That old chestnut

You’d hope that most people in the UK would now be aware that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints don’t practice polygamy. It’s ‘one man and one woman’. But a lot of media coverage can often be misleading.

Polygamous groups and individuals in and around Utah, USA often cause confusion for casual observers and for visiting news media. The polygamists and polygamist organisations in parts of the western United States and Canada have no affiliation whatsoever with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, despite the fact that the term ‘Mormon’ — widely understood to be a nickname for Church members — is sometimes misleadingly applied to them.

Previous Church president Gordon B Hinckley was emphatic during the Church's October 1998 world conference: “I wish to state categorically that this Church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy. They are not members of this Church. Most of them have never been members. They are in violation of the civil law. They know they are in violation of the law. They are subject to its penalties…

"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. An article of our faith is binding upon us. It states, 'We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law' (Articles of Faith 1:12).”

It couldn’t be clearer than that!

That old chestnut – polygamy