Editing Placement marriage (section)

== Origin ==

The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saint group is one of eight primary Fundamentalist Mormon groups; other well-known groups include the [[Apostolic United Brethren]], [[Latter Day Church of Christ]] (also known as the "Kingston group"), [[Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]], [[True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days]], and the [[Centennial Park group]] (also known as "The Work of Jesus Christ" or just "The Work"). Placement marriage is a practice that uniquely belongs to the FLDS Church, although there may be some similarities between the beliefs in marriage practices with the Latter Day Church of Christ.<ref name="Driggs"/>

The idea of placement marriage within the FLDS Church did not exist prior to the 1940s. The group which eventually became known as the FLDS changed the concepts of courtship and marriage for their followers over the past fifty years. Before that most, if not all, fundamentalist Mormons chose marriage partners according to patterns which mirrored those of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) in the nineteenth century, in that their decisions for marriage were made by considering "varied combinations of personal attraction and principles of faith (which usually included testimony or personal revelation) along with direct or indirect influence of family and ecclesiastical leaders”.<ref name="Watson"/> This latter method of freely choosing marriage partners is still predominately used by most [[Mormon fundamentalists]] who believe in or practice plural marriage. Most fundamentalist Mormons, apart from the FLDS, do not practice arranged marriages. Rather, they believe that arranged marriages violate the members’ "free agency".<ref name="Watson"/> Most fundamentalist Mormons today are not and never were members of the LDS Church, because that church renounced polygamy in 1890 and excommunicated any of its members who were found to be practicing "plural marriage" (i.e. polygamy). Most fundamentalist Mormons today are descendants of those who were excommunicated from the LDS Church for entering into polygamous marriages.