Marriage between cousins

On February 4th Fiddlehead Focus, a newspaper in Maine, had an article about cousin marriage.

It wasn’t so long ago that marriages between first cousins were illegal in most states.  The rationale behind the law was that the children of first cousin marriages would be either mentally or physically defective.  The prohibition between first cousin marriages had been around a long time. In the Middle Ages the Catholic Church forbade cousin marriages to the fourth degree.  Other religions, including Protestantism, didn’t impose restrictions.  In fact, some religions actively encouraged cousin marriages and even uncle-niece marriages to keep property in the family and their children in the religion.  Many royal families married their cousins routinely, and in ancient Egypt dynasties favored brother-sister marriages.