History of Fundamentalist Mormon Movements: Part 2

It was from this point that what would come to be called, by the outside world, "fundamentalist" groups would begin to splinter off of the main line Mormon Church. The Church had already had some groups break away. Oddly enough, one group, led by Joseph Smiths' wife, Emma, and his son, had broken away shortly after his death with the main complaint of not approving of the practice of polygamy. Now they began to experience groups breaking away in order to keep practicing it.

The argument was simple. The federal government had never approved of polygamy and had passed a series of acts, since the 1860's, aimed at abolishing it. At one point the territory which would become Utah was practically an occupied state, with federal officials supplanting territorial and local officials at all levels. By 1890 The Church hierarchy, which ran the territorial government, had determined that Utah would never achieve statehood with the institution of plural marriage in place. If you read Official Declaration-1 you will find that, unlike most written "official" announcements from the Mormon "prophets," it never claims to be a "revelation from God." Wilford Woodruff merely announced his "intention to submit to the law" and that it was his "advice to the Latter-day Saints ...to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land." (Doctrines & Covenants, Declaration-1, p.292). A second "manifesto" was later issued in 1904, backing up the first. Following this second manifesto the Church began excommunicating members for continuing to enter into plural marriages.

Therefore, to many strict minded Mormons, this "manifesto" did not have the weight of the word of God. Joseph Smith Jr. is considered, by Mormons, to be a prophet of God, and his three primary works, The Book of Mormon, the Doctrine & Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price, are considered to be sacred scriptures which are infallible (unlike the Bible which they consider to be "incorrectly translated" and thereby flawed). To these literal minded Mormons D&C 132 cannot be erased by Wilford Woodruffs politically motivated "manifesto." To them, the "word of God" cannot be done away with for political convenience.

Shortly after the second manifesto various Mormons, who still believed plural marriage was a commandment handed down from God, began to coalesce into their own group. Gradually this group began to separate from the regular Mormon Church. The main group centered around the community of Short Creek, Arizona, which is located right on the Utah/Arizona state line.

By the 1920's and 1930's they had begun to have differences over who would lead the group. This then led to the splintering off of several separate fundamentalist sects. This trend has continued ever since with splinter groups continuing to break off, both from the original group, which went on to become known as the "Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," (FLDS) and from the splinter groups themselves.

Today there are about nine main fundamentalist Latter-day Saint (Mormon) organizations in North America, operating in the United States, Mexico and Canada. There are an unknown number of smaller groups of fundamentalist Mormons and individual families which belong to no established group at all. Not all fundamentalist Mormons actually practice plural marriage. Many believe in it but since it is illegal and would limit their abilities, career wise and such, they do not practice it. In the next article we will look at the early days of the modern fundamentalist Mormon sects and begin to look at why polygamy can be a problem.