Polygamist leader Jeffs issues edicts

Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs may be serving a life-plus-20-year sentence in a Texas prison, but his grip on most of his 10,000 followers doesn’t appear to be lessening and some former insiders say he’s imposing more rigid requirements that are splitting the church’s members.

The edicts from Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, form the basis for what he’s called the “Holy United Order.” An estimated 1,500 men, women and children church members failed to meet the stringent standards by a Jan. 1 deadline, said Willie Jessop, a former FLDS spokesman who no longer reveres Jeffs.

Whether those members were excommunicated outright or have been put on probationary status until they can prove they meet the standards remains unclear, Jessop said. Some marriages have been dissolved and families split up as Jeffs works from his Houston prison cell to reshape his church.

Among the newly reinforced rules: No Internet access, no recreation equipment or toys and no sexual relations between spouses without Jeffs’ permission, which mean no children being born in the community.