Splinter Groups Kingstons Part 3

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism.

I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. The Davis County Cooperative Society, otherwise known as the Latter-day Church of Christ, is headquartered in the state of Utah, and as we mentioned in an earlier broadcast, if you live in Utah, particularly in the northern part of the state, you could very well run into these people and not even know it. As I mentioned, they do not have any significant dress style, the women don't have a particular hairstyle that they wear.

They look very much like us, and you could be talking to one in a line at a grocery store and not even know it. But this is a group that is led by a man named Paul Eldon Kingston. It's a very controversial group, and as we mentioned earlier, Eric, you said it has about 5,000 members, and it is one of those splinter groups, and again, we are qualifying that term, that's a term we are using. They don't believe that they are a splinter group, because as many of these groups believe about themselves, they are the true church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for instance, headquartered in downtown Salt Lake City, in their view, they are just as much apostate as they would say all of us professing Christians outside of their organization are also considered apostate. But one of the unique things about this Kingston group is it is a polygamous group. They do believe in the practice of polygamy, and as a polygamous group, they are one of the few of these splinter groups who has a website. Unfortunately, when you go to a website such as that that belongs to this Latter-day Church of Christ, some of the things that you might read may not be as clear as we had hoped. So we are going to go through some of what it says on their website regarding the doctrine of polygamy, and these three points that we are going to go through very briefly are under the section of marriage, lifestyle, and age of consent.

What does it say on their website regarding that topic? The first point, we believe marriage is a lifelong personal decision and should not be coerced. An individual should be well informed to make a mature and thoughtful decision before entering into a marriage. Now that phrase, Eric, where it says should not be coerced, do you think they are consistent in holding to that premise? Because we know that some have left the organization for the very fact that they felt they were being coerced into a marriage relationship that they were not happy about. Yeah, in fact, this is a church where the marriages are arranged. They are arranged by Paul Kingston along with his three brothers, and they have to agree on any marriages that are taking place as well as the fathers of both children, and there have been arranged marriages with teenagers being married sometimes to a man who may have eight or ten wives. And so you have to ask the question, what does that mean, coerced? What do they mean should not be coerced?

And I think there are a lot of former members especially who would disagree with that. A second point, we believe marriages should be conducted within the legal age of consent. And then the third point, we believe marriage to be a cornerstone of our social fabric and stable relationships bring stability to our society as a whole. Bill, with those first three points, would you think that this church is monogamous or polygamous?

Well, you really don't know in reading this because it doesn't go into that much detail. But on their website, they do admit that they opened the door to polygamous relationships. And there's actually a fourth point under that where it says, we believe personal relationships between consenting parties should not be regulated by the state so long as they are free of coercion and are entered into by the free agency of both parties. There's a hint there of the plural marriage that you have to read into, but I think that's exactly what they're trying to say.

And you're talking about the phrase should not be regulated by the state. And especially in the state of Utah, we are one of the few states in the entire United States that has a clause within the Utah Constitution forbidding plural marriage. And on the website, it's argued, quote, although some members believe in plural marriage, the majority of adults in the co-op are not in polygamous relationships, end quote.

And this is what they say. Although not in the majority, some men and women in the co-op have chosen to enter into lifelong relationships that include multiple women. The DCCS reaffirms their belief that relationships between consenting parties is a matter of personal choice so long as they are not coerced and are entered into by the free agency of both parties. The state does not recognize these plural relationships as marriages, and those obtaining licenses for marriages are encouraged to do so lawfully and within the guidelines given above. When they admit the state does not recognize these plural relationships as marriages, that's one of the sticking points with a lot of people who live here in Utah. These groups do believe in practicing plural marriage, but because they know the marriages are not legal, the women involved in these relationships are considered by law to be single mothers when they have children.

As single mothers, they are allowed compensation through the government regarding welfare. So basically, you could say the taxpayers are funding the plural relationships within groups such as this one. Now the idea that you can become a god in the celestial kingdom, it's not talked about on the website, but the celestial kingdom in this group is the place where families can exist into eternity, just like the LDS church.

But here's the kicker. You have to be a part of the Kingston group, and you have to be married polygamously in order to be able to enter the kingdom. Now, what's special about the leaders? The Kingston group has a special bloodline. They have superior genetics, the leaders teach, because their lines originate with Jesus. Now when we go back to 19th century Mormonism, we understand that Jesus was married to several wives who bore his children, and they believe that the Kingstons are special in having the superior bloodline, which means that if you're a member of this group, the goal is to perhaps get married to somebody who has that name of Kingston. But when it says only those who are part of the Kingston group and marry polygamously can enter this kingdom, well that reminds me of what Brigham Young taught. The only men who become gods or even the sons of God are those who enter into polygamy. So this would certainly be similar to what was believed in the early years of the LDS church when they were practicing polygamy.

Now I'm going to say, folks, they no longer believe what Brigham Young said in that statement, but certainly the people who were hearing it back when Brigham Young said it believed it, and because he was the prophet of the church. Now remember earlier we had quoted from the site that said although not in the majority, some men and women in the co-op have chosen to enter into lifelong relationships that include multiple women. Well what about the majority of the men then inside this group who are supposed to not only belong to the group but marry polygamously? They're not going to have a chance to go to the celestial kingdom.

They're going to end up going to the terrestrial kingdom. So if that's true, and I don't know if it is or not, then most of the men cannot look forward to having the celestial glory and an exalted state with their families. And also you would think that a group like this, because of its doctrine of plural marriage, a doctrine that for the most part many people in the United States find repugnant, as I think they should. But this is not a group that really gains a lot of new converts. Unlike the LDS Church which gains tens of thousands of new converts every single year, this group does not do that. So if this group is not gaining in size by new converts, who are they in fact marrying? Well that's a good question because there have been a lot of underage marriages. They don't have missionaries as you mentioned. They're not going out trying to get you to join their church.

And especially if you're a man, they're not wanting you to join because there's only so many women to go around. In 2018, the Salt Lake Tribune published an in-depth article and it explained that underage marriages have been taking place in the last years. Since the start of 1997, the Salt Lake Tribune found that 65 marriages among members of the Kingston group where the bride was 15, 16, or 17.

The two most recent of those marriages, according to wedding certificates, occurred in April of 2018. Now we need to understand in Utah, they raised the age from 15 to 16. You cannot get married in Utah until you're at least 16 and you have to have parent's permission, 16 and 17.

You have to wait until you're 18 to not have that parent's permission. But Rachel Young, who was a member of this church, told a court in 2006 that there's going to be incestuous marriages. She says, we're a small group of people. We encourage our young people to choose companions within their own faith. This makes some related marriages inevitable. To deny the right to marry within our faith would, in effect, deny us the right to exist. This is a similar problem that the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has had in the past.

There was a lot of intermarriage among very close relatives, causing the offspring of these relationships to be born with genetic deficiencies, such as the Fumarasi deficiency. If you want to learn more about this group, we have a website article MRM.org slash Kingstons. We encourage you to go there. We have a whole section on the church's financial holdings, and you ought to read about some of the businesses that they own. They own, according to the research I did, perhaps as many as 300 different businesses and worth as much as $300 million. Among their holdings, they have a 300-acre dairy farm in Davis County, 3,200-acre farm in Idaho, a coal mine in Emory County, 1,200 acres in Idaho, a grocery store and restaurant supply company in cities including Tucson, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Boise, and Portland. They are a very prosperous church. And when you think about it, Bill, if this church is only 5,000 to 10,000 people, to have 300 million is incredible. And much of that, of course, is being owned by the leaders themselves, the Kingstons. So you might say they've come a long way from being the old-fashioned blue coats that we mentioned earlier.

And if you didn't catch that broadcast, let me just explain what that means. In the early years of this movement, the followers wore these outer garments with no pockets. And because of this, they were called blue coats. And the reason why they did not have pockets is because it was supposed to signify that the members were not tied to worldly wealth.

It appears, according to the very short list that you read, and that list is certainly much longer than what you have said on air. They've gotten far away from that idea of living in what you might call abject poverty, of not wearing a hat and not even wearing shoes because they are certainly one of the more wealthy groups within the restoration movement. Bill, in the next two days, we're going to get a chance to talk to Doris Hansen, a former member of this group. I'm really excited to hear what she has to say and hear a little bit about her testimony. And we hope that you'll join us for that broadcast tomorrow as we listen to the story of Doris Hansen's letter, Mormonism Researched. We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on Mormonism. Have you ever wondered what life is like for women and children who are trapped in polygamy? If so, you're invited to hear from ministries aimed at reaching those in polygamy as well as testimonies of former polygamists who are now Christians. This event will be held in Sandy, Utah on Saturday, September 19th from 830 to 2 30 p.m. Registration is twenty dollars per person and includes a continental breakfast and lunch for questions or to register. Call Chris at 801-754-3636. Again, that's 801-754-3636.