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The UEP Was Established for Living the United Order

2008-10-21 18:06:51

By Donald Richter

 

In previous articles we have pointed out that the court-appointed fiduciary for the United Effort Plan, Bruce Wisan, has been dissipating the assets of the Trust for his personal gain. This, however, is not the most serious consequence of having the UEP under the control of the state district court and its appointee. The UEP was never intended as a business venture or merely as a means of holding and managing the property in the Short Creek valley and elsewhere. It was established to enable the people who gathered around the leadership of the FLDS Church to live a sacred gospel principle, essential to our progress in this life and to our exaltation in the life to come—the United Order.
 
The scriptural basis for the United Order is firmly established in several sections of the Doctrine and Covenants. The word of the Lord makes it abundantly clear that this principle was never intended as an economic experiment or as a temporary expedient to meet the peculiar needs of the Saints in the infant days of the Church. The United Order is an eternal principle of the gospel, which must be lived under the direct supervision of God’s legitimate authority upon the earth.
 
Section 42, given less than a year after the Church was organized, makes an initial announcement of the purpose and manner of living this law:
 
29. If thou lovest me thou shalt serve me and keep all my commandments.
30. And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and consecrate of thy properties for their support that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken.
31. And inasmuch as ye impart of your substance unto the poor, ye will do it unto me; and they shall be laid before the bishop of my church and his counselors, two of the elders, or high priests, such as he shall appoint or has appointed and set apart for that purpose.
32. And it shall come to pass that after they are laid before the bishop of my church… every man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward over his own property, or that which he has received by consecration, as much as is sufficient for himself and family.
33. And again, if there shall be properties in the hands of the church, or any individuals of it, more than is necessary for their support after this first consecration… it shall be kept to administer to those who have not…
34. Therefore, the residue shall be kept in my storehouse, to administer to the poor and the needy…
 
These verses indicate that each elder is required initially to make a consecration of his property to the bishop and then receive a stewardship sufficient to provide for the needs of himself and family. Excess property accumulated through the management of his stewardship is to be placed in the Lord’s storehouse. Section 72 designates the bishop as the official to whom the elders make account of their stewardships.
 
In living this principle, the Saints acknowledge that the earth and all things in it are the Lord’s and that we are accountable to Him through his authorized agents for the use that we make of the blessings that He places under our control. 
 
In Section 70:10 the Lord makes it clear that the law of the United Order pertains to all members of His Church: “And behold, none are exempt from this law who belong to the church of the living God.”
 
Several other sections prove that this law is an eternal principle of the gospel. In Section 78 the Lord commands a more complete organization of the United Order both in Kirtland, Ohio, and in Jackson County, Missouri, emphasizing that those efforts are being made to bequeath
 
4. … a permanent and everlasting establishment and order unto my church…
5. That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things.
6. For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things;
7. For if you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial worlds, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you….
 
Section 82 also emphasizes the eternal nature of the United Order.
 
18. And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—
19. Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor, and doing all things with an eye single to the glory of God.
20. This order I have appointed to be an everlasting order unto you, and unto your successors, inasmuch as you sin not.
 
In Section 104:1 the Lord also refers to “the order which I commanded to be organized and established, to be a united order, and an everlasting order for the benefit of my church, and for the salvation of men until I come…” This section goes on to detail the consequences of breaking one’s covenants in this holy order, as many members of the Church had done at this time.
 
5. For I, the Lord, have decreed in my heart, that inasmuch as any man belonging to the order shall be found a transgressor, or, in other words, shall break the covenant with which ye are bound, he shall be cursed in his life, and shall be trodden down by whom I will;
6. For I, the Lord, am not to be mocked in these things—
 
 
The teachings of Rulon T. Jeffs and other leaders of the FLDS Church leave no doubt that the United Effort Plan was organized expressly for the purpose of living the United Order. The opening sermon of Volume 1 of the published discourses of Rulon T. Jeffs, delivered in Salt Lake City on March 25, 1945, contains the following statement:
 
“The United Order is on its way. Many of the folks thought that the attempt in Short Creek in 1935 [United Trust] was a failure. I want to say that it was a signal success, to a degree, for out of it came a nucleus for the United Order to be built upon, and out of that the United Effort Plan was organized on November 8, 1942. And it is my testimony to you that that is the nucleus of the United Order in this dispensation…”
 
This same sacred purpose was reiterated in the “Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust of the United Effort Plan,” filed November 3, 1998, in Mohave County, Arizona:
 
“The United Effort Plan is the effort and striving on the part of Church members toward the Holy United Order. This central principle of the Church requires the gathering together of faithful Church members on consecrated and sacred lands… under the guidance of Priesthood leadership. The Board of Trustees, in their sole discretion, shall administer the Trust consistent with its religious purpose to provide for Church members according to their wants and needs, insofar as their wants are just (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 82:17-21).”
 
Contrast this with the stated purpose of the reformed 2006 trust, prepared under the direction of Bruce Wisan:
 
“The reformation and administration of the Trust shall be based on neutral principles of law; the reformation shall not be based on religious doctrine or practice and shall not attempt to resolve underlying controversies over religious doctrine. The reformation shall allow for ecclesiastical input of a non-binding nature and a mechanism—independent of priesthood input—for establishing benefits under the Trust.”
 
The United Effort Plan involved much more than just holding property in a communal trust. It involved much more than working together and blessing one another. It involved much more than caring for the temporal needs of its members. It involved the sincere effort of the FLDS people to live a sacred gospel principle, which can only be done under the Lord’s designated authority, not under the auspices of a court-appointed fiduciary.
 
Divorced from its religious intent, the Trust has now become no more than a court-controlled management device for administering a body of assets. And even that is being done in a fraudulent and oppressive manner. 
 
The principle of the United Order is central to the religion of the FLDS people. By removing from their control the vehicle they established for living this sacred law, the court has seriously trespassed on their right to the free exercise of religion.
 

 


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