In another thread, RfM poster, "Raging," asked the following:

"Steve, could you elaborate on what kinds of pressure you received at least from those Mormons not in your family? They deserve to be named and shamed for their disgusting efforts to stop the truth from getting out. Before I learned all of the lies, I never would have imagined what shameless, scheming pigs these 'church leaders' are. Since finding out the truth, I have sought out every bit of information I can find about the church, its leaders and its history. I would just love to know how far they are really willing to go."

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1060565,1060594#msg-1060594
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My response:

OK, here we go:

--AZ Mormon stake president, Craig Cardon (now a GA), who warned me that I was full of the spirit of Korihor, that Satan would abandon me like he had Korihor and that I must "cease and desist" from publicly criticizing the Mormon Church's sexist view and treatment of women. He also threatened to out me to others as a disbeliever.

--AZ hometeacher (a now-deceased individual from one of the Mormon founding families of Mesa, AZ, whose name I am keeping confidential out of sensitivity to his elderly widow), who warned me that I would be excommunicated if I kept questioning the historicity/authenticity of the Pearl of Great Price. (Curiously, he, too, was closet doubter).

--AZ Mormon stake president, Kent Christensen (professor at Arizona State University), who released me from my high councilman position because of my editorial cartoons critical of AZ's Mormon governor, Evan Mecham (who was eventually impeached and removed from office for high crimes and misdemeanors). Christensen accused me of abusing my "god-given" talents by mocking the sacred symbols of Mormonism, later telling me that his release of me from the high council had resulted in me doing better cartoons thereafter.

--AZ Mormon state legislator, Jerry Gillespie, who complained to my stake president that I should not be holding high positions in the Mormon Church, given my criticisms of AZ's then-Mormon governor.

--AZ Mormon political radicals, Shirley Whitlock and Earl Taylor, who despised Martin Luther King, Jr.; who admired my grandfather ETB; and who went directly through my grandfather's SLC Church office to contact ETB's office manager, Gary Gillespie, warning him that if I was not stripped of my Mormon "callings," they would move to have me disciplined in local LDS ecclesiastical courts. The office manager then called me directly and asked me what was going on in Arizona, saying that these Mormon fanatics were making the Mormon Church look like "fools."

--AZ's then-Mormon Church spokesman, John Lyons, who, over a lunch with me that he requested, compared my criticism of Mormon governor Mecham to public revelations on Christian radio about the secrets of the LDS temple ceremony, Lyons later denied that he had accused me of that.

--Fliers anonymously circulated at a local AZ stake priesthood meeting, quoting Mormon scripture and claiming that I was in a state of open apostacy with regard to my disobedience of Mormon Church leaders.

--Mormon apostles, Dallin Oaks and Neal Maxwell, who attempted to swear me to secrecy about my closed-door conversations with them concerning inner-sanctum Mormon Church historical realities re LDS doctrine, policy and practice. They expressed repeated and obvious concern that I might be taping our conversations and reminded me to keep the matters which we discussed amongst ourselves. Oaks later denounced me in an opinion piece published in the Salt Lake Tribune, labeling me a "heel" for calling him out on his public lies to a reporter, telling that reporter in a taped convsersation (which I have in my possession) to beware of my "anti-Mormon" agenda. (When I eventually publicly exposed Oaks for lying about Boyd Packer's secret and abusive involvement in the excommunication of a local SLC critic of the Mormon Church, Paul Toscano, Oaks refused to openly admit his dishonesty but privately offered to resign from the Quorum of the 12. Gordon B. Hinckley advised him to stick it out). Maxwell warned me that if I left the LDS Church, that decision would negatively affect my family for countless generations, denying those yetr unborn the blessings of the LDS Gospel.

I probably could come up with more examples but I think these are a pretty good selection, per your request.

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1060565,1060607#msg-1060607



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 10/24/2013 01:56PM by steve benson.

"They expressed repeated and obvious concern that I might be taping our conversations and reminded me to keep the matters which we discussed amongst ourselves."

But if that were the case, I would have expected you could recount some of these conversations in great detail . . . . . . . . . never mind.