polygotry

[David Bowie]

From:    RonButters at AOL.COM
: juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US writes:

Discussing polygyny:

:: Uh, yes I read the papers. These people who practice these
:: arrangements are not Mormons, in spite of what they might claim to
:: be.

: With all due respect, I have a little trouble with the idea that
: people cannot label their religious beliefs however they wish.

And the church people generally think of upon hearing the phrase "Mormon
church" (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in Salt Lake
City, Utah) prefers, as an institution, *not* to be referred to as the
Mormon church (in addition, it seems to dislike the use of "Mormon" being
applied to polygynous groups): see
http://www.lds.org/newsroom/page/0,15606,4043-1---15-168,00.html

However, having taught at Brigham Young University, which that church runs,
and having been a member of that church for notably longer than that, it's
more complicated when you get to members of that church--some feel that
"Mormon" is perfectly acceptable (I'm one of those), while others feel that
it's most emphatically not (usually preferring "LDS", short for "Latter-day
Saints"). (I've long thought there's regional variation in this, but I'm not
quite sure how to do the sampling to investigate that.)

Moving to other Latter Day Saint Movement religions, some emphatically
reject the term "Mormon" while others use it freely; this is the case for
both polygynous *and* non-polygynous groups. So, for example, the Community
of Christ and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (both
non-polygynous, and yes, that second one's very different than the one in
the first paragraph) respectively reject and embrace the "Mormon" label,
while the "Mormon" label is accepted and rejected by polygynous groups such
as, respectively, the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times and
the Apostolic United Brethren.

But wait--to complicate matters further, Terry Lofthouse, a non-believing
member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, incorporated a
Mormon Church (that's its official name) a couple years ago after getting
annoyed at having people tell him "There's no 'Mormon Church'".

Like I wrote above, I like the term "Mormon"--it takes a lot less time to
say than most of the other names. However, if it's a context that requires
any precision at all that's not blindingly obvious from context, it's not
really a good term to use.

David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
    Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
    house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
    chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.