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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?''