This letter was submitted to The Spectrum on Oct. 27:
 
For decades the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has taught its followers that church land is sacred. To build up Zion, land placed in trust for the benefit of the faithful would, according to church teachings, never be sold. But times change.

Richard Holm, who lived, worked and worshiped in the FLDS community of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona for over 30 years, until he was expelled from the community in November of 2003 (allowing his family to be given to his younger brother), says that in the last few months, FLDS church leaders have been quietly removing property from a church trust known as the “United Effort Plan” and selling it.

Copies of warranty deeds show land transfers. Among the parcels sold are ground on which a machine shop, a home and a print shop are located. Other property on the market includes property commonly referred to as the Hershey property. Although some property is listed for sale on “http:/www.amillc.us,” a Web site maintained by leaders of the FLDS church, according to Holm and others with contacts inside the FLDS community, the residents of Hildale and Colorado City know nothing about the land transfers.

They have also been kept in the dark about purchases of property by the FLDS church in Mancos, Colorado. These purchases first came to light last Friday after the Sheriff in Montezuma County, Colorado started to compare notes with Sheriff David Doran of Schliecher County, Texas. After first being informed that the land in Texas was for a hunting reserve, Sheriff Doran was eventually told by FLDS officials that the church purchased the Texas property because of pressure on the FLDS church and community from attorneys general in Utah and Arizona.

Speculation outside the closed FLDS community abounds as to why the sales have been kept secret from the faithful. In the last several months a lawsuit was brought against self-proclaimed church Prophet Warren Jeffs for allegedly sexually abusing a child. Another lawsuit is pending against the church and its leaders on behalf of young men who, at as early as 13 years of age, were forced from their homes and families and cut off from their employment and communities. Is the land being sold to hide church assets in the wake of these lawsuits? It is difficult to know.

According to attorney Roger Hoole, who with a team of attorneys is pursuing those cases, the young men “were forced out by FLDS leaders to reduce the surplus male population so that older men could take young plural wives without competition.” But Hoole says that efforts to transfer land will, in the end, make no difference to his clients whose “objectives are to be reunited with their families in their own homes without FLDS church domination over their lives and property.”

Other reasons thought to explain the sales are the fact that Jeffs has not been seen in Hildale or Colorado City for several months. According to attorneys and investigators trying to locate him, he is on the run and seems to have lost interest in the twin cities. Sam Brower, a detective hired to locate Jeffs, says that “he is in hiding and probably directing the construction of the small FLDS compounds in Texas and Colorado.” According to Brower, Jeffs appears to be turning his back on Hildale and Colorado City, but Brower says that “his inspection of the new compounds in Texas and Colorado shows that they will only accommodate a few families.”

It is doubtful that any of the sales or purchases relate to the pending lawsuits. Hoole says the sales will actually benefit, not hurt, the cases. Moreover, the FLDS church started to buy land in Colorado in July of 2003 and its purchases in Texas occurred later that year. All of these purchases were completed many months before the lawsuits were brought.

A religious motive for the sales and purchases is also unclear. Leaders of the FLDS church have long identified Hildale and Colorado City as a sacred gathering place for the FLDS faithful. Warren Jeffs has taught that the twin cities would be physically raised off the earth when God was to destroy America in the year 2000. Other dates for this to occur have since been set. The sale of sacred land is perhaps hardest to understand under this scenario.

Whatever the reason, life in Hildale and Colorado City has changed and is likely to continue changing.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Friday October 29, 2004
 
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