Stay in Utah or move to Denver area ?

[ketchikanite]

Originally Posted by pikabike

No, THOSE people live in heavily guarded (armed patrol) enclaves in rural areas where they quietly bought up huge parcels of secluded land. Sometimes the wives appear in local stores with their WIC coupons, bilking the federal gov. BUT it should be said that the polygamists are not Mormons, who no longer condone polygamy, at least officially.

This is not entirely true. Most polygamists do not live in heavily guarded enclaves. The polygamists are just as much Mormon as anyone else. They believe the Book of Mormon to be true and that Joseph Smith wrote it. Not all polygamists hold the extreme views that the Short Creek polygamists do.

In 1981 I met a polygamist family while I was a student at BYU. I had to work while going to school so I had taken an evening shift job at a precious metals refinery in Orem. There was an electrical contractor that came in weekly to do maintenance work. I noticed that quite often he had a couple of ladies that were also working with him. Over that year we would visit often as there were only a few people in the evenings in the facility.

During conversation he brought up the fact that they were fundamentalists Latter Day Saints. So I had to ask what that meant. He explained that they still practiced plural marriage. So I asked about the women that often accompanied him. He introduced me to them and explained that these were two of his wives. They were both electricians as well. He said he had 5 wives total. Three that lived in Bluffdale and two in Saint George. He explained that they traveled back and forth doing electerical work.

I knew a lot about the polygamist history of the church but had never met any. This family seemed to be pretty ordinary. The women did not wear dresses at work and were very open in their conversations with me. Definitely an industrious bunch.

In my view I see absolutely nothing wrong with polygamist relationships between consenting adults. If they can make it work with love and respect more power to them.

[otowi]

Originally Posted by ketchikanite

The polygamists are just as much Mormon as anyone else. They believe the Book of Mormon to be true and that Joseph Smith wrote it.

I think this is a matter of perspective. For most Latter Day Saints, they do not consider these people to be part of their church. The Latter Day Saints church outlawed polygamy in 1890, and those practicing it today are usually not part of the original/main church/religion, but some offshoot that the original would consider heretical. Saying they are 'Mormon' (an out-dated term), is kind of like saying Muslims are Christian because Muslims believe in the Bible and Jesus and Mary, etc. While technically true, most Christians do not consider Muslims as part of their church and wouldn't call them Christians. So even though the FLDS and similar groups might consider themselves as the 'true' adherents or likewise adherents compared to the LDS, that is a perspective that the majority would probably disagree with them about.

[ketchikanite]

Originally Posted by otowi

I think this is a matter of perspective. For most Latter Day Saints, they do not consider these people to be part of their church. The Latter Day Saints church outlawed polygamy in 1890, and those practicing it today are usually not part of the original/main church/religion, but some offshoot that the original would consider heretical. Saying they are 'Mormon' (an out-dated term), is kind of like saying Muslims are Christian because Muslims believe in the Bible and Jesus and Mary, etc. While technically true, most Christians do not consider Muslims as part of their church and wouldn't call them Christians. So even though the FLDS and similar groups might consider themselves as the 'true' adherents or likewise adherents compared to the LDS, that is a perspective that the majority would probably disagree with them about.

I didn’t say the corporate church claims these folks in their membership. The corporate church doesn’t own the term “Mormon”. They can’t restrict who uses or believes in the Book of Mormon. Further it can very well be argued that the Utah Latter Day Saints are in reality an off break of the original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. History speaks strongly on this perspective.

Mormon isn’t an outdated term simply because the old heads in Salt Lake said so. You’ll notice they didn’t change the name of The Book of Mormon. That’s how the whole world knows them and always will know them. Most of us in the real world could care less that the church approved style guide says. You see it’s not binding on us gentiles.

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/style-guide

The polygamists who use and believe in the Book of Mormon are just as much Mormon as those Mormons who don’t practice polygamy. And the Salt Lake City Mormons do still believe in polygamy. They just have to wait until the afterlife to practice it. Good luck to you.

[otowi]

As I said, a matter of perspective.

[Syringaloid]

Originally Posted by Katzpur

Actually, they promote Salt Lake City as such a place (which it is), but not Utah in general (which it isn't.) Salt Lake City is really quite different from the rest of Utah, Park City being another exception, and to some extent Moab.

The issue is that SLC itself is rather small and surrounded by miles upon miles of LDS suburbia. The LDS Church is headquartered in downtown SLC and like it or not, that presence permeates the city. It isn't as peculiar as Provo is, but the vibe definitely does exist in Salt Lake itself.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by ketchikanite

The polygamists are just as much Mormon as anyone else.

You are fully aware that you are intentionally misrepresenting the facts. When people refer to "Mormons," (particularly with respect to "Mormons" in Utah), they are almost without exception thinking of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 16-million member Church headquartered in Salt Lake City. They are not referring to the many splinter groups out there who practice polygamy, whether in compounds or not. To say they are "just as much Mormon as anyone else" is pretty much the same thing as saying "The Westboro Baptists are just as much Baptist as the 100 million other Baptists worldwide." If you'd feel comfortable saying that, fine, but I don't think very many people would buy into what you're selling.