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http://www.ishipress.com/utah-pol.htmInteresting NYT article, above, from the Utah Winter Olympics era:
...In this conservative state, "don't ask, don't tell" means that sheriffs and judges turn a blind eye to polygamy, a felony that has not been prosecuted here in almost half a century.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose founder sanctioned polygamy, has excommunicated polygamists for more than a century. But in the current laissez-faire legal climate, the number of Utahans living in polygamous families has increased tenfold in the last 50 years and is now at about 40,000 people, or 2 percent of the state's population, social scientists say. .....Since then, Utah has largely taken an increasingly tolerant stance toward polygamy. In 1991, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that polygamous families were eligible to adopt.
In July, Gov. Michael Leavitt, a Republican, speculated that polygamy might enjoy protection as a religious freedom. After protests from women who had left polygamous marriages, the popular Leavitt quickly amended his stance, saying that "plural marriage is wrong, it should stay against the law, and there is no place for it in modern society."
In Salt Lake City, easily Utah's most liberal city, support for prosecuting polygamists is tepid -- 54 percent, according to a poll of 1,000 area residents this spring, published in The Salt Lake Tribune.
Polygamy is difficult to prosecute because the men generally obtain marriage licenses for only their first wives. Subsequent marriages are performed secretly, and the additional wives often present themselves to society as single women with children. ...The whole piece is really worth reading. This site http://www.polygamy.org/ is pretty interesting as well--an excerpt: The disclaimer is misleading," says Vicky Prunty, director of Tapestry Against Polygamy. "The LDS church may not practice polygamy now, but they still believe in it, and their apathy towards polygamy suggests they look forward to a time when polygamy will no longer be against the law." Tapestry believes there are more than 100,000 practicing polygamists in the United States today.
In 1890, under military and political pressure from the United States, the LDS church issued a "Manifesto" that polygamy should no longer be practiced. However, the LDS church continues to publish and revere the revelations received by its founder, Joseph Smith. One of Smith's revelations, published as Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, declares that polygamy is a divine principle leading to the highest degree of glory. In the revelation, God commands women to accept polygamy under threat of damnation ...Because Joseph Smith was so adamant about polygamy as a divine principle, Mormon fundamentalists tend to regard the 1890 Manifesto as a rejection of God's commandments. When excommunicated from the LDS church, many such fundamentalists form polygamist communities in Utah and elsewhere. Polygamists tend to have many children. The second, third, and succeeding generations from Mormon fundamentalist groups may never have been members of the LDS church, but they almost always trace their beliefs back to Joseph Smith and Section 132. New converts to Mormon Fundamentalism often come out of the mainstream LDS Church.
The LDS Church recently issued this statement:
Polygamy was officially discontinued in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1890. Any Church member adopting the practice today is excommunicated. Those groups which continue the practice in Utah and elsewhere have no association with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and most of their practitioners have never been among our members.
The Church has long been concerned about the continued illegal practice of polygamy, and in particular about reports of child and wife abuse emanating from polygamous communities today. It will be regrettable if this program, by making polygamy the subject of entertainment, minimizes the seriousness of the problem.
"As far as we can tell," says Prunty, "the LDS church has turned a blind eye toward the polygamy problem. Its leaders remain silent while Mormon fundamentalists campaign to legalize or decriminalize polygamy. The church routinely turns down opportunities to help women and children who escape from polygamist communities."...
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