Because polygamy is illegal and the church renounced the practice more than a century ago, John said that he had been excommunicated.

The church did not fully renounce the practice of plural marriage until Joseph F. Smith's Second Manifesto of 1904.

The church officially renounced polygamy in 1890, and excommunicates members who openly practice it.

Polygamists, whose beliefs derive from tenets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that the church renounced more than a century ago, say they do not believe assurances they will not be prosecuted and now feel less inclined than ever to summon the authorities, even on serious matters.

In previous correspondence with Davis, Haggis had demanded that the church publicly renounce Proposition 8.

After the church renounced the practice, Kerr divorced his second wife in 1898.

But the church did not renounce its actions, and impatience with it is boiling over, conservatives said.

Until the church renounced its approval of polygamy in 1890, the practice caused decades of cold war, and occasionally armed clashes, with the Federal Government.

The church renounced polygamy more than a hundred years ago and today treats the practice like a banished relative.

The church would later renounce this practice, prohibiting the ordination of sexually active homosexuals.