Park City, Utah, fundraiser supports former FLDS members leaving polygamist community

A fundraising event in Park City, Utah, drew roughly 100 people on a Friday night during the Sundance Film Festival. The gathering was held to raise money for former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS). Among those present was former member Elissa Wall, who said she left the church six years earlier.

Wall described her experience with the church’s leadership. She said she stood up to FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, which ultimately contributed to his arrest and imprisonment. She said that reflecting on her departure can feel like “a completely different lifetime,” while other moments feel “like yesterday.”

Natalie Knudson, who also spoke about leaving the community, said she left Colorado City at age 17, but only after her father forced her to marry. She is now divorced and is receiving help from Holding Out Help, a nonprofit group. Knudson is enrolled in college and working toward a nursing degree. She said life outside the community involves “a lot more freedom,” and said her father had been strict, so she could not do anything without being watched by him or one of the women in the household.

Wall said a support system of people who have already left can help newcomers avoid setbacks. “It makes it a lot easier for them to have continual progress, instead of falling backwards,” she said. Both women are now involved with Holding Out Help, whose stated mission is to provide support, assistance and guidance to anyone wishing to leave a polygamist community.

The event was held at a mansion in Park City to support the organization. Jon Krakauer, author of the book “Under the Banner of Heaven,” which covers the FLDS Church, attended and praised the group’s work. “The need is great; it’s getting greater not smaller,” Krakauer said. He also said the FLDS Church “is not going away even though their leader is now in jail for life,” and that Jeffs “still controls the church.”

Sam Brower, a private investigator who follows the FLDS, said a group like Holding Out Help can make a significant difference for people leaving. He compared the experience to moving someone from a very different culture into an unfamiliar city and telling them to survive. “It’s a whole strange, foreign world for them as they leave,” Brower said, citing the example of an outsider dropped into Los Angeles without preparation (Matthew 25:35: welcoming strangers in need).

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