LDS

Hair splitting and squabbling doth commence.

Via: Deseret News

A coalition of polygamous groups is taking issue with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ objections to the term “fundamentalist Mormon.”

In a statement issued Wednesday, the group Principle Voices said it strenuously objects to what it calls “efforts to deprive us and others of the freedom to name and describe ourselves by terms of our own choosing.”

Last month, the LDS Church appealed to the news media and the public to make the distinction between it and the Fundamentalist LDS Church — the FLDS Church’s YFZ Ranch in Texas has been the subject of widespread media attention.

“Mormons have nothing whatsoever to do with this polygamous sect in Texas,” said Elder Quentin L. Cook, a member of the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve. “The fact is that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially discontinued the practice of polygamy in 1890: 118 years ago. It’s a significant part of our distant past, not of our present.

“People have the right to worship as they choose, and we aren’t interested in attacking someone else’s beliefs,” Elder Cook said. “At the same time, we have an obligation to define ourselves rather than be defined by events and incidents that have nothing to do with us. It’s obvious we need to do more to help people understand the enormous differences that exist between our church, which is a global faith, and these small polygamous groups.”

In the world, and of the world.

Via: ABC4.com

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has an image problem. Call it a case of mistaken identity. And it all comes down to one letter – the letter “F”.

Since the arrest and trial of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, and especially since the raid by Texas authorities on the FLDS compound outside of Eldorado, people outside of Utah have been confused about who is a Mormon and who is not.

The LDS Church confirmed the confusion with a survey. The national poll conducted among 1,000 adults finds that roughly ¾ of Americans are not aware of the difference between LDS and FLDS. Other results show 36% of respondents actually think the Texas compound belongs to the LDS or “mainstream” church, 6% think the LDS and FLDS are at least partly related, and 29% just didn’t know.

Such numbers are alarming to LDS leadership. Through its public relations people, the LDS Church is again appealing to major news organizations to explain the differences. They have also added to the official LDS Church website videos features Texas Mormons. Some have been chosen because they’re “just normal folk”. Others have been chosen because they are famous.

Included in the videos is a news anchor from Beaumont, Texas. Also included: Gifford Nielsen. Nielsen is a former All-America quarterback at BYU who went on to play for the Houston Oilers of the NFL. He is now a popular sportscaster in Houston.

“It’s about clarifying who we are,” said Michael Otterson, Director of Public Relations for the LDS Church. “We’re not denigrating any other group. We’re not criticizing any other faith. We are simply saying this is who we are.”

I don’t know about you, but I have never equated the FLDS with the LDS. Regardless, there are many who seem to be unable to grasp the distinction, and so the LDS church has taken to waging a PR campaign of considerable size, including their biggest weapon: Harry Reid, highest-ranking Mormon elected to office in U.S. history.

NPR

Mormons want the world to know this: They’re not polygamists. And the FLDS polygamists in Texas are not Mormons.

A recent poll commissioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — that’s the Mormon Church — found that 91 percent of those surveyed had heard about the April raid on the Texas ranch owned by the polygamist group known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS. Thirty percent of respondents believed the FLDS were Mormons, and 36 percent said the “religious compound in Texas” is associated with the Mormon faith.

This frustrates Mormon leaders, who have been trying to distance the modern practice of their faith from its polygamist roots. They note that a Mormon prophet officially dispensed with polygamy in 1890.

“Mormons have nothing whatsoever to do with this polygamous sect in Texas,” says Quentin Cook, an “apostle” in the Mormon Church’s top, 15-man leadership. “[Polygamy] is a significant part of our distant past, not of our present.”

A new Mormon public relations campaign emphasizes the distinctions between Mormons and FLDS polygamists and underscores the fact that polygamy is not tolerated among Mormons today — it triggers excommunication.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a three-part series, published on succeeding Mondays, about fundamentalism in southern Utah.

Polygamy is often seen as synonymous with Mormonism, even though The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints discontinued the practice more than 150 years ago. However, a variety of fundamentalist groups still practice the principle of plural marriage as taught by early church leaders.While the Warren Jeffs trial has drawn national attention to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and those practicing plural marriage, confusion and misunderstandings still persist concerning fundamentalists and their relationship with the church, observers have said.

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