turning the entire population into relatives of some sort. By damaging the family units, individuals in crisis had no support system, as everyone was complicit in the same marital structure. When someone is brought up in a society that is disconnected from all else, the alienation furthers a sense of self-adequacy, especially during moments when one reflects on the abusive actions they have experienced (Hadding et al., 2023). The role of authoritative figures, especially when relation is shared with the victims, helps to regress the ideas of right and wrong, as they are involved with the dark actions of abuse. The strict dominance exhibited by the charismatic leaders of the FLDS created a loss of autonomy within their followers, concurrently eliminating their ability for introspection (Hadding et al.; Bailey and Shaw, 2019). When maltreatment begins as a child, the abuse affects the neurological growth of the brain, as well as how they respond to fear-inducing situations in the future (Integrative Life Center, 2022). During the critical period of childhood brain development, systems that respond to stressful stimuli are diminished, which leads to a lessened reaction to other external stimuli (Shonkoff et al., 2009; Takesian and Hensch, 2013; Ibrahim et al., 2021). The changes in the brain as a result of maltreatment can lead the victims of child abuse and/or child sexual assault towards a higher risk of depression and suicidality (Ibrahim et al.) Post et al. (2016) find that child abuse may increase the risk of developing bipolar disorder, with a lessened response to medication. Furthered by the comorbidity between bipolar disorder and suicidality, the risk of death or attempted death is even more likely in the victims of child sexual abuse (Miller et al., 2017). Rowan et al. (1994) also found that in a study of 47 adults who were abused as children, 69% met all DSM criteria for PTSD.

As seen through Debbie’s stories, incest is rampant and actively conducted throughout FLDS communities. In Under a Banner of Heaven, Krakauer speaks with Evangeline Blackmore on the actions of her father Kenyon, Winston’s first cousin. On her 12th birthday, Evangeline was taken as her birth father’s fourth wife. She recounts that her father was commanded by God that “Jesus would come back to earth in the form of a child born of Kenyon’s pure seed and his daughter’s virgin womb” (Krakauer, p. 277). She was raped daily and impregnated several times within the year, which resulted in two miscarriages. Due to her inability to bear his child, Kenyon left her alone in Guatemala. Her six sisters, at the time of the book’s publication, remained with Kenyon, with Evangeline noting that he told her that he would enact the same ‘divine proposition’ upon his other daughters. Child sexual abuse is of course harmful, but paternal incest invokes an even greater emotional response and therefore psychological damage, say Cole and Putnam (1992). Incestuous sexual relationships disrupt the individual’s sense of self and their subsequent social interactions. In the theories of attachment, children’s concepts of protection are created by their primary caregivers (Moretti and Peled, 2004). During adolescence, this attachment to one’s own guardians has already been formed and continues to adapt. When an incident of incest is introduced, the process is disrupted. In Evangeline’s case, the pre- or mid-pubescent adolescent has already begun to learn about the concept of sex in general during the time when incest occurred. When the parental figure engages in sexual intercourse with their offspring, difficulties in exploring friendships with those of the same gender are present, and may not even be accomplished (Ibid.) As the victim ages, the issues relating to navigating social functioning remain as they enter adulthood, resulting in problems establishing communication with future partners, experiencing sexual arousal, and establishing a feeling of security in intimate situations (Ibid.). Incest disrupts trust and leaves the individual with an inability to regulate oneself emotionally. Evangeline as well as Debbie, both continued to live with their abuser after the actions had occurred. After Evangeline was left in Central America, she remained in Guatemala for months alone and left the FLDS community at age 13. Living alone in a new country immediately following her abuse may have exacerbated her feelings of guilt and shame in relation to the event due to her lack of a support system.

Incest also has genetic consequences. Fumarase deficiency was found in thirteen members of the Colorado City community in 1990 and is exhibited when two people with faulty fumarase genes procreate (Kerrigan et al., 2000). Within Colorado City, newborns are over one million times more likely to have this deficiency than anywhere in the world (Gorvett, 2017). The consequences of this genetic mutation are displayed within the community, where Faith Bistline notes that the members of her family diagnosed with the deficiency are unable to walk or talk, and need to be fed by tube with constant surveillance (Gorvett). With the consistent inbreeding within the FLDS sects, it can be assumed that many more undetected genetic disabilities are present.

Adolescent pregnancy and subsequent forced birth are other often-mentioned occurrences within ex-FLDS memoirs and documentaries. During his time studying the Bountiful community, Krakauer saw pregnant girls who were noted as looking elementary school-aged (Krakauer, p. 38). In the 2022 documentary series Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, Alicia tells the story of when she became married to the 86-year-old Rulon at age 20. She went with her parents to seek the prophet’s guidance on who she should marry, but Rulon abruptly proposed, and the two were married that night (Dretzin, 00:17:00). Each night, Rulon’s wives would line up to give him a goodnight kiss, says Alicia, but during her turn on the night of their marriage, he asked the young woman to engage in ‘lovemaking.’ Furrowing her brow, Alicia admits that she thought that babies were born by kissing, and did not understand what sex was. Alicia’s segments are interspersed with that of another wife, Rebecca Musser, who went through a similar experience with 85-year-old Rulon at age 19. Her father ‘gifted’ the young girl over to Rulon in exchange for her father receiving a third wife (Aloian, 2022). Rebecca says that she believed that Rulon was never going to touch her, but he raped her several times during their marriage (Dretzin, 0:19). Rebecca was one of the head witnesses in Warren’s trial, along with her blood sister Elissa Wall. In her memoir Stolen Innocence, 14-year-old Elissa Wall was instructed by Warren to marry her adult first cousin, whom she says sexually assaulted and psychologically abused her, which resulted in multiple miscarriages (Stolen Innocence, p. 24-29). She further notes that she did not see these experiences of sexual assault as rape until after she had left the church and learned of the word for the first time (Ibid. p. 48-52). In Rebecca’s 2013 memoir The Witness Wore Red, she writes, “To an FLDS man, if a woman was in any way rebellious, the solution was to get her married and keep her pregnant. Then all of that rebellion would be ‘bred’ right out of her” (Musser, 2013, p. 59). Rape and subsequent pregnancy were utilized to subdue women into obedience within the FLDS community. A 2008 story by 9 News states that 31 of the 53 girls who went into state custody following the YFZ raid were either mothers or currently pregnant (Wolf, 2008). The age of consent in Arizona and Utah is 18 and is 17 in Texas. Even if the minor participated voluntarily, an adult engaged in sexual intercourse with a minor could be charged with statutory rape (Suzuki Law, 2024). In tandem with the lack of sex education present in FLDS communities, adolescent and teenage pregnancy occurs often, although it tends to be within marriages. 

From a global perspective, teen pregnancy can ostracize an individual from her similarly-aged peers. Within the FLDS communities, women become pregnant at a younger age, 17, than the American average, 26, using statistics from 1990 (Bradley, 1990; Pew Research Center, 2010). As teenage pregnancy is so common within FLDS circles, it can be concluded that the environment would be more welcoming of these occurrences. Pregnancy, especially for a not yet fully developed individual, can be stressful and physically taxing. Teen mothers are more likely to develop PTSD than other similarly-aged girls, which may stem from a difficult birth or injury (Mena and Nall, 2016). Meltzer-Brody et al. (2013) found that if the mother-to-be had depressive symptoms prior to childbirth, there was an increased risk for post-partum depression. This can be compared to the traumatic narratives provided by FLDS mothers in their tales of abusive situations. In addition, lack of social support by the baby’s father was shown to lead to post-partum depression as well (Meltzer-Brody et al., 2013). In cases of polygamy, where multiple children are born per year to one father by separate mothers, the child can be assumed to be given less attention than an average child born from a monogamous relationship. Pregnancy may speed up the process of emotional maturation, but the physical aspect remains in place with one’s development. The American Pregnancy Association states that teenage mothers are more likely to give birth prematurely or deliver a stillborn baby, due to a lack of nutrition provided by their own body (APA, 2024). Dr. Dilys Walker says that in the years following first menstruation, a girl’s uterus and pelvis have yet to fully develop (Varney, 2022). This can lead to an obstructed labor, Cesarian section delivery (which in turn may guarantee that further babies be born the same way due to an increased risk stemming from uterine scarring), or lasting damage to the girl’s pelvic area (Ibid.) In a study of 545 pregnant women, it was found that 67.2% of the women involved who were under 25 years of age had a mental disorder, such as anxiety, depression, or a social phobia (Estrin et al., 2019). 20.6% of the overall population of this study had experienced sexual abuse. David (2006) found that children who were born of an ‘unwanted pregnancy’ were breastfed less than the average baby and that unwanted pregnancies negatively contributed to family dynamics. Pregnancy itself can be categorized as a traumatic experience, but if it the child was born from a traumatic experience itself (such as rape), trauma-related stress may liken the outcome of a miscarriage (Mayo Clinic, 2024). Due to the specificity of the role that teenage pregnancy plays within the FLDS community, more precise information relating to its psychological effects is not available at this time. 

With the multi-maternal system employed by polygamist communities, first wives are at a higher risk of depression and anxiety (al-Krenawi et al., 1997). Various studies have been conducted on ‘first wife syndrome,’ which refers to the socioemotional issues faced by the initial wife when a second woman is brought into the family. Ozkan et al. (2006) reported that the negative attitude tends to persist throughout the marriage, but could lessen as the husband adds more wives. Al-Krenawi et al. (1997) also attests that a loss of self-esteem comes in tow with the addition of a second wife. When Debbie was married to Michael, her ‘sister wives’ (both in a literal and figurative sense) verbally abused her when she was raped by him while pregnant, which violates the Laws of Chastity (Krakauer, p. 39). His other two wives believed that this action eliminated their chances of joining Heaven, which made Debbie feel even more guilty, despite her never consenting to the sexual encounter.

When one is raised in this community, the brainwashing begins at birth. Having multiple maternal figures does not craft one into an incestuous villain, but experiencing repeated excusal of abuse (either firsthand or secondhand) leads individuals to be more tolerant towards similar actions. Religion adds a further layer — the leader’s actions and words are seen as divine, and therefore, must be allowed and even exalted. In investigative journalist Debra Weyermann’s Answer Them Nothing, Warren’s brother states that Warren would pick grade-school-aged girls and “train” (Weyermann, 146) them into marital candidates (which would be redeemed once they completed fifth grade). In order to make his transition cemented from Rulon’s son to FLDS president, Warren had Rulon’s wives (who would become his wives-to-be) write about how Rulon had spoken often of his son as heir. In actuality, Rulon had not ever claimed or even suggested such a thing, and one trait that the FLDS valued was truth. In order to get around this, Warren asked his girls if they had picked up on any ‘hints,’ and immediately taunted the few girls who had no memory of any similar statement, saying that their lack of recollection was due to their feminine characteristics. After his girls still had no memory, Warren suggested that God had wiped these thoughts from their brains so that they would not spoil the surprise. When instances of brainwashing are put in tandem with religiosity (and therefore, the afterlife), escaping such a system of beliefs, through the member’s perspective, becomes a literal life-or-death situation. 

The Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is no more a church than a cult that has created a cycle of abuses in order to assert its power over a vulnerable population that it once sought to protect. All people within the FLDS community are seen as property of the priesthood (Krakauer, p. 15). Women and girls are traded from father to husband in exchange for the possibility of the father gaining a new wife. If a man chooses to leave the community, his wives are married off within hours to new men, who adopt their bounty of children. In order to maintain one’s status as a plural wife (especially when married to a high-ranking FLDS leader), one must put up with any subsequent abuses, either from the husband or any other man that she may find herself in contact with. When forced into a pregnancy or to complete a pregnancy against one’s will, the mother can feel more like a vessel for creating children than an actual human being. Many ex-FLDS members have stated that they only time that they saw their husband was during sexual intercourse, and that in other situations, he did not acknowledge them. Growing up in this community, young girls see their mothers used and harmed and are expected to continue the practice in the name of God. In some instances, mother and daughter are pregnant at the same time (Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey). After FLDS leader Tom Green was imprisoned for raping his 13-year-old ‘wife’ (who was also his stepdaughter), Utah news outlet The Spectrum wrote in an editorial, “Without the context of spiritual marriage, there would be no debate that these are acts of pedophilia…” (Krakauer, p. 24). 

Within the memoirs and documentaries referenced in this paper, the word ‘trauma’ is sparingly used. In a 2019 interview, Stephen Dark asked a group of active FLDS women about their relations with non-FLDS members. According to Dark, the group had ‘trauma’ from speaking with outsiders, noting an occasion when the state evicted them from their homes after not paying property taxes (Dark, 2022). The only ex-FLDS literature that utilizes the term ‘trauma’ more than once are the memoirs of Carolyn Blackmore Jessop, Debbie’s second cousin once removed and Merrianne’s stepmom. Her 2007 Escape and 2010 Triumph: Life After the Cult, tell Carolyn’s story as the first FLDS mother to successfully leave with all of her biological children. She uses the term 11 times in each book throughout her retelling of the journey. Carolyn was diagnosed with PTSD in 2009 (Bosch, 2008; Escape, 2007, p. 333). Of the literature utilized for this paper, Carolyn is the only ex-member who openly discusses her PTSD diagnosis in relation to the FLDS.

The literature utilized and referenced above points out that only upon leaving the FLDS community and lifestyle were individuals able to acknowledge that their experience within was indeed harmful. This could be due to sturdy social support systems found outside of the community. Due to the wide range present in cases of trauma, narrative therapy has been increasingly recommended for survivors or victims. Trauma narratives can help to distill the individual’s story so that they can gain insight (Alexander, 2012, p. iv). Its verbal delivery in a therapy session or similar setting has been shown to further assist this process, as physical writing or inclusion within a semi-scripted medium (TV, movie, documentary) could interrupt the process (time while the camera is adjusted, microphone checks, edited by professional editor rather than individual, et cetera). Trauma narratives are important as they reveal emotions beyond the individual’s story, which can be seen through word counts, personal pronoun usage, pauses, and other variables. Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004) assert that by crafting and sharing narratives of traumatic experiences, individuals are able to experience post-traumatic growth once they have created spaces of safety with those that they trust. 

Tales of crimes have been warped into internet content in recent years within the ‘true crime’ online community. As these stories are being told secondhand, they are not trauma narratives, but instead function as fascinating distractions for viewers to momentarily escape their reality. Some television shows have been created relating to the FLDS community, including the 2006 HBO television series Big Love, which detailed a modern-day FLDS polygamous family in Utah, and Sister Wives, a reality show that follows patriarch Kody Brown and his four wives (three of which have left during the duration of the show). These media help to bring awareness of the FLDS community into the mainstream while still displaying a personable outward appearance of the religion. Big Love does offer a more critical take on the religion, with it being fictional. However, the family that the show is based on still practice plural marriage (Newhall, 2011). The last names of the women in Sister Wives — Jessop, Allred, and Sullivan — are also the last names of past FLDS leaders or high-ranking figures. In the family tree, although perhaps the term ‘bush’ would be more suitable due to the inbreeding, one of Kody’s wives is second cousins with Merrianne Jessop, Warren’s 12-year-old wife. Allred is the surname of one of the Colorado City founders, so it can be assumed that more connections are afoot. Media relating to mainstream Mormonism, such as the recently released reality show Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and the movie Heretic (2024), has helped to bring the religion into modern-day discourse. Both Mormon projects briefly tackle the concept of polygamy, but neither includes any related content. An underlying plot point in Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which shows the escapades of mothers in Salt Lake City as they launch their influencer careers on TikTok, is the concept of ‘soft swinging.’ Separate from polygamy, soft swinging is when two sets of partners consensually swap and participate in non-penetrative sex. After one of the mothers is revealed to have participated in soft swinging, the group as a whole shuns her, then begins to welcome her back in over the show’s duration. The women involved in this television program are Latter-Day Saints, not Fundamental Latter-Day Saints, but an obvious linkage can be made between the polygamist history that existed when the groups were still connected. While the women all create video content on TikTok, they constantly ridicule each other for getting Botox, receiving oral sex, drinking alcohol, and getting a divorce, among other things. Despite all women being aged 23 to 32, all with multiple children, the shame and guilt that the women associate with sex is palpable. While sensationalism is bound to occur due to the reality TV nature of the program, several women on the show speak candidly about the Mormon church’s sexual repression while also encouraging young adults to wed. It should be restated that these women follow the mainstream Mormon faith, but with its 78% increase in viewership within the first week, the show’s popularity bleeds into non-Mormon communities as well, raising awareness of the Smithian concepts of sex and sexuality.

The FLDS is a tightly bound and hidden community and has become even more secretive following Warren’s imprisonment. After the 2008 raid, even the most diligent researchers remain unaware of the community’s exact location and happenings. Despite Reddit threads and reality television, the present number of current members is unknown, though National Geographic estimated 6,000 people in 2010 (Anderson). The sect, still controlled by Warren, exists today in undisclosed locations across the Western United States. Memoirs and documentaries continue to be released, documenting the traumatic incidents experienced by its past members as they endure the world beyond the FLDS teachings. No psychological study has been conducted on FLDS members, whether past or presently involved. Beyond personal interviews, the narratives provided through books and film are the closest insight that lay scholars have into learning of the trauma-fueled cycle that was curated by the FLDS and sold off as a religion, the practices of which continue to be perpetuated by its sweetest and most obedient descendants.