Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) (West)

Samuel E. West is the leader of a Strangite church that claims the name "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," sometimes adding (Strangite) to the ending. Due to the fact that there is already an incorporated group that goes by the name "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)" as well as a Strangite group led by John Hajicek that goes by "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," I am going to add the "(West)" ending to differentiate. For the sake of consistency, I have done the same with Hajicek's group.

West claims to hold the highest remaining office of the priesthood on Earth at this time (elder in the Melchisedec Priesthood), and asserts his authority through a chain of ordinations leading back to James J. Strang himself. John Hajicek also claims a similar chain of ordinations, but West rejects Hajicek's chain because one of the elders in the chain (Wingfield Watson) had been cut off (according to West) because he had claimed he became the president of the church at the time of his own ordination as elder.

Therefore, West's line of authority remains the sole legitimate priesthood line remaining. West has ordained others to the office of elder; however, he is still regarded "as the senior elder in Zion," though there is no official head of the church. There are no congregations, but the group claims thousands of members throughout the United States and Africa.

The wiki has been updated with additional contact information for this group.

Alexandre Caffiaux

I received clarification this morning from a representative from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) that the Strangite schism known as the Holy Church of Jesus Christ, which was led by Alexandre Caffiaux, is completely defunct now. So information found in some fairly recent sources (such as the 1996 Encyclopedia of American Religions by Melton) is apparently now incorrect. He also confirmed that the contact information listed in the LDS Movement Wiki for the congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) is correct.

Strangites

I've been researching the various Strangite believers and groups recently in order to better understand the schisms amongst followers of James J. Strang. For a little background about James Strang and his followers, click here.

Here's what I have figured out so far:

The "main" Strangite church is known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite). They have 2 congregations: one in Burlington, Wisconsin and one in Artesia, New Mexico. They are also known as the "corporate" church amongst Strangite believers outside the main church. They have a placeholder website, basically informing readers that they are not affiliated with other Strangite pages found on the internet. The membership figures of the main church vary widely -- from 50 to 300.

In 1961, the main body, led by Vernon Swift, accepted incorporation at the church's General Conference. To some, incorporation was contrary to the teachings of Joseph Smith, Jr. and James J. Strang, as they viewed incorporation as the transformation of the church into simply "an appendage to the US Government" and no longer a truly spiritual organization. At this point, some Strangite believers split from the main body, and today there may even be more "unincorporated church" believers than corporate members.

The main body also split around 1966 after a recent French convert to the group, Alexandre Caffiaux, claimed a revelation from God that he was the rightful successor to James Strang. He was able to convince some mainstream Strangites of his claims, and founded the Holy Church of Jesus Christ. Although some fairly recent sources claim Caffiaux still has 2 congregations -- one in France and another in New Mexico -- I have been unable to confirm this information.

There are also currently two unincorporated Strangite groups in existence: one led by Samuel E. West and one led by James Hajicek. In fact, the word "groups" is probably misleading, as there are no congregations of unincorporated church members. In fact, I'm not even aware of Hajicek having any followers, so he may simply be an independent believer. He does claim to have priesthood authority. I am referring to this "group" as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite) (Hajicek). Hajicek operates a website at http://strangite.org

Samuel E. West and one of his elders, Thomas Durand operate several websites. West operates http://www.mormonbeliefs.com and http://www.gospelofchrist.org, while Durand operates http://www.strangite.net and http://zionsreveille.org. West claims priesthood authority through a line of ordinations leading back to James Strang. They claim members through the United States and in many foreign countries, including Uganda, Botswana, Djibouti, and Israel, though they do not have any congregations. I am referring to this group as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite)(West).

Check out the LDS Movement Wiki for contact information for these individuals and groups.

Latterday Israel

The website for Latterday Israel (Zecharyah Solomon) is no longer functioning. I sent an email to admin@latterdayisrael.com, which was returned as undeliverable.

I then located the email address to the website registrant, who did respond to my inquiry about the current status of the group. I was told that there never was an established group, and that Latterday Israel was just a site set up for all types of Mormon believers who also held an interest in studying the Torah.

I believe this site is gone for good. Archived versions of the site can be accessed here.

Christ's Church, Inc.

Also known as The Peterson Group, the Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or simply The Branch. In addition to the directory information listed on the LDS Movement Wiki, I have come across some additional information about this group:

In addition to their http://www.celestial-orb.com/ website, there is also a http://www.celestial-orb.org website they operate.

Although I'm not 100% positive, it appears that http://gcje.com/ may be a business website run by Christ's Church (it is confirmed that Christ's Church runs http://gcje.net. The gcje.com website is a work from home company, and there is a link to it at the bottom of the gcje.net website (look on homepage at the very bottom).

One of the emails I have for Christ's Church is gcj@gcje.net, while the email for the http://gcje.com/ is listed as gcj@gcje.com at the site's wiki (http://www.aboutus.org/Gcje.com). Coincidence? The phone number listed for GCJ Enterprises is 435-439-5274.

Also, the bearded man on the top of http://gcje.com/ bears a striking resemblance to the man I believe is Gerald Peterson (the group's leader) shown here - http://www.color-country.net/~shepherd/shepghost2.jpg. One of the archived pages for gcje.com that I looked at on the Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20060203091725/http://gcje.com/), has the words "Our Founder" next to the picture, though those words are now removed.

Also the gcje.com/ website's copyright belongs to a G.C. Jones, who is referred to on http://www.color-country.net/~shepherd/ (another confirmed Christ's Church website) under the heading "Scenes of Southern Utah" (toward the middle of the page)

Hopefully all of that makes sense! The wiki entry for Christ's Church has been updated with all of this information.

Steven C. Davis

Here is some contact information for an independent Mormon named Steven C. Davis. He also has some interesting websites, each with flash introductions.

Address:
605 Adams Ave.
Moberly, Missouri 65270

Additional websites:
http://www.bridgingtruth.com/
http://www.stopzion.com/
http://www.citiesofpeace.com/

The wiki entry for Davis has some additional information.

More FLDS Links

http://www.childpro.org/2007/documents/ - lots of documents related to FLDS sexual abuse, texts of lessons taught by Warren Jeffs at Alta Academy, and other lessons taught to FLDS children.

http://texaspolygamy.blogspot.com/ - some FLDS members, past and present, post on this blog.

http://www.fldsbreastmilk.blogspot.com/ - “This site is about the FLDS babies that deserve breast milk and the mothers that are breastfeeding for their children.”

http://www.fldsview.blogspot.com/

White Stone Foundation

This is an independent fundamentalist website of someone who goes only by “Mike.” The registered agent for the White Stone Foundation is a D. Michael Bingham.

Here is some contact information for this foundation:

PO Box 93
Centerville, Utah 84014
Email: no1papabear@gilavalley.com
Website: http://www.ephraimsforum.com
Utah Department of Commerce Listing: https://secure.utah.gov/bes/action/searchresults

Bountiful Community

Led by Winston Blackmore, the Bountiful (Creston, British Columbia) Community is a Mormon fundamentalist group that used to have an active website.

While this site is down, you may access the archived version of this site here.

There is some very interesting information here, including various issues of the group's periodical, The North Star.

LDS Wiki Update

The LDS Wiki has been steadily updated, and I now have all known Restoration Branches listed in the directory and will work on the Active Denominations folder all weekend.

I am sending out letters to a number of groups and individuals this week for information -- I have been somewhat surprised at how little information I have been able to obtain from these people through email -- so I may have some good updates in the near future.

Restoration Branches

I am in the process of getting contact information for all the known Restoration Branches up on the LDSMovement Wiki. All the information is located in the Restoration Branches folder. Right now the information is organized alphabetically, but I will try to also include Restoration Branches by state in the near future.

FLDS

The recent publicity involving the FLDS in Texas has certainly garnered a lot of interest in Mormonism in general, but particularly in the polygamist off-shoots of Mormonism, typically sprouting from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the well-known body of Mormons).

The FLDS are one of these off-shoots and are well-known as one of the most closed groups in the Latter Day Saint Movement. Many of their beliefs and current doctrines are withheld (as much as possible) from the general public. As a graduate researcher, I sent many letters of inquiry to the FLDS trying to obtain various statements of belief and trying to build some contacts within the group. None of my attempts at contact were answered.

So, I find it quite interesting -- and quite humorous really -- that the FLDS suddenly became so open with the outside world when it became in their interest to do so. They had to make appeals to get their children back from Colorado state authorities, and they had to show that their living arrangements were acceptable to raise children. Perhaps if the FLDS had taken the opportunity to connect with the public before this event, the entire raid could have been avoided.

Anyway, several FLDS websites are now online. Apparently Willie Jessop, or whoever is leading the FLDS now-a-days, is completely reversing course and trying to gain the trust and acceptance of the outside world by "opening up" through the internet. Here is a list of FLDS websites as of today.

http://fldsdress.com/

http://flds101.blogspot.com/

http://www.truthwillprevail.org/

http://www.captivefldschildren.org/

http://www.fldstruth.org/