Leader of polygamous sect
Beginning in 1974, Bryant began to state that he was receiving revelations from Jesus. [1] He claimed that "John the Beloved" had visited him as an angel and instructed him to form an "Order of the Ancients". [1] In 1975, Bryant claimed he was taken in vision to the City of Enoch, where AUB founder Joseph White Musser and Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith ordained him to the presidency of the church and the high priesthood. [1] At this time, Bryant claimed to be the "One Mighty and Strong" prophesied of in the Doctrine and Covenants. [3] In 1975, he founded a church as the Church of Christ Patriarchal, which later was renamed the Evangelical Church of Christ. [1] In 1979, Bryant's group established a communal settlement at the Fair Haven Ranch near Las Vegas, Nevada. [1] During his time as a leader of the group, Bryant had six wives [1] and taught his sect about drug experimentation and heterosexual and homosexual group sex. [4] [5] According to sources, sect members had sexual relations during the group's temple ceremonies. [5] [6] [7] In 1981, the group lost the Fair Haven Ranch when they were unable to keep up on mortgage payments. [1] As a result, Bryant, five of his six wives, and some of the members of the group relocated to Marion County, Oregon, near Salem. [1]
The word Mormon most colloquially denotes an adherent, practitioner, follower, or constituent of Mormonism in restorationist Christianity. Mormon also commonly refers, specifically, to a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is often colloquially, but imprecisely, referred to as the Mormon Church. In addition, the term Mormon may refer to any of the relatively small sects of Mormon fundamentalism, and any branch of the Latter Day Saint movement that recognizes Brigham Young as the successor to founder Joseph Smith. The term Mormon applies to the religion of Mormonism, as well as its culture, texts, and art.
Polygamy was practiced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century, and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families.
The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (TLC) is a breakaway sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is headquartered in Manti, Utah, United States, where as of 2004 it maintained a membership of 300 to 500 adherents. The church has a meetinghouse in Manti, and in the past also owned the Red Brick Store.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a religious sect of the fundamentalist Mormon denominations whose members practice polygamy. It is variously defined as a cult, a sect, or a new religious movement.
The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.
Mormon fundamentalism is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century, particularly during the administrations of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and John Taylor, the first three presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon fundamentalists seek to uphold tenets and practices no longer held by mainstream Mormons. The principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught in the Latter Day Saint movement by the movement's founder, Smith. A second and closely associated principle is that of the United Order, a form of egalitarian communalism. Mormon fundamentalists believe that these and other principles were wrongly abandoned or changed by the LDS Church in its efforts to become reconciled with mainstream American society. Today, the LDS Church excommunicates any of its members who practice plural marriage or who otherwise closely associate themselves with Mormon fundamentalist practices.
The Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) is a Mormon fundamentalist group that practices polygamy. The AUB has had a temple in Mexico, since at least the 1990s, an endowment house in Utah since the early 1980s and several other locations of worship to accommodate their members in the US States of Wyoming, Arizona, and Montana.
Lorin Calvin Woolley was an American proponent of plural marriage and one of the founders of the Mormon fundamentalist movement. As a young man in Utah Territory, Woolley served as a courier and bodyguard for polygamous leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in hiding during the federal crusade against polygamy. His career as a religious leader in his own right commenced in the early twentieth century, when he began claiming to have been set apart to keep plural marriage alive by church president John Taylor in connection with the 1886 Revelation. Woolley's distinctive teachings on authority, morality, and doctrine are thought to provide the theological foundation for nearly ninety percent of Mormon fundamentalist groups.
Owen Arthur Allred was the leader of the Apostolic United Brethren, a Mormon fundamentalist polygamist group centered in Bluffdale, Utah. He came to this position following the murder of his brother Rulon Allred on orders of rival polygamist leader Ervil LeBaron, in 1977.
Alex Joseph was an American outspoken polygamist and founder of the Confederate Nations of Israel, a Mormon fundamentalist sect. As mayor of Big Water, Utah, Joseph was the first Libertarian Party mayor of a community in the United States.
The Church of the Firstborn is a grouping of competing factions of a Mormon fundamentalist religious lineage inherited, adherents believe, by a polygamous family community that had settled in Chihuahua, Mexico, by Alma Dayer LeBaron Sr. by 1924.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, privately taught and practiced polygamy. After Smith's death in 1844, the church he established splintered into several competing groups. Disagreement over Smith's doctrine of "plural marriage" has been among the primary reasons for multiple church schisms.
Ogden Wedlund Kraut was an American polygamist, author and publisher who became best known for his writings about Mormon fundamentalist topics. Kraut was an independent fundamentalist who never joined any fundamentalist group. He published his writings and other historical church writings through his Pioneer Press.
Alma Adelbert "Del" Timpson, was an American Mormon fundamentalist leader. He was involved with a number of Mormon denominations, including the mainstream LDS Church, followed by the Council of Friends, and eventually heading the Centennial Park group, a fundamentalist sect headquartered in Centennial Park, Arizona. In each denomination, he held positions of importance within the priesthood and leadership structures.
The Centennial Park group is a fundamentalist Mormon group, with approximately 1,500 members that is headquartered in Centennial Park, Arizona. The Centennial Park group broke with Leroy S. Johnson, leader and senior member of the Priesthood Council of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, in the early 1980s. There is no formal relationship between the FLDS Church and the Centennial Park community. The group is also known as the "Second Ward", "The Work of Jesus Christ" and "The Work".
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Kingdom of God is a Mormon fundamentalist church in the Latter Day Saint movement. The sect was founded by Frank Naylor and Ivan Nielsen, who split from the Centennial Park group, another fundamentalist church over issues with another prominent polygamous family. The church is estimated to have 200–300 members, most of whom reside in the Salt Lake Valley. The group is also known as the Neilsen Naylor Group or the Third Ward.
The Church of Jesus Christ in Solemn Assembly is a Mormon fundamentalist sect headquartered in Big Water, Kane County, southern Utah. It was founded in 1974 by Alex Joseph.
The Council of Friends was one of the original expressions of Mormon fundamentalism, having its origins in the teachings of Lorin C. Woolley, a courier and bodyguard for polygamous leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who was excommunicated in 1924.
