ABSTRACT
In April 2008 law enforcement authorities raided the Texan ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the FLDS Church). A tip had been received that women and children inside the polygamous community were being abused. The group, which had broken away from the main Mormon Church in the 1930s, led an isolated existence. On the basis that they were in imminent danger, and under the watchful eyes of the media networks, who knew good television when they saw it, Child Protective Services took more than 400 children into custody. Over one hundred of the women voluntarily chose to leave the ranch with them. Stories rapidly circulated of under-age sex and marriage, and of harsh physical punishments being meted out, even to babies. But in addition to the debates over whether these individuals had ever really been under threat – on May 29 2008 the Texas Supreme Court ruled that all of the children must be returned as their removal had not been justified – there was another, more basic, question. How best to characterize this religious organization? For, as an article posted on the American news channel MSNBC’s website on April 9 2008 pointed out, there was no consensus between ‘the experts’ as to its status. Was it a cult, a sect or a new religious movement (NRM)?
