"Lost boys" is a term used for young men who have been excommunicated or pressured to leave

polygamous Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

Mormon fundamentalist Mormon fundamentalism (also called fundamentalist Mormonism) is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century, particularly during the administrations of Joseph Smith, Bri ...

groups, such as the

Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church) is a religious sect of the fundamentalist Mormon denominations whose members practice polygamy. The fundamentalist Mormon movement emerged in the early 20th century, ...

(FLDS). Although sometimes officially accused of

apostasy Apostasy (; grc-gre, ἀποστασία , 'a defection or revolt') is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that i ...

or disobedience, it is thought that they are mainly pressured to leave by older adult men to reduce competition for wives within such sects, usually when they are between the ages of 13 and 21.

Background

Since boys and girls are born in approximately equal numbers, and women do not enter the community in large numbers, the pool of available women is not sufficient for all men to have multiple wives. While some boys leave by their own choice, many have been banished for conduct such as watching a movie, watching television, playing football, or talking to a girl. Some boys are told not to return unless they can return with a wife. One 2004 source estimated that more than 400 teenage boys have been ostracized from the

FLDS Church The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church) is a religious sect of the Mormon fundamentalism, fundamentalist Mormon denominations whose members practice polygamy. The fundamentalist Mormon movement emerged in t ...

for violating community rules. Another article from 2005 estimated that between 400 and 1,000 boys and young men had been pressured to leave for such reasons. Many young women also have left or been pressured to leave because they did not want to be part of polygamous marriages. Boys in these sects are commonly raised not to trust the outside world, and that leaving their communities is a sin worse than murder. With little education or skills applicable to life outside of their community of birth, they must learn to live in a society they inherently distrust yet know little, and as a result, some lost boys become

homeless Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

or end up in the

criminal justice system Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

. They also must deal with the consequences of being shunned by their families, and believing they are beyond spiritual redemption. The families of banished boys are told that the boys are now dead to them.

Specific incidences

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (hereafter FLDS) is a particularly controversial fundamentalist sect which has repeatedly been connected with the concept of lost boys. As early as 1968, the church's home turf of

Colorado City, Arizona Colorado City is a town in Mohave County, Arizona, United States, and is located in a region known as the Arizona Strip. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town was 2,478, down from 4,821 in 2010. At least three Mormon fundamentalis ...

had a

peace officer A law enforcement officer (LEO), or peace officer in North American English, is a public-sector employee whose duties primarily involve the enforcement of laws. The phrase can include campaign disclosure specialists, local police officers, pro ...

whose responsibility was "to make sure that the boys would not associate with the girls.” This officer's main police duties evolved over the next two decades to include "running the surplus boys out of town" so as to allow the "worthy" men of the community to live plural marriage by adding new, younger wives. More recently, in the mid 1990s, a Colorado City

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

named Rodney Holm was one of a dozen men who attacked and assaulted a 17 year old named Robert Williams, because Williams had showed interest in a girl his age. The attack was organized by the girl's father, who was also Officer Holm’s brother. Afterwards, in February 1996, they pleaded

no contest ' is a legal term that comes from the Latin phrase for "I do not wish to contend". It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. In criminal Trial (law), trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the def ...

to simple assault. Some individuals, such as Dan Fischer, a dentist who left the

, work to help young men who have left or who have been ejected from polygamist organizations in cities like Hildale,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, or Colorado City,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. The FLDS church was sued by six "lost boys" in August 2004 for "alleged economic and psychological injury." Brent Jeffs details his early life as the grandson to a FLDS prophet and his eventual excommunication as "very different". At an early age Jeffs father decided to leave the church and take his family with him. Upon hearing this news Jeffs decides to return to the church to make the decision on his own. During this time he experiences a social black-balling for his families history with FLDS, as well as getting romantically intertwined with a girl his age, and removed himself once again from the church.

In popular culture

In the HBO television series ''

Big Love ''Big Love'' is an American drama television series that aired on HBO from March 12, 2006 to March 20, 2011. It stars Bill Paxton as the patriarch of a fundamentalist Mormon family in contemporary Utah that practices polygamy, with Jeanne Tripp ...

'' (2006-2011), the main protagonist is a former lost boy, having grown up challenging the elder who drove him out of their community as a teenager. The series portrays machinations of some senior men within a fundamentalist congregation to "reserve" young unmarried women for themselves. The documentary film '' Sons of Perdition'' (

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

) depicts the struggles of three real-life lost boys.Rosanne Colletti (24 April 2010). "The Sons of Perdition in Person". NBC New York. Retrieved 1 May 2010. External link in , publisher= (help) The off-Broadway play ''Exit 27'' (2013) dramatized the story of four lost boys struggling to survive in the desert outside Colorado City. Playwright Aleks Merilo based the script on interviews conducted with lost boys living in Hurricane, Utah.Clarke, David (2013-10-27). BWW Interviews: Aleks Merilo Talks EXIT 27. Broadway World, Wisdom Digital Media, 27 October 2013. Retrieved from http://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/article/BWW-Interviews-Aleks-Merilo-Talks-EXIT-27-20131027#.

Notes

References

* Krakauer, Jon. '' Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith'' (2003). * Emmett, Andrea Moore. ''God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who Escaped'' (2004). * Bistline, Benjamin G. ''Colorado City Polygamists: An Inside Look for the Outsider'' (2004). A Colorado City historian presents the beginnings of the group and its original

religious doctrine Doctrine (from la, doctrina, meaning "teaching, instruction") is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system ...

. * Bistline, Benjamin G. ''The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City, Arizona'' (2004) * Tracy, Kathleen. ''The Secret Story of Polygamy'' (2001). Centered on the trial of John Daniel Kingston, who was tried for assault on his 16-year-old daughter. * Llewellyn, John R. ''Polygamy Under Attack: From Tom Green to Brian David Mitchell'' (2004) * * Main Street Church.
Lifting the Veil of Polygamy
' (2007). A documentary film on the history and modern-day expressions of Mormon polygamy, including numerous testimonials. * Jeffs, Brent & Maia Szalavitz, Lost Boy, Broadway Books, New York, 2009, 241 pp. First person account of life and exile of Brent Jeffs, nephew of "prophet" Warren Jeffs of FLDS Church.

External links

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published s ...

article by Daphne Bramham
Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find Help
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New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...