Ogden Wedlund Kraut (June 21, 1927 – July 17, 2002) was an American polygamist, author and publisher who became best known for his writings about Mormon fundamentalist topics.

He was one of the last LDS missionaries to serve "without purse or scrip" (financed entirely by donations from the church or from those to whom they taught), and wrote a book about those times.

He continued by saying that, by the end of the mission, "I felt that I could travel around the world that way... it was easy for me to do," and when asked if he missed meals, his standard response was "no but I've postponed a lot of them.

"[4] In 1952, Ogden won second place in the Rhine Military Post Special Services Photo Contest while spending two years in the U.S. Army stationed at Bad Kreuznach, Germany, as a Signal Corps photographer in the U.S.

His 95 Theses, named after the famous document by Martin Luther, includes specific charges against doctrinal changes in the LDS Church.

He believed they had no authority to build their own churches and defended his independent lifestyle, citing the purported 1886 Revelation attributed to Mormon president John Taylor: John Taylor authorized and set apart several men to perpetuate the principle of plural marriage and gave them the calling to perform such marriage, regardless of what the Church or the government might say or do ....

[8]In 1972, Kraut was excommunicated from the LDS Church by Grantsville Stake President Kenneth Clark Johnson Sr (1917–2009) for "apostasy", which included his belief in polygamy.

[11][12] Kraut was briefly affiliated with the Confederate Nations of Israel, a loose network of fringe religious practitioners founded in 1977 by Alex Joseph.

However, this was not an LDS fundamentalist sect but rather a confederation of independent "patriarchs" which included "Catholics, Protestants, Eastern religionists, atheists, and sexually-active homosexuals".

Members of a fundamentalist Mormon group bombed a local church, which led to an armed standoff with law enforcement.

[6] Regarding those not actively living plural marriage, Kraut also became known for claiming that there are "professors of religion that I'm acquainted with who believe all the doctrines of Fundamentalism, and yet they're teaching at BYU, seminaries, and institutes" within the LDS church.

He viewed negatively desire of some men to obtain social status by acquiring as many wives as possible, and looked down on the lack of academic standards among some families who chose to pursue homeschooling, saying that, for this subset of youngsters, "it had been better for them to go to public schools, than to stay home and to do nothing.

Ogden's son Kevin Kraut continues to discuss his father's legacy and publish his old writings through Old Pioneer Press.

[16] Despite their divergent views on Mormonism, Ogden was on friendly terms with authors Jerald and Sandra Tanner who were often sharply critical of LDS history and beliefs.