While doing some research on Ezra Taft Benson on the internet I found a plethora of intriguing tidbits about himself, J Reuben Clark, and Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society.

The John Birch Society was a group of really scary anti-communists of the era after World War 11. This was a highly secretive and covert organization about which little is actually known.

One author maintains, "The John Birch Society's entire structure is modeled on the Mormon Church"(Baracks Backers, How Mormon Leaders Built the John Birch Society)

Much of what is available on the internet is obviously invective by political enemies of ETB,and John Welch. As a political scientist my question is where does the truth really lie.

Of course, there is always the question of ontology, "What is truth?" Usually there are many truths.

I am hoping someone in the forum can tell me more about this subject. Did the Mormon Church build the JBS?

Steve Benson has written a s**t-ton of stuff on this. Maybe two or three s**t-tons. I recommend you search under his username for these subjects.

Some background on Clark. (Read to the end to see Clark's efforts to woo ETB over to the anti-Semitic side through Clark's promotion of anti-Semitic literature).
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J. Reuben Clark was a notorious Jew-hating, pro-Nazi, World War II-opposing First and Second Counselor in the Heber J. Grant Church Presidency. Among other odious acts, Clark was aware of the German concentration camps that were used to collect and gas Jews, but nonetheless hid information on that rancid reality from Grant.

The following information sheds light on:

(1) Clark's relationship with Grant: and

(2) why Clark did nothing of any moral substance to encourage Grant to speak out against Nazi atrocities committed against the Jews.
_____


--Clark Time as Grant's Counselor in the First Presidency:

Clark became Grant's Second Cpunselor in the Mormon Church First Presidency in April 1933. He worked closely with Grant and relieved Grant of some of his heavy workload.

Grant used Clark's expertise in the areas of business and government to advance the Mormon Church's interests. (Clark had significant connections: He had been Assistant Solicitor in the U.S. State Department starting im 1906, thereafter rising to Solicitor. He held several other U.S. government positions during the 1920s and '30s, including Under Secretary of State during the U.S. presidency of Calvin Coolidge and legal advisor to the Ambassador to Mexico during the term of U.S. president Herbert Hoover..

During Clark's tenure in Grant's First Presidency, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Clark to serve on the American government's Foreign Bondholders' Protective Council. Clark agreed, acting as its General Counsel and eventually as its president, while still retaining his positiopn in the First Presidency. With a worldwide depression raging in the early 1930s, $1 billion dollars in foreign bonds held by U.S. citizens had gone into default. Clark's assignment was to recover the money lost on the defaulted bonds.

In September 1934, Clark became Grant's First Counselor. In February 1940, Grant suffered a debilitating stroke, with Second Counselor David O. McKay becoming seriously ill shortly thereafter. This led to Clark taking over the major administrative leadership of the Mormon Church.

("J. Reuben Clark," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Reuben_Clark)


With Clark in charge of the Mormon Church--or at least playing an influential role in the Grant First Presidency--there wouldn't be any sympathy or help shown to the Jews of Europe under Hitler's boot, as will be shown below.
_____


--Clark and Grant's Shared Aversion to Supporting World War II

"The interwar years [those between WWI and WWII_ . . . transformed President Heber J. Grant from an energetic wartime fund-raiser into a thorough-going skeptic over the purposes of war. His counselors--David O. McKay and especially J. Reuben Clark whose Quaker ancestry and personal orientation strongly compelled him toward pacifism--voiced similar views. Thus, Mormonism during the 1930s joined that generation’s crusade—the crusade for isolationism. . . .

"When war finally commenced in 1939, Mormon churchmen remained aloof. . . . Indeed, a year after the fall of France, Church leaders not only believed that the United States was militarily secure but--if Rirst Counselor Clark’s statements were representative--that the European democracies conspired to have America finance the war for empire. There was even a hint that in case of an American war declaration, Mormons might exercise the right of conscientious objection. Rather than fighting, leaders believed that America could best proclaim its mission by peaceful, moral example. . . .

"By April 1942 already 6% of the total Church population served in the American forces or in defense-related industries and by the conflict’s end, 5,714 LDS men had been killed, wounded or were missing in action. The Church itself purchased over $17,000,000 in government bonds, while President Grant personally donated to war charities and urged his grandchildren to bear arms. As the war progressed. Second Counselor David O. McKay and other General Authorities characterized it as a moral struggle to preserve liberty. The Axis leaders were seen as 'cruel, ambitious warlords' and Hitler, though unnamed, as 'the world’s chief gangster.'

"But the response of Grant and Clark was more guarded. Neither publicly defended the war’s issues, while the First Presidency itself gave, at best, muted support. Its warmest expression called for an allied victory, though 'noble men' and 'more Christ-like nations' were required for a permanent peace."

(Ronald Walker, "Sheaves, Bucklers, and the State: Mormon Leaders Respond to the Dilemmas of War," in "The New Mormon History," D. Michael Quinn, ed., at: http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=796)
_____


--Clark's Record as a Rabid Anti-Semite and Enthusiastic Hitler Supporter

A review of D. Michael Quinn's biography, "Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 2002), offers this brutal assessment of the man, accurately described as Clark's "seamier side":

"As a Jew, I found his [Clark's] views utterly contemptible: 'There was one group . . . for whom Reuben expressed lifelong dislike and distrust–the Jewish people. In a 1942 letter to Herbert Hoover, he said the Jews 'are brilliant, they are able, they are unscrupulous, and they are cruel.’ Part of this explanation for his anti-Semitism was personal and part political. He expressed contempt for ‘the foul sewage of Europe’ in his 1898 valedictory, yet Mormons had traditionally gotten along very well with the small population of Jews in Utah” (p. 325). He never passed up an opportunity to express his contempt for Jews. After serving more than 10 years in the First Presidency, he wrote, 'I long ago ceased reading his [Walter Lippmann's] stuff, because he veers like a weather-vane, but I am sure always true when the wind blows from Jew-ward' (p. 328).

"In February 1941, the 'New York Times' reported that Berlin’s Nazi Party newspaper referred to the necessity of 'eliminating all Jews.' This was an echo of the LDS newspaper’s headline in 1938, 'Death for 700,000 Jews Threatened: Semites Must Get Out or Die, Nazis Declare.' Even this stark Utah report gave less than one-tenth of Adolf Hitler’s goal of killing every Jew in Europe. During the balance of 1941 and increasingly thereafter, newspapers in every major American city reported specific examples of the mass execution of Jews throughout Nazi-controlled Europe. In apparent response to such reports, LDS author N. L. Nelson wrote a book against Hitler in the early months of 1941 and referred to the Nazi 'butchery' of the Jews:

"'In his June reply to Nelson’s manuscript, Reuben defended Hitler and added, “There is nothing in their history which indicates that the Jewish race have [sic] either free-agency or liberty. ‘Law and order’ are not facts for the Jews”' (p. 335).

"Clark’s attitudes toward Blacks was equally reprehensible. Along with others of his time, he opposed intermarriage and supported the common practice of segregating blood supplies in hospitals to ensure that no white person would be infused with blood from a Black person, and thus either invalidate his priesthood or disqualify him from future priesthood. But as time progressed, so did his attitude toward Blacks. As the Church extended its missionary efforts into South America and determining blood lines became more difficult, he came to something of an accommodation in the case of some Brazilians, even 'wondering whether we could not work out a plan, while not conferring the priesthood as such upon them, we could give them opportunity to participate in the work certainly of the Aaronic Priesthood grades. (p. 354).' . . .

"Given Clark’s refusal to condemn the attempted extermination of the Jews by Nazi Germany, it seems that his view of 'justice for all humanity' was somewhat constricted."

("Reviews--'Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark,'" review by Jeff Needle, Association for Mormon Letters," at: http://signaturebooks.com/2010/06/reviews-elder-statesman-a-biography-of-j-reuben-clark/
_____


--More on Clark's Deep Anti-Jewish, Pro-Hitler, Anti-WW II Attitudes

" . . . Clark had effusive praise for Hitler and the society he was creating. This is in spite of the numerous reports he had concerning Nazi death camps. He even 'suppressed' the anti-Nazi writings of a former mission president to Czechoslovakia which contained pictures of prisoners in a German concentration camp.

"He repeatedly advocated for a negotiated peace with Germany that would have left them in control of much of Europe. He did so after yet more reports from death camps such as Auschwitz. The FBI had secret files which detailed how Nazi agents received the private encouragement of J. Reuben Clark. After a fireside given by Clark one member publicly wrote that is was 'the most reactionary, critical, and near seditious ever delivered in a country during a time of war.'

"After the war was over he condemned the Nuremburg trials while also accusing the Allies of seeking to destroy the German people. Historian D. Michael Quinn recorded that in over 600 boxes of personal papers there is not one criticism of Nazi conduct during the war: 'Clarks only accusation of war crimes was against his own nation’s leaders and armed forces.'"

"He . . . consistently defended Nazis and attacked any form of warfare. He was so strident that he often didn’t garner the support of other Church leaders and was overruled on more than one occasion."

"[Clark's] comments didn’t escape the notice of fellow Church leaders and the rank and file members. . . . After the attack at Pearl Harbor, President Grant disregarded Clark’s description of the war as 'jungle law of beasts' and published a more cautious message. The First Presidency message in April 1942 did not contain any of Clark’s positions on conscientious objectors, though a later letter seemed to be influenced by Clark. In 1945 the First Presidency against softened a message he wrote."

("J. Reuben Clark: Pacifist or Pro-Nazi?," 17 July 201e, at: http://www.wheatandtares.org/12350/j-reuben-clark-pacifist-or-pro-nazi/)


For a history of Mormon German support of Hitler and the Nazis, see: "All in Favor, So Manifest by 'Sieg Heil!': Church-Encouraged LDS German Support of the Nazis During World War II," by Steve Benson, "Recovery from Mormonism" discussion board, 10 September 2012, at: http.://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,632848


As Germany rose to a position of regained strength prior to World War II (after its disastrous defeat in World War I as the war's instigating aggressor, whereupon it was punished severely by the Treaty of Versailles), it did not help matters that Clark--a former Undersecretary of State in the Calvin Coolidge administration and a high-ranking General Authority--was such a virulent anti-Semite. Clark eventually passed along some notorious anti-Jewish propaganda to my grandfather, Ezra Taft Benson:

"[On] February 5, 1949, First Counselor J. Reuben Clark recommend[ed] [the] anti-semitic 'PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION' to Ernest L. Wilkinson, soon-to-be president of Brigham Young University. In December 1957, Clark ma[de] [a] similar recommendation to Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. This may be [the] reason Benson organize[d] secret surveillance of employees (especially Jews) in [the] U.S. Department of Agriculture."

("On This Day in Mormon History (Feb 5)," by "baura," on "Recovery from Mormonism" discussion board, 5 February 2015, at:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1506314,1506314#msg)

**********


So, J. Reuben Clark gets BYU's law school named after him; the Jews of World War II get nothing but disdain from him; and Heber J. Grant gets a First Presidency counselor with the love of Hitler in him. Quite a package.

Does this help answer your question?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 05:57AM by steve benson.

. . . at least about his disagreements with ETB over national agricultural policy.

"From the 1950 to the 1980s Ezra Taft Benson was at the center of a series of political conflicts within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"In 1943 he became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. With Church president David O. McKay's permission, he served as Secretary of Agriculture to U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961.

"Benson's autobiography and official biography openly present the national controversies involved with his service as Secretary of Agriculture. Less known is the quiet conflict between Secretary Benson and politically conservative LDS administrators and General Authorities in Utah. As early as 1953, First Presidency counselor J. Reuben Clark said he was 'apprehensive of Bro Benson in Washington.' By 1957 Clark and Apostle Mark E. Petersen agreed to instruct the Church's 'Deseret News' to 'print the adverse comment' about Benson's service as Secretary of Agriculture. . . .

"Criticism of Secretary Benson . . . included . . . Clark's concern expressed [i]n 1958, . . .: 'I did not think the Secretary of Agriculture would yield to argument,' in conversation with the chair of the Utah Cattlemen's Association and the chair of the National Wool Growers Association."

("Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts," by D. Michael Quinn. For an extensive review of the havoc, conflict and controversy generated by ETB's radical and disruptive presence in the ranks of the General Authorities--where he managed to rankle not only Hugh B. Brown, but also J. Reuben Clark, N. Eldon Tanner, Marion G. Romney, Delbert L. Stapley, Mark E. Petersen, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, Spencer W. Kimball and the Quorum of the Twelve at large, along with at least three First Presidencies--see Quinn, "The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power," Chapter 3, "Ezra Taft Benson: A Study of Inter-Quorum Conflict" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, in association with Smith Research Associates, 1997], pp. 66-115),



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 07:19AM by steve benson.

Some have argued that ETB did so openly, at General Conference, where he appeared to be targeting members of Mormon Church hierarchy who were attacking his overt and radical support of the John Birch Society. As will be seen, nn his own defense, Benson resorted to publicly appealing to Clark's authority during a BYU devotional sermon:

"Because BYU devotional talks [this one on 25 October 1966] were separately broadcast and published, [ETB] decided to repeat his Conference talk and expand upon its criticisms of t. . . unnamed members of the LDS hierarchy.

"At BYU, Benson made it plain that the context for his remarks was the anti-Birch statements of anyone besides David O. McKay: 'Do we preach what governments should or should not do as a part of the Gospel plan, as President McKay has urged? Or do we refuse to follow the Prophet by preaching a limited gospel plan of salvation?'

"Alluding to the disunity in the hierarchy, Benson affirmed:

"'We cannot compromise good and evil in an attempt to have peace and unity in the Church any more than the Lord could have compromised with Satan in order to avoid the War in Heaven.'

"He then quoted the Church president's April conference statement in favor of anti-Communist organizations, and observed:

"'Yet witness the sorry spectacle of those presently of our number who have repudiated the inspired counsel of our Prophet . . . It is too much to suppose that all the Priesthood at this juncture will unite behind the Prophet in the fight for freedom.'

"Rather than ascribing this disunity about his anti-Communist crusade to honest differences of opinion, Benson described his church opponents as inspired by Satan:

"'Now, Satan is anxious to neutralize the inspired counsel of the Prophet, and hence, keep the Priesthood off-balance, ineffective, and inert in the fight for freedom. He does this through diverse means, including the use of perverse reasoning. For example, he [Satan] will argue: There is no need to get involved in the fight for freedom. All you need to do is live the Gospel. . . . It is obvious what Satan is trying to do, but it is sad to see many of us fall for his destructive line.'

"His next remarks tightened his reference more clearly to the Church's presiding quorums:

"'As the Church gets larger, some men have increasing responsibility, and more and more duties must be delegated. . . . Unfortunately some men who do not honor their stewardships may have an adverse effect on many people. Often the greater the man's responsibility, the more good or evil he can accomplish. The Lord usually gives the man a long enough rope . . . There are some regrettable things being said and done by some people in the Church today.'

"After quoting to his BYU audience the warning by J. REUBEN CLARK about 'ravening wolves' who 'wear the habiliments of the priesthood,' Apostle Benson made it clear he was referring to his fellow apostles:

"'Sometimes from behind the pulpit, in our classrooms, in our Council meetings, and in our Church publications we hear, read or witness things that do not square with the truth. This is especially true where freedom is involved." He concluded: "Some lesser men in the past, and will in the future, use their offices unrighteously. Some will lead the unwary astray . . ."

"At the conclusion of his talk Benson let the BYU students know he was referring to general authorities immediately below the Church president in authority:

"'Learn to keep your eye on the Prophet,' Benson said, 'Let his inspired words be a basis for evaluating the counsel of all lesser authorities.'

"He concluded this remarkable assault on his fellow members of the hierarchy with the only understatement of his BYU talk:

'"I know I will be abused by some for what I have said.' Even the censored publication of this BYU talk retained many of Benson's critical allusions to presidency counselors and apostles."

("LDS Church History: A Chronological Tour Through LDS History. Current topic: Ezra Taft Benson," http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/2015/03/ezra-taft-benson-12-sept-1966.html)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 07:48AM by steve benson.

More specifically, according to the following article, "How Mormon Leaders Built the John Birch Society""

"The John Birch Society is a violent, racist, secret organization that has caused America much pain and misery. . . . [T]his diary will show the Society's actual origins and the Mormon leaders who were behind it.

"The Mormon Church has always staked out positions among the political far right. In the 1920's Reed Smoot, the first Mormon senator and the most powerful LDS leader in politics at the time, was good friends with Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. By passing the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill, Hoover sent America into the Great Depression. The Mormon hierarchy sided with the most reactionary conservatives to oppose FDR and Democrats trying to pull America out of the economic abyss. Mormon president/prophet Heber J. Grant, "detested the Democrat's New Deal policies." ("The Mormon Corporate Empire," p.37)

"Leading up to World War II, Mormon leaders colluded with the likes of DuPont, Lindbergh and Henry Ford to keep America out of a war with Nazi-Germany. J. Reuben Clark, Jr. and David O. McKay were counselors to two Mormon presidents, Heber J. Grant and George Albert Smith. Clark and McKay led the charge against communism.

"'THROUGHOUT THE DECADE MCKAY REMAINED CONVINCED THAT COMMUNISM WAS A GREATER THREAT THAN THE RISING POWER OF GERMANY'" IN 1940 MCKAY WROTE, 'COMMUNIST RATS ARE WORKING HERE IN THE UNITED STATES AND ARE GNAWING AT THE VERY VITALS OF OUR GOVERNMENT. . . . ' ("DAVID O. MCKAY AND THE RISE OF MODERN MORMONISM," P.180)

"When Joseph McCarthy went on his anti-communist crusade claiming communists had infested the State Department, his first stop was Salt Lake City, where he flew in and 'participated in a Lincoln Day banquet held at the Newhouse Hotel.' Presumably McCarthy met with First Counselor J. Reuben Clark Jr., the staunch anti-communist 'whose many years of service in the State Department gave him a broad exposure to world politics.' It was his visit to Utah that McCarthy settled on the number 57 as the number of communists in the State Department.

"J. Reuben Clark Jr. is a major figure in John Birch Society lore. He would often tell the story of a secret meeting with powerful New York interests, interests who arranged World War I. Allegedly, Woodrow Wilson was picked to carry out the plan. Sound familiar? Yes, it's the crazy theory Glenn Beck is spreading, the same theory Robert Welch and the JBS has spread for fifty years. Clark was also a big believer in the idea that God created the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court is packed with a bunch of lefties.

"In the 1952 election, the Mormon far right sided with Robert Taft (grandson of Mormon apostle Ezra Taft Benson) and, in order to appease his reactionary base, President Eisenhower picked future Mormon president Ezra Taft Benson (grandson to original Ezra Taft Benson) to be his Secretary of Agriculture. It was like bringing a cat into the mouse factory.

"By this time, Mormon First Counselor David O. McKay had become one of the leading anti-communists in the country, and Eisenhower's pick of Benson made him,

"'THE APOSTLE DESTINED TO BECOME MCKAY'S STAUNCHEST ALLY IN THE BATTLE... MCKAY GAVE HIS SPECIAL BLESSING TO EZRA TAFT BENSON AS AN OPPONENT OF COMMUNISM, ENABLING THIS STRONG-WILLED APOSTLE TO PROPAGATE HIS ULTRA-RIGHT-WING VIEWS AMONG CHURCH MEMBERS-- VIEWS THAT INCLUDED AN ENDORSEMENT OF THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY.' ("DAVID O. MCKAY AND THE RISE OF MODERN MORMONISM," P.281)

"When McCarthy accused high ranking officials in the Army, the White House and just about every other great American institution of being communists he was using Ezra Taft Benson as his inside source. Benson was an extreme right winger, typical of the Mormon hierarchy, who had come to the conclusion that Eisenhower, and most everyone else in his cabinet, were a bunch of communist sympathizers. Benson's connections with Robert Welch helped generate the communist hysteria that solidified into the rabidly dangerous John Birch Society.

"Welch was a nobody, a candy maker, a salesman, a political wannabe before Mormon leaders chose him to be their attack dog, a role played today by Mormon convert Glenn Beck. Welch's book, 'Acheson and MacArthur' was based on insights gleaned from Benson, a man who hated Secretary of State Dean Acheson with a passion. Welch's book 'The Politician' was based on Benson's communist allegations and crazy opinions. When he was picked by Eisenhower, Ezra Taft Benson was an apostle in the Mormon Church, and so he had to keep a distance between himself and the subversive JBS. Nonetheless, his radical views on race, communism, women, the Constitution, and the economy are identical to the John Birch Society's. Not surprisingly, they are the same views espoused by Tea Party, a JBS front group led by JBS spokesman Beck. And that's just the half of it.

"The John Birch Society's entire structure is modeled on the Mormon Church.

"The authoritarianism of the JBS, the top-down leadership, its command structure, the pyramid design where grassroots stakes, or chapters as they are called in the JBS, are expected to obediently carry out their instructions, all of these are Mormon ideas. Mormon founder Joseph Smith set up this kind of structure 'which is invested the authority to administer the entire LDS empire.' ("In Mormon Circles," p.24) With the help of Ezra Taft Benson, Welch set up the JBS exactly the same way. Benson was an autocrat in the worst sense of the word, stating that the leader is always right and that followers must practice 'blind obedience.' ("The Mormon Corporate Empire," p.197) Even the 12 leaders that Welch surrounded himself are modeled on Mormondom's 12 Apostles.

"The trait that alienated more people from the JBS than any other (mainly because few are aware of its violent history) is the group's secretive behavior and paranoid accusations of conspiracy. This is straight from the Mormon Church, a church with a history of secret armies, secret signs and passwords, and which has groups that 'function as secret police to ferret out dissenters among Mormon ranks.' ("In Mormon Circles," p.34)

"Welch and Benson were big admirers of anti-communist lunatic Willard Cleon Skousen, a man being touted today by Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck. Skousen was a Mormon and had a huge influence on the JBS. He was also the 'rightwing ultra' police chief of Salt Lake City, a racist and anti-Semite 'truther.' The mayor of Salt Lake City once said Skousen 'operated the police department like a Gestapo.' ("The Backlash," p.44) Benson was a close friend of Skousen and wrote the preface to "Prophecy and Modern Times." Both 'devoted long public lives to preaching doomsday and warning about global conspiracies . . . views that are shared by the JBS.' David O. McKay recommended that all Mormon Church members read Skousen's, "The Naked Communist," when he was president/prophet of the LDS, ("The Mormon Corporate Empire, p.152), a book first published by Publisher's Press, which was then run by Thomas S. Monson, the Church's current president/prophet. Monson was Benson's counselor in the First Presidency.

"Skousen was professor of religion at BYU and founder of Utah's JBS. ('In Mormon Circles," p. 170) He went on to develop the Freeman Institute a dangerous 'lynchpin' connection to the JBS and other right-wing groups. In 1980, at the dedication of the Freemen Institute's headquarters, the head of the John Birch Society, Larry P. McDonald, appeared with Orrin Hatch and J. Willard Marriott. ("The Mormon Corporate Empire," p. 155) Orrin Hatch is one of Mitt Romney's closest political allies and Romney was named after J. Willard Marriott, so it's little wonder that JBS fanatic Skousen is a personal hero to the Republican candidate for president. Back in 2007, an Iowa radio host talked to Romney about Skousen;

“'YOU AND I SHARE A COMMON AFFECTION FOR THE LATE CLEON SKOUSEN,' THE RADIO HOST SAYS. THE FORMER GOVERNOR AGREES, AFFIRMING SKOUSEN WAS HIS PROFESSOR AND WHEN THE RADIO HOST PROFESSES HIS FONDNESS FOR SKOUSEN’S BOOK, "THE MAKING OF AMERICA," WHILE HE ACKNOWLEDGES HE HASN’T READ IT, MITT QUICKLY SAYS 'THAT’S WORTH READING.' READ MORE AT THE NATIONAL REVIEW

"The John Birch Society and the Mormon Church have cleared up their bad image to a remarkable degree, mainly by hiding what they actually believe. Very few people will admit to being members of the JBS, but when a person believes exactly the same crazy things that the JBS does, it's not hard to discern their membership. Whether the American public can figure out the deceptions of Mitt Romney before the election remains to be seen."

("How Mormon Leaders Built the John Birch Society,"
by "Baracks Backers," in "Daily Koz," 28 October 2012, emphasis in original, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/28/1151495/-How-Mormon-Leaders-Built-the-John-Birch-)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 05:35AM by steve benson.

Orders from the First Presidency to Ezra Taft Benson to Implement Racial Segregation in Mormon Wards

The Mormon Church had confidence that Ezra Taft Benson would follow orders when it came to dealing with racial matters.

In 1940, my grandfather was appointed the first president of the newly-organized Washington [D.C.] stake. According the Sheri Dew in her Church-published biography on Ezra Taft Benson, he proved to be "forward-thinking" as he dealt with the "many and complex" problems facing the stake. (Sheri L. Dew, "Ezra Taft Benson: A Biography" [Salt Lake City, Utah: Desert Book Company, 1987), pp.157-58).

Dew failed to mention that one of those "problems" had to do with Black women sitting too close to White women during Relief Society lessons.

In a letter to "President Ezra T. Benson, Washington [D.C.] Stake," dated 23 June 1942, the First Presidency issued him a directive to segregate the races during Mormon class time:

"Dear President Benson:

"Through the General Board of the Relief Society, who reported to the Presiding Bishopric, and they to us, it comes to us that you have in the Capitol Reef Ward in Washington two colored sisters who apparently are faithful members of the Church.

"The report comes to us that prior to a meeting which was to be held between the Relief Societies of the Washington Ward and the Capitol Ward, Bishop Brossard of the Washington Ward called up the President of the Relief Society of the Capitol Ward and told her that these two colored sisters should [not] be permitted to attend because the President of the Capitol Ward Relief Society failed to carry out the request made of her by the Bishop of the other ward.

"We can appreciate that the situation may present a problem in Washington, but President Clark recalls that in the Catholic churches in Washington at the time he lived there, colored and white communicants used the same church at the same time. He never entered the church to see how the matter was carried out, but he knew that the facts were as stated.

"From this fact we are assuming that there is not in Washington any such feeling as exists in the South where the colored people are apparently not permitted by their white brethren and sisters to come into the meeting houses and worship with them. We feel that we cannot refuse baptism to a colored person who is otherwise worthy, and we feel that we cannot refuses to permit these people to come into our meeting houses and worship once we baptize them.

"It seems to us that it ought to be possible to work this situation out without causing any feelings on the part of anybody. If the white sisters feel that they may not sit with them or near them, we fell very sure that if the colored sisters were discreetly approached, they would be happy to sit at one side in the rear or somewhere where they would not wound the sensibilities of the complaining sisters. We will rely upon your tact and discretion to work this out so as not to hurt the feelings on the part of anyone.

"Of course, probably each one of the sisters who can afford it, has a colored maid in her house to do the work and to do the cooking for her, and it would seem that under these circumstances they should be willing to let them sit in Church and worship with them.

"Faithfully your brethren,

[signed]

"Heber J. Grant
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
David O. McKay"
_____


Attempting to downplay the condescending bigotry evidenced in the First Presidency's orders to my grandfather, Mormon historian Lester Bush argued that "[i]t is, of course, no more justified to apply the social values of 1970 to this period than it was to impose them on the nineteenth century, and the point to be made is not that the Church had 'racist' ideas as recently as 1950. . . . On the other hand, from our present perspective it is impossible to mistake the role of values and concepts which have since been rejected in the formulation of many aspects of previous Church policy." (Bush, "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview," p. 43)


There is no known record that Ezra Taft Benson resisted this directive from Salt Lake City.

The First Presidency was apparently impressed with my grandfather's willingness to do as he was told, however.

A year later, he was called into the Quorum of Twelve Apostles.

(Lester E. Bush, Jr., compilation of "scattered" and incomplete "notes" on the "history of the Negro in the LDS Church," pp. 241-42; see also, Bush, "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview" [Arlington, Virginia: "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought"], reprint of original article in "Dialogue," Vol. 8., No. 1, Spring 1973, p. 43)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 04:12AM by steve benson.

"April, 1966

"Benson had the Birch magazine print a photograph of deceased first counselor J. Reuben Clark. The Birch organ stated that Clark was 'one of the earliest and most outspoken `alarmists' in America concerning the menace and the progress of the Communist Conspiracy.'"

("A Chronological Tour through LDS history. Current topic: Ezra Taft Benson; " see: "John Birch Society's 'American Opinion,' 9 [Apr. 1966]: cover page, and p. 11 --as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts": in "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought," 26:2 (Summer 1992); and Quinn, "The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power" Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3," http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/2015/03/ezra-taft-benson-17-mar-1966.html


How ETB got Clark's photo on the cover of the Birchers' flagship magazine:

"Efforts by Benson to have Birch Society president Robert Welch speak at BYU or General Conference were thwarted by other General Authorities. Without telling [Mormon Church president David O.] McKay that the 'American Opinion Magazine' was a Birch Society publication, Benson convinced him to allow his [ETB's] photo on the magazine cover. Permission was later rescinded by the efforts of other Church leaders and McKay’s son. However they were surprised when a photo of former McKay counselor J. Reuben Clark was used instead."

("Ezra Taft Benson Chronology: Continued Fight Against Communism [Through McKay Administration], by Clair Barrus, at "Worlds Without End," 29 April 2015,http://www.withoutend.org/ezra-taft-benson-chronology-4/)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2017 05:36AM by steve benson.