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Part of the ongoing issue is that many people apply the term "Mormon" to any denomination that accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture.  Given that there are over fifty functioning Latter Day Saint denominations in the US alone today, that makes about as much sense as calling everyone who uses the Bible as scripture by the moniker of "Baptist".

 

A number of the denominations that do not trace their heritage through the Brighamite faction of the movement have long stopped referring to themselves as Mormons.  Each of these churches has looked to some point in the first fourteen years of the movement and identified that as the point where things were rocking along okay and use that as the launching pad for their particular flavor of Latter Day Saintism.

 

In the case of the polygamous churches that do trace their heritage back to the Brighamite faction, they also will identify a specific period in the 1852-1890 era and use that as their launching pad.

 

But the point is that each of the various Latter Day Saint denominations should be appreciated and understood based on their own doctrine and structure, and not treated as one big homogenous group.


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