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According to the consensus of historians, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith, privately taught and practiced polygamy. After Smith's death in 1844, the church he established splintered into several competing groups. Disagreements over Smith's doctrine of "plural marriage" was one of the primary reasons the church divided. The members of the largest group that resulted, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), continued to teach and practice polygamy throughout the 19th century. In the late-19th century and early-20th century, the practice was formally abandoned as the LDS Church came under intense criticism by the United States federal government. The LDS Church no longer sanctions polygamy and its members do not practice it, although there are still elements of the doctrine in its theology. The second-largest Latter Day Saint church, the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or RLDS Church), has a history of opposing the LDS Church's practice of polygamy. Other smaller Latter Day Saint churches were also formed as a means of opposing the LDS Church's polygamy. The formal shift in doctrine by the LDS Church later in the early-20th century gave rise to the Mormon fundamentalism movement, which has since fragmented into a number of separate churches, the most well-known being the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church). The FLDS Church and other Mormon fundamentalists believe the practice of polygamy should continue and that it was wrongfully abandoned by the LDS Church. ==Current state of polygamy in the LDS Church== The LDS Church considers polygamy to have been a divinely inspired commandment that is supported by scripture;〔See Doctrine and Covenants (section 132 ) and Jacob (2:30 ).〕 today, the church permits it to be discussed in a Sunday School lesson for adults that is presented once every four years.〔("Lesson 31: 'Sealed … for Time and for All Eternity'" ), ''Doctrine and Covenants and Church History: Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual'', (Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church, 1999) pp. 176–82.〕 However, the commandment to the church to practice plural marriage is considered to have rescinded by God. Church apostle Joseph F. Smith has explained, "The doctrine is not repealed, the truth is not annulled, the law is right and just now as ever, but the observance of it is stopped".〔Letter from Joseph F. Smith to the Honorable A. Saxey, Provo, Utah, 9 January 1897.〕 The LDS Church has not officially tolerated plural marriages since the 1890 Manifesto was declared. However, all of the First Presidency and almost all of the apostles at that time continued to maintain multiple families into the 20th century: they did not feel that they could dissolve existing unions and families. Scholarship beginning in the 1980s has led to estimates that the average incidence of polygamy during the 40 years in which it was a practice of the church was between 15 and 30 percent, depending on the years and location,〔.〕 including virtually all church leadership at the time.〔Bachman, Danel W., Esplin, Ronald K. (1992) "Plural Marriage", in Ludlow, Daniel H, ''Encyclopedia of Mormonism'' 3:1095. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.〕 Polygamy was gradually discontinued after the 1904 Second Manifesto as no new plural marriages were allowed and as the older polygamists died off. Since the Second Manifesto, the policy of the LDS Church has been to excommunicate members who enter into, solemnize, or openly teach the doctrine of plural marriages. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Current state of polygamy in the Latter Day Saint movement」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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