The Latter Day Church of Christ[1] is a Mormon fundamentalist denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, and is also known as the Kingston Clan, the Kingston Group, The Order, the Davis County Cooperative, and The Co-op Society.[2] There are approximately 3,500 members of this group.[3]
Contents |
The church was created in 1977 by the joint owners of the Davis County Cooperative Society Inc.,[4] a cooperative created in 1941 to manage and hold the financial assets of the group. The Latter Day Church of Christ is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In the early 1920s, Charles W. Kingston was closely associated with Lorin C. Woolley, Joseph Musser, and other prominent Mormon fundamentalists living in the polygamous community of Short Creek, Arizona. They had been excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) due to their refusal to renounce polygamy as required by the Second Manifesto issued in 1904 by then-LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith. By 1935, following the death of J. Leslie Broadbent, the Kingstons had split from the Short Creek Mormon fundamentalists by embracing the claim of Elden Kingston, Charles W. Kingston's son, that he had been set apart as Broadbent’s Second Elder and was Broadbent's rightful successor.
Elden Kingston relocated along with his family to Davis County, Northern Utah. He claimed that an angel visited him in a cave in northern Davis County, Utah, and directed him to establish a United Order, or self-supporting society. Elden Kingston answered by forming the Davis County Cooperative Society in 1941. The corporation produces goods and services that are used by members, and sold or traded to other cooperatives and to the public.[5]
Over the decades the Co-op has maintained extreme secrecy while developing an extensive cooperative system with assets now valued over $150 million.[6]
Financial holdings include: a 300-acre (1.2 km2) dairy farm in Davis County; a 3,200-acre (13 km2) farm in Tetonia, Idaho; and 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) in Terreton, Idaho; a cattle ranch and coal mine in Emery County; a discount store; a grocery store; restaurant supply in many western cities including Tucson, Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas, Boise, and Portland. It has been rumored that they owned the United Bank but has now been confirmed as incorrect. J. Ortell Kingston aggressively pursued a financially expansive agenda for the Davis County Cooperative Society Inc. and the wealth of the Kingston clan grew.[7]
The Latter Day Church of Christ claims to maintain the original beliefs and teachings of Joseph Smith Jr., viewing other sects in the Latter Day Saint movement as incorrect. The Latter Day Church of Christ has continued the practice of polygamy since inception; additionally it practices close—occasionally incestuous—marriage to maintain "pure bloodlines" that they claim to trace to Jesus Christ.[8][9] The Latter Day Church of Christ also practices the Law of Consecration, the United Order, and the "Law of Satisfaction."
During the first years of the church, Kingston and his followers wore unique outer garments that led to people referring to them as "blue-coats." Men and boys wore blue coverall-type suits tied with strings; women and girls wore plain blue dresses. As a symbol of their renunciation of worldly goods, the outer clothing contained no pockets in which possession could be carried, although later an inside pocket was provided for the sanitary measure of carrying a handkerchief. All went bareheaded and barefoot.[10]
The community practices plural marriage and there have been numerous legal issues regarding this in the state of Utah. However, most civil cases against Kingston clan members have been for having polygamous relationships with members of their own extended family.[7]
The "ordained" male members of the Kingston clan are designated by numbers: “Brother #1,” “Brother #2,” “Brother #3,” etc. The children are numbered thus: If the ordained man is #47, his first wife is #147, the first male child is 1471 and the first female child 1472; the second wife's children would be #2471, #2472, #2473, and so on, with girls having even numbers and boys having odds. Charles W. Kingston taught that “Every individual...no matter what authority, standing, or station he is in, is responsible to the one above him in exactly the same way as if that individual was the Savior himself....We must look at the one above us in the same light as we look at the Savior.”[11] This doctrine is known as the Law of Satisfaction and it places immense importance on honoring all participants with lower numbers, who are higher in the hierarchy.
The church says it believes that every child is a priceless blessing and that it emphasizes family values, education, and self-sufficiency. Children are allowed to attend public school and some go on to receive college educations. The church recently established a private school, which almost all of the children now attend.[2]
The theories on genetics that could be used to "purify" the Kingston-family pedigree were reportedly developed at the Kingston Dairy, owned by the co-op in Woods Cross, Davis County, Utah.[3][12] Use of these theories encouraged incestuous marriages of close relatives in order to "perfect" the Kingston bloodline.[12] Those marriages, if proven, could be considered illegal under Utah's consanguinity laws.[13] Connie Rugg, formerly one of Ortell’s plural wives, stated: "Ortell Kingston experimented [with] inbreeding with his cattle, and then he turned to his children.”[3]
Some examples include:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Latter Day Church of Christ also used to practice child marriage of girls just attaining puberty. Kingston Clan leaders having a "pure bloodline" have priority over almost any other members when choosing plural wives.[3] With this advantage, girls as young as 13 were coerced into marriage as new plural wives.[17]
Despite the wealth of the Kingston Clan leaders, plural wives have been found living in almost inhuman conditions.[18] Often wives' homes consisted of only small rundown clapboard houses with peeling paint and broken windows.[6] Connie Rugg stated: "The men in the Kingston group do little or nothing to support their many wives and children".[6] Sometimes wives will "go gardening," scrounging through garbage cans to provide food for their children and themselves.[6]
The Latter Day Church of Christ has also been accused of engaging in welfare fraud and tax evasion.[19] They have larger families which is typical of the older LDS teachings. John Ortell Kingston was accused of tax evasion and fraudulently obtained welfare by having his wives claim to be single mothers, claiming that he was not the father of their children. Ortell's holdings were estimated at $70 million. In 1983, the State of Utah sued Ortell Kingston for repayment of welfare subsidies his plural wives had received. While admitting no wrongdoing, Ortell paid the state $250,000 and the case was dropped.[20]
The Utah holdings of the Davis County Cooperative[21] are estimated at more than $2 million.[3] including the following: