A man who grew up in a Mormon cult has opened up about the horrors he was subjected to. Val Snow, 35, was a member of the Kingston Group, a Utah-based group officially known as the Davis County Cooperative Society and internally as The Order.
He was the oldest of 12 children that his mother gave birth to in the cult, and he has over 150 half-siblings.
The man appeared in the podcast Cults to Consciousness, where he opened up about the physical and sexual abuse he faced at the hands of his father, John Daniel Kingston, while living in the Kingston Group.
Val admitted he didn't even know that John Daniel Kingston, whom he calls Daniel, was his biological dad until his sister figured it out. Val said in the podcast, "I didn't really see him very often. He would come by twice a month unless he was mad at my mom, and then he would come by once a month. [We] didn't really hang out a lot."
He went on: "[Daniel's] way of raising kids was to first establish fear, and then with fear comes respect and with respect comes love, [that] is his philosophy." He also said he has a lot of respect for his mother, who is Daniel's seventh wife, saying:
"[I] love that girl. A lot of my experiences of my father [are] my mom rescuing me from him." Daniel was sentenced to prison in 1999, after forcing his then 16-year-old daughter to marry his brother, and then beating her with a belt when she escaped the polygamist marriage.
The man with some of his brothers and sisters
In this podcast, which as per the description discusses leaving "high demand religions or organizations" and finding "healing and independence, through awareness and true individual sovereignty," Val explained Daniel would basically only visit his wives to impregnate them.
In the podcast, Val added that he was forced to drop out of school at the age of 14 and was forced to work in a store owned and operated by the cult. He continued: The Society teaches you that the outside world is very scary and the reason they hide your money is because if the government knows you have it, they will come and take it.
Val added: "In addition to the physical abuse, there was also sexual abuse from my father. And the crazy thing is that to this day I don't know if he actually found pleasure in the sexual aspect or not.
He likes to see someone get hurt. Every time." He's so nice, that's when you know you're in trouble or something bad is going to happen."
blogpay
Total Comments: 0