Thanks, Sky. I have trouble with people from *certain religious faiths* proclaiming that splinter groups are not connected and yet they refuse to denounce said splinter groups.
Or for that matter, I have trouble with Obama talking out against his own pastor while he continues sitting in the front pew. Don’t. Stop. Don’t. Stop. Dontstop dontstop dontstop...
I think one poster on exmormon.org framed this well: FLDS is really LDS, inc.'s crazy old aunt locked in the attic who refuses to die.
What's really sad is that this "crazy old aunt" resembles most of Mormons' older (19th century) ancestors.
I would say that four of the key distinctives of the fLDS in comparison to the "Mother Ship" (or "Mother POD" if you will) is...
(a) polygamy for "time" (otherwise both groups agree on polygamy for "eternity"):
(b) blacks as eligible members of the priesthood (fLDS is still pre-1978 Mormonism);
(c) they follow distinct leaders;
and (d) the fLDS is isolationist whereas the "Mother Ship" openly proselytizes. (Most of the rest of the distinctions are minor)
Bottom-line? The fLDS are simply a time-machine reminder of what generations-ago-Mormonism was. And that's why, as I said on post 1,101 & a more recent post, that it's a "Love-Hate" relationship that the LDS have re: the fLDS!