Splinter Groups Kingstons Part 3

.1 teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from a 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 to this edition of viewpoint on Mormonism on your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director 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 of 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 line at a grocery store 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 5000 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 splinter group because as many of these groups believe about themselves. They are the true church 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 polygamist group. They do believe in the practice of polygamy and as a polygamist 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 in these three points that we are going to go through very briefly are under this 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 that phrase Eric where it says should not be coerced. Do you think their 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 time fact that this is a church where the marriages are arranged there 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 10 wives and so you have to ask the question what is that mean coerced.

What did 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, but with those first three points would you think that this church is monogamous or polygamist. We really don't know when reading this because it doesn't go into that much detail, but on their website they do admit that they open the door to polygamist relationships and there's actually 1/4 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 in your 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 for bidding 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 polygamist relationships," 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 DC CS 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 is 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 that 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 is not talked about on the website but the celestial kingdom in 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 polygamist lady 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 leaders teach because their lines originate with Jesus and I want to go back to 19th century Mormonism. We understand that Jesus was married to several wives who bore his children, and they believe that the Kingston's are special and 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 Mary polygamist Lee can enter this kingdom will 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 that 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 because he was the prophet of the church and 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 enter into lifelong relationships that include multiple women. What about the majority of the men then inside this group who are supposed to not only belong to the group, but Mary polygamist Lake they're not going to have a chance to go to the celestial kingdom there and end up going 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 in all 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 under age marriages. They don't have missionaries. As you mentioned, they are not going out trying to get you to join their church and especially if your 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 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 what wedding certificates occurred in April 2018 that we need to understand in Utah. They raise the age from 15 to 16. You cannot get married in Utah until you're at least 16, and you have to have parents permission 16 and 17 have to wait until your 18 to not have that parents permission but Rachel Young who was a member of this of this church told the court in 2006 that there's going to be incestuous marriages he says were small group of people. We encourage our young people to choose companions within their own faith. This makes some related marriage is 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 is 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 former Rossi deficiency. If you want to learn more about this group.

We have a website article MRM.org/Kingston's KINGSTONS we encourage you to go there.

We have a whole section on the church's financial holdings and you gotta read about some of the businesses that they own. Leon according to the research I did, perhaps as many as 300 different businesses and worth as much as $300 million among that their holdings.

They have a 300 acre dairy farm in Davis County 3200 acre farm in Idaho, a coal mine in Emery County 1200 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 a bill. If this church is only 5 to 10,000 people to have 300 million is incredible and much of that of course is being owned by the leaders themselves. The Kingston's.

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 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 in 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. The next two days were 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 who was a part of the latter-day church of Christ. Thank you for listening. If you would like more information regarding Amicus research ministry. We encourage you to visit our website www.mrm.org you can request a free newsletter Mormonism research.

We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint is have you ever wondered what life is like for women and children who attracting polygamy.

If so, you're 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 from 830 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 again that's 801-754-3636