Mormonism and polygamy |
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Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, privately taught and practiced polygamy.[1] After Smith's death in 1844, the church he established splintered into several competing groups. Disagreement over Smith's doctrine of "plural marriage" has been among the primary reasons for multiple church schisms.
The members of the largest faction, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), do not continue to teach and practice polygamy today. In the late-19th century and early-20th century, the practice was formally abandoned[2] as various laws banned polygamy in the United States and led to the confiscation of LDS Church properties. However, many LDS men are sealed in LDS temples to more than one woman "for eternity", following the divorce or death of the first wife, the latter example being the case with two current LDS apostles, Russell M. Nelson and Dallin H. Oaks.
The second-largest Latter Day Saint church, the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or RLDS Church), has a history of opposing the LDS Church's practice of polygamy. Other smaller Latter Day Saint churches were also formed as a means of opposing the LDS Church's polygamy. The formal shift in doctrine by the LDS Church later in the early-20th century gave rise to the Mormon fundamentalism movement, which has since fragmented into a number of separate churches, the most well-known being the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church). The FLDS Church and other Mormon fundamentalists believe the practice of polygamy should continue and that it was wrongfully abandoned by the LDS Church.