Polygamist Church Leader Seeks Meeting With Utah Governor Leavitt

BY RAY RIVERA (8-15-1998), THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Hoping to end ``broad-brush'' attacks on polygamists, the leader of the state's second-largest polygamist church has offered state officials unprecedented discussions with an outcast people.

Owen Allred, the 84-year-old leader of Apostolic United Brethren, delivered a three-page letter through his attorney to the Capitol on Friday, asking to meet with Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Atty. Gen. Jan Graham. Allred says even though his church of 5,000 members believes in the constitutionally banned practice of plural marriage, members also vote, pay taxes, serve in the military and financially support their children.

And, he stressed, his group does not believe in arranged marriages or intermarriage between close relatives. ``We believe in free agency,'' he said in an interview. ``If my daughter doesn't want to stay in the group, she has free will. She has the right to do what she chooses.'' Allred's request comes amid a glut of controversy surrounding the polygamous Kingston clan and the arrests of one of its prominent members for child abuse and a second for incest.

That case -- along with a recent Tribune investigation detailing the excessive reliance on government subsidies by the nation's largest polygamous group, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- has brought unwanted scrutiny to the dozens of polygamous families and factions throughout Utah.

``Just because we believe in the teachings of Joseph Smith, that doesn't make us like the Kingstons,'' he said. ``Some of our young members are worried that their jobs will be lost if they're categorized as fundamentalists.''

This is not the first time the Allreds have been cast in a negative light because of the actions of another group. In 1977, the violent and most secretive polygamous group, Church of the Lamb of God, led by Ervil LeBaron, went on a killing spree, murdering several dissident followers and rivals, including Rulon C. Allred -- Owen's brother.

Today the focus is on John Daniel Kingston, accused of the May belt-whipping of his then-16-year-old daughter for rebelling against an arranged polygamous marriage to her uncle, David O. Kingston. The girl told police she was David's 15th wife. Her father has been charged with child abuse and her uncle with incest.

``We've had an awful lot of problems since this thing exploded,'' Allred said, adding this is why he is seeking to meet with the governor.

But state officials Friday seemed underwhelmed. Palmer DePaulis of the attorney general's office said no meetings would be scheduled and the letter would be turned over to an investigator assigned to polygamy issues. And the governor's spokeswoman, Vicki Varela, said Leavitt would let the attorney general take the lead.

Varela said she was not surprised by the letter. "Nothing is really surprising in the current environment,'' she said. ``We've learned in the last few weeks there are lots of people with lots of feelings about this.''

Polygamy was banned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1890. And although the state constitution outlaws it, no one has been prosecuted for polygamy since the early 1950s.

Today's practitioners, like 19th-century Mormons, considered polygamy the key to salvation, which depended on the number of wives and children sealed to a husband.

Allred does not believe polygamy should be legalized. That would open the door for anybody to marry numerous wives just for extra bed partners, he said. ``I know it doesn't make sense,'' he said. ``But I believe God intended it to be against the law of the land.''

The Allreds are based in the tiny suburb of Bluffdale, about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. More than 500 polygamists gather for services every Sunday at Allred's concrete, warehouse-like church near the Utah Veterans Memorial Park. Other members are scattered throughout Salt Lake and Utah counties, as well as Montana and Mexico.

Bluffdale mayors have called the Allreds ``good neighbors.'' But one former member, Brenda Bowman, says the group believes ``they are subject only to God's law, and here on earth the laws are set up to destroy them personally.''

Bowman said the group covered up for a high council member who was a child molester, and that several members left after their children were abused.

Allred admitted the man, now dead, was a child molester, but the elderly council member was removed from the council and reported to the authorities, who did nothing because of the statute of limitations.

``What else was I supposed to do,'' asked Allred. ``Kill him?''