LDS Church addresses FLDS confusion

Leaders hope letters, videos will further clarify differences

As confusion continues worldwide about the connection between the Salt Lake-based LDS Church and the FLDS polygamist group in Texas, LDS officials ramped up their efforts Thursday to clarify that their members have nothing to do with plural marriage.

The frustration that LDS leaders are feeling over the confusion also was detailed in a letter to more than 80 major media outlets nationwide from the church's attorney, and in a public statement from one of its apostles — also an attorney — about the importance of protecting the church's identity.

The two documents were part of a package of videos and statements of clarification posted on the church's Web site at www.lds.org in the "newsroom" section.

The letter reminds editors and publishers that the LDS Church has obtained legal registration, trade and service marks for the term "Mormon," among other terms, and asks journalists to refrain from calling the FLDS polygamous group "fundamentalist Mormons."

But at least one religion scholar said trying to enforce such a distinction could be problematic.

"We are confident that you are committed to avoiding misleading statements that cause unwarranted confusion and that may disparage or infringe the intellectual property rights discussed above," says the letter from Elder Lance B. Wickman, who is identified as the church's "general counsel."

He asked that the letter be given to reporters and editors "and to your legal counsel," the letter said.

Distinguishing the 13 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the few thousand members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church in both Texas and the Utah-Arizona border towns of Hildale and Colorado City has proven to be an ongoing challenge for the LDS Church, which has issued at least three other public statements distancing itself from the FLDS group in recent months.

The latest push for clarification comes after an LDS Church-commissioned survey of 1,000 U.S. adults last month, which showed 36 percent of those surveyed thought the FLDS polygamous group was part of the LDS Church, and 29 percent said they were not sure. Less than a third believe the two groups are not connected at all, and 30 percent believe polygamists belong to the LDS Church.

Of 15,000 news stories on the Texas FLDS group between the end of March and mid-June, the LDS Church said only 5 percent "accurately distinguished" the differences between the Texas group and Latter-day Saints.

The survey seeking to determine how widespread public confusion between Latter-day Saints and the FLDS Church shows, according to the LDS Church statement, that:

• More than a third of those surveyed (36 percent) erroneously thought that the Texas compound was part of the LDS Church.

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