His response, filed last week, says leaders of the mainstream church have always known that “members of the Mormon religion” have faithfully followed Smith’s teachings, including polygamy, and that those leaders “have stood by while those who follow the Doctrine and Covenants have used the name … continuously and extensively in the United States of America and Canada.” What Blackmore contends in his response to the LDS civil suit is that he and all of the directors of his church are “members of the Mormon church who were all baptized as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and who follow the Doctrine and Covenants.” presidency in 2012, it was widely reported that his great-grandfather had been a polygamist, with five wives living in exile in Mexico, and that his grandfather was born in that polygamous community. Its efforts to have journalists stop referring to the self-described fundamentalist Mormons have had limited success, while reality TV shows Sister Wives and My Five Wives, along with the TV drama Big Love, have shone an even greater light on the practice.Īnd it didn’t help that when Mormon Mitt Romney ran as the Republican candidate for the U.S. In the last decade, LDS efforts have been thwarted by the publicity attracted by fundamentalists like Blackmore and Warren Jeffs, the FLDS prophet serving a life sentence in Texas for sexual offences committed against girls aged 12 and 15. Yet, the link between Mormonism and polygamy in the public realm has proved difficult to break. Since then, the church says it has excommunicated any member found to be a polygamist. army would invade what is now the state of Utah, the LDS renounced the earthly practice of plural marriage. It makes things more infuriatingly and frustratingly confusing than they already are.įor 125 years, LDS leaders have tried to distance themselves from Smith’s most controversial revelation that polygamy was essential to exaltation and attaining the highest level of heaven. So, in May 2010, Blackmore cleverly registered “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Inc.” in British Columbia, omitting the hyphen and putting the capital letter on “Day.”įor the LDS, the high-profile Canadian polygamist’s assumption of its name is more than a nuisance. Also known as the LDS, it has an estimated 15 million followers in 170 countries.īut the problem for the church is that it never registered the name in Canada. The mainstream church has been called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1838. The civil case against the mainstream church may prove to be no less of a David-and-Goliath battle. ![]() decision that found the polygamy law to be valid, Winston Blackmore has indicated that he will fight the criminal charges by arguing that practising polygamy is protected by the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. ![]() Blackmore’s brother, Brandon, and sister-in-law, Emily Crossfield, were also charged with one count of child sex trafficking.ĭespite a 2011 Supreme Court of B.C. (The FLDS, now estimated to have as many as 10,000 members, began in the early 20th century when a small group of Canadians and Americans decided to continue practising polygamy after it had been banned by the mainstream church.)īlackmore was charged with one count of polygamy, while another former FLDS bishop, James Oler, was charged with one count of polygamy and one count of child trafficking for sexual purposes. Westcoast Homes & Design Previous Issuesīlackmore has never made a secret of his plural marriages or the fact that 10 of his 24 “brides” were under the age of 18 when he married them in religious ceremonies.Įarlier this month, the former bishop of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was one of four people from the community known as Bountiful to be criminally charged.Vancouver Sun Run: Sign up & event info.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |