SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - While one Christian scholar derided the religious beliefs of Utah's most famous polygamist, Tom Green said his multiple wives and children are an example of a stable, loving family.
Green spoke on CNN's Talkback live Wednesday afternoon in yet another appearance on national television.
Convicted of bigamy and failure to pay child support at a trial in May, Green is free on bond awaiting sentencing next month. He could face up to 25 years in prison. Green lives in Utah's remote West Desert with five wives and 30 children.
On the CNN talk show, Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition called Green's belief system a cult.
"When you have these multiple sexual partners giving birth to your children, it is really only a cult, and a cult is not a religion," Sheldon said.
Green and many of the estimated 30,000 polygamists living throughout the West claim to be following traditional Mormon doctrine.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints condoned polygamy until 1890. Today, polygamists can be excommunicated from the church.
"This is as much a religion as it was for Father Abraham in the Bible," Green countered.
While Green's family isn't a particularly egregious example, Sheldon said some polygamist families create unhealthy environments.
"Our information we have been gathering out of Utah says, listen, you haven't heard the bad cases yet," Sheldon said.
Another guest on the show said that 84 percent of human societies around the world permit multiple wives.
Helen Fisher, a Rutgers University anthropologist, said only 5 percent to 10 percent of men are actually able to attract more than one wife.
"There has to be very good economic reasons or very good religious reasons, and in this case, it seems to me that these people are drawn for the religious reasons," Fisher said of the Green family. "You can talk the human animal into doing a great many things."
Green also is facing criminal charges for allegedly having sex with one of his wives when she was 13.