Polygamy was practiced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than half of the 19th century,and practiced publicly from 1852 to 1890 by between 20 and 30 percent of Latter-day Saint families.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a religious sect of the fundamentalist Mormon denominations whose members practice polygamy. It is variously defined as a cult,a sect,or a new religious movement. The organization has been involved in various illegal activities,including child marriages,child abandonment,sexual assault,and human trafficking including child sexual abuse. The sect is not connected to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,the largest Latter-day Saint denomination.
Mormon fundamentalism is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century,particularly during the administrations of Joseph Smith,Brigham Young,and John Taylor,the first three presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mormon fundamentalists seek to uphold tenets and practices no longer held by mainstream Mormons. The principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage,a form of polygyny first taught in the Latter Day Saint movement by the movement's founder,Smith. A second and closely associated principle is that of the United Order,a form of egalitarian communalism. Mormon fundamentalists believe that these and other principles were wrongly abandoned or changed by the LDS Church in its efforts to become reconciled with mainstream American society. Today,the LDS Church excommunicates any of its members who practice plural marriage or who otherwise closely associate themselves with Mormon fundamentalist practices.
Warren Steed Jeffs is an American cult leader who is serving a life sentence in Texas for child sexual assault following two convictions in 2011. He is the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,a polygamous cult based in Arizona. The FLDS Church was founded in the early-20th century when its founders deemed the renunciation of polygamy by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be apostate. The LDS Church disavows any relation between it and the FLDS Church,although there are significant historical ties.
The Latter Day Church of Christ (LDCC) or Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS) is a Mormon fundamentalist denomination within the Latter Day Saint movement. The DCCS was established in 1935 by Elden Kingston,son of Charles W. Kingston,and in 1977 members of the DCCS organized the Latter Day Church of Christ. Media outlets often refer to the organization as the Kingston Group,and internally it is known as "the Order" or "the Co-op".
Under the Banner of Heaven:A Story of Violent Faith is a nonfiction book by author Jon Krakauer,first published in July 2003. He investigated and juxtaposed two histories:the origin and evolution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a modern double murder committed in the name of God by brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty,who subscribed to a fundamentalist version of Mormonism.
The 1890 Manifesto is a statement which officially advised against any future plural marriage in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Issued by Church President Wilford Woodruff in September 1890,the Manifesto was a response to mounting anti-polygamy pressure from the United States Congress,which by 1890 had disincorporated the church,escheated its assets to the U.S. federal government,and imprisoned many prominent polygamist Mormons. Upon its issuance,the LDS Church in conference accepted Woodruff's Manifesto as "authoritative and binding."
Thomas Arthur Green was an American Mormon fundamentalist in Utah who was a practitioner of plural marriage. After a high-profile trial,Green was convicted by the state of Utah on May 18,2001,of four counts of bigamy and one count of failure to pay child support. This decision was upheld by the Utah State Supreme Court in 2004. He was also convicted of child rape,on the basis that he had impregnated his wife Linda when she was 13. The wife in question was his stepdaughter before they were married;she was the daughter of his first polygamous wife. In total,he served six years in prison and was released in 2007.
Lorin Calvin Woolley was an American proponent of plural marriage and one of the founders of the Mormon fundamentalist movement. As a young man in Utah Territory,Woolley served as a courier and bodyguard for polygamous leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in hiding during the federal crusade against polygamy. His career as a religious leader in his own right commenced in the early twentieth century,when he began claiming to have been set apart to keep plural marriage alive by church president John Taylor in connection with the 1886 Revelation. Woolley's distinctive teachings on authority,morality,and doctrine are thought to provide the theological foundation for nearly ninety percent of Mormon fundamentalist groups.
Charles Elden Kingston was the founder of the Davis County Cooperative Society in 1935.
Charles William Kingston was a member of the Latter Day Church of Christ and the Davis County Cooperative Society.
John Ortell Kingston was the Trustee of the Davis County Cooperative Society in Davis County,Utah,from 1948 until his death in 1987.
Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse at the same time. Specifically,polygyny is the practice of one man taking more than one wife while polyandry is the practice of one woman taking more than one husband. Polygamy is a common marriage pattern in some parts of the world. In North America,polygamy has not been a culturally normative or legally recognized institution since the continent's colonization by Europeans.
Possibly as early as the 1830s,followers of the Latter Day Saint movement,were practicing the doctrine of polygamy or "plural marriage". After the death of church founder Joseph Smith,the doctrine was officially announced in Utah Territory in 1852 by Mormon leader Brigham Young. The practice was attributed posthumously to Smith and it began among Mormons at large,principally in Utah where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had relocated after the Illinois Mormon War.
Joseph Smith,the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement,privately taught and practiced polygamy. 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 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Kingdom of God is a Mormon fundamentalist church in the Latter Day Saint movement. The sect was founded by Frank Naylor and Ivan Nielsen,who split from the Centennial Park group,another fundamentalist church over issues with another prominent polygamous family. The church is estimated to have 200–300 members,most of whom reside in the Salt Lake Valley. The group is also known as the Neilsen Naylor Group.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,marriage between a man and a woman is considered to be "ordained of God". Marriage is thought to consist of a covenant between the man,the woman,and God. The church teaches that in addition to civil marriage,which ends at death,a man and woman can enter into a celestial marriage,performed in a temple by priesthood authority,whereby the marriage and parent–child relationships resulting from the marriage will last forever in the afterlife.
The Church of Jesus Christ Inc. is a Mormon fundamentalist denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement,and is also known as the Blackmore Group. There are approximately 700 members of this group.
