Although it has no official standing, the term “Mormon” is commonly applied only to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To apply it as loosely as you did in your article (News, June 28), to include polygamous groups, simply confuses the reader into thinking that polygamy still is practiced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Specifically, the two headlines speak of “Mormon women” helping their “sister-wives” escape polygamy. Neither the support group nor the women they are attempting to help have any affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Although the writer of the article made clear that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints abandoned the practice more than a century ago, he perpetuates the misuse of the term when he, nonetheless, refers to polygamists as “Mormon fundamentalists.”
Polygamists and polygamist organizations that occasionally make the news are emphatically not dissident members or wings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or “Mormons.” Because those who practice polygamy today are not affiliated with “the Mormon Church,” and because they are not “Mormon,” a more accurate and less misleading description of them in the media would be “polygamist,” or “polygamous sect.”
