The FLDS practices polygamy because it retains early Mormon teachings about plural marriage that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) officially abandoned in 1890. Early Mormon theology held that polygamous marriage restored the form of marriage practiced by patriarchs of the Hebrew Bible and fulfilled a divine command to increase the population. Mormon fundamentalists later regarded the LDS church’s rejection of polygamy as a capitulation to the U.S. government’s anti-polygamy pressure and continued the practice, which they often call “the Principle.”
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