The Apostolic United Brethren is a Mormon fundamentalist group that
promotes polygamy. A sect within the Latter Day Saint movement, the AUB has
had a temple in Ozumba, Mexico, since at least the 1990s, and an endowment house
in Utah since the early 1980s. The title "Apostolic United Brethren" is
not generally used by members, who prefer to call it "The Work", "The
Priesthood", or "The Group". Those outside the faith sometimes refer to it
as the "Allred Group" because two of its presidents shared that surname. Members
of the AUB do not refer to their organization as a "church" and, unlike
nearly all other Mormon fundamentalist groups, regard The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints as a legitimate, if wayward and diminished,
divine institution. The AUB is unrelated to other similarly named groups such as
Churches of the Brethren. The AUB furnished a detailed description
of their beliefs and practices in August 2009 to the Utah Attorney General's
"Polygamy Primer", which was later revised in 2011. This booklet is used to
educate the law enforcement and social relief agencies involved with similar
groups. Membership
As of 1998, there were approximately 10,000 members of the AUB, most of whom
reside in Utah and Mexico. The headquarters of the AUB is in Bluffdale,
Utah, where it has a chapel, a school, archives, and a sports field.
The AUB has communities in Rocky Ridge, Utah; Harvest Haven; Cedar City, Utah;
Granite Ranch, Juab County, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Pinesdale, Montana;
Lovell, Wyoming; Mesa, Arizona; Humansville, Missouri; Mount Pleasant,
Utah; and Ozumba, Mexico. It operates at least three private schools; many
families also home-school or send their children to public or public charter
schools. The AUB's members tend to integrate with
their surrounding communities, much more so than some other Mormon
fundamentalists, such as members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints. This can largely be attributed to the AUB's former prophet,
Owen A. Allred, and his desire to be up front with local law enforcement and the
news media, especially when it came to ending rumors of underage, arranged
marriages that many other fundamentalist Mormon groups were known for. Allred
believed that transparency was key in helping the community see that the AUB
and its members were not a threat. Organization
The AUB is headed by a President of the Priesthood. Next in authority is a
Priesthood Council. Below the Priesthood Council are Presidents of the Seventy,
the Seventy quorum members, high priests, elders, Aaronic Priesthood
members, the women's Relief Society, Sunday School, Young Women's, Boy
Scouts, and the children's Primary organizations. On a local level there
are Bishops, Priesthood Council representatives, and patriarchs.
Meetings General Sacrament Meeting and Sunday
School meetings take place on Sundays, as do Priesthood meetings. Relief
Society, Young Women's, Primary, and Scouting take place throughout the week.
Dances, firesides, musical events, plays, and classes are often held at
meetinghouses. Doctrines and practices
The AUB regards the Book of Mormon as sacred scripture in addition to the
Bible, and accept the Articles of Faith written by Joseph Smith to summarize
Latter Day Saint beliefs. The AUB teaches that the LDS Church is still
fulfilling a divine role in spreading the Book of Mormon and other basic
doctrines of Mormonism, and in facilitating genealogy.
Members of the AUB are known for their belief in plural marriage. Other key
beliefs include the United Order, the Adam–God doctrine, and what is commonly
called the "1886 Meeting". While not all members take part in plural marriage, it
is considered a crucial step in the quest for obtaining the highest glory of
heaven. Attitudes toward the LDS Church
AUB members regard the LDS Church as an important vehicle in spreading
Mormonism's introductory teachings, particularly through the LDS Church's
missionary program and the widespread publication of the Book of Mormon. The
group's founder, Rulon C. Allred, told a fundamentalist congregation in 1966: "We
are specifically instructed through John Taylor by Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ,
and by Joseph Musser as well that we are not to interfere ... with the function
of the [LDS] Church." On November 16, 1966, in another discourse, he
commented: "[We] are not in a position to dictate to the [LDS] Church, or to
presume that we preside over [LDS Church] President David O. McKay, or
that we can send missionaries into the fields of labor, or that we can in any
way dictate the affairs of the Church.” "God’s Church is the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints," Allred declared. He further explained in 1975:
"We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, no matter
who may decry it or who may deny it." "We are functioning within the spiritual
confines of the Church," he commented, "but we are definitely outside of its
legal organization." Under his leadership, the Allred group
did no missionary work or temple work, leaving those responsibilities to the
LDS Church. He predicted in 1975 that "the time is at hand when God is going
to intervene in the matter, and the temples will be opened to us, and we
will have our endowments and do our own work for our dead." Under his brother
Owen's leadership, the AUB constructed its own endowment houses for ordinance
work; this was likely in response to the LDS Church's policy change which
extended priesthood and temple blessings to all races.
Drew Briney, an author on Mormon polygamy and an AUB appeals attorney,
summarized AUB members' general sentiment toward the LDS Church:
The "AUB" accepts the mainstream LDS Church as Christ's Church but views it
as "out of order" just as the Israelites were "out of order" at the time of
Christ—still accepted, just somewhat prodigal. Its members are taught that
they should not disparage the LDS Church and its leaders teach that "the mother
church" should be respected by the "father" the same as a husband should
take care of and honor a wayward wife inasmuch as he is able to do so.
Incidentally, AUB's leaders commonly concede that no organization is exempt
from being out of order to some degree but they emphasize that the LDS Church
has abandoned many doctrines taught by the early brethren—not just plural
marriage. Some of these doctrines include: Adam-God teachings; united
order or "full consecration"; proper conferral of the priesthood; the ban on
blacks receiving the priesthood; the doctrine of dissolution; the kingdom of
God as a separate organization from the Church; the ordinance of rebaptism; the
ordinance of mother’s blessings; giving a complete temple endowment; the wearing
of a full length, unaltered garment; the unchanging nature of all ordinances;
prayer circles outside of the temple; the law of adoption; and the teaching
that a living prophet can never lead you astray—even if he strays from teachings
and revelations of previous prophets. History
The AUB's claims to authority are based around the accounts of John Wickersham
Woolley, Lorin Calvin Woolley and others, of a meeting in September 1886
between LDS Church president John Taylor, the Woolleys, and others. Prior
to the meeting, Taylor is said to have met with Jesus Christ and the deceased
church founder, Joseph Smith, and to have received a revelation commanding
that plural marriage should not cease, but be kept alive by a group separate
from the LDS Church. The following day, the Woolleys, as well as Taylor's
counselor, George Q. Cannon, and others, were said to have been set apart to keep
"the principle" alive. Members of the AUB see their history as
going back to Joseph Smith and to the beliefs he espoused and practices he
established. They believe that the LDS Church has made unacceptable changes to
doctrines and ordinances. The members of the AUB see it as their responsibility
to keep them alive in the form they were originally given and to live all the
laws God has commanded. Each doctrine or practice changed or abandoned by the LDS
Church is in turn perpetuated by the AUB.
Until the 1950s, Mormon fundamentalists were largely one group, but with the
ordination in 1951 of Rulon C. Allred by Joseph W. Musser, who then presided over
the fundamentalists, the fundamentalists in Colorado City, Arizona, became more
distant. Within a few years they formed their own group, which is now the FLDS
Church. The shooting of Rulon C. Allred by Rena
Chynoweth on May 10, 1977, brought the AUB into the spotlight. Allred was
succeeded by his brother, Owen A. Allred, who died in February 2005 and
was replaced by his appointed successor, J. LaMoine Jenson. Jenson died in
September 2014 after a battle with colon cancer, and was replaced by his
appointed successor, Lynn A. Thompson. Allegations of wrongdoing
Rod Williams, a Secret Service agent involved in Watergate and a member of
the AUB, claimed in sworn testimony, as part of the Virginia Hill lawsuit, that
he stole copies of LDS Church's temple ordinances from the Seattle Temple at
the behest of Owen Allred, a claim denied by Allred.
According to one former member, attorney John Llewellyn, "plural wives [of AUB
men] are sent into nearby Hamilton to apply for welfare as single mothers. The
informant reported that welfare checks are often taken directly to the
priesthood leaders." Notable members or adherents
Kody Brown of the television show Sister Wives
See also Factional breakdown: Mormon
fundamentalist sects List of Mormon fundamentalist churches
List of Mormon fundamentalist leaders References
Further reading Bennion, Janet, Polygamy in Primetime:
Media, Gender, and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism, Waltham, Massachusetts:
Brandeis University Press, ISBN 9781611682625, OCLC 760976085
Bradley, Martha Sontag [1993], Kidnapped from That Land: The Government Raids on
the Short Creek Polygamists, Publications in Mormon studies, v. 9,
Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, ISBN 0585272123, OCLC 45728295
Compton, Todd M., The Four Major Periods of Mormon Polygamy, Signature Books
Jacobson, Cardell K.; Burton, Lara, eds., Modern Polygamy in the United
States: Historical, Cultural, and Legal Issues, Oxford; New York: Oxford
University Press, ISBN 9780199746378, OCLC 466084007
Van Wagoner, Richard S. [1986], Mormon Polygamy: A History, Salt Lake City,
Utah: Signature Books, ISBN 0941214796, OCLC 19515803