(F)LDS

I find it curious that we can't get the news websites to use the full name of the church half the time, but interesting that they don't hesitate to use it in conjunction with the FLDS church.

All it does is create confusion in casual readers between the real, 13 million member, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a group that happened to like the idea of multiple wives and marrying old men to teenage girls more than they liked what the prophet was telling them to do.

Who might have interest in causing that kind of confusion?

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Read the truth about polygamy in the church's history. Also, keep in mind that in early days of the church, people wanted to be "sealed", or bound in eternity (as to a wife, parent or child) to their church leaders, which was allowed back then. Certainly not all, but I imagine at least some of the "marriages" (which is the word the rest of the world uses for sealings) back in the 1800s were merely intended to form these kinds of eternal connections. This is one area where there's enough evidence to take either side -- that it was an excuse for licentious behavior, or that it was a commandment of God to raise up large numbers of individuals. This, just like lots of things, probably can't be resolved until the after this life is over.

One recounting of a missionary zone conference has an elder asking a visiting general authority why the Lord authorized polygamy in this dispensation. The visiting authority asked for a show of hands of which elders in the room were descendants of polygamous marriages -- a large majority of the group raised their hands. "That's why," he said.

I'd have to raise my hand to that question as well.