The recent ambush of fundamentalist Mormon women and children from La Mora in Mexico has shocked our nation. On TV, a family spokesman of the LeBaron family has been prominent. As more details emerge, what has been slow to be publicized is who these victims were. One would think that citizenship zealots like Trump and Miller would wonder why they are even American citizens. Since some of these families fled Utah to Mexico after the U.S. Government started prosecuting polygamists in the 1870s.
Although many La Mora residents believe in mainstream Mormon tenets, they also believe "they shouldn't be forming churches, they shouldn't be organizing under one leader. They should just be Mormon and live their Mormon life. Some of the families living there still practice polygamy while others stopped generations ago. Matthew Bowman, an associate professor of history and religion and head of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California, said the communities first sprang up after the U.S. government started prosecuting polygamists during the 1870s.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded by settling colonies outside the U.S. in Mexico and Canada. Some still exist in Mexico's state of Chihuahua, which borders Sonora state, where La Mora is located. The church officially abandoned polygamy in 1890, though some members continued to practice it. In the 1920s, church leaders mounted an aggressive campaign against those members, excommunicating some and applying church discipline, Bowman said.
That sent fundamentalists (praticing polygmists) into northern Arizona and others south to Mexico.
Better known than the Mormons from the La Mora community are the founders and descendants of Colonia LeBaron in Chihuahua state. Alma LeBaron moved his family to Chihuahua when the Salt Lake City-based faith was expelling polygamists. After his death, his sons established the fundamentalist Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times, Bowman said.
That community got international attention in 2009, when 32-year old Benjamin LeBaron was killed by cartel gunmen in retaliation for his public anti-crime activism. His younger brother had been kidnapped and even after his safe release Benjamin LeBaron continued demonstrating against crime and demanding better security in the area.
Through intermarriage over the generations, the LeBaron surname became common in La Mora. But since the family name is so widely associated with the church, La Mora residents consider themselves "independent Mormons" to stress they have no connection to the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times.
Independent fundamentalist Mormons seem to be in the news periodically. Remember Warren Steed Jeffs the President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church), a polygamous Mormon denomination. In 2011, Jeffs was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault,for which he is currently serving a sentence of life plus twenty years. His extended family includes as many as 87 wives. Jeffs controlled almost all of the land in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah; that area also known as the Arizona Strip, is the ancestral home of once polygamist Bundy family and was mostly populated by fundamentalist Mormons.
Fundamentalist Mormons have split from the Salt Lake City Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this year launched a campaign for people to stop using the shorthand church names "Mormon" and "LDS." For that reason I have tried to use the term Mormon in reference only to the splinter groups who no longer recognize the authority of the Salt Lake City headquarters.
AS could be expected, The Grump is willing to go to war to protect these fundamentalist Mormon families, some who have been living and procreating in Mexico for almost 150 years.
This could be a political problem for him when his Evangelical base, who have an extreme dislike for fundamentalist Mormons, when they understand which religious beliefs he is defending. If you are serious about immigration and citizenship reform, why should these families who fled criminal prosecution and became Mexican citizens by birth, have US citizenship as well? And then are local law enforcement agencies in Texas, Utah, and Arizona who have been prosecuting fundamentalist Mormons; do they turn tail and protect them instead.
When I saw who the victims were; they appeared to be polygamist families, women and children and no men in several cars. The lack of makeup on the women in their photos suggested the connection to fundamentalist Mormons, and yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune article - "Victims in Mexico killings trace their religious roots to early Mormon polygamy"; completed the picture. Give the Tribune credit for honest reporting.
Although many La Mora residents believe in mainstream Mormon tenets, they also believe "they shouldn't be forming churches, they shouldn't be organizing under one leader. They should just be Mormon and live their Mormon life. Some of the families living there still practice polygamy while others stopped generations ago. Matthew Bowman, an associate professor of history and religion and head of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University in Southern California, said the communities first sprang up after the U.S. government started prosecuting polygamists during the 1870s.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints responded by settling colonies outside the U.S. in Mexico and Canada. Some still exist in Mexico's state of Chihuahua, which borders Sonora state, where La Mora is located. The church officially abandoned polygamy in 1890, though some members continued to practice it. In the 1920s, church leaders mounted an aggressive campaign against those members, excommunicating some and applying church discipline, Bowman said.
That sent fundamentalists (praticing polygmists) into northern Arizona and others south to Mexico.
Better known than the Mormons from the La Mora community are the founders and descendants of Colonia LeBaron in Chihuahua state. Alma LeBaron moved his family to Chihuahua when the Salt Lake City-based faith was expelling polygamists. After his death, his sons established the fundamentalist Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times, Bowman said.
That community got international attention in 2009, when 32-year old Benjamin LeBaron was killed by cartel gunmen in retaliation for his public anti-crime activism. His younger brother had been kidnapped and even after his safe release Benjamin LeBaron continued demonstrating against crime and demanding better security in the area.
Through intermarriage over the generations, the LeBaron surname became common in La Mora. But since the family name is so widely associated with the church, La Mora residents consider themselves "independent Mormons" to stress they have no connection to the Church of the Firstborn of the Fullness of Times.
Independent fundamentalist Mormons seem to be in the news periodically. Remember Warren Steed Jeffs the President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church), a polygamous Mormon denomination. In 2011, Jeffs was convicted of two felony counts of child sexual assault,for which he is currently serving a sentence of life plus twenty years. His extended family includes as many as 87 wives. Jeffs controlled almost all of the land in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah; that area also known as the Arizona Strip, is the ancestral home of once polygamist Bundy family and was mostly populated by fundamentalist Mormons.
Fundamentalist Mormons have split from the Salt Lake City Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this year launched a campaign for people to stop using the shorthand church names "Mormon" and "LDS." For that reason I have tried to use the term Mormon in reference only to the splinter groups who no longer recognize the authority of the Salt Lake City headquarters.
AS could be expected, The Grump is willing to go to war to protect these fundamentalist Mormon families, some who have been living and procreating in Mexico for almost 150 years.
This could be a political problem for him when his Evangelical base, who have an extreme dislike for fundamentalist Mormons, when they understand which religious beliefs he is defending. If you are serious about immigration and citizenship reform, why should these families who fled criminal prosecution and became Mexican citizens by birth, have US citizenship as well? And then are local law enforcement agencies in Texas, Utah, and Arizona who have been prosecuting fundamentalist Mormons; do they turn tail and protect them instead.
When I saw who the victims were; they appeared to be polygamist families, women and children and no men in several cars. The lack of makeup on the women in their photos suggested the connection to fundamentalist Mormons, and yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune article - "Victims in Mexico killings trace their religious roots to early Mormon polygamy"; completed the picture. Give the Tribune credit for honest reporting.
