(Part 1 of 2)
In another thread, RfM poster "anybody" declares that the "FLDS are denying the reality of genetic inbreeding," and backs it up with an article from the UK "Guardian" newspaper:
(RfM disccusion board, 4 October 2017,
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2027049,2027049#msg-2027049; for the "Guardia" article, see:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mormon-polygamists-utah-genetic-disorder-fumarase-deficiency-fundamentalist-church-of-jesus-christ-a7875671.html)
This reminded me of when, a few years ago, I was invited to be the after-dinner speaker at a banquet ceremony held by a group of small Arizona airport managers. The best airport of its size in the state was announced to be the one being run by the polygamists of Colorado City. When the award was announced and the honored manager came up to accept his prize, the applause was, to be generous, tepid. A fellow sitting next to me leaned over and whispered, "I wonder which one of his wives he's bgoing to take with him to Disneyland" (which was, in fact, the prize)
I wonder how many polygamous Mormon fundamentalists have used that same airport to escape the scourge of Joseph Smith in trying to escape to Disneyland.
Good luck to them.
One of the first signs of catastrophic genetic inbreeding among Mormon-rooted polygamous stock is that they deny the reality of their genetic inbreeding. I would urge such deluded folks to gird up their garms and admit the harms.
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--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," 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)."
(originally published by former RfM poster “Deconstructor, under the heading, “Mormon Polygamy: Frequently Asked Questions”)
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 200)
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)
Meanwhile, as Mormons wait patiently and faithfully for multi-wifely's official return, the words of their founding Church fathers sound praise to polygamy past, present and future.
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--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 (The 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?," by “Dconstructor”)
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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)
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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, with citations)
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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)
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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)
*Continued below
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2017 06:59AM by steve benson.