Ezra Taft Benson, Anti-Catholicism, and Church/State Separation

Having recently given an example of how Ezra Taft Benson's politics influenced his church service, perhaps it would be fitting for me to now give an example of how the LDS Church influenced his political service. Benson served both church and state government simultaneously, as LDS Apostle and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

The following entry is found in the David O. McKay Diaries, 1 October 1957:

"Note:
Telephone conversation with Ezra Taft Benson from Washington, D.C. regarding world tour to include Hawaii, Japan, the Far East, and Near East, and finally Rome, Italy where about November 11 to 15, he will be the representative of the government of the United States at an international meeting. He will be one of the scheduled speakers.

The American Ambassador has suggested to him that a meeting with the Pope be arranged.

Later, the Presidency decided that if he could avoid such a meeting without embarrassment, 'we would prefer that he do so.'

(see telephone conversation with Bro. Benson following)


Wednesday, October 2, 1957

Last evening, October, 1957, Elder Ezra Taft Benson called me by telephone at my home and asked whether or not he should accept a government appointment to go to Rome, Italy. The American Ambassador to Italy there would like to arrange a conference for him with the Pope. I told Brother Benson that I would talk with my counselors this morning and then let him know.

___________________

Telephone conversation with Elder Ezra Taft Benson, Wednesday, October 2, 1957.

(Brother Benson was contacted in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.)

President McKay: Can you hear me, Brother Benson?

Brother Benson: Yes. I am in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

President McKay: Regarding the matter we were discussing yesterday, we are all united in the feeling that if you can in honor, and without embarrassment, avoid that conference it would be well for you to do it.

Brother Benson: All right. I think I can.

President McKay: Was it the Ambassador?

Brother Benson: The American Ambassador to Italy.

President McKay: Yes. I see.

Brother Benson: He is the one who has proposed it. But I think I can avoid it, President McKay, because I am going to be in Rome for a very short time. I have to make an important address for a World Agricultural Congress, and I think the shortness of my stay can probably be used as a reason for not doing so.

President McKay: We have in mind particularly the effect upon our own people.

Brother Benson: Yes. That is the thing that concerned me too.

President McKay: And the dignity that you would have to give to such a conference.

Brother Benson: Yes, that is right.

President McKay: And really they have everything to gain and nothing to lose, and we have everything to lose and nothing to gain.

Brother Benson: I am in full harmony with that feeling.

President McKay: Well that is good. We are glad of that. We all feel that it would be pretty embarrassing to you, and we are helping you out of what might prove to be a conference that will reflect upon our Church.

Brother Benson: Well, I think it could be embarrassing both to me and to the Church.

President McKay: All right.

Brother Benson: I shall do my best, and I think I can work it out.

President McKay: The brethren all send their love to you.

Brother Benson: Thank you and my love to them, and thank you for calling.

President McKay: Thank you, and good-bye."

Mormons and the Cross--Sunstone West/Claremont Graduate University

During the Sunstone West Symposium at Claremont Graduate University last week, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel discussion (with Newell Bringhurst, Robert Rees, and D. Michael Quinn) featuring my forthcoming book Banishing the Cross: The Emergence of a Mormon Taboo. Pleased that the presentation was well received (the room was so full that we didn't have enough chairs), I was especially relieved that each of the accomplished scholars on my panel spoke positively about my research.

I already knew that Bringhurst and Rees would speak favorably of the book, since I had worked closely with them both for some time, but what Quinn would say was entirely unknown to me. And the fact that I had directly contradicted/challenged Quinn's interpretation of Joseph Smith's cane in my thesis and blog, this gave me all the more reason to be concerned.

But contrary to the nightmares I had the night before, Mike Quinn's remarks turned out to be quite flattering:

I find the evidence and analysis to be persuasive in Michael G. Reed's forthcoming book.... I appreciate something that he didn't include in his brief presentation today. While his book acknowledges that Joseph Smith's serpent-cane "was either inspired by Freemasonry, folk-magic, or both," he discovered a symbol in it that I did not recognize in my book about Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. In what I regarded as simply carved compartments on the cane, Reed perceives an inverted cross. Now I see it, too. Pointing out the previously unperceived is the role of ongoing historical analysis. I am very impressed with his detailed examination of the transition in official and unofficial LDS attitudes toward the Christian Cross.... Michael G. Reed has written a book that deftly examines one aspect of Mormonism's inconsistent overlaps with traditional Christianity and inconsistent departures therefrom.

In the coming week I am off again, this time traveling to Independence Missouri to present at the Restoration Studies Symposium. It would be nice to see some of you there. If you do attend, please introduce yourself. I'd love to meet you.

To those who may be interested, Sunstone now has the MP3 of my 2009 SLC presentation available to purchase for $3. You can order/download it here.

Ezra Taft Benson, the John Birch Society, and the Peace Symbol

It is no secret that the 13th President of the LDS Church, Ezra Taft Benson, thought highly of (and had close associations with) the John Birch Society.

Since Benson had such high regard for the JBS[1], and since he served in Church and State government simultaneously--as both Apostle and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture--questions have been raised over whether (or to what degree) Benson's politics affected his religious ministry, and vice versa.

On October 2, 1970, Apostle Benson declared in a talk given at General Conference:

Have we... "polluted the holy church of God?".... The auxiliaries of the Church are to be a help, not a hindrance, to parents and the priesthood as they strive to lead their families back to God. Do any of us wear or display the broken cross, anti-Christ sign, that is the adversary's symbol of the so-called "peace movement"?[2]

Having received this information over the pulpit during General Conference, some Latter-day Saints assume that Benson's claim about the peace symbol is official doctrine and based on revelation. But where did he actually get such an idea? Benson was evidently parroting over the pulpit the political fear-mongering propaganda that had been published by the John Birch Society (in their official publication American Opinion) only four months before.

Titled "Peace Symbols: The Truth About Those Strange Designs," the article lambasted the peace movement by associating their symbol with a broken cross, Communism, anti-Christ, and a Satanism.

It was the upside-down broken cross. Such anti-Christian and anti-Jewish symbolism is common to Satanists...

The revolutionaries are pushing this business [of Satanism and black magic] like there's no tomorrow. And those 'peace symbols' are a part of it. They are symbols of the anti-Christ!...

[T]he actual origin of this Satanic symbol can be pinpointed....

[I]n America, as thousands of radicalized youths parade that same symbol, the heretics of the Christian have all but adopted the 'sign of the anti-Christ' as their own. And you can be absolutely certain that the Communists planned it that way.[3]

One is left to wonder why any Latter-day Saint would find this article authoritative, since it likewise associates the inverted pentagram and hand clasp with communism and Satanism--both of which are symbols that have been used by the Church. Inverted pentagrams were depicted on the Nauvoo temple (and other buildings). The hand clasp is found on the Salt Lake temple (and other buildings) and is a central part to the temple endowment ritual.

Says the same article quoted above:

Another esoteric symbol of the international socialist movement is the "joined" or "clasped" hands--the ancient sign of the god Fides. Mackey's Symbolism says this design has been used historically to denote fidelity. It is now used by the Freemasons, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and is frequently reproduced in the Communist Daily World to indicate union between Comrades. The insignia is the official symbol of the Communist-controlled Student "Nonviolent" Coordinating Committee, and serves as the logo for the Trotskyite Communists' Workers World....[4]

Bernard Koerner cites the inverted cross as the symbol of "Drudenfuss," or Druid's foot. Standard German dictionaries describe this as a five-pointed star with one point up and two down. That star-shaped figure, which corresponds to the forked-shape runic figure [previously associated with the peace symbol in the article], is known in ancient symbolism as a pentalpha. In his Symbolism Of the Three Degrees, Oliver Day Street comments that "The Pentalpha with one of its points elevated, was a symbol of the pure and the virtuous and a harbinger of good, but with two of its points elevated it became the accursed Goat of Mendes which typifies Satan and foreboded evil and misfortune." One point (or finger) up, symbolized the monogram of Christ, while the inverse of the Pentalpha, or two points (two spread fingers [implying a condemnation of the Peace Sign typically made with the hand]) up, was the sign of Satan.[5]

__________________________

[1] “I am enclosing [a] copy of the Review of the News (a weekly magazine published by the John Birch Society]. I assume you get it. I believe you should. This has more pertinent information and timely information on the situation today than most any little, inexpensive magazines.” “If you want to get something good, solid, more-detailed articles on various subjects, I recommend American Opinion [the John Birch Society’s monthly magazine]. You should be acquainted with Scott Stanley, the managing editor of these two magazines and one of the most brilliant young editors I know.” Ezra Taft Benson, "Grandfather Benson," signed by his secretary Betty MacDonald, to Steve Benson, 11 February 1982, http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon419.htmmon.org/mormon/mormon419.htm (accessed 12 March 2010).

[2] Friday Mormon Session of General Conference, 2 October 1970.

[3] David E. Gumaer, "Peace Symbols: The Truth About Those Strange Designs," American Opinion (June 1970), 54, 55, 56.

[4] Ibid., 43.

[5] Ibid., 51.

Images:

Clasped hands on Salt Lake City Temple, http://www.halesstonecarver.com/ (accessed 12 March 2010.

Nauvoo Temple Pentagram Window, photo taken by author.

Shane Koyczan, "Atlantis," Words Aloud 2007, Canada

By the laying on of WHAT???

When the 1992 Spanish edition of the Book of Mormon was first printed, a rather embarrassing typo was found on page 626. The chapter heading read "la imposicion de anos" instead of "manos"—"by the laying on of anuses". Upon realizing this error, the Church immediately recalled the Book of Mormons printed, but was unable to prevent a few of the volumes from circulating. The edition (nicknamed the “Freudian Slip edition”) has since become quite the collector's item.



This got me thinking about how LDS priesthood quorums so often argue over church policy and doctrinal interpretations. It is not uncommon, for example, to hear disagreements expressed over whether the child should be addressed or Heavenly Father during a baby's blessing. Can you imagine the arguments that could have resulted from this passage? "What are you doing elder? That is disgusting!" "No. This is what we are supposed to do. Look, it says right here, 'Laying on of Anuses!'"

2009 Niblets Awards--Vote Now!

The 2009 Niblets Awards (hosted by Mormon Matters) nominated this blog for "Best New Blog" and "Best Historical Post". If this blog is to win, your help is needed. Voting should only take a couple minutes. Vote for Cultural Mormon Cafeteria and all of your wildest dreams will come true!

Alma Matter--Does the Name Verify or Disprove the Book of Mormon's Authenticity?

In my previous post on the topic of "Virginal Conception", readers may have noticed that the Hebrew word "alma" pertains to a young woman of marriageable age. Some critics have taken issue with this feminine word being used as a masculine name in the Book of Mormon, insisting that this discredits the scripture's historical claims. Many Mormon apologists/scholars have rebutted this accusation, even asserting that this name actually validates the Book of Mormon's authenticity. Says one apologist:

The name “Alma” must be the most amusing evidence on Book of Mormon names that we have. As Hugh Nibley has pointed out, “Roman priests have found in this obviously Latin and obviously feminine name--(who does not know that Alma Mater means "fostering mother"?)--gratifying evidence of the ignorance and naiveté of the youthful Joseph Smith--how could he have been simple enough to let such a thing get by?” Surprisingly enough, for some of us, Alma has been attested to as a male Hebrew name in a number of ancient inscriptions. In the now infamous Dead Sea Scrolls, Biblical scholar Yigael Yadin discovered an inscription that he translated as Alma ben Yehuda, or “Alma son of Judah.” In another find, on clay tablets from Tell Mardikh (in northwestern Syria) we find eight different references to the personal name al6-ma on six tablets, referring to merchants who by and large were male in that period of time. The Semitic nature of this name, a variation of Akkadian, gives us great evidence of the presence of the Hebrew, male name of Alma both predating and postdating Lehi’s journey from Jerusalem. http://www.angelfire.com/az3/LDC/amww.htm#_Toc531697936

Although I concur that the findings noted above effectively rebut the assertion challenging the Book of Mormon's authenticity... I disagree that the findings should count as evidence confirming the Book of Mormon's historical claims. Why? Because Alma was also used as a masculine name in late 18th to early 19th century America, before the Book of Mormon was published. Having spent a mere hour plugging in various surnames into the genealogical database at familysearch.org, I gathered the following forty-seven examples:

1. Alma SMITH - Ancestral FileGender: M Birth; Married to Sarah Gates, 8 Jan 1789. Presbyterian Chk, Ballston Center, Saratoga, N Y
2. Alma A. Smith - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 1823 , Tuscaloosa, Alabama
3. Alma Smith - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: About 1811 Of, Providence, Rhode Island
4. Alma Smith - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 30 NOV 1800 Shoreham, Addison, Vermont
5. Alma C. SMITH - 1880 United States Census / MinnesotaSelf Gender: Male Birth: 1814 VT
6. Alma E. L. SMITH - 1880 United States Census / IndianaSelf Gender: Male Birth: 1820 IN
7. Alma [chase] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: About 1793 Stephenstown, , Sullivan, New York
8. ALMA F. CHASE - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 10 OCT 1822 Standish, Cumberland, Maine
9. Alma RICHARDS - Ancestral FileGender: M Birth/Christening: Sep 1780 Of, Hartford, Hartford, Conn.
10. ALMA CAPRON - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 18 JAN 1793 East Greenwich, Kent, Rhode Island
11. Alma Harris - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: About 1803 Of, Albion, Orleans, New York
12. Alma L. HANSON - 1880 United States Census / MaineSelf Gender: Male Birth: [1819] ME
13. Alma [cowdery] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 12 AUG 1805 Hartland, Hartford, Connecticut
14. Alma Spalding - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 1790 Sheffield, Massachusetts
15. Alma Spalding - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 20 FEB 1796 , Connecticut
16. Alma Spalding - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 27 FEB 1796 New Marlboro, Berkshire, Massachusetts
17. Alma Otis Johnson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Other: About 1787 Of, Leyden Twp, Lewis, New York
18. Alma Johnson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: About 1792 Of Middletown, Connecticut
19. Alma Scott - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 25 APR 1792, Northampton, North Carolina
20. Alma R. SCOTT - Ancestral FileGender: M Birth/Christening: 4 Sep 1822 Fairfax, Franklin, Vermont
21. ALMA SCOTT - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 09 AUG 1786 Cornwall, Addison, Vermont
22. Alma Phelps - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 21 JUN 1814 Smithfield, Fayette, Pennsylvania
23. Almus ANDERSON - 1880 United States Census / MassachusettsSelf Gender: Male Birth: [1824] MA
24. Alma White - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 18 JUL 1797 Upper, Middletown, Middlesex, Connecticut
25. Alma [wait] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: About 1816 Of, Massachusetts
26. Alma Lee - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 19 SEP 1810 Of, Washington Twp, Dutchess, New York
27. Alma Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 1795 Lee, Berkshire, Massachusetts
28. Alma Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 03 OCT 1797 Lebanon, New London, Connecticut
29. Alma Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 18 APR 1824 Of, Dunkirk, Chautauqua, New York
30. Alma J. Clark - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 1825 , Missouri
31. Alma STARK - 1880 United States Census / OhioFatherL Gender: Male Birth: [1798] PA
32. ALMA LYON - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 07 JUL 1794 Of, Weston, Fairfield, Connecticut
33. Alma Ann [lane] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 05 MAY 1820 Billerica, Maine
34. Alma Roberts - Pedigree Resource FileGender: M Birth/Christening: abt 1817 Pittsford, Rutland, Vermont
35. Alma Young - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: Jackson, Alabama
36. ALMA CROSS - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 10 JAN 1790 Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts
37. Alma Taylor - Pedigree Resource FileGender: M Birth/Christening: 13 May 1769 York, SC
38. Alma Tyler - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 16 MAR 1812 Bradford, Essex, Massachusetts
39. Alma Ticknor Pease - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 28 JUL 1802 Of, Canaan, Columbia, New York
40. Alma Coe Lyman - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 26 MAR 1786 Of, Middlefield, Middlesex, Connecticut
41. Alma Browne - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: About 1796 Of, Greene, New York
42. ALMA BROWN - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 1821 Peacham, Caledonia, Vermont
43. Alma - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 08 SEP 1780 Fitzwilliam, Cheshire, New Hampshire
44. Alma Grant - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 1812 Lake Geneva, Walworth, Wisconsin
45. Alma [thompson] - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 27 MAY 1802 Of, Charlton, Worcester, Massachusetts
46. Alma Thompson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: About 1807 Of, , Caledonia, Vermont
47. Alma Thompson - International Genealogical Index / NAGender: Male Birth: 1822 Grantsville, , Washington, New York


Does the name Alma disprove the Book of Mormon's authenticity? No. But the name doesn't verify its authenticity either.