Sunday, Sep 7, 2008
In the first of two interviews, the former wife of a polygamist talks about poverty, abuse and Mormon husbands' quest for the eternal screw.
Jul 28, 1998 | Last week a judge in Brigham City, Utah, ordered John Daniel Kingston, a prominent member of a polygamist group, to stand trial for the recent assault of his 16-year-old daughter. Kingston, a vice president in a Salt Lake City accounting and auditing firm, allegedly beat his daughter unconscious because she did not want to be the 15th wife of his brother, her own uncle, in a marriage arranged by Kingston, 43.
At the pretrial hearing, the teenager -- who is not being identified and is now in foster care -- testified that on May 24 her father took her to a remote family ranch near the Idaho border, ordered her into a barn and made her take off her jacket, then whipped her with his belt at least 28 times for rebelling against the arranged marriage to David O. Kingston, a blood relative twice her age.
The defendant, who pleaded not guilty Monday, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. According to former members of the Kingston group, as the fundamentalist sect of the Mormon church is often known, the defendant himself has more than 20 wives. Yet group leaders often deny that the church practices polygamy.
Not surprisingly, polygamy is a public relations disaster for both Utah and the mainstream Mormon Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which advocated the practice until the late 1800s. Most Americans find the idea of plural marriage abhorrent and primitive -- a woman who has one-half of a husband or less? -- especially since fundamentalist Mormon churches usually preach that wives must also be obedient to the husband. There are others, however, who argue that when polygamous adults are consenting, as they usually are, they should be left alone.
Further complicating the matter is that Salt Lake City is desperately trying to update its image in time for the Winter Olympics in 2002. The church, while growing steadily -- it has between 7 million and 10 million members worldwide -- is highly sensitive about its image. Because Mormonism prohibits smoking and drinking, it is often characterized as conservative and strict. An estimated 70 percent of Utahans are Mormon. And even today many mainstream Mormons are sympathetic to polygamy, believing that although it is outlawed in modern society, it is an ideal that will always be practiced in the highest levels of heaven, according to Utah historian Richard S. Van Wagoner, author of "Mormon Polygamy" (Signature Books, 1989).
There are an estimated 30,000 polygamists in Utah alone and perhaps the same number in other states. Most are members of fundamentalist Mormon splinter groups, of which the Kingston group is one of the most prominent. They often hide their "plural marriage" from the outside world because it is illegal and stigmatized.
The area that is Utah was first settled by Mormons in 1847, but their petitions for statehood were repeatedly denied because of their polygamy. It was only after the church officially repudiated the practice in 1890 that statehood was granted. And although the church has excommunicated polygamists since 1904, it is still a highly sensitive issue. The Mormons who first settled Utah had been fleeing persecution for their beliefs and practices. And to this day, Mormons are often wary of admitting that the church's early leaders practiced polygamy, or "spiritual wifery," as it is also known. In fact, Joseph Smith, the church founder and prophet, is often said to have wed more than 50 women by the time of his death in 1844.
The idea of polygamy harks back to the families of biblical figures such as Abraham and Jacob. Smith also had a revelation on the matter, now known as Section 132 of the famous decree "Doctrine and Covenants," a companion to the Book of Mormon that is still part of Mormon scripture. That particular revelation was also once described by Smith's successor, Brigham Young, who would become the first governor of Utah, as "one of the best doctrines ever proclaimed."
So although polygamy is embarrassing for modern-day Utahans, it is entwined with the history and religious beliefs of most of the state's population. Plural marriages are rarely prosecuted, even though Utah's Constitution specifically forbids them. In 1991, when a polygamist in Utah filed for custody of six children by his third wife after she died of breast cancer, the state Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision and said the polygamist had the right to adopt despite his plural marriages.
Last week, because of the outcry over the upcoming Kingston trial, Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, a devout Mormon, seemed to tread a fine political line. He indicated that Utah has not cracked down on polygamy because to do so might curb religious freedom in violation of the First Amendment. "It's clear to me in this state and many others, they have chosen not to aggressively prosecute it. I assume there is a legal reason for that. I think it goes well beyond tradition," he said at his monthly news conference. "What needs to be cracked down on, if there is to be such a crackdown, is any abuses of peoples' civil and human rights." Even so, the upcoming trial of John Daniel Kingston is attracting international attention because polygamy, especially in the United States, is so inherently fascinating yet so often completely hidden.
Tapestry of Polygamy, an unusual support group for those leaving polygamy, consists of ex-wives and daughters from polygamous households. Eight members of the group attended last week's preliminary hearing in which John Daniel Kingston was ordered to stand trial. Salon talked with co-founder Rowenna Erickson about what members of her group say is an often abusive and poverty-stricken lifestyle that, under the umbrella of religious belief, relegates women to the role of subservient breeding machines and leaves children virtually fatherless. Members of the group also held a news conference outside the state Capitol in Salt Lake City yesterday to try to draw the governor's attention to what they say are widespread civil and human rights abuses of women and children in polygamy.
Rowenna Erickson, 58, was born into the secretive Kingston church and lived for 34 years as the second of two wives. She bore eight children in 13 years. For about a decade of that, until she moved in with a daughter, she was so poor that she was on and off food stamps and collected recyclable aluminum cans for money. Then, in 1992, she was excommunicated for questioning what she saw as the church's harsh treatment of women and children. A grandmother of 10, she says she is all too familiar with those involved in the Kingston case. Her former husband, Leon Kingston, is a first cousin of defendant John Daniel Kingston and his brother David O. Kingston. And the defendant's lawyer, Carl Kingston, is her former brother-in-law and, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, believed to be the father of 20 children by two wives and another child from a wife who left him.
You've lived most of your life as a polygamous wife, but your parents weren't polygamous. How did you come to your decision to live a polygamous lifestyle?
My mother very much believed in it because of her Mormon background, although my father, a Lutheran, didn't. My mother idealized it. She felt that, since she hadn't done it, at least one of her children should. Also, she thought she'd get religious "credit" and that she'd be more likely to get what we called "celestial glory" in the hereafter, which is what Mormons call heaven. That's because our church believes that polygamy offers the only true path to the "celestial kingdom," the highest level of heaven, and that no family member will reach it unless a daughter is married to a leader of the Kingston church. Marriage is considered eternal. So she conditioned me. I was married in 1960, when I was 20 years old. My husband, Leon Kingston, was the firstborn son of the church founder, Charles Elden Kingston.
Your husband already had one wife. Did you know her?
Yes, she was my older sister.
Your older sister? Isn't that rather, er, weird?
It does seem that way to other people. But when you're in that sort of group it seems completely normal. Your thinking, doing and being are all controlled by the church. If the church said something, we jumped. My marriage wasn't recognized, though, by the law of the land. Usually only the first of a polygamist's plural marriages is legal.
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