In the July 2010 issue of Ensign (an official Mormon magazine), LDS apostle M. Russell Ballard urges Mormons not to be sidetracked by the polygamy issue. “This ended in the Church as an official practice in 1890. It’s now 2010. Why are we still talking about it? It was a practice. It ended. We moved on. If people ask you about polygamy, just acknowledge that it was once a practice but not now and that people shouldn’t confuse any polygamists with our church.”
Christian apologist Rob Bowman answers Ballard’s question by enumerating the reasons why Mormons cannot plausibly claim that polygamy is an “irrelevant issue.”
“Polygamy in America is the cultural offspring of the LDS Church, and they cannot divest themselves of their responsibility for it by disowning the child,” Bowman concludes.