Breaking Misconceptions through Visibility

Hyrum Timpson (known as Hyrum Burton on TV!) belongs to the Centennial Park Group—a fundamentalist Mormon community of around 1500 people based in Arizona. They broke off from the mainstream LDS church in the 1910s and broke off from the group now known as the FLDS (Colorado City) in 1986. They are a community steeped in tradition but also proudly open and modern.

You may also know him from National Geographic’s docuseries Polygamy USA, a rare look at how the community lives their faith including things like political advocacy and placement marriage.

By agreeing to be on TV, the community made an exceptionally courageous choice to “let their light shine” and challenge misconceptions—especially given their history of having been misunderstood and mistreated, including shared roots with the FLDS and echoes of the Waco siege.

Thank you so much Hyrum!

Time Stamps:

00:50 Ice Breakers: Cryptids and D&D

3:15, 15:03 & 54:26 Centennial Park Action Committee (CPAC), rallies and pride groups

12:12 Learn about the faith

17:31 Reality Manipulated for TV

37:46 Living in a Small Intentional Community & Connection to Colorado City

30:13 & 50:52 Plural Marriage and Placement Marriage

45:11 The leadership

52:37 United Order (a communal economic system)

Mentioned:

Waco Siege (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege)

Journal of Discourse (https://journalofdiscourses.com/)

Truth Magazine (https://mormonpolygamydocuments.org/fundamentalist-documents/)

Lectures on Faith (https://lecturesonfaith.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

Where to find Polygamy USA: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2960314/episodes/

Stream: https://www.amazon.com/Polygamy-USA-Season-1/dp/B00D3WWN52

More from The Centennial Park group:

ABC Primetime: "The Outsiders"

The Oprah Winfrey Network's Our America with Lisa Ling (multiple)

Dawn Porter: Extreme Wife

I can't thank Drew Briney enough for taking the time to talk! This episode is for those who are interested in the interpretation of ancient religious texts, creating change through political organizing, reality TV, and everything in between.

Drew Briney is a former attorney and current science fiction writer. He is also a fundamentalist Mormon and polygamist who had three wives. He was featured on the TLC reality show, Seeking Sister Wife.

Check out his writing here: https://anewbreedofdragon.com/

Time Stamps:

00:01:31 "When you became a polygamist, you lost some of your constitutional rights": The decision to go public, the fight for the legalization of polygamy, representing Kody Brown of Sister Wives and defending polygamists as an attorney.

27:36 Comparative Religious Beliefs, Science Fiction and Graham Hancock

37:17 Discoveries in Ancient Christian Texts and The Apocalypse of Moses

43:39 Fundamentalism, Polygamy and Criminal Profiler John E. Douglas

53:27 The reality of Reality TV

59:19 The other families on Seeking Sister Wife

01:05:00 Being a Dad to 15 Children

01:07:00 What polygamists are really like and showing heartbreak on TV

CC Grains Part 5:

Nancy currently lives in Southern California in a tiny home and remains passionate about local organic food. From Seattle to Hawaii to California, her CC Grains story is a truly remarkable coming-of-age story. A brave story that weaves together spiritual and sexual identity, health, friendship, and womanhood.

*****

Seattle was a huge part of the creation of the modern food movement, but so much of that has been lost to history.

Nancy was a pioneering member of Cooperative Community Grains or CC Grains in the 1970s. It was one part of the larger Seattle Workers’ Brigade.

CC Grains was an all-womyn’s food distributor warehouse distributing organic and natural foods to co-ops, buying clubs and natural foods stores ranging from Alaska to Montana, centered in Seattle, WA.

It was part of the Alternative Economic System, and was a crucial link in developing the organic food industry.

The Seattle Worker’s Brigade, “A worker collective, that was worker self-managed and women-owned" was "explicitly anti-corporate, alternative, their motto was “Food for People, Not for Profit.”