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Marriage:
Is civil marriage & Polygamy Practiced?
In 1998, LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley said this about the church's attitude toward modern-day polygamy:
"This church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this church. ... If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this church."
The official prohibition against polygamy dates back to 1890 and a "manifesto" by LDS President Wilford Woodruff, in which he advised members "to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land." But some church members questioned the document's provenance; some interpreted it to apply only to marriages performed in the United States; and some high church officials continued the practice.
In 1904, LDS President Joseph F. Smith issued the "Second Manifesto," declaring that any church member continuing to practice polygamy would be excommunicated. Smith carried through on the threat by excommunicating two members of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Despite the prohibition and an active crackdown on the practice by the LDS Church itself, splinter groups considering themselves "fundamentalist" Mormons have continued to practice polygamy. In 1953, state authorities raided the polygamist community of Short Creek, Ariz., a move that backfired and resulted in an outpouring of support for the fundamentalists.
Today, the public face of polygamy is often that of its most extreme adherents like Warren Jeffs, who was the absolute ruler of an isolated community of Mormon fundamentalists. He recently pleaded not guilty to charges he was an accomplice to rape for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to an older man.
Are polygamists Mormon?
"This church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this church. ... If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this church."
The official prohibition against polygamy dates back to 1890 and a "manifesto" by LDS President Wilford Woodruff, in which he advised members "to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land." But some church members questioned the document's provenance; some interpreted it to apply only to marriages performed in the United States; and some high church officials continued the practice.
In 1904, LDS President Joseph F. Smith issued the "Second Manifesto," declaring that any church member continuing to practice polygamy would be excommunicated. Smith carried through on the threat by excommunicating two members of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Despite the prohibition and an active crackdown on the practice by the LDS Church itself, splinter groups considering themselves "fundamentalist" Mormons have continued to practice polygamy. In 1953, state authorities raided the polygamist community of Short Creek, Ariz., a move that backfired and resulted in an outpouring of support for the fundamentalists.
Today, the public face of polygamy is often that of its most extreme adherents like Warren Jeffs, who was the absolute ruler of an isolated community of Mormon fundamentalists. He recently pleaded not guilty to charges he was an accomplice to rape for arranging the marriage of a 14-year-old girl to an older man.
Are polygamists Mormon?
The Mormon church does not consider members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) -- the most widely-known modern group that continues to practice plural marriage -- or any other polygamist sect to be Mormons, and practicing polygamy is grounds for excommunication.
Nearly all of the polygamist groups in the intermountain west are technically schismatic Mormon groups. They accept the Book of Mormon as scripture and embrace LDS doctrines, mainly differing from the church headquartered in Salt Lake City over the issue of whether the manifesto that proscribed plural marriage was a revelation and over who ought to be presiding over the church.
Nearly all of the polygamist groups in the intermountain west are technically schismatic Mormon groups. They accept the Book of Mormon as scripture and embrace LDS doctrines, mainly differing from the church headquartered in Salt Lake City over the issue of whether the manifesto that proscribed plural marriage was a revelation and over who ought to be presiding over the church.