John Tucker's journey from Kingston Order polygamy group to LDS church member

[AnchoredinChrist]

John Tucker was born to a prominent family in the Kingston Order of polygamists, his father being the leader of the Order. This video details his life growing up in the Order, marrying, suffering from growing doubts, before eventually leaving with his wife and being baptized into the LDS church. After joining the LDS church, he received a baptism of fire experience, saw visions of Christ, saw his ancestor in the temple, was taught the scriptures personally by the Spirit and by Christ, and gained a testimony that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist and that polygamy was never of God. I included timestamps for the video below.

00:00 Introduction

03:30 John's predecessors forming the Order from LDS dissenters

10:00 John growing up not knowing he had a father, wives living as single mothers, incestual infertility

17:15 Origins of the Order, family dynamics, and Order dynamics

23:15 His mother's devotion, testimonies of polygamy

28:30 The devolution of polygamous systems, marriages being orchestrated

30:45 Spiritual experiences within and outside of the Order, John's father saving him at birth, polygamous miracles and lessons

48:30 Gender number imbalances, polygamous dating relationships

55:00 Cognitive dissonance, the doctrine of exaltation

57:30 The hardest challenge within the Order, and his relationships with his siblings

59:50 Near fatal experience in the mine, being saved by his mother's Spirit-prompted prayer

1:09:10 Doctrinal doubts, severe financial struggles

1:35:35 LDS missionaries knock on his door, attending LDS church

1:48:00 Jesus teaching him the scriptures

1:55:15 Criminal abuses within the Order

2:01:45 Birth defects within the Order, and "the promises of the fathers"

2:06:50 Leaving the Order officially, joining the LDS church, seeing his ancestor in the temple, COVID years

2:20:45 His baptism of fire experience, visions of the Savior

2:36:20 Gaining a testimony that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist, being taught of the Spirit that polygamy is never of God

2:42:30 Outreach to his extended family

2:50:30 His post-polygamy mentality

 

[3DOP]

On 10/17/2026 at 6:33 PM, AnchoredinChrist said:

 

 

 

Edited October 19 by 3DOP

[The Nehor]

But Joseph Smith was a polygamist. I mean, if your visions contradict reality which is wrong? Your visions or reality?

[AnchoredinChrist]

3 hours ago, The Nehor said:

But Joseph Smith was a polygamist. I mean, if your visions contradict reality which is wrong? Your visions or reality?

You can listen to the 7 minutes he talks about it at 2:36:00 — It wasn't through his visions that he first became convinced Joseph didn't practice polygamy, but through his online reading of others who were making that claim and the info they shared. He thought they were "crazy" at first (that was the same as me actually, I thought it was a super delulu idea when I first heard it) and then it was afterwards that the Spirit ordered him (he didn't want to) to do a verse-by-verse analysis of Section 132 and make note of all of the problems with it.

Once he was done, the Spirit ordered him to share it with his polygamist family members, which he again really didn't want to do.

[The Nehor]

2 hours ago, AnchoredinChrist said:

You can listen to the 7 minutes he talks about it at 2:36:00 — It wasn't through his visions that he first became convinced Joseph didn't practice polygamy, but through his online reading of others who were making that claim and the info they shared. He thought they were "crazy" at first (that was the same as me actually, I thought it was a super delulu idea when I first heard it) and then it was afterwards that the Spirit ordered him (he didn't want to) to do a verse-by-verse analysis of Section 132 and make note of all of the problems with it.

Once he was done, the Spirit ordered him to share it with his polygamist family members, which he again really didn't want to do.

Section 132 is definitely filled with problems but that is not evidence for Joseph Smith practicing or not practicing polygamy.

[AnchoredinChrist]

17 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

Section 132 is definitely filled with problems but that is not evidence for Joseph Smith practicing or not practicing polygamy.

I summarized everything that he said relating to the topic, but you can listen from 2:36:00 to hear his words specifically on how he first came to believe that Joseph Smith didn't practice polygamy. His study of Section 132 and sharing it with his family only came after he had first become convinced that Joseph didn't practice it.

[The Nehor]

3 hours ago, AnchoredinChrist said:

I summarized everything that he said relating to the topic, but you can listen from 2:36:00 to hear his words specifically on how he first came to believe that Joseph Smith didn't practice polygamy. His study of Section 132 and sharing it with his family only came after he had first become convinced that Joseph didn't practice it.

I listened and am not convinced. I don’t find the argument plausible.

[AnchoredinChrist]

4 hours ago, The Nehor said:

I listened and am not convinced. I don’t find the argument plausible.

That's understandable, as he only talks about it for a couple of minutes and doesn't go into any detail. I wouldn't have become convinced by the two minutes that he touches on it either.

If you don't find the argument even half-way plausible, I would encourage reading Historical Monogamy Doctrine, as that has quickly-readable sections and actual proper layout for information intake. (Monogamy as Divine Design is great too, but it doesn't talk about Joseph Smith so much.) Even if you don't end up being convinced by the sites, they would still be helpful to you to read to understand the viewpoint of those of us who have converted to the other side, as opposed to thinking, "They must all just be collectively delusional" (as I thought when I first heard about it.) There are more and more of us Mormons who are coming to believe in Joseph's monogamy as time goes on, so you might like to see what's going on inside our heads: Historical Monogamy Doctrine

[The Nehor]

2 hours ago, AnchoredinChrist said:

Historical Monogamy Doctrine

That is a masterclass in selective source reading.

[AnchoredinChrist]

4 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

That is a masterclass in selective source reading.

I hope that won't put you off from reading it. It's one-sided with short sections as it's meant only to be an introductory reading of the argument that Joseph Smith wasn't polygamous and that polygamy wasn't of God. It's very open right there in its intro paragraph that it is an introduction (so it doesn't go in-depth) and that it's intention is to make the introductory case for Joseph's monogamy and monogamy-only doctrine: "These section points are meant to provide a basic foundational understanding of the narrative that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist, together with the elementary case for plural marriage as a whole to be rejected as doctrine."  In its last section, it references the Further Study page for more in-depth and nuanced study, including Whitney Horning's book which I think is over 400 pages long.

As an introduction site, it's actually rather long -- I think it's about three hours to read. If you were to insist that it should "show both sides" then it would be at least twice as long at that, which simply wouldn't work for one webpage. As far as giving an overview goes, it's rather comprehensive, and reading this site first serves to be a good jumping off point to dive in deeper to the topic afterwards, which this site recommends people do by providing the links for the further study materials itself:

 

110. 'What if I'm still not yet convinced?'

Many aspects of early Mormon polygamy are more complex and not easily addressed by simple Question-Answer format. Deeper understanding of this narrative, with important and relevant details of Joseph Smith's life and ministry, can be gained by accessing the listed content on the Further Study page. Additional theological arguments against polygamy, integrated with the psychosocial evidence showing polygamy to be a harmful practice, can be found on the sister website linked below, titled, Monogamy as Divine Design.

Also seek confirmation of the truth from the Lord in prayer, as "by the voice of the Spirit ye may know the truth of all things," and as Joseph Smith read, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."

historicalmonogamy.wisxite.com/evidenceofdoctrine

[The Nehor]

10 hours ago, AnchoredinChrist said:

I hope that won't put you off from reading it. It's one-sided with short sections as it's meant only to be an introductory reading of the argument that Joseph Smith wasn't polygamous and that polygamy wasn't of God. It's very open right there in its intro paragraph that it is an introduction (so it doesn't go in-depth) and that it's intention is to make the introductory case for Joseph's monogamy and monogamy-only doctrine: "These section points are meant to provide a basic foundational understanding of the narrative that Joseph Smith was not a polygamist, together with the elementary case for plural marriage as a whole to be rejected as doctrine."  In its last section, it references the Further Study page for more in-depth and nuanced study, including Whitney Horning's book which I think is over 400 pages long.

As an introduction site, it's actually rather long -- I think it's about three hours to read. If you were to insist that it should "show both sides" then it would be at least twice as long at that, which simply wouldn't work for one webpage. As far as giving an overview goes, it's rather comprehensive, and reading this site first serves to be a good jumping off point to dive in deeper to the topic afterwards, which this site recommends people do by providing the links for the further study materials itself:

 

110. 'What if I'm still not yet convinced?'

Many aspects of early Mormon polygamy are more complex and not easily addressed by simple Question-Answer format. Deeper understanding of this narrative, with important and relevant details of Joseph Smith's life and ministry, can be gained by accessing the listed content on the Further Study page. Additional theological arguments against polygamy, integrated with the psychosocial evidence showing polygamy to be a harmful practice, can be found on the sister website linked below, titled, Monogamy as Divine Design.

Also seek confirmation of the truth from the Lord in prayer, as "by the voice of the Spirit ye may know the truth of all things," and as Joseph Smith read, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."

historicalmonogamy.wisxite.com/evidenceofdoctrine

Showing both sides would require more than one webpage? On the internet? Where that amount of space is completely trivial? That is a ridiculous justification for not including it. I don’t necessarily think they need to present the comprehensive case but there is a lot more stuff that needs refutation.

I don’t trust answers to prayers as an indicator of truth anymore.

[AnchoredinChrist]

On 10/21/2026 at 12:22 AM, The Nehor said:

Showing both sides would require more than one webpage? On the internet? Where that amount of space is completely trivial? That is a ridiculous justification for not including it. I don’t necessarily think they need to present the comprehensive case but there is a lot more stuff that needs refutation.

I just did a word count check on the Historical Monogamy Doctrine main page, and it's over 25,000 words long, which is as long or longer than some graduate thesis papers are. That wouldn't be including the text on any of the graphic inserts. I then counted the Denunciations page and there were several thousand words' worth of quotes on there as well. 

Maybe the writer didn't think it necessary to rewrite what has already been written. The LDS church's argued narrative of events can be found on several sites and publications already, there have already been hundreds-of-pages-long books written on the monogamy-only topic (which the writer herself recommends for more in-depth study) and there are literally hundreds of hours of YouTube videos going in depth on it as well, which are also on the Further Study page. Obviously, the website is an apologetic argument towards a non-polygamous Book of Mormon, D&C, and Joseph Smith, so like other apologetics, it's arguing things from the standpoint of their own stance being a valid stance. 

I went ahead and checked the word count on Monogamy as Divine Design too, and it's even longer -- nearly 27,000 words (26,800-something).