polygamy

[BlueK]

It's more widespread in Utah than most are willing to admit. There are good numbers of them in west Salt Lake valley, south Utah County/ north Juab County, and elsewhere. Still not active LDS (polygamy is a fast track to excommunication), but to your average American the term "Mormon" applies to anyone who follows Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, which would include the polygamous offshoots.

Yup. Got this all the time when someone found out I was a "Mormon" when living in Houston as well as Philadelphia. They lump us with the good and the bad.

most Protestants are completely unable to understand the concept of a centralized church. That's a big part of the reason they can't separate what we would consider a tiny polygamous offshoot of our church from the real thing. It's all the same to them just like the Baptist church in the next neighborhood essentially has no real organizational connection to the one they attend other than the name. But they're both "Baptist" to them which implies more or less the same beliefs.

[BroncoBot]

It's more widespread in Utah than most are willing to admit. There are good numbers of them in west Salt Lake valley, south Utah County/ north Juab County, and elsewhere. Still not active LDS (polygamy is a fast track to excommunication), but to your average American the term "Mormon" applies to anyone who follows Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, which would include the polygamous offshoots.

Yup. Got this all the time when someone found out I was a "Mormon" when living in Houston as well as Philadelphia. They lump us with the good and the bad.

To be honest, most LDS tacitly refer to the polygamists as Mormons as well. They call them 'radical', 'fundamentalist' etc.

But a radical what? A fundamentalist what? Both are just shorthand for radical Mormon or fundamentalist Mormon, the same as radical Muslim and fundamentalist Baptist.

Completely agree.

[BroncoBot]

It's more widespread in Utah than most are willing to admit. There are good numbers of them in west Salt Lake valley, south Utah County/ north Juab County, and elsewhere. Still not active LDS (polygamy is a fast track to excommunication), but to your average American the term "Mormon" applies to anyone who follows Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, which would include the polygamous offshoots.

Yup. Got this all the time when someone found out I was a "Mormon" when living in Houston as well as Philadelphia. They lump us with the good and the bad.

most Protestants are completely unable to understand the concept of a centralized church. That's a big part of the reason they can't separate what we would consider a tiny polygamous offshoot of our church from the real thing. It's all the same to them just like the Baptist church in the next neighborhood essentially has no real organizational connection to the one they attend other than the name. But they're both "Baptist" to them which implies more or less the same beliefs.

interesting point.