Part of Utah’s ban on polygamy was struck down Wednesday after a federal judge ruled that the law violated both the First and Fourteenth amendments.
While the ruling does not allow a Utah resident to legally marry multiple people, an individual may marry one person and live with others they consider to be spouses, the Associated Press reports. The decision was made after the Browns, the polygamous family from the TLC television series “Sister Wives,” filed a lawsuit in 2011 that asked federal courts to decriminalize the practice, arguing that “intimate conduct” should not be punished as long as individuals are not breaking other laws such as child abuse, rape and incest. Kody Brown, who has four wives, told the Las Vegas Sun that his family is “Fundamentalist Mormons,” a term roundly rejected by the official Mormon church, which strongly opposes polygamy -- despite its well-known polygamist origins.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has more than 15 million members worldwide. While polygamy was practiced during the church’s beginnings, it has been banned since 1890. But the association of Mormonism and polygamy remains a widespread misconception for those unfamiliar with the church and its teachings. And the latest ruling doesn’t help.
“This is bad news for the LDS church and its public image,” Christopher Bigelow, a member of the church who co-authored the book “Mormonism for Dummies,” told International Business Times. "As polygamy becomes legal, the LDS church will likely come under pressure to accept polygamists back into its membership ranks. With the law on their side, polygamists could ratchet up a 'civil rights' campaign within the church along the same lines as we're currently seeing with the church's gays and feminists."
David Mason, a professor at Rhodes College in Memphis who is Mormon, expects the LDS church will issue a press release reiterating the fact that their followers do not practice polygamy and the church excommunicates those that do. A statement along those lines was made in December when the lawsuit was discussed in the Salt Lake Tribune.
“But such a statement is likely to sustain the ongoing confusion about Mormon polygamy,” Mason told IBTimes. “What keeps alive the confusion over polygamy in Utah and as a Mormon practice is, largely, the LDS church’s efforts to represent itself as the only Mormonism.”
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
Something from the article that took me by surprise...
According to a Pew research poll, 86 percent of Mormons think polygamy is morally wrong.
Really?
I wonder if 86% of Mormons think God was being morally wrong when he gave Joseph D&C 132 and an instruction to live polygamously...
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
Bazooka wrote:Something from the article that took me by surprise...
According to a Pew research poll, 86 percent of Mormons think polygamy is morally wrong.
Really?
I wonder if 86% of Mormons think God was being morally wrong when he gave Joseph D&C 132 and an instruction to live polygamously...
I'd be willing to bet that those 86% don't make the connection.
(Nevo, Jan 23) And the Melchizedek Priesthood may not have been restored until the summer of 1830, several months after the organization of the Church.
So theoretically a man could seal/marry a woman, have children, then legally divorce her and seal/marry another woman etc and so on. He could live with all the wives he is sealed to and the church should not have a problem with this?
I am guessing that the church would have problems with a couple who are not legally married having relations, and they probably would not seal someone who was legally married to someone else, but I cannot see how they could object, on doctrinal grounds, to divorcees continuing to cohabit with their sealed spouse:
Official Declaration 1 wrote:Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriages, which laws have been pronounced constitutional by the court of last resort, I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws, and to use my influence with the members of the Church over which I preside to have them do likewise.
There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land.