With Gov. Romney the clear favorite to win the Republican nomination, the question of a Mormon president in the White House will be a hot topic this election season. One of the most prominent displays of Mormonism is TLC's popular reality show "Sister Wives," in which an openly polygamist, Fundamentalist Mormon family shares their life and faith with the world.
While The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has officially rejected polygamy, the Brown family openly continues with the practice.
"Well, we're abiding by it because we believe the ancients used to," Kody Brown, the 44 year old father of 17 children and husband to four wives told The Huffington Post in a phone interview. "I mean all the cool guys in the Old Testament had more than one wife. It didn't make them righteous. They had to be righteous in spite of it."
When asked how they believe Romney's practice of Mormonism differs from their own, Meri, the first wife, said "He’s in the Mormon LDS faith, and we are in the Mormon fundamentalist faith. Both of the faiths have same origins but the Mormon church abandoned the practice of polygamy over 100 years ago.”
When asked who the family is voting for in the upcoming election, the response from the Brown family was surprisingly mixed. "We are going to vote based on the best person for the job, not based on faith," Meri explained. When pressed on what candidate they felt was the best person for the job, Meri revealed that “different members of our family go different ways on that."
The family celebrated Hanukkah this year instead of the birthday of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. Kody Brown explains in the video clip above that celebrating Smith's birthday felt too much like idolatry whereas the spirit of Hanukkah inspires their faith further.
"Jesus honored the festival of light, this isn't a universal part of our faith, but something we've embraced as a family to enhance our Christian experience," explained Janelle, the second wife. "We absolutely accept the Old Testament and study it as a religious doctrine."
The new season of "Sister Wives" premiers on Sunday, May 13 at 9 p.m. EST.