Splinter Groups Kingstons Doris Hanson Part 1

The teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints viewpoint when 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 this addition of viewpoint on Mormonism on your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director Mormonism research ministry with me today is Eric Johnson. My colleague at MRM but as we mentioned in yesterday's show we have with us today a very good friend of ours Doris Hansen Doris runs a ministry called shield and refuge. And if you want to check out her website its shield and refuge.ORG but today we want to hear more about Doris's experiences and what we've been describing for the past few days and organization known officially as the latter-day Church of Christ.

It's otherwise known as the Davis County Cooperative Society and in a more I guess you could say more pejorative term.

It's known as the Kingston clan.

So Doris was involved in this group came out of the group and we thought you would be fascinated to hear some of her experiences and knowledge regarding the Kingston group so Doris, welcome to the show. Glad you could be with us today to share my experiences. It allows this kind of talking and discussion on things that are going on around us we been trying to give an explanation of a lot of these groups that are not a part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is the want of course in here in Utah.

Everyone knows about them, but there will be a lot less familiar with these smaller groups and of course the Kingston group is very much a part of Utah. Since this is where there based and I think it's important that we realize that there are a lot of other groups out there, and as we been saying through this series many times Latter Day Saints will try to bring up the denominations of Christianity as a proof in their mind that Christianity can't be true, but yet there are a lot of other groups under the umbrella of the restoration movement that trace their roots back to Joseph Smith early's claim they do.

And of course this is one of them.

Doris could you tell us a little bit about when you are in this group and what it was like being involved with the Kingston clan group life, so I was born a group I belong to it by default that I escaped when I turned 18 years old in 1964 is like to be involved in the group using a few descriptive words, it was oppressive, controlling patriarchal abusive. Physically there was a lot of physical abuse, and most of the families and I was spared as sexual abuse, but there was a lot of sexual abuse and others suffered terribly and still do. There is spiritual and emotional abuse as well. I would use is aggravated en masse and with enough frequency to be called traumatic for many of the victims of course from the cradle.

Everyone is taught that heaven is available only to those in the group not only if we obeyed and submitted without question. They spent hours teaching children as they grew up, how to lie to anyone who may ask us questions about our families and of course we were taught to life in the Lord to protect the group. It wasn't until years later that I realized that God can do is on protecting humans to live for him or for his kingdom. So many of the things they cost about God is such a negative light that many people do get out completely throughout the baby with the bathwater, which is a tragedy because there teachings about God and Jesus in heaven and hell and salvation are all desperately and degradingly wrong so it shall growing up in the group for me and for many others, very negative experience. Doris tells about the Kingston leaders when you grew up where they still approachable, or how did they handle themselves well for me personally.

They were not approachable, the prophet or the leader of the group when I was growing up was J. O. Kingston, the current leader talking to his son that jail. Kingston was the leader and he scared me.

My mother always told me that he was present when I was born and immediately when he saw that she had a girl. He immediately claimed me for a plural life. When I grew up my is already an adult married polygamist happened and she tell me about it to grow.

It was going up in the idea make me sick every time she talked about it that he was not approachable. He was very scared stiff is actually a perfect description for him. He presented himself as holier than thou. In a perfect example for all of us to emulate. Yet he was very abusive to his own children in need neglected his wives and about a dozen why I really don't know how many children that he was treated by everybody as though he was already a God, they did have a Board of Directors and all of them were also unapproachable and presented themselves as the example of perfect behavior, but of course those with the Kingston name. They are all treated as monarchy.

They were then and they still are. Many have said the king stands to I counted and I try to come up with a number and I'm to say between two and 300 different businesses today that they run their church more as a business in a religion. What is your opinion about that.

Well I bet there's another backdrop to that their religion was not separated and often the businesses it is now, but that's the legality of time since I've been there, but still the separation is only inform not inactivity. They claim that their motto is doing to others as you would have them do unto you.

Yet there abusive actions and deceit and the way they treat others prove that there are just words. In my practice. Of course businesses. They claimed when I was growing up that they needed the businesses to finance God's kingdom. So every nickel and dime that we had was to be consecrated to the group, which meant that we turn all of our money into their coffers.

We could spend nothing without their consent and course that was often recused.

The businesses were managed by the group leadership and they employed the members to work in the businesses, especially the personal lives and sometimes our young kids, but we never got a paycheck just to monthly voucher stating how much money we earned and all the earnings were put into the consecration account.

So the church and the businesses were one single operation and in church meetings.

The businesses were talked about. We needed to support that all that rhetoric and we were supposed to save all of our money so they could buy new businesses, so the kingdom of God could grow they actually taught some people that if the group failed and Jesus fails. Not much has changed with them in that respect inside left, I saw many stories where many young women in the group are getting married 14 and 15 years old today. The group says they wait until the girls are of legal age, which today is 16.

What was it like when you were growing up. Growing up everything was so secretive, little information was available to the regular member, especially the ages that the girls got married we often didn't even know when they got married, became pregnant in the group propaganda thrives, but truth is hidden so as a young girl into my early teen I didn't know much about what is going on with others that I myself was lectured frequently about the necessity plural life and the rewards that I began heaven first admitting to it. Now there were underage marriages Dan but not as much as they were later because more and more young girls ran away like I did to avoid the their future plan for this that plural marriages for them so they ran away.

And so to keep them from running. They began to marry the girls off younger and younger. And that would hold and that even now they begin marriage classes for girls 11 years old and is classes trained in how to love being a plural wife and the blessings of submitting to her husband in obedience to anyone in authority above her, the phrase keep them barefoot and pregnant is actually a reality in the Kingston group. You know it they can marry them young and keep them pregnant and they won't lose some Janssen NDF LDS scandal and the legal pitfalls that arose from that happened. Instead of marrying the girls off young they began beach holding them instead. At a young age, but not actually doing a marriage ceremony until they were 18 and that way they could claim that they don't marry them underage but to be told. Goals are deceptive because many of the men will tell the girls there be told to that when there be told they had marital rights just careful not to get pregnant, and those mutual goals can happen to young girls 12, 13, 14 years old, so the practice is basically the same, but their definitions are different clarifies something for listeners because the website says that they do believe certainly in the structure of marriage, but not by coercion but by what you were explaining that sounds like coercion, can and probably often is very much a part of these marriage relationships would you agree yes absolutely website and do not tell the truth about their group had lost it over to look pretty darn good down inside it's not now they do course, you when you a choice of getting married and doing it their way are going to hell. That's coercion.

That's the only choices you have. That's coercion Doris in your mind what is the worst thing about a polygamist group such as the Kingston's well there are a lot of worse things and among them, of course, is removal of basic human rights, freedom to choose use other tragedies or brainwashing to keep shining and rejection for those you get out another worst thing is their business, and religious practices are so underhanded and based on false statements that essentially, the truth is totally unavailable in their abuses and mind control techniques are all done in the name of God. But the worst of the worst is that they can't change God's gospel message, they changed how a person can get to heaven and how a person pleases God and they changed to Jesus. He is who our Savior is they turned God's beautiful message of grace into an ugly and legalistic man centered abusive works oriented salvation plan and everyone by the way, who guess save the saved by grace alone through faith alone that they had made polygamy and their United order and their group Savior.

And that's the worst because eternity is a long long time and there are no second chances, but polygamist from the cradle to the grave. They believe that embrace live and die serving a false salvation plan and there's nothing worse than that because they have all these requirements. The fact that an individual member has any assurance of their salvation is probably something that the don't have that and also in their thinking.

They can have it and then if they disobey, they can lose that and then they have to work to gain it back and then they can lose it again and so it's a roller coaster. The weather really is no peace, no assurance at all. We been talking to Doris Hansen.

She's the head of an organization called shield and refuge. You can check out her website at shield and refuge.org tomorrow were going to continue this conversation with Doris Hansen from shield and refuge ministry. Thank you for listening this research ministry. We encourage you to visit our website www.mrm.org and request a free newsletter research join us again as we look at another viewpoint.

Have you ever wondered what life is like for women and children who were trapped in polygamy. So you are invited to hear from ministry schemes reaching those in polygamy, as well as testimonies of former polygamist were now Christians.

This event will be held in Sandy, Utah on Saturday, September 19 330 to 2:30 PM registration is $20 per person includes a continental breakfast and lunch for questions or to register, call Chris at 801-754-3636 units 801-754-3636