"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. "Some genes linked to conditions like microcephaly and dwarfism are 'autosomal recessive,' and are found among the 22-linked pairs of chromosomes that do not include the X and Y sex chromosomes, says Lynn Jorde of the University of Utah's Eccles Human Genetics Institute, a leading genetics research center. Early polygamy was rife with incestuous and eugenic ideas and practices as well. "Now 16, Rugg's sister was married to and subsequently left one of her half-brother's sons. . . Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman empire. 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. By l980, this theory changed dramatically as many other Utah families accepted the diagnosis. In 2003, Order member Jeremy Kingston pleaded guilty to incest for taking his first cousin, 15-year-old Lu Ann Kingston, as his fourth wife. . "Marriages among first and second cousins have been common for decades in the community, where religious doctrine requires men to have at least three wives to gain eternal salvation. 'Right now, we are just looking at the tip of the iceberg.'. . They are quick to point out to reporters that they no longer practice polygamy and excommunicate members who continue to do so. LGBT people fare little better in the Kingston clan. Dawna's eldest son is now dating a Centennial woman whom he recently found out is a distant cousin. But Dawna disagrees: "I think it was actually, you know." SALT LAKE CITY (CN) Survivors of Utah's notorious Kingston clan filed a lawsuit seeking punitive damages against 22 Kingston members on Wednesday for sex trafficking minors born into the organization, sexual battery, child abuse and more. Another significant group is the Kingston Clan, also known as "The Order" and officially the Latter Day Church of Christ, with about 2000 members scattered throughout Utah. "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. . . Shuvrajit Das Biswas. I tell her I'm not sure, given the context. joined the Mormons in Zion, the new Promised Land, trading a life of mining for religious hope. "'We don't have a dad,' the little boy said. "I'm like, Really? In one, Ortell warns that there is a movement afoot that wants to homogenize the people and make one race, by mixing all the races up. "They would hand them over and say, 'Would you mind please taking care of them, because we can't?' . Blacks were the less valiant people in heaven who sat on the sidelines while others took sides, according to The Order. 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? 'I really doubt that if we could tell them, you know, "This male has the condition and this female has the condition; you shouldn't mate," that wouldn't stop them,' he said. [T]he 'Salt Lake Tribune' . There are times when it has gotten kind of gross, like when they marry an uncle to a niece. . "Of the Kingstons, Williams says: 'There is not much you can do about them. Fumarase deficiency, however sensationalized, is not the only genetic disorder found here. . . Additionally, ex-Order members tell of a reputed church prophecy of an End of the World War, an apocalyptic vision that foresees a bloody race war with the Kingstons as the ultimate victors, chosen by their Heavenly Father to rule the world for a millennium. Known variously as Brother Paul, the leader, and the man on the watchtower by Order members, this unremarkable, balding middle-aged man reportedly has 27 wives and over 300 children. 5, p. 22. Lesser known children hidden in families sympathetic to polygamists might remain ignorant of their genetic kinship. I am convinced they do. 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. . . . [i]n a secret church ceremony. "How do you keep track of that?" "'This problem is going to get worse and worse and worse,' predicts . Just under eight miles southeast of Short Creek is an area called Cane Beds, Arizona. Still more, rather cryptically, feature child-size palm and footprints. This lack of information upset me as a child when to my fervent, 'Why?' Only the FLDS prophet can arrange and perform polygamous marriages, and those marriages are taking place in a community in which almost everybody is related. thus marking the first time news media reported this human and civil rights nightmare accurately since the 1850s. --Letting the Genetic Genie Out of the Bottle: God Commands the Mormon Church to Enter Into Biologically-Destructive Practice of Polygamy. . FOX 13 . The quick answer for why this polygamous community has buried so many of its children is inbreeding, according to community members. Utahs polygamous Kingston clan mixes incest and white supremacy with old-fashioned capitalism. The enzyme irregularity causes severe mental retardation, epileptic seizures and other effects that often leaves children unable to take care of themselves. . "Her half-brother is still married to another half-sister (whose parents also were half-sister and brother) and are still members of the Kingston's order. 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. 'As soon as I saw her, I knew she had the same thing as her brother,' Tarby says. . . . "', "'Joseph Smith was also selecting for the "obedience gene." Some of you may not believe this, but I not only believe it but I also know it. Ex-order members interviewed by the Intelligence Report generally agreed with the characterization of the Kingston clan as a hate group.. 'And their claim is they marry closely to preserve the royal bloodline, so to speak.'. 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. . "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.' 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. ", ("Mormon Polygamy: Frequently Asked Questions," at: http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_summary.htm). Mary Nelson, 23, tells "Whistleblower" host Alex Ferrer about how she escaped the Kingston clan, also known as The Order, with the help of her boyfriend Bryan. 'And is that religion popular in heaven?' Another of Ortells teachings: Adolf Hitler had the right idea about creating a master race, but didnt have the Lords help, so he failed. Practice sets 1,000-member Kingston clan apart from other Utah polygamous been born with birth defects, among them one born with two vaginas and two The polygamous town facing genetic disaster Apr 03, 2020 In a remote region of the US, a town is struggling with a chilling health crisis caused by a recessive gene. This is the equivalent of a religious rationalization for the practice of incest. Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, and the Lord's servants have always practiced it. he says. "Rather than polygamy being about religion, Moore-Emmett believes that many polygamous marriages are about sex and power. Sisters married the same man in polygamous celestial weddings; brothers from one family married sisters from another (meaning their kids are double cousins). "Including Utah, 37 states outlaw first-cousin marriage. . When this got around to his dad, his father packed up Snows belongings and left them in the room of a hotel owned by The Order. "Tarby said there could be hundreds of victims in coming generations. The most common birth defects for children born of close cousins, anywhere, are: harelip, cleft palate, clubfoot, and certain forms of heart valve conditions. ", (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) He tells community residents that they should undergo genetic screening before marriage, but they've ignored the suggestion, Tarby said. Nevertheless, former members of The Order say that incest and racism are inextricably linked in The Orders teachings. In the 1980s, the state of Utah sued John Ortell Kingston over welfare fraud related to his many wives. . Paul would rather have the wealth and the money than the isolation and the conflict, he said. 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. Half and full siblings are marrying in religious ceremonies. . The fact that most of the people in the Kingston clan were born into the lifestyle is very key to group think because this is all they know, and some may never question the beliefs even when they age because it has been their whole world all their life. There is no doubt about that at all. In 2006, Warren Jeffs, then the president and prophet of the FLDS, was arrested and charged with accomplice rape, for just two of the underage marriages he had arranged. So many young people.'. "The discoveries and research within my own kindred so alarmed me that I studied other descendants of polygamy to see if their families also suffered from crippling illnesses. . They steer clear of banks,. . The children live in the twin polygamist communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. "Frequent and powerful seizures are among the most disturbing characteristics of the disease. They can't sit up. "If both parents are descendants of polygamy, the children may be at even greater risk. "If female, they are married off to the few, powerful prominent males: incest is the fate of many teen-age girls. . "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. Over the years, state law enforcement and the courts have sporadically addressed the incest in the Kingston ranks. and several polygamist men serve in local government positions, including as mayors . and last updated 1:46 PM, Feb 24, 2021. "The same right of marriage approval was wielded by John Ortell Kingston, who began the incestuous lineage. 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. Even if a genetic screening test were available, Wyler says, Jeffs would have to be cautious about how he allowed it to be implemented. . The Intelligence Report is the SPLC's award-winning magazine. Kollene's father, John Daniel Kingston has 14 wives, and she is the fifth of her mother Shirley Hansen's 12 children. . That's the big problem.' The FLDS started out as a few fringe families in the late 1890s; as more seeking to follow the principal of plural marriage moved to the polygamous towns in the early-to-mid 20th century, the gene pool grew, but by the 90s, under the stricter control of prophet Rulon Jeffs (Warren's father), they were tightening up and selectively marrying and breeding in a sort of misfired eugenics experiment that ultimately yielded its own genetic disorder: fumarase deficiency (FD), otherwise known as Polygamist Down's. "'I knew I would have to marry my [half-] brother ever since I was 12,' says the woman. The FLDS already has moved several hundred men, women and children to the compound, many of whom very likely carry the fumarase deficiency gene. ", -Prophet John Taylor, "Millennial Star," vol. . "Her book . . . Through his brother LyleBishop of the FLDS and mouthpiece for his imprisoned brotherJeffs enacted a Judgment wherein FLDS members were asked a series of bizarre personal questions; their answers were judged, and the most righteous were welcomed into the United Order of FLDS elite. Young declined to comment when asked if he practices polygamy. "If you look in the literature, you won't find another dozen cases in the world that have been reported," says Tarby. But I do have children with other women., Asked if two women named were in fact his first cousins, Young paused, finally replying, I guess Im curious as to what youre trying to get at here.. Isaac Wyler, a former FLDS member who was excommunicated from the church . . I think most people are made aware of the problems caused by inbreeding (a nicer word than incest) when they are still young teenagers. "Many of the parents did not want to have to deal with some of those children. . Snow also remembered being taught end-time prophecies, with a cleansing wherein the streets of Salt Lake City would run red with blood. 'They have the authoritarian structure necessary to keep this from happening, but I don't think they have the advanced thinking,' Aleck says. . 129-30, ("Is Homosexuality or Monogamy the Ruin of Civilization?," at: http://www.i4m.com/think/sexuality/homosexual_ruin.htm) 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 bucket of water and a vial of black food coloring. In a letter to the Intelligence Report responding to allegations made by former members, Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative Society, claimed that The Orders foundational principles include the Golden Rule, and that the church rejects any form of racism or bigotry. One of the survivors includes Amanda Rae Grant, who appeared on season two of A&E's "Escaping . 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. "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. . Outwardly, she appeared to have no sex organs. . and is expected to answer questions . He did not consider this lack of sons might be his genetic inheritance, not his multiple wives. But by 2006, Dr. Theodore Tarby, of Arizona, had discovered at least 20 more children living with the condition in Short Creek, all within just blocks of each other. . "For the first time, the faith-promoting stories about my great-grandfathers heroism for defying the federal government when they outlawed polygamy interested me. 'A lady comes in and helps her. 'We do know there are biological hazards. . . "'The kids that I have seen have terrible seizure disorders and developmental delays,' says Dr. Aleck. A simple urine test will reveal whether there is an excess of fumaric acid in the urine, if the other, more external symptoms aren't obvious enough. 'I've seen some children that can talk and communicate a little,' Wyler said. . . Or was it true no one knew the answers, because they could not be known, because no one wanted to know? 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