. That apparently was John Ortell Kingston's intent, although most studies of first-cousin mating show their offspring test lower on IQ exams, Jorde says. [T]he 'Salt Lake Tribune' . "Finally exposed in the news, the facts of life inside [the Mormon offshoot Kingston clan's] religious/cult compound are stunning Mormons, Utahans, the nation, and the world. . . . The baby survived, but has cerebral palsy. Because I fell down this rabbit hole and now so do you all. Like any fundamentalist Mormon sect, the Kingston Clan is very hierarchal. "There is no cure for the disease, which impedes the body's ability to process food at the cellular level. Well, law enforcement often tends to look the other way in cases like polygamy, unless specific reports reach the agencies. "Yet, Aleck says, some children are more seriously affected by the disorder than others. ", (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) Brigham Young, the second Mormon leader, preached, 'The time is coming when the Lord is going to raise a holy nation . ". . [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. "Some of the kids can walk, but others have a difficult time even sitting. states that '[t]he [Utah] state legislature is consistently 90% Mormon . Certainly the British and French education systems make it clear quite early on (13-14 yrs old). . . They purportedly have 10 children, the girl told police. Although the official stance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is against polygamy, several of the women's stories reveal that LDS leaders dismiss the deviant sects and blame the women who come to them for help. 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 scheme included filing for $512 million in federal renewable-fuel tax credits from 2010 to 2016 through a company named Washakie Renewable Energy LLC. Elden clearly claimed to hold the priesthood keys, saying, I have those keys of power.[3]. The clan, known privately as the Order, runs what prosecutors believe is one of the largest organized-crime operations in Utah, overseeing its far-flung empire from a string of secret locations . '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. "The genetic defect has been traced back to one of the community's founding patriarchs, the late Joseph Smith Jessop, and the first of his plural wives, according to medical literature, the Mormon Church genealogy database and residents of the community familiar with Jessop and Barlow family histories. When a group inbreeds, as polygamists have, more and more lethal gene matches occur. Mormons can now see why American citizens passed laws intended to stop polygamy, a relic of unwise prophecy, laws continuously disregarded in Utah, a state controlled by the Mormon Church, if they will only look. . ", (Greg Burton, "When Incest Becomes a Religious Tenet: Practice sets 1,000-member Kingston clan apart from other Utah polygamous groups," in "The Salt Lake Tribune," 25 April 1999, at: http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy25.html 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. Although it is a felony under Utah law for close relatives to have sex, only one Kingston -- John and LaDonna's fifth son, David Ortell -- has been criminally charged with incest. 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. . . . One of the most controversial splinter groups of Mormonism, the Latter Day Church of Christ, has been led by members of the Kingston family since it was founded in 1935. "Gradually, I realized the practice of polygamy, especially in Mormondom, might be a prescription for genetic disease. Not only were there possibly too few fathers making it easier for defects to clump in the large interrelated kindred but succeeding generations of children from these isolated rural Mormon towns married within a few kindred as well. "15 years ago, a strange-looking child suffering from severe physical maladies and acute retardation was brought into the office of [pedatric neurologist] Dr. Theodore Tarby. Some Kingston followers might justify their financial conglomerate by comparing it to the wealthy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "But this is a very unlikely scenario for FLDS faithful, who practice a religious doctrine that requires men to be strictly obedient to religious leaders and requires women to give birth to as many children as possible to increase the sect's numbers. "Several Kingston offspring of incestuous couplings also have been born without fingernails, a disease that could be linked to a number of genetically caused abnormalities, although an exact diagnosis is impossible without closer study of medical records. In the l950s, research doctors thought we were one of the few families in the world with this form of nephritis, known as Alports syndrome. . When asked to name his offspring by plural wife Mattingly Foster, Kingston came up with about five names before faltering, saying he was very nervous. After viewing a list of the children, he then attempted to name them but once more fell shortprompting the judge to supply the final child's name for him. . . They are quick to point out to reporters that they no longer practice polygamy and excommunicate members who continue to do so. . 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. He faces up to 30 years in. . The chickens are coming home to roost. . . "If female, they are married off to the few, powerful prominent males: incest is the fate of many teen-age girls. on the history of the fundamentalist community. "All of the fumarase deficiency children Wyler has seen remain dependent on the parents or caregivers. Several charges of incest would eventually be leveled against various Kingston members. . . Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman empire. ". And in 1999, David Ortell Kingston Jeremy Kingston's uncle was sentenced to the Utah State Prison for up to 10 years for committing incest with the 16-year-old niece who became his 15th wife. Daughters of men in the Co-op would be married off at young ages. . If two descendants of hierarchical polygamy marry, the chances for genetic defects increase if the families were ever interrelated. Rather than take steps to avoid the problem, the FLDS loyalists may believe it is their duty to accept their fate. I began to think polygamy might be a genetically unsound marriage practice. The Kingstons claim that Elden received a new dispensation is problematic in another way. . The accusers also claim that the group arranged child marriages so that girls would become pregnant and beholden to their husbands and the religious sect. "Frequent and powerful seizures are among the most disturbing characteristics of the disease. . Second, that prophet organizes his followers into missionary forces that dispense the truth to all the world, utilizing the priesthood to perform saving ordinances. "There is no doubt in the mind of any expert interviewed by 'New Times' that the practice of polygamy combined with inbreeding has fostered the spread of fumarase deficiency. and councilmen.' [46], In July 2019, Jacob Kingston, Isaiah Kingston, and two others pled guilty to participating in a fraud scheme masterminded by Lev Derman, a non-member and Armenian national. IF polygamy really is justified in increased breeding, and since MORmON Jesus did institute such a plan according to MORmON history at one time, then how come MORmON god does not follow through and have a lot more females born in such marriages as would be required mathematically to make His Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream church, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. "Farm Roots of Incest: Marriages in the Kingston clan must be sanctioned by [the] current head of the church . . [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. [45] Members allege to have been targeted for audit at a rate over 9x the published IRS average for the general population, with no pattern of fraud being found outside of a couple of bad-actors. 'Remember how Hitler was trying to breed a perfect race?' ", ("Understanding Polygamy," from "Humanists of Utah, an Incorporated Utah Non-profit Corporation Has a Mission to Promote Joyful Living, Rational Think)ing, and Responsible Behavior," July 2005, at: http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2005/UnderstandingPolygamy_July-05.html) Shuvrajit Das Biswas. Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . One nurse confided, 'We see too many trisome l3 and l8 babies.' I think most people are made aware of the problems caused by inbreeding (a nicer word than incest) when they are still young teenagers. "Tarby said there could be hundreds of victims in coming generations. . . This is inadequate information for purposes of establishing the true incidence of consanguinity within a family or community. . . Men make all decisions affecting her health. [23][36] These relationships are defined as incestuous according to Utah's Criminal Code 76-7-102 (2021), which states: "Related person" means a person related to the provider or actor as an ancestor, descendant, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or first cousin, and includes: (i) blood relationships of the whole or half blood without regard to legitimacy; (ii) the relationship of parent and child by adoption; and (iii) the relationship of stepparent and stepchild while the marriage creating the relationship of a stepparent and stepchild exists. The parents said their daughter had cerebral palsy. 13:1). "Nearly everyone in Colorado City, Arizona, and the adjacent town of Hildale, Utah, was a member of a fundamentalist Mormon sect that practices polygamy and had long encouraged multiple marriages between close relatives. (KUTV) Weeks after a Kingston polygamist clan member was charged in the death of her child, former members of that group are speaking out about what they say is a much bigger problem.Carolyn . . . 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. Surely, there were too many deaths. [N]ew disease classifications belong at the door of the Mormon Church leadership. The Kingstons are members of the Davis County Cooperative Society or the Kingston Order, which practices polygamy. 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. [Mormon] [h]istorian B. H. Roberts, notes an eugenic attitude regarding polygamy: "'It was in the name of a divinely-ordered species of eugenics that Latter-day Saints accepted the revelation which included a plurality of wives. "John Ortell Kingston was the first Kingston to experiment with incest, marrying and bearing children with two half-sisters and two nieces, according to numerous ex-members of the clan. The Kingston family is quite real and is a polygamous unit. 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, . (The Church lost its authority to give covenants.) _____. 15, p. 227, "Monogamy, or restrictions by law to one wife, is no part of the economy of heaven among men. "Genetic testing confirms that there is a high prevalence of various birth defects in polygamous populations. "Victims suffer a range of symptoms, including severe epileptic seizures, inability to walk or even sit upright, severe speech impediments, failure to grow at a normal rate, and tragic physical deformities. "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.' 'It's like any inbred disorder,' Tarby says. 75.119.192.80 But in a 2News . . . 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. 5, p. 22, "Brethren, I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore. . But it must needs be done in mine own way; and behold this is the way that I, the Lord, have decreed to provide for my saints, that the poor shall be exalted, in that the rich are made low (D&C 104:16). . . "Isaac Wyler, also a former follower of the church led by fugitive Warren Jeffs, told KSL that he was related by marriage to some of the victims. 3, p. 291, "I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality [of wives] looks fresh, young, and sprightly. "'I had never seen a patient with it,' Tarby says. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. . Polygamy today is comprised of early Mormon polygamy descendants and these families are now interrelated by a factor impossible in monogamy. . "'It makes you sick; it turns your stomach,' she says. The organized Ku Klux Klan movement saw a boost in its membership in 2017. He believed he had superior bloodlines.' 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.' [19] For many years, members of the Co-operative lived in poor conditions, and those in need had no legal way to apply for assistance. Source: Twitter Jessica with her husband and three daughters. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Im a trophy husband with 3 wives they work while I stay home, I grew up in a cult with my dad, 5 moms and 44 siblings I loved my childhood, Polygamous leader accused of having underage wives pleads not guilty, I have 102 children but cant have more kids because of inflation, Squirrel to blame in temporary power outage in Minneapolis, Canadian teacher with size-Z prosthetic breasts placed on paid leave, I'm a professional cleaner ditch these 4 household products immediately, Another train derails in Ohio, forces residents to shelter-in-place -- just weeks after East Palestine disaster, Tom Sandoval speaks out on Raquel Leviss affair: I deserve your anger, Shoeless Ariana Madix awkwardly tries to avoid cheating Tom Sandoval, Prince Harry was scared to lose Meghan Markle after fight that led to therapy, Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant allegedly flashes gun at a strip club, Chris Rock Places All The Blame On The Will Smith Slap On Jada Pinkett Smith And Red Table Talk: Everybody Called Him A Bitch!, Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval have awkward moment amid cheating scandal. . . . "Medical experts say the incidence of the disorder will increase because the FLDS community is refusing to accept recommendations to reduce the likelihood of producing babies with fumarase deficiency. She suffered from. "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. 'I didn't dare talk about it,' she says. These disturbing accounts offer a look inside the lives of some early Mormon descendants. If both parents carry the gene, the likelihood that their offspring will be affected by the disease or become carriers of the gene greatly increases, medical experts say. 'I don't know how many who die within the first two or three years that we don't even ever know about. 'They think it is a test from God,' says Wyler, who was born and raised in the FLDS before he was booted out. "Tarby and a team of doctors from Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix and the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson began researching the disease and soon discovered that fumarase deficiency was occurring in at least two other families living in the same isolated community that practiced an unusual custom. [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". This denial is hollow considering the record. he says. . "Another problem in polygamy is a mans breeding years are expanded sometimes into his 80s by the taking of new wives. 'I try in my own, quiet way and tell them to outbreed. . We've received your submission. However, the law of consecration has a purpose beyond self-sacrifice. The Kingston Group is not affiliated with the 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. Moore-Emmett suggests that the heavily Mormon Utah government is unduly tolerant of polygamy and reluctant to acknowledge the abuses of many polygamous families. . One brother, John Daniel Kingston, was taken to court for neglecting this children. During the 1940s, Ortell worked on a dairy farm owned by the Co-op at Woodscross, Davis County, Utah, where he reportedly developed theories on genetics, theories he later decided could be used to purify his own family pedigree. And it is my purpose to provide for my saints, for all things are mine. refuse to accept advice from any outsider, including doctors such as Tarby, who has treated their children for years. Various congenital and genital defects, dwarfism, fused limbs, fingernails lacking, mental illness and mental retardation, spina bifida, and microcephalous are some of the diseases and mutations. . ", -Apostle George A Smith, "Journal of Discourses," vol. The Kingston Clan is a polygamous group with an estimated 10,500 members. Still, if children are caught up in an abusive or incestuous situation, Williams would encourage policing. 'The downside is that if you don't start with good genetics, and if there is baggage in the genes of the individual, inbreeding will uncover that baggage. The Kingston Clan is where Jessica, Andrea, and Shanell escaped over a decade ago. All are retarded, the neurologist told Salt Lake City television station KSL-TV. So many young people.'. _____, --Case Study in Mormon-Moored Mutation: Utah's Mormon Offshoot Kingston Clan. [31][32][33] During this time, some non-members and ex-members began claiming the practice stemmed from theories of genetic purification held by past leaders. . It alleges sex trafficking, sexual battery and child abuse, and seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. One child born with an incomplete liver died. ", -The Prophet Brigham Young, "Journal of Discourses," vol. . 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. Charles Zitting (one of Lorin C. Woolleys High Priest Apostles) introduced Kingston to plural marriage, causing Kingston to be cut off from the Church in 1929. [I]t appears that Joseph Smith Jessop and his first wife also passed on the rare genetic disorder fumarase deficiency. [54], The Utah holdings of Davis County Cooperative members were once estimated at more than $200 million,[9] and were believed to include the following:[55], For the church formally established by Joseph Smith in 1830, see. If such a test were developed, a community-wide screening program could be instituted that would identify those carrying the fumarase gene. "Parents who share a common ancestor are consanguineous. 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. Not enough of the fumarase enzyme can lead to severe mental retardation and physical deformities. thus marking the first time news media reported this human and civil rights nightmare accurately since the 1850s. 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. The enzyme irregularity causes severe mental retardation, epileptic seizures and other effects that often leaves children unable to take care of themselves. ", ("Doctor: Birth defects increase in polygamy community," Associated Press, 9 February 2006, at: http://www.azcentral.com/health/news/articles/0209PolygamyBirthDefect09-) "Tarby says members of the community made it clear that neither choice was acceptable. For instance, Quinn writes, '[O]ver 20 General Authorities were married to such lesser known wives.' J. Ortell Kingston aggressively pursued a financially-expansive agenda for the Davis County Cooperative Society Inc.[25] in the hopes of improving the financial condition of his followers. I hate to talk like this about my own genealogy,' Wyler says, 'but, literally, they are keeping all the breeding stock--the women, the [strictly faithful] men--and weeding out the disobedient men. "'One lady I know, she just cannot physically pick [her son] up anymore to get him into the bathtub,' Wyler says. . ', "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.'. "'My father manipulated and controlled people,' Rugg says. At least six of Merlin's incestuously conceived children in turn married half-siblings, couplings that subsequently produced children with various deformities, says Rowenna Erickson, an ex-member who left her polygamous husband. 'They don't believe anything written about Colorado City [by outsiders, even medical experts] carries much truth,' Tarby says. They can't sit up. That's the big problem.' 5, p. 22. If somehow a new dispensation came through Elden Kingston in 1935, it was stillborn, because it was never dispensed to Gods children. 'In the meantime, the taxpayers have to pay the bills. 'Her body tried to miscarry many, many times.'. They do develop to some degree, but it's way behind their peers.'. . "Sterility is another consequence of consanguinity and the evidence of many sterile polygamous wives is overwhelming. . The Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes the Kingston clan as an " incest and white supremacy " group for its practices outlined in Escaping Polygamy, which include teaching children to not associate themselves with non-white people and, as mentioned by the lawsuit, marrying underage children off to family members of The Order. Never miss a story. 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. 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. We recall that Joseph Smith made no effort to implement the law of consecration while in Nauvoo (see D&C 105:34). It may be that the Co-op is trying to help the poor in some anonymous way, but I have seen no evidence of it. Consequently, genetic diseases and mutations have inevitably sprouted in many polygamous groups having this belief. . . . "What was going on in my Utah pioneer family? . . Child life is destroyed. The group sought to maintain Pure Kingston Blood by arranging marriages between cousins and other close relatives, and shunning relationships that werent between white people, the lawsuit alleges. . "The leaders must also understand the ethical considerations of continuing behavior, he says, that is bringing children into the world who suffer tragic deformities. . Isaac Wyler, a former FLDS member who was excommunicated from the church . Fear began to overwhelm me, for the future, and for my own son. Or was it true no one knew the answers, because they could not be known, because no one wanted to know? Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? . "'I tried to get people to come, but nobody would listen,' says the mother, who left the group and her marriage after her sons were diagnosed with dwarfism. "'I knew I would have to marry my [half-] brother ever since I was 12,' says the woman. "'The "gene" that Warren is really selecting for,' Wyler says, 'is the "obedience gene. The Kingston Group is believed to have a few thousand members, mostly in Utah and Idaho. "Last year, a 16-year-old daughter of John Daniel Kingston was forced to marry her uncle, David Ortell Kingston, criminal charges allege, . Members' financial holdings are believed to include: a 300-acre (1.2km2) dairy farm in Davis County; a 3,200-acre (13km2) farm in Tetonia, Idaho; a coal mine in Emery County;[24] 1,200 acres (4.9km2) in Terreton, Idaho; a cattle ranch and a discount store; Desert Tech Firearms; a grocery store; and a restaurant supply in many western cities including Tucson, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Boise, and Portland. . Because God loves that man, and because he honors his word. They are lucky if they can even move their head and eyes a little bit.'. [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". By 1935, his followers began to move to Bountiful, Utah, intending to live under a United Order communal program as defined by Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants. 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. "If descendants of polygamy do not look critically at the ideas of their ancestors, Utah children may be increasingly at risk. . . . "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. Men rise in prominence by being obedient and pure of blood and by having large families that can produce a lot of money and workers for the group, the suit continues. [47][48] The remainder of the transactions (over 94%) were to entities associated with Lev Derman, who prosecutors allege was the mastermind of the scheme. That leads to problems." They are Utah-based, unlike the FLDS where the escapes are mainly Arizona-based. . . . A Kingston Family Primer. "When [my cousin] died, my childish vow surfaced and I began to look into my family history for some answers. . As a symbol of their renunciation of worldly goods, the outer clothing contained no pockets in which possessions could be carried, although later an inside pocket was provided for the sanitary measure of carrying a handkerchief. These wives sometimes became known, sometimes not. ', "The ultimate goal of the breeding program, Wyler says, is to create the perfect race. If these couples are . Five of the women suing alleged they were coerced into marriage as minors and raped by their husbands. "A Secretive Refrain: . I'd never heard of them, a polygamist, fundie cult where even 14 year olds could . The Prophet Josephs priorities of missionary work, temple ordinances, proxy work for the dead, and feeding the poor appear to have been lost somewhere. "Tarby says the disease could begin to show up in children at Warren Jeffs' new FLDS headquarters . _____, --Inbreeding for the Lord: the Mutative Aftermath of LDS-"Inspired" Polygamy Among Mormonism's Doctrinal Adherents. "Wyler said it's all part of the community's religious system. ", -Apostle Heber C. Kimball, as quoted Stanley P. Hirshon, "The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young" [New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969], pp. People in plural marriages and held above those aren't. People who are members of the Kingston family by blood are held up higher than members of the Clan who are not also blood members of the Kingston family.