Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism, 2023 Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism, Joseph Smith Restores the Practice of Plural Marriage, Plural Marriage Commanded, Permitted, and Not Permitted, 1920sPolygamists Coalesce into an Organization, Lorin C. Woolley and His Council of Seven Friends, Independent Polygamists and Fundamentalists. . . Like any fundamentalist Mormon sect, the Kingston Clan is very hierarchal. Because I fell down this rabbit hole and now so do you all. In their own words, as quoted in a sister article that asks the question, "Is Monogamy the Ruin of Civilization?" [39], In 2016, the State of Utah with federal law enforcement raided various properties in connection with the Kingston family or Davis County Cooperative Society with the intention of finding welfare fraud. . " . Excerpts from the article "Understanding Polygamy," distributed by "Humanists of Utah": " . "Dr. Tarby, who routinely treats fumarase deficiency children at a state-funded clinic in Flagstaff, says, 'They are funny-looking kids [with] biggish heads and coarse, thick features.' [Andrea] Moore-Emmett [author of 'God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who Escaped'] contends that [in polygamy] incest, statutory rape, torture, physical abuse, forced marriages, and trafficking of girls is rampant. We recall that Joseph Smith made no effort to implement the law of consecration while in Nauvoo (see D&C 105:34). 'It's like any inbred disorder,' Tarby says. Certainly the British and French education systems make it clear quite early on (13-14 yrs old). "'My guess is this man had used some of these inbreeding practices in his herd so he was probably in the camp that believed superior genetics could be propagated in a particular line,' Green says. Five of the women suing alleged they were coerced into marriage as minors and raped by their husbands. . . The early Mormon Church practiced polygamy until 1890, when leaders abandoned the practice as a condition for Utah to gain statehood. His father wrote: Brother Elden received a new covenant up on the top of the highest mountain that is east of Bountiful, Utah. Unfortunately, it's still the innocent who suffer due to Joseph Smith's lies. "Some fumarase deficiency children, he says, develop a small degree of motor skills over time: 'They don't remain infantile their entire life. Precisely where Elden obtained valid priesthood authority is a matter of dispute. Even the few highly educated people there . 'Warren Jeffs is also trying to breed a perfect race.'. Federal agents raid Utah offices of polygamous Kingston Group "The clan's other numerous incestuous couplings among consenting adults . [9][34], Active members and a recent independent research article by a professor from Santa Clara University have attributed the practice to "endogamous preference and the small size of the groups population". . Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . "Fumarase deficiency is caused by a lack of the fumarase enzyme, an essential component in a biological process called the Krebs cycle, which converts food into energy within each cell. The lone man suing said three Order men raped him when he was 16 or 17 and that when he left the group and announced he was gay, was tracked down and severely beaten by a group of boys acting at the direction of the Order, the lawsuit alleges. . . Winnipeg's Bear Clan still active during pandemic, despite 'small COVID [T]he one-wife system not only degenerates the human family, both physically and intellectually, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; it is a lure to temptation, and has always proved a curse to a people. "I never knew if I carried this deadly disease or if any preventative measures would halt its insidious march. A small portion of the funds (less than 6%) were also used to purchase legitimate goods and services from businesses who provided them in "good faith". Gallup Panel survey [conducted in August 2006] show[ed] that Americans are much more likely to believe most Mormons endorse practicing polygamy than to believe most Americans support it. . living in Colorado City and Hildale are blood descendants of the Barlows and the Jessops, says Benjamin Bistline, a lifelong resident of the area who has published a book . "Rather than polygamy being about religion, Moore-Emmett believes that many polygamous marriages are about sex and power. She suffered from. . [7] Upon the creation of the LDCJC, most members of the DCCS became members of the church and most retain dual membership in both organizations to this day. . [32] He was arrested and pleaded "no contest" to the charge of child abuse and served seven months in jail. . One of the guilty pleas states they cycled fraud proceeds through a number of international partners and then back to Washakie's bank accounts, falsely claiming them as loans or profits. . . "'People don't like to talk about their fumarase babies for obvious reasons,' Wyler says. Thanks for signing up! He also married a woman descended from polygamy. Unfortunately, there are also numerous reports of members who lived in squalor in order to advance the monetary gains of the Co-op. The Kingston Group is not affiliated withthe Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) based on the Utah-Arizona line that is run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides. 'I said, "You're married to somebody you're related to. "Genetics of Incest: Pre-eclampsia is a condition that can be traced genetically from one generation to the next and is prevalent among some Kingstons, Rugg says. The Kingstons are a Mormon splinter group, founded in the 1930s by Mary's great-uncle Elden. So, from the beginnings of Mormon Church history, we have LDS Elohim's hand of blessing placed upon the insidious institution of multi-wifing and forever-birthing. . ", (Bruce, R. McConkie,'Mormon Doctrine,' 2nd ed., under "Plural Marriage" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc., 1966], p. 578) . While Charles W. Kingston was the first to oppose the Church, the primary mover in the Kingston Group was his son Elden. 'I didn't dare talk about it,' she says. Children inherit disabling illnesses. Childbirth would be fraught with despair and guilt for me and for many family members. "Another problem in polygamy is a mans breeding years are expanded sometimes into his 80s by the taking of new wives. "My dad had a thing that was supposed to shoot radio waves or something like that, that . Even if a genetic screening test were available, Wyler says, Jeffs would have to be cautious about how he allowed it to be implemented. Moore-Emmett suggests that the heavily Mormon Utah government is unduly tolerant of polygamy and reluctant to acknowledge the abuses of many polygamous families. . . . In this regard, officially-canonized LDS scripture that currently endorses polygamy is not the only image problem for the Mormon Church (thank you, Warren Jeffs). "Of all the arguments against incest, says Jorde, the likelihood that genetic abnormalities will be passed to succeeding generations is the most persuasive. This is why the state and federal government enacted legislation against polygamy. "For us parents the future health and happiness of ourselves, our children and grandchildren are at stake. "For Colorado City and Hildale to avoid more fumarase, polygamist leaders must use their authority to make sure that those potentially carrying the fumarase gene are not allowed to marry, says geneticist Aleck. The samples could be tested for the gene at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix. Readily accepted as a problem among mothers past the age of 35, it is rarely discussed as a problem when fathers are over 35, let alone 80. Then, while still a young man, [my cousin] died of nephritis, the fatal family inheritance. Let's now examine how this supposedly "divinely-inspired" Mormon program of heavenly eugenics has actually worked in practice. One child born with an incomplete liver died. The Kingston Group is believed to have a few thousand members, mostly in Utah and Idaho. Polygamist Is Convicted of Incest - The New York Times Three others, including Grant, said they had to flee to escape such a fate. Satan will try to stop the power of the Lord and that power is where the Lord has given his covenant of consecration and that is: to the Davis County Co-op of Bountiful, Utah. Since the natural male-to-female ratio is roughly 50-50, the ratio must be manipulated so that there are more females than males for polygamy to work. One recent morning [John Ortell's niece and third wife, Mary Gustafson] defended her complicity in arranging her daughters' marriages to their half-brothers, sons of John Ortell and LaDonna. Then he scooted away, smiling, aboard a plastic toy car, his feet smacking the sidewalk. . 'In the meantime, the taxpayers have to pay the bills. Tarby recounts a conversation he had with a member of the Barlow clan in which he tried to explain why so much fumarase deficiency was occurring among Mormon polygamists. "This gene cluster effect happens when people with common ancestors marry and bear children. This resulted in his excommunication from the LDS Church in 1929. Kimball. . Not enough of the fumarase enzyme can lead to severe mental retardation and physical deformities. . . Thus this monogamic order of marriage, so esteemed by modern Christians as a holy sacrament and divine institution, is nothing but a system established by a set of robbers. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. LuAnn Kingston, a former member of the clan who in 1995 at age fifteen was forced to marry her first cousin, shared: The joke used to be that if you werent married by 17, you were an old maid.[5], Within the Kingston Group, the primary polygamists are the immediate Kingston family and heirs. Why is this? Elden theorized that living the law of consecration was still required, and he set forth to establish his own united order organization. They are quick to point out to reporters that they no longer practice polygamy and excommunicate members who continue to do so. 'Most of what you print is lies, lies, lies.' it is the only popular religion there,", -The Prophet Brigham Young, "Deseret News," 6 August 1862, "This law of monogamy, or the monogamic system, laid the foundation for prostitution and the evils and diseases of the most revolting nature and character under which modern Christendom groans, . "Tarby says the disease could begin to show up in children at Warren Jeffs' new FLDS headquarters . ', "Aleck says the fact that so many people in the polygamist enclave are blood relatives of the founding Barlow and Jessop families 'shows the magnitude of the problem.'. Double murder in Utah: Tragedy Strikes the Cast of A&E's - reddit But it is unclear how such assets are exalting the poor or making the rich low. This lack of information upset me as a child when to my fervent, 'Why?' . Escaping Polygamy - Wikipedia . It is these discredited ideas that foster this genetic legacy. An MRI of the brain of one fumarase deficiency child showed that more than half the brain was missing. Kingston Clan : r/FundieSnarkUncensored - reddit "The Kingstons are among a small number of family groups in the world who marry closer than first cousins on a regular basis. [7], Plural marriage is practiced by some members of the LDCJC and members make their own choice in who they marry. 'Escaping Polygamy' is a docuseries on Lifetime which follows the work of three sisters, who were able to break free from the polygamous Kingston Clan, known as the Order. A young child is also one of the accusers in the suit with allegations the child was raped by his or her father, who allegedly raped the mother. "When [my cousin] died, my childish vow surfaced and I began to look into my family history for some answers. . Eldens father related that Elden told him that was ordained by J. Leslie Broadbent (Lorin Woolleys successor) in 1934, although precisely what that ordination represented is unclear. "If female, they are married off to the few, powerful prominent males: incest is the fate of many teen-age girls. "'The kids that I have seen have terrible seizure disorders and developmental delays,' says Dr. Aleck. The current leader of the Kingston Clan is Paul Elden Kingston, and it is reported that he has up to 27 wives (including three half-sisters) and some wives have as many as 18 children. But residents who are aware of fumarase deficiency fear that the number of children afflicted with the disease will indeed increase. soon . "'We have and will have a continual output of children with this condition,' Tarby says. . The Kingston family first embraced polygamy around 1931 when, according to author Max Anderson, Charles W. Kingston helped produce a pamphlet that contained a version of Lorin C. Woolley's claims that former LDS Church President John Taylor had set aside a select group of men to carry on polygamy even as the church publicly disavowed the practice. Fear began to overwhelm me, for the future, and for my own son. . Several people also wonder if parts of 'Escaping Polygamy' is dramatized. "Warren Jeffs, like Joseph Smith before him, has emphasized the importance of obedience among members of the church. [15][16] The Grand Jury was described as "The polygamist hunting Davis County Grand Jury" by the Ogden Standard-Examiner in 1959. 'They have the authoritarian structure necessary to keep this from happening, but I don't think they have the advanced thinking,' Aleck says. . . Investigate the Kingston Clan: wealthiest polygamous cult in the U.S "While none of these can positively be linked to incest without DNA testing, geneticists say most of the conditions are exacerbated by incest. and councilmen.' Over the past decades, the Kingston Group has maintained extreme secrecy while developing an extensive cooperative system, with wealth in at least 50 corporations in Utah and scattered across the West. 'We do know there are biological hazards. . They have no movement. Her subject at the convention was mormon child sexual abuse. "In this isolated religious society north of the Grand Canyon, few secrets have been more closely guarded than the presence of fumarase deficiency. The two Kingston brothers and their business partner, Lev Dermen, are in jail awaiting trial, scheduled to start in July and last six weeks. "The only long-term solution to the health crisis is for Barlows and Jessops to have children with spouses from outside the polygamist community. http://www.gallup.com/poll/24388/one-four-americans-think-most-mormons-e http://www.i4m.com/think/sexuality/homosexual_ruin.htm, http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2005/UnderstandingPolygamy_July-05.html, http://human-nature.com/science-as-culture/walker.html, http://www.renewamerica.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13723. They offer no support, no exit route and no programs for the people trapped inside polygamy endeavoring to escape these closed polygamous communities or compounds. Kingston members today generally claim that keys were received anew from heavenly messengers directly to Elden in 1935, although it appears he left no formal testimony to that effect. . . It is also a place of child abuse (court cases verify), neglected Sister Wives due to Polygamist practices (former members report this), Incest (court cases verify), and spiritual abuse (former . . 13:1). Below are further horrific details of the Kingston clan's "God-given genetic calamity, brought to you courtesy of Joseph Smith's Mormonism, as reported in the "Salt Lake Tribune" article, "When Incest Becomes a Religious Tenet": ". Let's revisit the boastful words of Mormon Church Prophet John Taylor and Mormon Church Apostle Heber C. Kimball, both quoted earlier: -Taylor, "Millennial Star," vol. . "Farm Roots of Incest: Marriages in the Kingston clan must be sanctioned by [the] current head of the church . [7] Members of the Latter Day Church of Christ are also members of the Davis County Cooperative Society (a separate organization and legal entity) which practices the law of consecration and United Order. And the Genealogy Department advises genealogists to follow only their direct line; in this instance meaning only the wife who is their mother, not other wives of their father. Jacob O. Kingston, the company's CEO, pleaded guilty Thursday to 41 charges including money laundering, fraud, conspiracy and witness tampering and obstruction of justice, according to a court. . Jeffs is following a long-established practice -- started by Smith 170 years ago -- of excommunicating those who do not strictly adhere to church leaders' commands. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream church, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. They are coming out of polygamous communities proliferating in Utah because Mormons are unable to face their history or follow sound marriage and childbirth practices. The chickens are coming home to roost. 'A lady comes in and helps her. "It's unlikely the polygamous community will heed the doctor's advice. "The widespread presence of the fumarase deficiency gene in the bloodlines of the founding families of Colorado City is going to make reaching any such goal extremely difficult. . A Kingston Family Primer. . ", (Aimee Larsen Stoddard, "Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Genealogy and Polygamy Problems," 7 October 2010, under "Birth Defects in Mormon Fundamentalist Cult," posted by "halley, 20 February 2011, at: http://www.renewamerica.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13723) "It is important that Mormons fight the tendency to discount history and the actions of their leaders in favor of a faith- promoting history while neglecting important facts. when doctors pronounced us a special and important family. [11] Some members had begun the practice of plural marriage years before the establishment of the cooperative. Branches of the polygamist mans family left out of the genealogy will change the incidence of common ancestors and potentially mask the true disease risk and incidence in the community. . . Inside the Kingston Kingdom: Former employee reveals clan's secrets Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. . They are Utah-based, unlike the FLDS where the escapes are mainly Arizona-based. In the revelation, the Lord commands him to take virgins 'an hundredfold in this world' for the purpose to 'multiply and replenish the Earth' so 'they may bear the souls of men.' 'It's a bomb that's going to explode.'. Tarby asked them to bring the girl to him for an examination. From an "Associated Press" news report, "Doctor: Birth Defects Increase in Polygamy Community": "A rare, severe birth defect is on the rise in an inbred polygamous community on the Arizona-Utah border, according to a doctor who has treated many of the children. requote from Steve's excellent post ! [40] In 2009, the then-Attorney General of Utah, Mark Shurtleff, claimed that child marriages within polygamous societies in Utah, such as the Latter Day Church of Christ, had "effectively stopped". "He sent her to live in a coal yard with other polygamous wives and their many children in South Salt Lake, visiting her rarely and usually only to have sex, she testified. According to Mormonism's top leaders: "Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. 'If you stop the sexual predation, you stop the genetic problem as well. Initially, she tried to conceal her marital relationship. This is the equivalent of a religious rationalization for the practice of incest. refuse to accept advice from any outsider, including doctors such as Tarby, who has treated their children for years. 13, p. 195, "We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they (non-Mormons) envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow-minded, pinch-backed race of men, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy, and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. At the time this inbreeding took place these prophets preached and practiced modern eugenic science, the science of controlling the traits of future populations through selective breeding for idealized traits like blond hair, blue eyes and tall stature. "'Polygamy leads to sexual predation, and that leads to genetic problems,' says . . Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, and the Lord's servants have always practiced it. They purportedly have 10 children, the girl told police. . KKK Groups Still Active in These States in 2017 - US News & World Report This story has been shared 112,868 times. "Two years later, a pair of geneticists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., flew to Utah where they hoped to stage a seminar for Kingston family members about the dangers of incest and birth defects, and, presumably, gain permission to study the clan. In fact more than half of today's Klans formed in the last three years. "Tarby said the victims require constant care from parents and close relatives. [2] Also known as the LDCJC,[3] the Kingston Clan, and The Order,[4][5][6] it is a religious organization created by members of the Davis County Cooperative Society or DCCS in 1977. Eldens solo experience of receiving the priesthood keys and authority is truly singular and contrasts the pattern previously given by the Lord for important priesthood conferrals that require more than one witness. Many from Africa do it too, at least we in N Europe have lately gotten serious problems with immigrant children of polygamists who have various defects. [37], The Kingston family and other members of the LDCC have faced two lawsuits, one in 2006[38] and another in 2022[39] accusing members and the organization as a whole of sexual abuses, including pedophilia and underaged marriages, within their membership. ", "C250 - Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee", "DCCS Self-Sustaining Policy, Contributions to the Community", "The Polygamist Accused of Scamming the U.S. Out of $500 Million", "Former WRE CEO testifies about money paid to DCCS Entities", "Jury Finds Los Angeles Businessman Guilty in $1 Billion Biodiesel Tax Fraud Scheme", "Polygamists Admit $512 Million Fraud for U.S. Fuel-Tax Credits", "CEO And CFO Of Utah Biodiesel Company And California Businessman Charged In $500 Million Fuel Tax Credit Scheme", "WRE Defendants arrested and awaiting trial", "Trial postponed for last defendant in fraud case involving members of the Kingston polygamous family", "Complaint and Jury Demand, Grant, et al. However, the group reiterated its belief that "bleeding the beast" was "abhorent" and was "never a tenet" of its organization. Lesser known children hidden in families sympathetic to polygamists might remain ignorant of their genetic kinship. "There is no cure for the disease, which impedes the body's ability to process food at the cellular level. ', "The ultimate goal of the breeding program, Wyler says, is to create the perfect race. "When asked, a little boy and girl at the home acknowledged who their mother is. "In May, the girl said she was belt-whipped by her father inside a Kingston-owned barn in Box Elder County for fleeing the marriage, and was abandoned in the home of another of John Daniel's wives. . . . And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. lifted the covers on the many crimes committed in polygamy, . If these couples are . . Since most Kingston children are born in homes under the scrutiny of trusted and secretive family midwives or clan leaders, documentation of medical abnormalities is rare, but not unprecedented. 'They think it is a test from God,' says Wyler, who was born and raised in the FLDS before he was booted out. on a 1,600-acre ranch outside of Eldorado. All went bareheaded and barefoot. ", -Apostle George A Smith, "Journal of Discourses," vol. "Fast-forward . Wyler's ex-wife's sister has had two babies afflicted with fumarase deficiency. "Frequent and powerful seizures are among the most disturbing characteristics of the disease. Since polygamy remained a hidden and illegal practice, disguised family records occurred. . , says he has firsthand knowledge of multiple fumarase deficiency children in each of the three families. . "52 years later, more than half of the 8,000 people . . "It's believed that more than half the residents carry the recessive gene. "There is too little empirical data of uncle-niece, half-brother/half-sister mating to draw firm conclusions about the IQ, survival rates, birth defects or longevity of their offspring, he says. I owe my children and all children who risk becoming the next unwitting victims of this tragic genetic legacy the best information regarding the prevention of this lethal family inheritance that I can find. died of multiple sclerosis, also leaving a family of small children behind. . Derman was found guilty of masterminding the scheme in March 2020. [13][verification needed], The Latter Day Church of Christ is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a presence in Bountiful, Utah. Half and full siblings are marrying in religious ceremonies. . . "In addition, the Mormon Church touts itself as the quintessential traditional family values church . From the previously-cited article, "Understanding Polygamy": "The polygamous Kingston family professes that their genealogy line traces back to Jesus Christ, and so they possess holy blood. . . . Blood Cult | Southern Poverty Law Center If such a test were developed, a community-wide screening program could be instituted that would identify those carrying the fumarase gene. "If you look in the literature, you won't find another dozen cases in the world that have been reported," says Tarby. Have you also noticed all the genetic and other debilitating defects, deformities and diseases that comes along with your poisoned patriarchal plurality-of-wives club? Current scientific knowledge indicates Grants lack of sons resulted from his own genetic defect, since only men carry the male Y chromosome to make a son. . . The Co-op members practiced plural marriage and abided by a rigid hierarchy of leadership and deference. I began to think polygamy might be a genetically unsound marriage practice. "Tarby says he explained to [a] gathering at [a] Town Hall in Colorado City that the only way to stop fumarase deficiency in the community is to abort fetuses that test positive for the disease and for the community to stop intermarriages between Barlows and Jessops, Barlows and Barlows and Jessops and Jessops. on the history of the fundamentalist community. 100 years later, eugenics is a discredited science, yet some followers still believe. ". In addition, placing the law of consecration at the pinnacle of divine laws is inconsistent with scripture and restoration history. '90% of the community is related to one side or the other,' said Bistline, a former member of the sect, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But in a 2News . My aunt and uncle outlived two of their five children and two more may have nephritis. With the dawn of the twenty-first century, lawsuits and education among Kingston followers would combine to create new obstacles, as leaders perpetuate this financially spiritual hybrid organization. KUTV When several businesses inside the Kingston polygamist empire, including Washakie Renewable Energy, was raided by federal agents Wednesday, officials where tight lipped. _____, --How "God's Genes" Do Ugly Things: The Biological Attack on "Modern"-day Followers of Mormonism's Originally-"Revealed" Doctrine of Polygamy. Aleck is a geneticist who participated along with Tarby and others in the groundbreaking study of several polygamous families with fumarase deficiency in the late 1990s. 'Maybe it will just self-destruct,' historian Bistline says of the fundamentalist church he quit 20 years ago because of a dispute over religious doctrine and property ownership. . Brigham Young waited until 1868, twenty-one years after arriving in Utah, to actively promote it, and John Taylor ceased emphasizing it shortly after becoming President of the Church.