Raids Have Strengthened Polygamous Sect

Apr 10, 2008
By JENNIFER DOBNER
Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The recent raid on a polygamist sect's compound by child welfare investigators has been tried before - but only temporarily interrupted the sect's way of life.

Authorities previously burst into the rural Utah-Arizona border home of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1935, 1944 and 1953.

Children were shuffled off to foster care and their parents imprisoned. But the families came back, time after time, more committed to their religion and to polygamy.

"It ended up strengthening them in the long run," said Ken Driggs, an Atlanta attorney and polygamy historian. the rest image

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