Polygamy now legal in Utah, sort of.
Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2014 10:38 am
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.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/utah-polygamy-ba ... ar-1673848