. . . "Last year, a 16-year-old daughter of John Daniel Kingston was forced to marry her uncle, David Ortell Kingston, criminal charges allege, . That sister, too, dealt with a lot of respiratory problems with her kids, "because of the relation," Dawna explains. Brigham Young calling some one else a thief especially "women thieves" ABSOLUTE HILARITY ! . "When asked, a little boy and girl at the home acknowledged who their mother is. Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. Her younger sister Emily thought it was a joke, too, until one day another Order kid told her, We cant play with you because the Tuckers are n------.. "In this isolated religious society north of the Grand Canyon, few secrets have been more closely guarded than the presence of fumarase deficiency. The quick answer for why this polygamous community has buried so many of its children is inbreeding, according to community members. "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.' . . 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. . . Or was it true no one knew the answers, because they could not be known, because no one wanted to know? Consanguinity also causes rare recessive disorders to mask as dominant. . . According to historian Brian Hales Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto, Brother Elden, as he was also known, had five wives and 17 children. "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. "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. 15, p. 227, "Monogamy, or restrictions by law to one wife, is no part of the economy of heaven among men. 'But just on general principles, the offspring of uncle-niece, or half-siblings have an elevated level of genetic disease. If these couples are . . Blacks were the less valiant people in heaven who sat on the sidelines while others took sides, according to The Order. The FLDS was formed by Mormons who refused to give up polygamy. "The baby, delivered at Johnson's home in 1983, was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center. . . "This great-grandfather married two sisters which meant the 22 known children were double cousins or as genetically similar as brother and sister. The 1996 Utah Legislature approved first-cousin marriages, only after age 65, or age 55 if the couple cannot conceive children. If you find a grave up there that's not marked, that's the way Fred wanted it.". She also had a child with a clubfoot, and I think probably half of her children had respiratory problems when they were babies, because they were so related.". For instance, Quinn writes, '[O]ver 20 General Authorities were married to such lesser known wives.' It takes maturity to face the truth, especially if the truth is painful and challenges the family tradition and religious belief structure. Ortell is credited with expanding The Orders business empire and making the family immensely wealthy. . Those who did not make it into the UO were separated from their families, placed in patchwork homes of other UO "orphans," and told to repent. "It is possible that positive genetic traits could be passed along through human inbreeding. "The leaders must also understand the ethical considerations of continuing behavior, he says, that is bringing children into the world who suffer tragic deformities. "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. During a recent interview with the Intelligence Report, Jessica Kingston, a former member of the secretive, Salt Lake City-based cult and a star of the A&E reality series "Escaping Polygamy," remembered, when she was 12, her Sunday school teacher coming into class with a . "There are times when it has gotten kind of gross, like when they marry an uncle to a niece," she continues. . For a man of God to be confined to one woman is small business. "It is Moore-Emmett's belief that the LDS Church who started polygamy in this country should take responsibility and provide financial aid and other resources for those polygamous families who have been abused. Snow also remembered being taught end-time prophecies, with a cleansing wherein the streets of Salt Lake City would run red with blood. "For us parents the future health and happiness of ourselves, our children and grandchildren are at stake. . Which brings us back to the baby cemetery. Her disobedience incurred the wrath of her father Daniel, who took her to a family ranch near the Idaho border and savagely beat her. 5, p. 22, "Brethren, I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore. Accounts of clan babies being born with congenital defects and other problems abound, including dwarfism, albinism and children born minus fingernails or without genitals. ", -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. The girl's father and mother, Susan Nelson (one of John Daniel's many wives) are half-sister and brother. That leads to problems." "Mormon Prophet Hebrew J. 'Most of what you print is lies, lies, lies.' "'Warren has to be really careful that he doesn't lose his position as a god to these people,' Wyler says. Evidence exists that this gene pool foments a genetic and human catastrophe. They ought to be ashamed of such conduct, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices; and it is not to be wondered at that they should envy those who so much better understand the social relations. "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. Unfortunately, it's still the innocent who suffer due to Joseph Smith's lies. . . _____. 'If you cross a Barlow and Jessop, you stand a high risk of getting this condition,' Tarby says. The adult residents of Short Creek todayboth those still in the FLDS and those who have left the cultare mostly able-bodied, seemingly healthy individuals. Tucker is another of Ortells many sons, though not from the favored wife, LaDonna. Family members attribute the defects to the advanced D. Michael Quinn, former Brigham Young University professor, states, 'The Mormon practice of polygamy enabled men to marry daughters, nieces, cousins, granddaughters and former wives of other General Authorities.'. . Sex. "And she's not the only one; three of her sisters married three of my brothers. . One of the most devastating hereditary malformations is fumarase deficiency, a rare genetic condition marked by severe mental retardation and seizures. The company was founded in 2007 with an investment from family members. Structural Birth Defects. Escaped members report some patriarchs believe it is their duty to give a daughter her first marriage lessons. The last infant grave marked in this cemetery is dated 2010; Warren issued an edict from prison banning sex in 2011, so few infants have been born since then (the few babies born each year are the product of institutionalized rape by cult-appointed seed bearers). . . Thats what happened with Ron Tuckers family. Before the call ended, Young insisted that he didnt admit to any kind of incest or anything. When Intelligence Report inquired if Young thought there was anything wrong with first cousins getting married, Young opined that such issues were between the individuals involved and God. The two groups split when Dawna was growing up. . '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. "'You don't want to jump to the conclusion and say all of these are the result of inbreeding,' he says. The Intelligence Report is the SPLC's award-winning magazine. Initially, she tried to conceal her marital relationship. . _____, --How "God's Genes" Do Ugly Things: The Biological Attack on "Modern"-day Followers of Mormonism's Originally-"Revealed" Doctrine of Polygamy. A simple urine test will reveal. The baby cemetery is a mess of overgrown weeds and dry, cracked dirt, home to hundreds of infant and toddler-size graves, not all of them marked. "I remembered the studies conducted on my brother and I as children at the University of Utah . http://www.azcentral.com/health/news/articles/0209PolygamyBirthDefect09- http://www.childbrides.org/taxes_PNT_forbidden_fruit.html, http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy25.html. . If both parents carry the gene, the likelihood that their. "Of the Kingstons, Williams says: 'There is not much you can do about them. Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? "'My father manipulated and controlled people,' Rugg says. I could see that the leaders of The Order really did believe we had black ancestors, Ron explained, with Christy next to him, and his adult daughters Emily and Julie nearby. [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. "I know these people personally.'. "It's doesn't stop anybody," Dawna says. ", ("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) . "The same right of marriage approval was wielded by John Ortell Kingston, who began the incestuous lineage. More troubling, during a contentious 2004 custody case that ensued when Jessica and her sister Andrea fled Daniel Kingstons household, a judge in the case reportedly was the subject of a death threat, allegedly from Kingston clan members. [w]omen do not have the freedom to consider how often she can give birth and maintain her health. Children inherit disabling illnesses. . "The Mormons, well-known for genealogical record keeping, maintain birth, marriage and death information at church libraries and now on the Internet. Allison, a 17 year-old ex-Kingston member says not much has changed since Lu Anns day. Brigham Young, the second Mormon leader, preached, 'The time is coming when the Lord is going to raise a holy nation . He also married a woman descended from polygamy. "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. . There is no sign. The children who can't walk, the medical experts say, have most likely suffered strokes during severe seizures. . A loyal Order member for years, he lost his faith and ended up leaving the Order over a curse of sorts, leveled at his family by LaDonna. People are always trying to find people who are inferior and brand them as such.' Another of Ortells teachings: Adolf Hitler had the right idea about creating a master race, but didnt have the Lords help, so he failed. Ron Tucker went so far as to call his former brethren white supremacists, and ten times more racist than your run-of-the-mill skinhead. Still, he conceded that some Order members may have prejudiced beliefs because in our organization people have freedom of choice.. "It's believed that more than half the residents carry the recessive gene. Read more: Women Who Escaped a Polygamist Mormon Cult Share Their Story. Men make all decisions affecting her health. "'All my life, my family told me I had to marry a Kingston,' says Rugg. . Well, my sister had a little baby with a cleft lip; it was her first child and it had a cleft lip and cleft palate, because they were both Jessops, and Jessops are carriers of that gene. The Kingston clan is also known as the Davis County Cooperative. states that '[t]he [Utah] state legislature is consistently 90% Mormon . He believed he had superior bloodlines.' Dawna's younger sister has a little boy with two clubfeet. Because that one is going to be genius-level purity, and thats what The Order is looking for., Photo Credit: AP Images / Leah Hogsten, Pool (John Daniel Kingston); AP Images / Jeffrey D. Allred / Pool (Jeremy Kingston), SPLC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 63-0598743). A rare neurological disorder characterized by water on the brain, muscular stiffness, adducted thumbs and aphasia, x-linked hydrocephalus is expressed only in men and carried by women. 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. '", (John Dougherty, "Forbidden Fruit: Inbreeding Among Polygamists Along the Arizona-Utah Border is Producing a Caste of Severely Retarded and Deformed Children," in "Phoenix New Times," 29 December 2005, at: http://www.childbrides.org/taxes_PNT_forbidden_fruit.html) In it, black people come close to killing off the white race until they are countered by Native Americans, symbolized by a Red Horse, which gallops to the White Horses rescue. The chickens are coming home to roost. The Tuckers think this is all hogwash now, though they were programmed to believe it at the time. "Intermarriage among close relatives is producing children who have two copies of a recessive gene for a debilitating condition called fumarase deficiency. . Dawna says that, when people refer to what's going on over in the Cane Beds, they say it's probably another turkey baster situation. An MRI of the brain of one fumarase deficiency child showed that more than half the brain was missing. If the FLDS faithful believed that Jeffs was relying on science to determine marriages rather than divine revelation from God, he could lose control of the church. Blood tests showed the infant and 25 other children from numerous women were fathered by the same man, leading to one of the largest welfare fraud-settlements in Utah history. As people age the chances of children inheriting mutant genes increases. . "I'm like, Really? "Outside, people don't die that often, and usually they're really old.". Some outside the church have referred to the group as "the Kingston Clan" or the "Kingston Cult," although leaders believe that these terms are "inaccurate and derogatory." . Daniel was arrested and eventually spent 28 weeks in a county jail for felony child abuse. When you pair up those undesirable genes, something strange will pop out.'. I am convinced they do. : About half of the 8,000 people living in the towns are blood relatives of two of the founding families that settled in the 1930s on the desolate high desert plateau against the base of the Vermillion Cliffs. . 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. 'They don't believe anything written about Colorado City [by outsiders, even medical experts] carries much truth,' Tarby says. 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? Had these defects clumped in my own family as it seemingly appeared to me? . "An unknown number--but believed to be in the thousands--of Barlow/Jessop descendants carry the recessive gene that causes fumarase deficiency. Yeah, I believe in it, he said. . . Dawna asks me. "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. Jessica said she and other children of the Kingston clan a group also known as The Order, the Davis County Cooperative Society, and the Latter-Day Church of Christ dropped the N-bomb all the time, as did their parents. . His seven sons and two daughters by LaDonna Peterson, the second of his 13 wives, are reputed to be the inner circle that runs the cult. 'It's like any inbred disorder,' Tarby says. "When ancestors are revered as prophets and kings, it is difficult to admit or examine the possibility of this legacy. Still, if children are caught up in an abusive or incestuous situation, Williams would encourage policing. This is a rare disorder and medical descriptions of trisome infants are too dreadful to describe here. "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. ", (Joseph Carroll, "One in Four Americans Think Most Mormons Endorse Polygamy; Only 2% Think Most Americans Support Polygamy," by Gallup News Service, Princeton, New Jersey, 7 September 2006, at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/24388/one-four-americans-think-most-mormons-e). Seated on a couch, sipping lemonade in his home in a Salt Lake City suburb, he resembles Paul Kingston quite a bit. Once free of the cult, Lu Ann, Allison and other ex-Order members have had to unlearn the hatred that was drilled into their heads. "The few dissenters in the community say the serious genetic problems that are beginning to surface are an indication that the closed FLDS society could eventually collapse. Same family, second child, same period of life, a different fatal disease; was there a connection? "Tarby said there could be hundreds of victims in coming generations. The sisters were born into the Salt Lake City-based group and since they didn't choose the lifestyle, they decided to escape. [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. Those affected by the genetic disorder suffer grand mal seizures and often have facial feature deformities and severe mental retardation, with IQs as low as 25. "If descendants of polygamy do not look critically at the ideas of their ancestors, Utah children may be increasingly at risk. The defect might be caused by genetics, infection, radiation, or drug exposure, or there might be no known reason. Once a baby is born with the condition, Aleck says, 'You really can't treat the underlying disorder.' A stern disciplinarian, who in later years looked and dressed like a mortician, Ortell made incest a tenet of the clans faith, informed by his work breeding Holstein cows on the Kingstons dairy farm. "There were so many young children who were born with abnormalitiesharelips, club feet, heart valvesthat were they were going to die within a year," says Ron. Could my childish intuition that the adults and doctors lips were sealed against my questions involve family secrets; secrets relatives took to their graves rather than betray? The adoption of children among family members sometimes disguised sterility. Modern interpretations of this passage vary, but The Order apparently takes quite literally this idea of blackness being a sign of iniquity. But for their part, The Order and other fundamentalist sects believe the LDS church exists in a state of apostasy for abandoning what they see as a bedrock principle of their faith. 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