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Just few days back, a ranch in Texas owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) was raided by the Texas police after the Child Protection Agency of Texas received some calls from a girl who live in the ranch. The girl complained of abuse by older man. Some 400 children were taken out of their parents for investigation after the raid. The investigators have found many girls who were under the age of 16 were married to older men and were pregnant.
This incident – one of the historical raid against a cult group in the United States – has provoked a lot of interest in many countries. The LDS Church based in Salt Lake released a press release after this incident asking the media to separate themselves from FLDS and not confuse with FLDS. The LDS Church is concerned about the impact of this incident on their missionaries around the world.
I live in Salt Lake City, and have done research into the LDS Church and its beliefs. The LDS Church - whose current president is Thomas Monson - has stopped the practice of polygamy in 1890 after the United States Government became tough on the Latter Day saints. Through a manifesto, the LDS president of that time Wilford Woodruff asked the LDS faithful to stop practicing polygamy. The LDS Church excommunicates any member of its church practicing polygamy at this time.
According to the Mormon scriptures, the polygamy is an everlasting covenant of God. Some did not believe in Wilford Woodruff’s manifesto to the members, and they started FLDS to keep the fundamental belief of polygamy in practice. The current leader of FLDS Warren Jeffs is serving life in prison for arranging a marriage between an underage girl and an older man.
Though the LDS Church claims they don’t practice polygamy, it applies only to marriages on the earth. In heaven, a woman can be wife to many husbands. Many leaders of the LDS practiced polygamy until 1950 even after the manifesto was sent out to stop practicing polygamy.
I have asked few Mormons – not FLDS - whether they would practice polygamy again. They said they would if their prophet asks them to do, and some told me when situations like war happen, people die and there is scarcity of people.
It is only a temporary arrangement of LDS that they don’t practice polygamy. One day, they may start practicing polygamy again - there is a great effort among many Americans to make polygamy legal. At that time, there won’t be any difference between a FLDS and LDS.
The FLDS don’t claim they are Christians. But the LDS Church claims they are Christians. This has brought a mammoth confusion among traditional Christians. The fact is that both FLDS and LDS are not Christians like someone belongs to a Christian denomination like Methodist, Lutheran or Baptist. The Christians follow the Holy Bible and their faith is based on the Bible. The FLDS and LDS follow their own scriptures not the Holy Bible as the authority.