Many people in the mainstream media describe the YFZ Ranch as a compound, but Willie says FLDS members avoid that description. "The word [compound] makes it look like somebody's restricted," Willie says. "It's like any other town. It's important that you see it, and that's something that people don't quite get." 

The towering limestone temple that sits on the ranch is considered a sacred place, so although Oprah was invited to see the grounds, she was not allowed inside. Authorities forced their way into the temple during the 2008 raid, so it is now considered desecrated and stands abandoned. 

One of the most controversial claims made after the raid was that authorities found beds in the temple that were supposedly used for men to have sex with young women who had just married in the church. Willie says this is absolutely not true. "If they found it, would they have returned the children? What they found was a facility for a groundskeeper or for worship," he says. "There is no religious ceremony that involves sex in any temple that I'm aware of or affiliated with." 

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