The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Polygamy

Current Events

steve benson Nov. 2012

--Letting the Genetic Genie Out of the Bottle: God Commands the Mormon Church to Enter Into Biologically-Destructive Practice of Polygamy

From the article, "Mormon Polygamy: Frequently Asked Questions":

"[Mormon] Church founder, Joseph Smith, said he received a revelation from God, which is still canonized Mormon scripture as Doctrine and Covenants Section 132. 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.' . . .

("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."

And despite the LDS Church's highly suspect claim of having genuinely abandoned the doctrine and practice of polygamy in 1890 (see D. Michael Quinn's historically-devastating essay that got him excommunicated for telling the truth, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904," at: http://www.lds-mormon.com/quinn_polygamy.shtml), many Mormons, in fact, still believe that the practice of multi-wifing will someday be reinstituted "[b]ecause the doctrine is still part of official Mormon scripture (see 'Doctrine and Covenants,' Section 132)."

("Mormon Polygamy: Frequently Asked Questions," at: http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_summary.htm)

For Mormon patriarchs lusting in their hearts for the Polygamy Reunion Tour, hope springs eternal. Indeed, regardless of facing crushing federal government opposition to polygamous inbreeding, true-blue Mormons remain convinced that you can't keep a good man of God down To them, polygamy will be coming back some day, with sizable numbers of the faithful flock confident that its eugenic genetics will return by order of Joseph's Jesus.

In this regard, officially-canonized LDS scripture that currently endorses polygamy is not the only image problem for the Mormon Church (thank you, Warren Jeffs).

Despite its on-going public relations effort to convince Americans that Mormons don't really support polygamy (and despite the belief of many devout Mormons that polygamy came from God as revealed church doctrine which will eventually be reinstated when Jesus returns to the Earth), a quarter of Americans surveyed also have expressed the opinion that most Mormons embrace the idea of plural marriage:

"A . . . 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. . . .

"Roughly one in four Americans say 'most Mormons' support the practice of polygamy . . . ."

(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...)

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."

(Bruce, R. McConkie,'Mormon Doctrine,' 2nd ed., under "Plural Marriage" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc., 1966], p. 578)
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Meanwhile, as Mormons wait patiently and faithfully for multi-wifery's official return, the words of their founding Church fathers sound praise to polygamy past, present and future:

--The Mormon God's Declaration of Righteous Genetic Combinations: Monogamy is a Christian Blight on Humanity, While Polygamy is the Lord's Way to Produce Fresh, Virile Men; Good-Lookin' Women; and Super Strong Stock to Carry Civilization Into Eternity

Mormon Church presidents and "prophet"-leaders have blamed monogamy a host of terminal afflictions that have been delivered upon the world.

In their own words, as quoted in a sister article that asks the question, "Is Monogamy the Ruin of Civilization?" According to Mormonism's top leaders:

"Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women-stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout Christendom, and which had been so fruitful a source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious."

-The Prophet Brigham Young, "Journal of Discourses," vol. 11, p. 128

". . . [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."

-Prophet John Taylor, "Millennial Star," vol. 15, p. 227

"Monogamy, or restrictions by law to one wife, is no part of the economy of heaven among men. Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman empire. . . . Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. Thus this monogamic order of marriage, so esteemed by modern Christians as a holy sacrament and divine institution, is nothing but a system established by a set of robbers. . . . Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, and the Lord's servants have always practiced it. 'And is that religion popular in heaven?' 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, . . ."

-Apostle Orson Pratt, "Journal of Discourses," vol. 13, p. 195

"We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they (non-Mormons) envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow-minded, pinch-backed race of men, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy, and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. 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."

-Apostle George A Smith, "Journal of Discourses," vol. 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. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honors his word. Some of you may not believe this, but I not only believe it but I also know it. For a man of God to be confined to one woman is small business. I do not know what we would do if we had only one wife apiece."

-Apostle Heber C. Kimball, "Journal of Discourses," vol. 5, p. 22

"Brethren, I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore. The brother missionaries have been in the habit of picking out the prettiest women for themselves before they get here, and bringing on the ugly ones for us; hereafter you have to bring them all here before taking any of them, and let us all have a fair shake."

-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. 129-30

("Is Homosexuality or Monogamy the Ruin of Civilization?," at: http://www.i4m.com/think/sexuality/homosexual_ruin.htm)
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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.

Let's now examine how this supposedly "divinely-inspired" Mormon program of heavenly eugenics has actually worked in practice. First, an overview:

--"God's Brothel": A Review of Polygamy's Brutal Underworld Mormon Roots

Excerpts from the article "Understanding Polygamy," distributed by "Humanists of Utah":

" . . . [Andrea] Moore-Emmett [author of 'God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who Escaped'] contends that [in polygamy] incest, statutory rape, torture, physical abuse, forced marriages, and trafficking of girls is rampant. . . .

"Rather than polygamy being about religion, Moore-Emmett believes that many polygamous marriages are about sex and power. . . .

"Her book . . . states that '[t]he [Utah] state legislature is consistently 90% Mormon . . . and several polygamist men serve in local government positions, including as mayors . . . and councilmen.' Asserting that 'the attitude between Mormons and Mormon fundamentalist polygamists is that of kissing cousins with more similarities than differences.' Moore-Emmett suggests that the heavily Mormon Utah government is unduly tolerant of polygamy and reluctant to acknowledge the abuses of many polygamous families. 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.

"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."

("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)
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Now, let's examine how "God-ordained" Mormon polygamy has wreaked unholy genetic havoc on its faithful followers:

--Case Study on Polygamous Mormonism's Genetic Disease Striking Home: The Linda Walker Story

From her article, "Fatal Inheritance: Mormon Eugenics":

"[My] cousin], [her sister] and I all grew up to marry and start families of our own. Then, while still a young man, [my cousin] died of nephritis, the fatal family inheritance. . . . Fear began to overwhelm me, for the future, and for my own son. Lucky was the first to die in my generation.

"I remembered the studies conducted on my brother and I as children at the University of Utah . . . when doctors pronounced us a special and important family. In the l950s, research doctors thought we were one of the few families in the world with this form of nephritis, known as Alport’s syndrome. By l980, this theory changed dramatically as many other Utah families accepted the diagnosis.

"Our ancestral destiny meant we might give birth to sons who would die at maturity or daughters who would carry the trait to the next generation of sons. These defects could be life threatening like nephritis and spinal bifida, or merely debilitating like asthma. Childbirth would be fraught with despair and guilt for me and for many family members. . . .

"I never knew if I carried this deadly disease or if any preventative measures would halt its insidious march. This lack of information upset me as a child when to my fervent, 'Why?' the tight-lipped adult answer, 'We don’t know,' seemed woefully inadequate. I promised myself to find out the truth when I grew up.

"When [my cousin] died, my childish vow surfaced and I began to look into my family history for some answers. My great-grandfather, like scores of English immigrants eager to escape a life of poverty, . . . soon . . . joined the Mormons in Zion, the new Promised Land, trading a life of mining for religious hope.

"A few years later [my cousin's] sister . . . died of multiple sclerosis, also leaving a family of small children behind. Same family, second child, same period of life, a different fatal disease; was there a connection? My aunt and uncle outlived two of their five children and two more may have nephritis.

"What was going on in my Utah pioneer family? Surely, there were too many deaths. 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? Or was it true no one knew the answers, because they could not be known, because no one wanted to know?

"For the first time, the faith-promoting stories about my great-grandfather’s heroism for defying the federal government when they outlawed polygamy interested me. . . .

"This great-grandfather married two sisters which meant the 22 known children were double cousins or as genetically similar as brother and sister. I began to think polygamy might be a genetically unsound marriage practice. 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.

"Throughout the world, most polygamy is exogamous, or breeding outside the group. Breeding within, as Mormons did--endogamous polygamy--is virtually never practiced. Had these defects clumped in my own family as it seemingly appeared to me?

"While discussing health problems at a family gathering with some of my cousins’ wives, we discovered astonishingly that three out of four of us, all polygamy descendants, had borne a son with a clubfoot. . . . One outspoken Mormon matriarch who attended the same Sunday meeting for 50 years commented about the health of the polygamous descendants versus the monogamous descendants, 'You see it in the obituaries. So many young people.'. . .

"[We] 'hierarchy children’ are from the 'elite' first families of Mormonism and these families started polygamy in America. Nearly all the Mormon founding families were relatives, so the first polygamists enjoyed relations to different degrees when the divine experiment began. The Twelve Apostles of Mormonism then acted to increase this familial relationship by marrying other relatives until in 1877, at the end of Brigham Young’s reign as Mormon Prophet and King, the polygamous hierarchy became l00% interrelated. 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.'

"Did this practice affect my family and other Mormon pioneer families adversely, possibly even in other momentous ways? . . .

"The Mormons, well-known for genealogical record keeping, maintain birth, marriage and death information at church libraries and now on the Internet. Since polygamy remained a hidden and illegal practice, disguised family records occurred. The records of the marriages sealed at the Nauvoo Temple before the general exodus to Utah in the 1840s, may be the most important ones of all; yet, these are . . . unavailable to researchers.

"During this early period, polygamy was practiced secretly by the Mormon leadership, men who covertly preached and expanded polygamy while publicly deceiving the general Mormon population about the practice. These wives sometimes became known, sometimes not. For instance, Quinn writes, '[O]ver 20 General Authorities were married to such lesser known wives.' ‘Lesser known children’ hidden in families sympathetic to polygamists might remain ignorant of their genetic kinship. 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. This is inadequate information for purposes of establishing the true incidence of consanguinity within a family or community.

"Genealogists and especially epidemiologists must be scrupulous in identifying all the wives and children of any polygamist man. Branches of the polygamist man’s 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.

"Gradually, I realized the practice of polygamy, especially in Mormondom, might be a prescription for genetic disease. People most at risk likely lived and married within the same small communities their ancestors founded. This seemed to apply in my own kindred because those of us who left Mormonism and married outsiders are less riddled with the deleterious genetic legacy than relatives who married within the ancestral Mormon gene pool.

"Parents who share a common ancestor are consanguineous. 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. Consanguinity also causes rare recessive disorders to mask as dominant. Consanguinity is a reason why families bear children of only one sex--all sons or all daughters.

"Mormon Prophet Hebrew J. Grant determined to keep marrying until he found a woman to bear him living sons. He did not consider this lack of sons might be his genetic inheritance, not his multiple wives. Current scientific knowledge indicates Grant’s lack of sons resulted from his own genetic defect, since only men carry the male Y chromosome to make a son.

"Another problem in polygamy is a man’s breeding years are expanded sometimes into his 80s by the taking of new wives. As people age the chances of children inheriting mutant genes increases. 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.

"Sterility is another consequence of consanguinity and the evidence of many sterile polygamous wives is overwhelming. The adoption of children among family members sometimes disguised sterility. This is a humane coping strategy devised to deal with a dilemma that devastated a woman taught from birth her only value was in the number of children she bore for the Kingdom of God. Yet, this practice may hide the actual genetic kinship and can further exacerbate genetic problems.

"Recently, another cousin fathered a child born with spinal bifida, inherited paralysis, an anomaly related to nephritis. He also married a woman descended from polygamy. This child belongs to a family branch that [was] used in the U of U nephritis study. . . . It appears my kinship group is suffering from clusters of rare recessive genes. Not one defect, but many.

"This gene cluster effect happens when people with common ancestors marry and bear children. Polygamy today is comprised of early Mormon polygamy descendants and these families are now interrelated by a factor impossible in monogamy. Evidence exists that this gene pool foments a genetic and human catastrophe. 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.

"In addition, the Mormon Church touts itself as the quintessential traditional family values church . . . . They are quick to point out to reporters that they no longer practice polygamy and excommunicate members who continue to do so. This denial is hollow considering the record. They offer no support, no exit route and no programs for the people trapped inside polygamy endeavoring to escape these closed polygamous communities or compounds.

"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. I am convinced they do. As bad as this past is, the mounting evidence is far worse. . . .

"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. Half and full siblings are ‘marrying’ in religious ceremonies. Escaped members report some patriarchs believe it is their duty to give a daughter her first marriage lessons. This is the equivalent of a religious rationalization for the practice of incest.

"Buried quietly on family farms, without notice of birth or death, child death often remains undocumented in polygamy clans. . . .

". . . [T]he 'Salt Lake Tribune' . . . lifted the covers on the many crimes committed in polygamy, . . . thus marking the first time news media reported this human and civil rights nightmare accurately since the 1850s. . . .

"These groups are white supremacists and inbreeding is an essential doctrine in keeping the bloodline pure. Convinced they are breeding a pure white master race, they blame the mother if a deformed baby is born then preach she was unrighteous or unclean. It is these discredited ideas that foster this genetic legacy. Early polygamy was rife with incestuous and eugenic ideas and practices as well. Brigham Young, the second Mormon leader, preached, 'The time is coming when the Lord is going to raise a holy nation . . . a royal priesthood upon the Earth, and he has introduced a plurality of wives for that express purpose.'

"Every person carries some lethal genes. Most populations outbreed and so these lethal genes rarely match to cause any serious diseases. When a group inbreeds, as polygamists have, more and more lethal gene matches occur. Children inherit disabling illnesses. Child life is destroyed.

". . . I owe my children and all children who risk becoming the next unwitting victims of this tragic genetic legacy the best information regarding the prevention of this lethal family inheritance that I can find.

". . . [O]ver the first 50 years of Mormonism, a highly inbred hierarchy became even more inbred through their illegal marriage and childbirth practices. 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. 100 years later, eugenics is a discredited science, yet some followers still believe. [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. Polygamy would have afforded the opportunity of producing from that consecrated fatherhood and motherhood the improved type of man the world needs to reveal the highest possibilities of the race, that the day of the super man might come, and with him come also the redemption and betterment of the race.'

"It is important that Mormons fight the tendency to discount history and the actions of their leaders in favor of a faith- promoting history while neglecting important facts. . . .

"If descendants of polygamy do not look critically at the ideas of their ancestors, Utah children may be increasingly at risk. If two descendants of hierarchical polygamy marry, the chances for genetic defects increase if the families were ever interrelated. This means it may be genetically unwise for children of the early leaders to marry other children of early leaders, even now; yet, this tendency still exists in Mormonism. . . .

". . . [N]ew disease classifications belong at the door of the Mormon Church leadership. 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.

"In polygamy . . . [w]omen do not have the freedom to consider how often she can give birth and maintain her health. Men make all decisions affecting her health. One nurse confided, 'We see too many trisome l3 and l8 babies.' This is a rare disorder and medical descriptions of trisome infants are too dreadful to describe here. These babies usually do not leave the hospital and die as infants. This nurse has a polygamous background, so does her husband. Three of their children suffer from serious inherited disorders. One child born with an incomplete liver died.

"If both parents are descendants of polygamy, the children may be at even greater risk. These disturbing accounts offer a look inside the lives of some early Mormon descendants. . . . It takes maturity to face the truth, especially if the truth is painful and challenges the family tradition and religious belief structure. . . .

"When ancestors are revered as prophets and kings, it is difficult to admit or examine the possibility of this legacy.

"For us parents the future health and happiness of ourselves, our children and grandchildren are at stake. We cannot afford to neglect the possibility our ancestors practiced a form of marriage that was unhealthy and debilitating to our children, to us, and to society. . . . This is why the state and federal government enacted legislation against polygamy. This is why those laws need to be enforced. To date Mormons have only paid lip service to stopping polygamy."

(Linda Walker, "Fatal Inheritance: Mormon Eugenics," under "Science as Culture," originally written in the fall of 1991, updated in the summer of 1999, citations included, at: http://human-nature.com/science-as-culture/walker.html)
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--How "God's Genes" Do Ugly Things: The Biological Attack on "Modern"-day Followers of Mormonism's Originally-"Revealed" Doctrine of Polygamy

From the article, "Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Genealogy and Polygamy Problems":

"The gene pool is . . . restricted in some polygamous sects, including FLDS groups in Colorado City, Arizona; Hildale, Utah; and West Texas, that force some of the young males to leave the communities . . . [in order] to reduce competition for 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.

"Genetic testing confirms that there is a high prevalence of various birth defects in polygamous populations. One of the most devastating hereditary malformations is fumarase deficiency, a rare genetic condition marked by severe mental retardation and seizures. Cases of fumarase deficiency have shown up in the FLDS communities in Colorado City and Hildale, and doctors believe that the incidence of the condition in these communities will increase in coming generations."

(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)
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--Petri Dishes of the Genetically-Destructive Effects of Mormon-Driven Polygamy: "Modern"-day Utah and Cross-Border Towns

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.

"Intermarriage among close relatives is producing children who have two copies of a recessive gene for a debilitating condition called fumarase deficiency. The enzyme irregularity causes severe mental retardation, epileptic seizures and other effects that often leaves children unable to take care of themselves.

"Dr. Theodore Tarby has treated many of the children at clinics in Arizona under contracts with the state. All are retarded, the neurologist told Salt Lake City television station KSL-TV. The children live in the twin polygamist communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah.

"Tarby believes the recessive gene was introduced by one of the community's polygamist founders.

"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. '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.

"'They claim to be the chosen people, the chosen few,' Bistline said. 'And their claim is they marry closely to preserve the royal bloodline, so to speak.'

"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. 'I've seen some children that can talk and communicate a little,' Wyler said. 'And I've seen others that are totally laid out. They have no movement. They can't do anything by themselves. Literally, if they're 8 years old, it's like taking care of a baby.' . . .

"Tarby said the victims require constant care from parents and close relatives. . . .

"In the FLDS community, marriages with cousins and other relatives are common, Bistline said. 'There are people that have married their nieces, people who have married their aunts,' he said.

"Wyler said it's all part of the community's religious system. . . .

"It's believed that more than half the residents carry the recessive gene. That means the number of cases likely will grow.

"Tarby said there could be hundreds of victims in coming generations. He tells community residents that they should undergo genetic screening before marriage, but they've ignored the suggestion, Tarby said. '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."

("Doctor: Birth defects increase in polygamy community," Associated Press, 9 February 2006, at: http://www.azcentral.com/health/news/articles/0209PolygamyBirthDefect09-...)
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--Inbreeding for the Lord: the Mutative Aftermath of LDS-"Inspired" Polygamy Among Mormonism's Doctrinal Adherents

From the "Phoenix New Timms" article, "Forbidden Fruit: Inbreeding Among Polygamists Along the Arizona-Utah Border is Producing a Caste of Severely Retarded and Deformed Children":

"Colorado City resident Isaac Wyler says FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs is trying to create the 'perfect race.'

"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. . . .

"Tarby says he quickly realized he was dealing with a very unusual condition that he could not diagnose. 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.

"Goodman soon made a startling discovery: Tarby's young patient was afflicted with an extremely rare disease called fumarase deficiency.

"'I had never seen a patient with it,' Tarby says. 'Right away I asked the parents if there were any other children with the same problem.' The parents said their daughter had cerebral palsy. Tarby asked them to bring the girl to him for an examination. 'As soon as I saw her, I knew she had the same thing as her brother,' Tarby says.

"The fact that fumarase deficiency had shown up in one child was startling enough--there had only been a handful of cases reported worldwide. But now that it was appearing in two children in the same family was an indication it was being spread by a gene that was getting passed to the children by their parents.

"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.

"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.

"By the late 1990s, Tarby and his team had discovered fumarase deficiency was occurring in the greatest concentration in the world among the fundamentalist Mormon polygamists of northern Arizona and southern Utah.

"Of even greater concern was the fact that the recessive gene that triggers the disease was rapidly spreading to thousands of individuals living in the community because of decades of inbreeding.

"Fast-forward . . . : 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.

"Religious leaders control all marriages in the community, and many of these relatives have married or likely will marry in the future. Some of these marriages will include parents who both are carriers of the fumarase deficiency gene, making it certain that more children will be afflicted with the disease.

"'We have and will have a continual output of children with this condition,' Tarby says.

"In this isolated religious society north of the Grand Canyon, few secrets have been more closely guarded than the presence of fumarase deficiency. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints elders, who control the community, have labored to keep the public from finding out why the disorder is manifesting. Many members of the fundamentalist community don't even know it's occurring. . . .

"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.

"'They are in terrible shape,' says Dr. Kirk A. Aleck, director of the Pediatric Neurogenetics Center at St. Joseph's Hospital. 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.

"There is no cure for the disease, which impedes the body's ability to process food at the cellular level. 'We can only treat the complications of the disorder,' Aleck says. Once a baby is born with the condition, Aleck says, 'You really can't treat the underlying disorder.' . . .

"If you look in the literature, you won't find another dozen cases in the world that have been reported," says Tarby.

"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. 'If you cross a Barlow and Jessop, you stand a high risk of getting this condition,' Tarby says.

"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.

"Joseph Smith Jessop and his first wife, Martha Moore Yeates, had 14 children. One of their daughters married another of the community's founding patriarchs and religious leaders, John Yeates Barlow. By the time Joseph Smith Jessop died in September 1953, he already had 112 grandchildren, the majority of them directly descended from him and Yeates.

"52 years later, more than half of the 8,000 people . . . living in Colorado City and Hildale are blood descendants of the Barlows and the Jessops, says Benjamin Bistline, a lifelong resident of the area who has published a book . . . on the history of the fundamentalist community.

"An unknown number--but believed to be in the thousands--of Barlow/Jessop descendants carry the recessive gene that causes fumarase deficiency. 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. 'It's like any inbred disorder,' Tarby says. 'If the community gets larger, the number of people with fumarase deficiency gets larger.'

"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.'

"The disease is not widely known about even in Colorado City, a place where even normally public events such as marriages are conducted in secret. But residents who are aware of fumarase deficiency fear that the number of children afflicted with the disease will indeed increase.

"'This problem is going to get worse and worse and worse,' predicts . . . Isaac Wyler, another lifelong Colorado City resident who was excommunicated from the FLDS in January 2004. Wyler's ex-wife's sister has had two babies afflicted with fumarase deficiency. 'Right now, we are just looking at the tip of the iceberg.'

"For more than 70 years, all marriages in the isolated towns have been arranged by the leader of the FLDS, a breakaway sect of the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church.

"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. 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. . . .

"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.

"'Polygamy leads to sexual predation, and that leads to genetic problems,' says . . . Tarby. 'If you stop the sexual predation, you stop the genetic problem as well. But [FLDS members] don't think of it as sexual predation. That's the big problem.' . . .

" . . . [I]t appears that Joseph Smith Jessop and his first wife also passed on the rare genetic disorder fumarase deficiency. The stage was set for the appearance of the rare disease when their 12th child, Martha Jessop, married her second cousin, John Yeates Barlow, in 1923, according to LDS genealogy data and Colorado City historian Ben Bistline.

"Like his father-in-law, John Y. Barlow became one of the towering patriarchs of the fundamentalist Mormon community and served as FLDS prophet from 1935 until his death in 1949. . . .

"All of these men have or had multiple wives and scores of children.

"Fumarase deficiency began to manifest in the community when three sets of Joseph Smith Jessop and Martha Moore Yeates' great-grandchildren married each other. 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.

"The children afflicted with fumarase deficiency from these three marriages include the grandchildren of Dan Barlow and his brother, the late Louis Barlow, and Merill Jessop, a top aide to fugitive prophet Warren Jeffs. . . .

". . . Isaac Wyler, a former FLDS member who was excommunicated from the church . . . , says he has firsthand knowledge of multiple fumarase deficiency children in each of the three families. 'I know this off the top of my head," Wyler says. "I know these people personally.'

"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. . . .

"Tarby says he explained to [a] gathering at [a] Town Hall in Colorado City that the only way to stop fumarase deficiency in the community is to abort fetuses that test positive for the disease and for the community to stop intermarriages between Barlows and Jessops, Barlows and Barlows and Jessops and Jessops.

"Tarby says members of the community made it clear that neither choice was acceptable. 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. 'I said, "You're married to somebody you're related to. That leads to problems." The man's response was, "Up here, we are all related," Tarby says. 'They just don't worry about the effects of intermarriage.'

"Tarby says the disease could begin to show up in children at Warren Jeffs' new FLDS headquarters . . . on a 1,600-acre ranch outside of Eldorado. The FLDS already has moved several hundred men, women and children to the compound, many of whom very likely carry the fumarase deficiency gene.

"The only long-term solution to the health crisis is for Barlows and Jessops to have children with spouses from outside the polygamist community. 'They have to outbreed,' Aleck says.

"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. . . .

"'They are discouraging any new blood," historian Bistline says. "They've got this idea that their blood is pure and that they want to keep it pure.'

"With no other options available, more FLDS families will be faced with the difficult burden of caring for children suffering with fumarase deficiency. Rather than take steps to avoid the problem, the FLDS loyalists may believe it is their duty to accept their fate. 'They think it is a test from God,' says Wyler, who was born and raised in the FLDS before he was booted out.

"And a terrible test it is.

"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. Not enough of the fumarase enzyme can lead to severe mental retardation and physical deformities.

"'The kids that I have seen have terrible seizure disorders and developmental delays,' says Dr. Aleck. 'They are functioning way below their chronological age.'

"Yet, Aleck says, some children are more seriously affected by the disorder than others. "Some are very debilitated and some aren't," he says.

"Some fumarase deficiency children, he says, develop a small degree of motor skills over time: 'They don't remain infantile their entire life. They do develop to some degree, but it's way behind their peers.'

"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.' Their brains, he says, 'are strangely shaped' and are frequently missing large areas of brain matter that has been replaced by water. An MRI of the brain of one fumarase deficiency child showed that more than half the brain was missing.

"Tarby says most of the children 'can say at least a word or two,' but that all of them 'have severe mental retardation' with IQs of less than 25.

"Some of the kids can walk, but others have a difficult time even sitting. The children who can't walk, the medical experts say, have most likely suffered strokes during severe seizures. . . .

"'People don't like to talk about their fumarase babies for obvious reasons,' Wyler says. 'I don't know how many who die within the first two or three years that we don't even ever know about.'

"Wyler says he has seen some fumarase deficiency children who can walk, but others can barely move and spend their entire lives prone. Children of the latter variety, he says, 'can't crawl. They can't sit up. They are lucky if they can even move their head and eyes a little bit.'

"All of the fumarase deficiency children Wyler has seen remain dependent on the parents or caregivers. 'They are totally helpless,' he says.

"Frequent and powerful seizures are among the most disturbing characteristics of the disease. Wyler says he once saw a fumarase deficiency child suffer a seizure while she was sitting with her mother and two other children also suffering from the disorder. 'All of a sudden [with] this one little baby, everything tightened up and she arched her back so hard her head was almost touching her toes,' Wyler says. . . .

"'One lady I know, she just cannot physically pick [her son] up anymore to get him into the bathtub,' Wyler says. 'A lady comes in and helps her. And it takes two of them to get him into the bathtub just to wash him down and clean him up.' . . .

"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. If such a test were developed, a community-wide screening program could be instituted that would identify those carrying the fumarase gene.

"Dr. Vinodh Narayanan, a pediatric neurologist at St. Joseph's Hospital, says he is seeking funding to develop a test that would allow public health officials to collect voluntary blood samples from as many FLDS members as possible. The samples could be tested for the gene at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix. He estimates the test would . . . provide crucial information to community members of who is carrying the recessive gene that causes fumarase deficiency.

"Until the test is available, Tarby says, the best prevention measure remains refraining from crossing Barlows, Jessops and their relations--who make up half the population of the polygamist enclave.

"It's unlikely the polygamous community will heed the doctor's advice. Even the few highly educated people there . . . refuse to accept advice from any outsider, including doctors such as Tarby, who has treated their children for years. 'They don't believe anything written about Colorado City [by outsiders, even medical experts] carries much truth,' Tarby says.

"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.

"The leaders must also understand the ethical considerations of continuing behavior, he says, that is bringing children into the world who suffer tragic deformities. 'They have the authoritarian structure necessary to keep this from happening, but I don't think they have the advanced thinking,' Aleck says.

'I try in my own, quiet way and tell them to outbreed. But that's like spitting in the ocean.'

"The ultimate decision on marriages rests with FLDS Prophet Warren Jeffs. And Jeffs so far has shown no indication that he is concerned about the increasing prevalence of fumarase deficiency children in the community, former FLDS member Isaac Wyler says. Even if a genetic screening test were available, Wyler says, Jeffs would have to be cautious about how he allowed it to be implemented. 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.

"'Warren has to be really careful that he doesn't lose his position as a god to these people,' Wyler says.

"FLDS marriages, Wyler and other community experts say, are an extension of a breeding program that began with Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith in the 1830s. The early Mormon Church practiced polygamy until 1890, when leaders abandoned the practice as a condition for Utah to gain statehood. The FLDS was formed by Mormons who refused to give up polygamy.

"Warren Jeffs, like Joseph Smith before him, has emphasized the importance of obedience among members of the church. Jeffs is following a long-established practice -- started by Smith 170 years ago -- of excommunicating those who do not strictly adhere to church leaders' commands.

"'The "gene" that Warren is really selecting for,' Wyler says, 'is the "obedience gene."'

"'Joseph Smith was also selecting for the "obedience gene." He was kicking people out, too, who weren't obedient. 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.'

"The ultimate goal of the breeding program, Wyler says, is to create the perfect race. 'Remember how Hitler was trying to breed a perfect race?' he says. 'Warren Jeffs is also trying to breed a perfect race.'

"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.

"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. '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. 'In the meantime, the taxpayers have to pay the bills.'"

(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)
_____

--Case Study in Mormon-Moored Mutation: Utah's Mormon Offshoot Kingston Clan

From the previously-cited article, "Understanding Polygamy":

"The polygamous Kingston family professes that their genealogy line traces back to Jesus Christ, and so they possess holy blood. Therefore, to keep the bloodline 'pure,' the Kingstons intermarry--half-brothers and sisters, uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews, and so forth. Consequently, genetic diseases and mutations have inevitably sprouted in many polygamous groups having this belief. 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."

("Understanding Polygamy," from "Humanists of Utah," at: http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2005/UnderstandingPolygamy_July-05.html)

Below are further horrific details of the Kingston clan's "God-given genetic calamity, brought to you courtesy of Joseph Smith's Mormonism, as reported in the "Salt Lake Tribune" article, "When Incest Becomes a Religious Tenet":

". . . Connie Rugg [is] one of John Ortell's estimated 65 children and one of a handful of Kingston relatives who have fled the clan. Faced with the forced marriage to an uncle, Rugg left the Kingstons.

"'All my life, my family told me I had to marry a Kingston,' says Rugg. 'I could choose, but it had to be a brother, uncle or cousin.' . . .

"If female, they are married off to the few, powerful prominent males: incest is the fate of many teen-age girls. If male, some of these same 'worker bees' marry only once.

"'My father manipulated and controlled people,' Rugg says. 'He wanted to control his children and grandchildren through genetics. He believed he had superior bloodlines.' . . .

"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.

"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. . . .

"John and Charles' brother, Merlin Barnum Kingston, married and had children with four nieces and a half-sister, say ex-members, including one of his own daughters. 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.

"'It makes you sick; it turns your stomach,' she says. 'And yet nobody wants to do anything about it. Nobody, from the police to [the governor], cares that these children are abused from conception to marriage.'

"Today, six sons and two daughters of John Ortell and LaDonna have married at least 20 half-sisters, nieces and first cousins, giving birth to a family tree that twists and tangles, and, at times, withers with children born of genetic deficiencies. . .
.
"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.

"Last year, a 16-year-old daughter of John Daniel Kingston was forced to marry her uncle, David Ortell Kingston, criminal charges allege, . . . [i]n a secret church ceremony. . .
.
"He sent her to live in a coal yard with other polygamous wives and their many children in South Salt Lake, visiting her rarely and usually only to have sex, she testified.

"In May, the girl said she was belt-whipped by her father inside a Kingston-owned barn in Box Elder County for fleeing the marriage, and was abandoned in the home of another of John Daniel's wives. The girl's father and mother, Susan Nelson (one of John Daniel's many wives) are half-sister and brother. They purportedly have 10 children, the girl told police. . .
.
"The clan's other numerous incestuous couplings among consenting adults . . . present a troubling scenario for law enforcement: these are crimes of a sexual nature committed in private in a closed society.

"Farm Roots of Incest: Marriages in the Kingston clan must be sanctioned by [the] current head of the church . . . .

"The same right of marriage approval was wielded by John Ortell Kingston, who began the incestuous lineage. While building his polygamous empire, John Ortell raised pigeons and Holsteins, prized black-and-white milk cows. .
. .
"It was . . . 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.

"'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.

"'My guess is this man had used some of these inbreeding practices in his herd so he was probably in the camp that believed superior genetics could be propagated in a particular line,' Green says. '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. When you pair up those undesirable genes, something strange will pop out.'

"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. Outwardly, she appeared to have no sex organs. The girl, born to John Ortell and Isabell Johnson, was not the product of an incestuous marriage. Family members attribute the defects to the advanced ages of the mother and father -- he was 64, she was 45.

"'My mother should not have produced another baby," says Rugg, also Isabell and John Ortell's daughter and the baby's full sister. 'Her body tried to miscarry many, many times.'

"The baby, delivered at Johnson's home in 1983, was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center. 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. . . .

"Now 16, Rugg's sister was married to and subsequently left one of her half-brother's sons.

"Another of Rugg's full sisters, Andrea Johnson, died in 1992 of complications of pre-eclampsia, a condition of pregnancy that was not treated until after the young girl, swollen with toxic fluid, was rushed to the emergency unit at University Hospital. The baby survived, but has cerebral palsy. . . .

"Andrea's son, now 7, lives with his father, Jason Kingston--Andrea's half-brother--and Rosalind, his niece.

"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.

"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. 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.

"In 1996, the now 31-year-old Kingston mother of two slow-growing children sought explanations at Primary Children's Medical Center. Initially, she tried to conceal her marital relationship. 'I didn't dare talk about it,' she says. Eventually, she admitted she had married her half-brother and given birth to three children.

"Two years later, a pair of geneticists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., flew to Utah where they hoped to stage a seminar for Kingston family members about the dangers of incest and birth defects, and, presumably, gain permission to study the clan. . . .

"'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. She says her parents, Merlin Barnum Kingston (John Ortell's brother) and Joyce Fransden, were uncle and niece. And her ex-husband's parents, Merlin and Carolyn Kingston, were uncle and niece.

"'I knew I would have to marry my [half-] brother ever since I was 12,' says the woman. The couple had lived together since the age of 7, when the mother of the woman's half-brother died.

"The rate at which Kingstons marry each other is 'frightening,' she says. 'It's a bomb that's going to explode.'

"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.

"Other possible genetic traits include: microcephaly, a malformation of the skull in which the infant has a small head (ex-members say two children with microcephaly have died and eight others are institutionalized); blindness; spina bifida; Down syndrome; kidney disease and abnormal leg and arm joints.

"While none of these can positively be linked to incest without DNA testing, geneticists say most of the conditions are exacerbated by incest.

"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.

"'You don't want to jump to the conclusion and say all of these are the result of inbreeding,' he says. 'But just on general principles, the offspring of uncle-niece, or half-siblings have an elevated level of genetic disease. There is no doubt about that at all. So when you see all of these diseases occurring in the children, it's possible some are the result of inbreeding.'

"Of all the arguments against incest, says Jorde, the likelihood that genetic abnormalities will be passed to succeeding generations is the most persuasive.'We do know there are biological hazards. A fourth to half of father-daughter and brother-sister offspring have mental or physical deficiencies. It gets pretty bleak when it gets that close.' . . .

"Including Utah, 37 states outlaw first-cousin marriage. The 1996 Utah Legislature approved first-cousin marriages, only after age 65, or age 55 if the couple cannot conceive children.

"It is possible that positive genetic traits could be passed along through human inbreeding. 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.

"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. 'So often when you have an uncle-niece, or half-brother-sister, you have a situation where abuse is going on,' Jorde says. 'And when you talk about the public interest, you have to consider who pays for the consequences. If these couples are . . . mating in a way that increases genetic diseases, that the public ends up supporting, it becomes a matter of public interest.'

"The Kingstons are among a small number of family groups in the world who marry closer than first cousins on a regular basis.

"'Incest as a policy or routine practice is rare,' says Melvin Williams, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and a leading expert in the study of kinship systems. . . .

"Of the Kingstons, Williams says: 'There is not much you can do about them. The notoriety will just make them zoo specimens. People are always trying to find people who are inferior and brand them as such.' Still, if children are caught up in an abusive or incestuous situation, Williams would encourage policing. 'Children should not be victims of such programs.'

"A Secretive Refrain: . . . One recent morning [John Ortell's niece and third wife, Mary Gustafson] defended her complicity in arranging her daughters' marriages to their half-brothers, sons of John Ortell and LaDonna.

"'Those boys are the most moral, upstanding and wonderful people I know,' she said, clutching a grandchild to her thin hip. 'Most of what you print is lies, lies, lies.' . .
.
"When asked, a little boy and girl at the home acknowledged who their mother is.

"Then, as generations of polygamous Kingston children have been taught, they demurred to questions about their father. Naming a father could expose the truth, unveil secrets of paternity and subject the clan to further scrutiny from those who don't approve of incest.

"'We don't have a dad,' the little boy said. Then he scooted away, smiling, aboard a plastic toy car, his feet smacking the sidewalk."

(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
_____

--Conclusion: Mormonism is Sick--and So (Genetically Speaking) Are the Faithful Followers of the LDS Legacy of Blood-Poisoned Polygamy

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. 15, p. 227

-Kimball, "Journal of Discourses," vol. 5, p. 22

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?

ozpoof
Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . . .
The chickens are coming home to roost. Unfortunately, it's still the innocent who suffer due to Joseph Smith's lies.

hello
Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . . .
shocking stuff...

horrifying

ipo
Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . . .
"Throughout the world, most polygamy is exogamous, or breeding outside the group. Breeding within, as Mormons did--endogamous polygamy--is virtually never practiced."

AFAIK it's quite contrary, for example MENA / Pakistan people very often marry 1st cousins. 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.

lucky
Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . . .
requote from Steve's excellent post !

-The Prophet Brigham Young, "Journal of Discourses," vol. 11, p. 128

Brigham Young calling some one else a thief especially "women thieves" ABSOLUTE HILARITY !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmhjgaB2Hi8

my question is: How come MORmON god does not get on board with His own programs? 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
breeding really functional?

Certainly if MORmON Jesus had done this, we would hear all about it from the LDS as *proof* that God was doing his modern work via MORmONISM, but alas there is no such manifestation !

STUPID ASS MORmONS!

Soft Machine
Thanks Steve
An excellent summary as usual.

The Lard apparently should have done genetics 101. I think most people are made aware of the problems caused by inbreeding (a nicer word than incest) when they are still young teenagers.

Certainly the British and French education systems make it clear quite early on (13-14 yrs old).

Reading the ignorant responses of the polygs - particularly in the face of the evidence all around them - makes my blood boil.

Why aren't they prosecuted ?

Tom in Paris

smith
Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . . .
I thought that these children are the righteous in Heaven/pre-existence who helped remove Satan! I guess I now have to call BS on one more Mormon doctrine!

Cheryl
Author, Linda Walker lost many relatives to genetic diseases caused by mormon polygamy.
She was a speaker at an exmo conference in SLC about five years ago and is very knowledgeable on this subject.

Her subject at the convention was mormon child sexual abuse. She's worked for lawyers who brought these cases to light and needed help with mormon terminology and ward politics workings.

Cheryl
Why aren't plygs prosecuted? Because religion is protected in US society.
Also, because mormons control Utah and would rather not deal with the seedy side of mormon splinter groups because of cost and especially pr.

"Recovery from Mormonism - www.exmormon.org"

Recovery from Mormonism

The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Polygamy

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