Mormons distance themselves from polygamist groups

[Moksha]

Mormons distance themselves from polygamist groups
By ERIC GORSKI – 6 hours ago

As authorities have investigated a polygamist sect in Texas, Mormon church leaders in Salt Lake City have largely stayed on the sidelines, weighing a response.
Church officials knew the sect's similar name and practice of polygamy — part of Mormon church life until it was banned more than a century ago — would cause people to confuse the two.

Now the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, is starting a public relations campaign that seeks a delicate balance: distinguishing itself from a small, separate group that claims some of the same history while not denigrating someone else's beliefs.

It's a sensitive issue for the Mormon church, which was persecuted in its early years. The initiative begun Thursday also details how it considers its 19th century practice of polygamy different from present-day practitioners like the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"People have the right to worship as they choose, and we aren't interested in attacking someone else's beliefs," LDS church apostle Quentin Cook said in a statement. "At the same time, we have an obligation to define ourselves rather than be defined by events and incidents that have nothing to do with us."
"Mormons," he said, "have nothing whatsoever to do with this polygamous sect in Texas."

The LDS church has not taken a stance on the April raid of the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas, subsequent child-custody battle and ongoing grand jury investigation into whether FLDS members committed any crimes.
"We don't know if there's abuse of children," Cook said in an interview. "We would condemn that ... We don't know all the facts."

Cook said the church's feeling that it had to do something was confirmed by a survey of 1,000 people it commissioned in late May that found 36 percent thought the Texas compound was part of the LDS Church or the "Mormon Church" based in Salt Lake City.

Another 6 percent said the LDS and FLDS were partly related, 29 percent said the groups were not connected at all, and 29 percent weren't sure, the survey found.

The centerpiece of the new campaign — church officials provided The Associated Press a preview before its release — is a package of materials and video on the LDS Web site.

The Associated Press: Mormons distance themselves from polygamist groups

[Kirajo]

Good job to the 29 percent!

[Jenamarie]

I like how they're handling this.

[Bookmeister]

I guess I'd better have my wives read this.

:ROFLMBO:

[Truegrits]

I guess I'd better have my wives read this.

YASF!!!

[UintahJack]

I just had a group of people come in from out of state for a work meeting and they asked what I thought about the members of my church going through all this in Texas. I said, "Umm sorry, wrong church." At least it gave me the chance to share a little about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.