MATT LAUER, co-host:
For the first time in nearly 50 years, there's been a conviction in a polygamy case. Tom Green, a Mormon from Utah, has 5 wives and 30 children. Last week he was convicted on four counts of bigamy and faces up to 25 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
Mr. Green, good morning. Good to see you.
Mr. TOM GREEN (Convicted of Four Counts of Bigamy): Good morning.
LAUER: Let me see if I can get some details. You're 52 years old. You're a telemarketer. You live in Green Haven, Utah. You work out of your home. When were you first married, Mr. Green?
Mr. GREEN: I was first married to my former wife back in 1970.
LAUER: And that was a legal marriage, marriage license and everything?
Mr. GREEN: Yes, uh-huh.
LAUER: In the time since that marriage, you've taken on four other wives. Were there marriage licenses for those as well?
Mr. GREEN: With some of them we had marriage licenses, yes.
LAUER: So these were technical marriages in your mind, not just merely relationships.
Mr. GREEN: Well, yes. With some, because of their age, we got a marriage license. And then when they were old enough we got divorced legally.
LAUER: Can you explain to me--I know you feel as if the conviction on bigamy charges is incorrect, because you distinguish between bigamy and polygamy. Can you give me a brief description of how they're different?
Mr. GREEN: Well, bigamy is criminal, because it includes fraud and deceit. A person defrauds the government when they go and ask for another marriage license when they've already got one, and they deceive their spouse into thinking they're the only spouse when they've already got another one. In polygamy, we do neither of those. We don't get more than one marriage license at a time and we don't deceive our spouses into thinking they're the only one.
LAUER: Well, clear that up for me, though, because you said on several of the occasions of your marriages, there were licenses. So didn't you hold numerous marriage licenses at the same time?
Mr. GREEN: No, I've never had one marriage license--more than one at the same time. I always terminated one in a legal divorce before I got a new one.
LAUER: And did you continue the relationship as if it were a marriage even though you had a legal divorce?
Mr. GREEN: Yes, we did. We have a spiritual marriage that for us is good for time and all eternity. So even though the government recognizes a legal divorce, because we maintain the commitment to the spiritual marriage, we continue that relationship.
LAUER: Can you explain to me the significance of polygamy in the Mormon religion?
Mr. GREEN: Well, in original Mormon religion, plural marriage was an essential for exultation in the hereafter.
LAUER: And for--also for the purposes of having many children, is that correct as well?
Mr. GREEN: Well, yes. One of the primary purposes of plural marriage was to raise up a righteous posterity to the Lord. In Mormon scripture, God says whenever he's going to raise up a posterity for himself he'll do it through plural marriage.
LAUER: You feel as if the state of Utah has pretty much singled you out or targeted you in this case because you were not at all quiet about the fact that you had more than one marriage. And you proved to be somewhat of an embarrassment for the state. Is that accurate?
Mr. GREEN: Yes, that's correct. There's somewhere between 30,000 to 50,000 people living in plural polygamist families in Utah, but they--for 100 years they've lived underground ever since the church supposedly gave it up. And after the civil rights era of the '60s, since there have been no prosecutions in this state since the '50s, I felt that it would be safe to explain to people what this lifestyle is really about. I thought that if people understood our lifestyle, they wouldn't fear it, and there wouldn't be problems like this.
LAUER: And because you've spoken out and the Olympics, of course, are coming to Salt Lake City, the last thing the people there want are stories and jokes about Mormons and multiple marriages. Can you explain to me how you would answer someone who would say, Mr. Green, this is not only illegal, this is immoral, this is unholy, and it's impractical? I mean, how can you support 30 children?'
Mr. GREEN: Well, it's no more immoral for me to have more than one wife than it was for Father Abraham in the bible. Abraham had four wives and yet he was considered the friend of God. I don't think that it's immoral to be committed to a--more than one person.
LAUER: Do you think there's a misconception about what you do in the minds of some people?
Mr. GREEN: You know, you can tell a lot about what's in the minds of people by what it is they think we have here. If people have a lot of love in their heart, they see the love that exists in our family. And that's what this is really about. If people have lust and desires in their heart, that's what they see in this family.
LAUER: What are your chances on appeal?
Mr. GREEN: I think our chances are very good on appeal. Utah's used some really strange application of a couple of different statutes. We thought that we were living as single people because we had not had a legal marriage for six years. The state, in order to make a bigamist out of me, they had to, first of all, declare me to be married legally and to have been married for five or six years legally, and then prosecute me for bigamy.
LAUER: Tom Green. Mr. Green, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.
Mr. GREEN: Mm-hmm. Thank you.
LAUER: Once again, here's Katie.