Confusion surrounds polygamy

After this week’s shooting in Mexico, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints issued a short statement expressing sympathy for the victims while clarifying that they didn’t belong to the mainstream church.

That the faith widely known as the Mormon church would feel the need to make such a clarification amid a tragedy underscored the conundrum the church faces when big news happens with splinter groups that practise polygamy.

Church leaders were likely hoping to end widespread confusion among outsiders about the faith’s stance on polygamy and links to the offshoots, said Patrick Mason, a religious scholar who is the Arrington Chair of Mormon History and Culture at Utah State University.

Similar confusion was common more than a decade ago when a group led by Warren Jeffs was in the news over allegations of child sexual abuse and a raid on its Texas ranch.

“The LDS church isn’t going to be able to shake the ghost of polygamy anytime soon,” Mason said. Mason pointed to a 2007 study by the Pew Research Centre during church member Mitt Romney’s first run for president, which found “polygamy” was the most common word associated with members of the faith.

Early church members practised polygamy in the 1800s at the instruction of founder Joseph Smith, but the church disavowed it in 1890.

The Mexican community is one of a handful of Mormon splinter groups who still practise plural marriage. Also muddling the issue is Smith’s revelation that God told him to practise plural marriage remains canonised in church scripture.