Daring Rescue From Arizona Religious Sect

Aug. 5, 2004 -- It was not an unfamiliar experience for Flora Jessop, racing north from Phoenix in response to a desperate phone call.

Two teenagers said they feared being forced into a marriage with men who were decades older; who they might not even know, and who have other wives and dozens of children.

Jessop, 35, has devoted her life to liberating girls from a Mormon sect that practices an extreme form of polygamy — a sect that she escaped from herself nearly two decades ago.

She said of her mission: "It's like taking someone straight from hell — and bringing them to heaven."

The sect is called the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints — the FLDS, a tiny breakaway group of Mormons.

Based in Colorado City, Ariz., an isolated community of about 10,000 straddling the Arizona-Utah border, the FLDS oversees a strangely backwards-looking society.

Women and girls wear outmoded styles covering everything below the neck and above the ankles and wrists. They're prohibited from cutting their hair or having contact with anyone who's not an FLDS member.

Almost all of the familiar trappings of modern American life are declared taboo as well: No movie theaters, TV, video, computers or even popular music.

The FLDS owns or controls just about everything in Colorado City: the houses, businesses, local government — even the jobs. And Jessop claims they also exert absolute control over personal life — some women are required to have a child every year.