"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. They have been known for systemic inbreeding, child sex abuse, physical abuse, child labor, and tax evasion. 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. Source: Twitter Jessica with her husband and three daughters. . Certainly the British and French education systems make it clear quite early on (13-14 yrs old). "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. Accordingly, Elden became the first prophet of the Kingston Group and established the Davis County Cooperative Society. [21] Over the past 25 years, many members have become college-educated and live in middle-to-upper-middle-class homes throughout their communities. "Tarby said the victims require constant care from parents and close relatives. While building his polygamous empire, John Ortell raised pigeons and Holsteins, prized black-and-white milk cows. . The Latter Day Church of Christ,[1] is considered a Mormon fundamentalist denomination by some in the Latter Day Saint movement. This means all other covenants were of no effect through which source they can. [14] Some of their secrecy might be attributed to a fear of arrest for living in plural marriages, as had happened in 19591960 when being investigated by the Davis County Grand Jury, which some members claimed was organized by LDS Apostles Mark E. Peterson and Spencer W. 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 suit was filed against the groups leader Paul Eldon Kingston and 21 other members. Those unions fell within Utahs consanguinity restrictions and, if discovered, would be considered incestuous under the laws of the state. . . The three marriages between second cousins have produced at least eight children afflicted with fumarase deficiency, according to a report in the May 2000 'Annals of Neurology' (based on the study conducted by the group led by Tarby and Aleck), interviews with doctors treating the disease and anecdotal evidence gathered from the community. Since polygamy remained a hidden and illegal practice, disguised family records occurred. 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. . . If two descendants of hierarchical polygamy marry, the chances for genetic defects increase if the families were ever interrelated. "Frequent and powerful seizures are among the most disturbing characteristics of the disease. 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. Kingston was able to name only nine of his thirteen children by a second woman, Rachael Ann Kingston. "For the first time, the faith-promoting stories about my great-grandfathers heroism for defying the federal government when they outlawed polygamy interested me. It is a common and intentional practice in the Order to require girls and women to submit sexually to their husbands even if the sexual submission is against their will because having children results in workers for the benefit of the Order, the lawsuit states. "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. "'It would have been unusual if he wasn't using artificial insemination in his herd, and by virtue of that, was probably using semen from some bulls that had been inbred,' says Dennis Green, a professor of beef cattle genetics at Colorado State University. 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. He believed he had superior bloodlines.' . "[2], According to a 2011 document prepared by the attorneys general of the states of Utah and Arizona, the church describes itself as emphasizing family values, education, self-sufficiency, and the belief that every child is a priceless blessing. "Tarby believes the recessive gene was introduced by one of the community's polygamist founders. . . . Men and boys wore blue coverall-type suits tied with strings; women and girls wore plain blue denim dresses. 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. Even if a genetic screening test were available, Wyler says, Jeffs would have to be cautious about how he allowed it to be implemented. "Community historian Ben Bistline said most of the community's 8,000 residents are in two major families descended from a handful of founders who settled there in the 1930s. He interpreted his dream to mean that God approved of his leaving the Church. 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. Consanguinity is a reason why families bear children of only one sex--all sons or all daughters. The baby survived, but has cerebral palsy. [1] Charles William Kingston, Autobiography, 2324; spelling and punctuation standardized. "Ex-members' claims of incest are bolstered by court records claiming John Ortell 'failed either to support or acknowledge' three children by his niece, (Susan) Mary Gustafson. . Mormons who believe that polygamy is a heaven-sent doctrine that will eventually be re-implemented on Earth by God (current Church claims of non-use notwithstanding), have a friend in go-to LDS Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie, who confidently declared: "Obviously, the holy practice [of polygamy] will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium. "While none of these can positively be linked to incest without DNA testing, geneticists say most of the conditions are exacerbated by incest. . "Farm Roots of Incest: Marriages in the Kingston clan must be sanctioned by [the] current head of the church . . "State investigators found no wrongdoing among members of the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group. "Genealogists and especially epidemiologists must be scrupulous in identifying all the wives and children of any polygamist man. The FLDS already has moved several hundred men, women and children to the compound, many of whom very likely carry the fumarase deficiency gene. We specifically read that the law of consecration is designed to administer to the poor and the needy (D&C 42:35). Once a baby is born with the condition, Aleck says, 'You really can't treat the underlying disorder.' 'Warren Jeffs is also trying to breed a perfect race.'. ", (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 "In this isolated religious society north of the Grand Canyon, few secrets have been more closely guarded than the presence of fumarase deficiency. . 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. 'Children should not be victims of such programs.'. Doctrinally, members of the LDCJC try to adhere to the teachings of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. After two years of investigating, they did not find any welfare fraud. . 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 never knew if I carried this deadly disease or if any preventative measures would halt its insidious march. It didn't find any. mating in a way that increases genetic diseases, that the public ends up supporting, it becomes a matter of public interest.'. . The organized Ku Klux Klan movement saw a boost in its membership in 2017. ", ("Understanding Polygamy," from "Humanists of Utah," at: http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2005/UnderstandingPolygamy_July-05.html). _____, --Inbreeding for the Lord: the Mutative Aftermath of LDS-"Inspired" Polygamy Among Mormonism's Doctrinal Adherents. . The Prophet Josephs priorities of missionary work, temple ordinances, proxy work for the dead, and feeding the poor appear to have been lost somewhere. and several polygamist men serve in local government positions, including as mayors . Daughters of men in the Co-op would be married off at young ages. "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. . "They've got this idea that their blood is pure and that they want to keep it pure.'. . Like any fundamentalist Mormon sect, the Kingston Clan is very hierarchal. "The ultimate decision on marriages rests with FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs. "52 years later, more than half of the 8,000 people . . and councilmen.' Consanguinity causes aggregate clusters of deleterious genes to collect in families, which then express themselves as rare recessive disorders like nephritis, cystic fibrosis, biliary artesia, albinism, short stature and many others. Articles of Incorporation of the Davis County Cooperative Society, 7 February 1941. . 'They have the authoritarian structure necessary to keep this from happening, but I don't think they have the advanced thinking,' Aleck says. She's worked for lawyers who brought these cases to light and needed help with mormon terminology and ward politics workings. In fact, the leaders of the Co-op just seem to be getting richer and the poor get essentially ignored. [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. This practice has been attributed to "endogamous preference and the small size of the groups population" according to recent research from the University of California. Nearly all the Mormon founding families were relatives, so the first polygamists enjoyed relations to different degrees when the divine experiment began. . The Kingston Group stopped proselytizing new converts when the cooperative became successful, and today they perform no missionary work of any kind. "The leaders must also understand the ethical considerations of continuing behavior, he says, that is bringing children into the world who suffer tragic deformities. . Eventually, she admitted she had married her half-brother and given birth to three children. . ("Doctrine & Covenants," Section 132, verses 55, 62-63), "Joseph Smith also testified an angel with a sword came to him many times and commanded him to practice polygamy or else he would lose his life. "Every person carries some lethal genes. . [22][23] Currently the group claims that although different skillsets bring different financial outcomes, there is no homelessness within the DCCS, and internal programs exist for those experiencing financial poverty.[2]. . . It gets pretty bleak when it gets that close.' 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. The early Mormon Church practiced polygamy until 1890, when leaders abandoned the practice as a condition for Utah to gain statehood. Brigham Young, the second Mormon leader, preached, 'The time is coming when the Lord is going to raise a holy nation . The parents said their daughter had cerebral palsy. Supposedly, these sacrifices are part of the united order. "Fumarase deficiency began to manifest in the community when three sets of Joseph Smith Jessop and Martha Moore Yeates' great-grandchildren married each other.