Mormon Studies Review
Keywords
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, religious crime, media scrutiny
Abstract
Shortly after Warren Jeffs’s arrest and subsequent prosecution, American media bombarded audiences with countless stories of Fundamentalist crime. Screens and papers carried stories about trafficking, violence, and, of course, polygamy. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) became a spectacle of impropriety and abuse. As this happened, people became familiar with accounts of nonviolent crime within the community. Food stamp fraud emerged as a concerning offense associated with the religion, and the mugshot of Lyle Jeffs, brother to prophet Warren, appeared alongside headlines that carefully outlined his involvement in criminal deception. Of the fraud and subsequent arrest, US attorney general John Huber explained, “We’re not out to punish people of faith, people with sincere religiously held belief. . . . We’re out to punish fraudsters.” While the state and federal government clarified that Lyle Jeffs was responsible and restitution would come from him, and not the faithful of the community, many members of the church found themselves at the receiving end of internet commentary that raised renewed questions around the controversial religion and whether their beliefs were sincerely held enough.
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Rosetti, Cristina
(2023)
"No Poor among Them: Poverty and Mormonism’s Trek toward Secularism,"
Mormon Studies Review: Vol. 10:
No.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr2/vol10/iss1/6