I'm driving around Short Creek with Alyssawho is in Boise, Idaho, where she is a college sophomorepiped in through the bluetooth-enabled speakerphone in the rental car I'd picked in Las Vegas the previous night. This racist display was no one-off. Lesser known children hidden in families sympathetic to polygamists might remain ignorant of their genetic kinship. . . Many of the souls interred here lived not longer than a day, some just two days, two weeks, or two years. ("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. ", ("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) In the 1980s, the state of Utah sued John Ortell Kingston over welfare fraud related to his many wives. on the flat hay fields that stretch from the edge of Woods Cross to the crusty shores of the Great Salt Lake, that John Ortell Kingston studied the genetics of in-line breeding. [in order] to reduce competition for wives. "The clan's other numerous incestuous couplings among consenting adults . Jeremy was nearly 10 years her senior at the time. Ron Kingston says The Orders leadership has too much to lose for something like that to happen. "A few years later [my cousin's] sister . The grave side funeral services will be at the grave side in Babyland at 4p.m.". So what about polygamy? . Blacks were the less valiant people in heaven who sat on the sidelines while others took sides, according to The Order. One of the most devastating hereditary malformations is fumarase deficiency, a rare genetic condition marked by severe mental retardation and seizures. A 1999 Salt Lake Tribune article mapped the Kingstons incestuous family tree, quoting one of Ortells 65 kids, ex-Order member Connie Rugg as saying, My father experimented [with] inbreeding with his cattle and then he turned to his children.. The knowledge that one's children are likely to be born with conditions like this one does not prevent FLDS couples from becoming pregnant; instead, they see it as a responsibility and blessing to have many children. "'All my life, my family told me I had to marry a Kingston,' says Rugg. The adoption of children among family members sometimes disguised sterility. He prepared urine samples and sent them to the University of Colorado Science Center's Dr. Steve Goodman, a professor of pediatrics who runs a laboratory that detects rare genetic diseases. The son of Pauls sister Rachel herself a daughter of Ortell and LaDonna Kingston Young was the only current member of the Kingston clan, out of the many contacted for this story, who consented to a live, on-the-record interview. "Experts say the number of children afflicted in the FLDS community is expected to steadily increase as a result of decades of inbreeding between two of the polygamous sect's founding families--the Barlows and the Jessops. "There are times when it has gotten kind of gross, like when they marry an uncle to a niece," she continues. 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. "They were called the Second Warders and we were called the First Warders; we weren't supposed to hang out with kids from the Centennial group because they were wicked for having left," she says. Indeed, the group was founded during the Great Depression as a communal religious organization where members dedicated their earnings and possessions to building the Kingdom of God on Earth, as one church document attests. Martha's husband was "Uncle" Fred Jessop, longtime Bishop to the FLDS people, who died in 2005 at 94, after being dragged from state to state by Warren Jeffs in what many ex-members believe was a transparent scheme of murder-by-stress: Dragging around a physically ailing, elderly man in need of constant medication is one way to kill a person without committing any outright murderous act, they say. . Even the few highly educated people there . "The Kingstons are among a small number of family groups in the world who marry closer than first cousins on a regular basis. "Gradually, I realized the practice of polygamy, especially in Mormondom, might be a prescription for genetic disease. Okay, I have one legal wife, he said. . She talked about how you cant associate with black people or anybody of a different race., Based on available evidence, including the accounts of numerous former Order members, the SPLC has designated The Order as a hate group under the category of `general hate.'. "They've got this idea that their blood is pure and that they want to keep it pure.'. ', "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.'. David was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the incest, but served only four before being paroled. "When asked, a little boy and girl at the home acknowledged who their mother is. . Mormon Church presidents and "prophet"-leaders have blamed monogamy a host of terminal afflictions that have been delivered upon the world. The Kingstons are a Mormon splinter group, founded in the 1930s by Mary's great-uncle Elden. . Ortell is credited with expanding The Orders business empire and making the family immensely wealthy. Former clan prophet John Ortell Kingston, who died in 1987, paid the Medicaid bills for a child born with severe birth defects after Utah investigators linked the wealthy father of more than 65 children to the baby. October 15, 2002: "There will be a viewing at father's house at 3p.m. One nurse confided, 'We see too many trisome l3 and l8 babies.' ", -Apostle Orson Pratt, "Journal of Discourses," vol. "Every person carries some lethal genes. 'If you cross a Barlow and Jessop, you stand a high risk of getting this condition,' Tarby says. . ", -Apostle Heber C. Kimball, "Journal of Discourses," vol. "Among the polygamous Kingstons, a number of children have been born with birth defects, among them one born with two vaginas and two uteruses but no vaginal or bowel opening. . Everyone knows it's happening, few talk about it unprompted, it just sort of..is. . She's worked for lawyers who brought these cases to light and needed help with mormon terminology and ward politics workings. . "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. 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.' "I never knew if I carried this deadly disease or if any preventative measures would halt its insidious march. Literally, if they're 8 years old, it's like taking care of a baby.' Even if a genetic screening test were available, Wyler says, Jeffs would have to be cautious about how he allowed it to be implemented. deficiency. '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. "'We don't have a dad,' the little boy said. 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. 'Right now, we are just looking at the tip of the iceberg.'. and cousins. 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. 'It's a bomb that's going to explode.'. Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. 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. In another, Order attorney Carl Kingston warns listeners about marrying up with Hams kids, a reference to the aforementioned Biblical curse. Connie Rugg [is] one of John Ortell's estimated 65 children and one of a handful of Kingston relatives who have fled the clan. He says The Order regards homosexuality as a choice. The Kingstons teach that they are descended from Jesus Christ and these incestous marriages are intended to keep the bloodline pure, but instead have resulted in numerous Clan members being born with disabilties or birth defects, and it's not really that surprising to note that at one point during the second season of Escaping Polygamy, one of He did not consider this lack of sons might be his genetic inheritance, not his multiple wives. 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. Accounts of clan babies being born with congenital defects and other problems abound, including dwarfism, albinism and children born minus fingernails or without genitals. "Fumarase deficiency began to manifest in the community when three sets of Joseph Smith Jessop and Martha Moore Yeates' great-grandchildren married each other. Up to this point, Julie had treated the rumor like a joke. "Researchers have identified a gene on the first chromosome that causes fumarase deficiency, but no test has been developed that could be used to identify individuals carrying the malady. 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. 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. "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. A fifth child, they say, was fathered by their eldest brother Wayne LeBaron, (who was married to Dawna Black Bistline's cousin at the time of this child's allegedly incestuous conception). The familys dedication to the principle of polygamy already had been established by Kingstons father, who had three wives. "Frequent and powerful seizures are among the most disturbing characteristics of the disease. "'Polygamy leads to sexual predation, and that leads to genetic problems,' says . 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. Something along the lines of, to build a superhuman, if you have four or five defects to get the one good one, its worth it, he recalled. . "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. "I didn't touch her; I just used a turkey baster," she mimics, rolling her eyes. 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. "Tarby says members of the community made it clear that neither choice was acceptable. Yet, this practice may hide the actual genetic kinship and can further exacerbate genetic problems. "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. . . Eventually, I pull up to the corner of Canyon Street and Jessop Avenue, where I find the baby cemetery. . '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. "Warren Jeffs, like Joseph Smith before him, has emphasized the importance of obedience among members of the church. 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. 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, . Structural birth defects are related to a problem with the structure of body parts. Asked about these legends, Kingston spokesman Kent Johnson, explained via email that on occasion Order families have asked to spread the ashes of a child lost before or after birth at the Holy Spot. 'They are totally helpless,' he says. Johnson also acknowledged hearing family lore dating to the Depression era of Order families burying fetuses from late-term miscarriages on their respective properties.. . "If you look in the literature, you won't find another dozen cases in the world that have been reported," says Tarby. "It wasn't until I left the FLDS and moved away from the community that I realized I'd been to an unusually high number of funerals growing up in the Creek," says Alyssa Bistline over a crackling phone connection. As bad as this past is, the mounting evidence is far worse. . . " "Including Utah, 37 states outlaw first-cousin marriage. . "And she's not the only one; three of her sisters married three of my brothers. 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