six hour church in the FLDS church

The Six-Hour Church Ritual in the FLDS: Understanding Religious Indoctrination Through Institutional Practice

What role did extended church services play in shaping religious identity and control within the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint movement? The FLDS church, a polygamist offshoot that broke from the mainstream LDS Church in 1890, developed distinctive practices that set it apart, including marathon six-hour church services that became central to the faith's cultural and theological life. These extended gatherings offer a revealing window into how isolated communities use institutional structures to reinforce doctrine, manage dissent, and sustain generational commitment to controversial beliefs.

For those seeking to understand religious indoctrination, institutional control mechanisms, or the comparative sociology of high-demand groups, the six-hour church service represents a powerful case study. Unlike the mainstream LDS Church, which moved toward shorter services over the twentieth century, the FLDS maintained an intensity of religious practice that demanded significant commitment from members, particularly children with limited autonomy. This editorial examines what the historical and testimonial record reveals about this practice and what it tells us about how religious movements function.

The Evolution of FLDS Religious Practice and Doctrine

The FLDS movement emerged from a theological and legal conflict within mainstream Mormonism. When the LDS Church officially discontinued polygamy in 1890, traditionalist believers rejected this change as a betrayal of core Mormon doctrine. Groups that remained committed to plural marriage eventually coalesced into what became known as the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint church, with significant organizational consolidation occurring in the mid-twentieth century under prophetic leadership.

During the earliest phases of this breakaway tradition, religious instruction remained relatively simple and scripturally grounded. Members studied the Book of Mormon and selected Biblical passages, not dramatically different in substance from mainstream LDS practice, though expressed within a separatist community context. This foundational approach provided doctrinal legitimacy rooted in traditional Mormon sources.