Mormon fundamentalist leaders are those who lead (or have led) a Mormon fundamentalist group.
| Mormonism and polygamy |
|---|
 |
 Latter Day Saintsportal |
These leaders were the first three Presidents of the Church of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church):
Some Mormon fundamentalists also regard the next three LDS Church presidents as leaders:
When the LDS Church began excommunicating members who practiced polygamy after the Second Manifesto, Mormon fundamentalists began breaking away from the LDS Church. At first, there was one main Mormon fundamentalist group, the Council of Friends, also known as the "Woolley group" and the "Priesthood Council". [7] The Council of Friends was centered in Salt Lake City and the Short Creek Community, later called Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. The Council of Friends would ultimately split into four Mormon fundamentalist sects, the Latter Day Church of Christ [8] (1935) located in Salt Lake City, Utah; the Apostolic United Brethren [9] (1954), located in Bluffdale, Utah; the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [9] (1954), located in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah; and Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times, [10] located in Chihuahua, Mexico.
The following are the leaders of the Council of Friends prior to its split: [11] [12] [13]
Due to a succession conflict after J. Leslie Broadbent's death, Charles W. Kingston and Elden Kingston created a splinter group called the Latter Day Church of Christ, or the Kingston clan. [13]
Joseph W. Musser ordained Rulon C. Allred into the Council of Friends. The Council refused to admit Allred; this resulted in a split, whereby followers of Allred became known as the Apostolic United Brethren. Musser ordained a new council, known as the 1952 New Priesthood Council. [14] The line of succession of the AUB is as follows: [13]
After the Short Creek community split it continued to thrive, and became known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints under Leroy S. Johnson. Its leaders include: [12] [13]
The Church of Jesus Christ (Original Doctrine) Inc., [17] was formed in September 2002 when FLDS Church president Warren Jeffs excommunicated Winston Blackmore; for two decades, Blackmore was bishop of the Bountiful, British Columbia group of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church). The community split nearly evenly—about 700 people continue to follow Blackmore, while about 500 follow Jeffs. [18]
Under Leroy Johnson's leadership, Marion Hammon and Alma Timpson were dismissed from the Short Creek community in 1983; they went on to create the Centennial Park group (or "Second Ward") in Centennial Park, Arizona. "Second Ward" distinguishes it from the FLDS Church, which is known as the "First Ward". [19] [20]
This group (also known as the Nielsen/Naylor group) [21] primarily resides in the Salt Lake Valley. It broke with the Centennial Park group after Marion Hammon died in 1988. [22] [23] Frank Naylor (apostle) and Ivan Neilsen (high priest and bishop) disagreed with Alma Timpson's leadership of Centennial Park, prompting them to create a new group known as the "Third Ward" with Naylor presiding; [23] they likewise primarily reside in the Salt Lake Valley. They have formed a close association with Winston Blackmore's community of Bountiful, British Columbia. [22] [23]
After the murder of Rulon C. Allred in 1977, Gerald Peterson, Sr proclaimed that Allred had bequeathed the priesthood to him. Peterson went on to found the Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the following year.
The Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times has its headquarters in northern Mexico. It was founded in 1955 by Joel LeBaron and members of his family. LeBaron claimed his priestly line of authority from his father Alma (who was ordained by Alma's grandfather Benjamin F. Johnson, who received the priesthood from Joseph Smith). The church exists in Chihuahua Mexico, Los Molinos, Baja California, San Diego, California and in Central America; there is also a large group in Salt Lake City, UT.
The Church of Jesus Christ in Solemn Assembly and its political arm, the Confederate Nations of Israel, are headquartered in Big Water, Utah. [24] [25] [26] It was founded in 1977 by Alex Joseph and initially grew rapidly. However, after the death of Joseph the status of this sect is unknown.
The School of the Prophets has its headquarters in the Salem, Utah area. In 1968 Robert C. Crossfield published the Book of Onias, which contained revelations he claimed to have received since 1961. These revelations chastised LDS Church leaders for their abandonment of the celestial laws. Crossfield was excommunicated in 1972. [27] The continuing revelations were later published as the Second Book of Commandments. [28] In 1982 Crossfield formally established the School of the Prophets, overseen by a president and six counselors [27] and headquartered in Salem, Utah.
Ron and Dan Lafferty served in March 1984 as counselors in a local school of the prophets for the Provo, Utah, area. [29] Four months after being removed from the school for refusing to renounce their revelation calling for the killing of certain individuals, [30] the Laffertys murdered their brother Allen's wife and infant daughter.
The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (TLC) has its headquarters in Manti, Utah. Membership is estimated at 300 to 500. Organized in 1994, the TLC was a new "restoration" for the "very last days" before the Second Coming of Jesus. While the church initially grew rapidly it has since stagnated, declining in numbers and converts since it ceased missionary efforts in 2000.
The Church of the Firstborn and the General Assembly of Heaven was originally organized in Magna, Utah by former members of the LDS Church. [33] It practices polygamy and the law of consecration. Its leader, Terrill R. Dalton, purports to be the Holy Ghost and the father of Jesus. [34] However, the group may have declined in numbers after its relocation from Idaho to Montana [35] and Dalton's and assistant Geody Harman's arrest for (and conviction of) two counts of rape. [36] [37] [38]
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.
Joseph White Musser was a Mormon fundamentalist leader.
John W. Bryant is an American Mormon fundamentalist. He was the founder and first leader of a sect that is today known as the Church of the New Covenant in Christ now headquartered near Salem, Oregon.
Leroy Sunderland Johnson, known as Uncle Roy, was a leader of the Mormon fundamentalist group in Short Creek, which later evolved into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, from the mid-1950s until his death.
Rulon Clark Allred was an American homeopath and chiropractor in Salt Lake City and the leader of what is now the Apostolic United Brethren, a breakaway sect of polygamous Mormon fundamentalists in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, United States. He was murdered on the orders of Ervil LeBaron, the head of a rival polygamous sect.
The Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as The Righteous Branch, The Branch Church, The Peterson Group and Christ's Church, is a fundamentalist Mormon sect of the Latter Day Saint movement. It is based in Iron County, Utah.
The Short Creek Community, founded in 1913, began as a small ranching town in the Arizona Strip. In the 1930s it was settled by Mormon fundamentalists.
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.
Joel Franklin LeBaron was a Mormon fundamentalist leader in northern Mexico. He was murdered by a member or members of a rival church which was headed by his brother Ervil LeBaron.
Dorothy Allred Solomon is an American author and educator committed to informing people about the pros and cons of polygamous lifestyles.
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 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.
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.
The Church of Jesus Christ Inc. is a Mormon fundamentalist denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, and is also known as the Blackmore Group. There are approximately 700 members of this group.
The Isaac W. Carling Memorial Park is a cemetery in Colorado City, Arizona, United States. Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, it was the main burial site for members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The Cemetery is named after Isaac Warren Carling (1894–1938).
In just a few weeks, Jeffs has gone on a rampage, kicking out at least 40 of his most pious men. One of those faithful is Merril Jessop, a 70-year-old FLDS bishop.
Utah records show Nielson formally quit that post Jan. 28.
Finally giving up the fight, Blackmore has agreed to change his group's corporate name to "the Church of Jesus Christ (Original Doctrine) Inc.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)