Ezra Taft Benson

[RubyHunter]

Here's the gist of it. DOM loved his wife more than any other man (including Father Adam) ever has. And he was probably the nicest guy in the world. Thus rendering him the greatest Prophet of the 20th century.

Oh yeah, he demoted J. Reuben Clark

Big UP!

Lamanite

I found part of the book available on books.google.com and I got the gist of the demotion. That part made me chuckle. So faar, it seems like a really good book.

[cjcampbell]

And for good reason. If it hadn't been for the ETB's and others in and out of the church and finally Ronald Reagan communisim could have done much more damage to our way of life. All these years after the fact, with The USA sitting as the lone superpower it is easy loose perspective on those times. There was real danger.

We nearly lost the Cold War and people sometimes forget that. There was a time in the 1970s when America was on the retreat everywhere. We did not have a single combat-ready unit in our entire military. I was in the military at the time. When we sent forces to rescue people being held hostage in our own embassy in Tehran most of the planes actually crashed due to lack of maintenance. The rescue attempt failed miserably. The same thing happened to the boats pulling United States Marines out of Somalia. Most of the boats broke down in the middle of the operation, leaving men stranded on the shore for hours or even days. We let a couple of punk warlords chase United States Marines out of Somalia! Despicable.

[selek]

We nearly lost the Cold War and people sometimes forget that. There was a time in the 1970s when America was on the retreat everywhere. We did not have a single combat-ready unit in our entire military. I was in the military at the time. When we sent forces to rescue people being held hostage in our own embassy in Tehran most of the planes actually crashed due to lack of maintenance. The rescue attempt failed miserably. The same thing happened to the boats pulling United States Marines out of Somalia. Most of the boats broke down in the middle of the operation, leaving men stranded on the shore for hours or even days. We let a couple of punk warlords chase United States Marines out of Somalia! Despicable.

So it has been since the beginning.

The following was circulated before the War of 1812, and remains ever so true today:

God and the Navy we adore;

In times of danger, not before.

The danger past, all is requited-

God is forgotten and the Navy slighted.

A recent fulfillment of this phenomenon came in September 2001- when all (or nearly all) of the Senate gathered on the Capitol Steps to sing "God Bless America"- in the midst of peril and fear, God was again in vogue.

Then, as we went eight years without a further attack, the Congressional architects set about removing all traces of God and religion from a museum dedicated to the history of that august institution.

The bottom half of this cycle came earlier this year, with a prominent member of Congress floating the idea of a 50% cut in the military budget.

Contempt and dereliction then is matched by contempt and dereliction now- and the fair weather friends and sunshine patriots are engaged in a conspiracy of willful blindness and craven ineptitude- just as they have been on the eve of every major conflict this country has been engaged in.

We have been woefully unprepared before every major war this country has fought- and so it will be again.

History will be no kinder to the willfully blind and deliberately unaware than it was to the Tories, to the Isolationists, and the Chamberlains of the world.

"Never again" sounds very grand- but our political classes invariably and almost inevitably grow weary of the eternal vigilance and preparedness that are the price of our liberty.

It is axiomatic that "an inch of prevention is worth a pound of cure"- but our chattering classes invariably balk at the price of the ounce- ensuring that the butcher's bill is always higher when we're forced to buy the pound.

How many lives could have been saved had Hitler been stopped at the Sudetenland?

Appeasement is ALWAYS more expensive than swift, harsh, retribution and deterence.

[cjcampbell]

So it has been since the beginning.

The following was circulated before the War of 1812, and remains ever so true today:

God and the Navy we adore;

In times of danger, not before.

The danger past, all is requited-

God is forgotten and the Navy slighted.

A recent fulfillment of this came in September 2001- when all (or nearly all) of the Senate gathered on the Capitol Steps to sing "God Bless America"- in the midst of peril and fear, God was again in vogue.

The bottom half of this cycle came earlier this year, with Barney Frank floating the idea of a 50% cut in the military budget.

Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting for more than ten years that the United States will collapse in 2010. This man is no fringe crackpot. He is former KGB, studied politics and economics in the US, and used the same analytical tools with which French scientist Emmanuel Todd predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union 15 years before it happened. He is the dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for foreign diplomats. He is considered to be one of the top experts on Russian-American relations in Russia today.

Professor Panarin based his forecast on classified FAPSI data. He predicted ten years ago that economic, financial and demographic trends indicated that there would be a severe political and social crisis in the US by the spring of 2009, leading to outright civil war and dissolution of the country in 2010. Wealthy states will refuse to bail out the rest of the country and start withholding taxes; they will have no choice, as their own state budgets will force the issue. It will begin in California, which will at first demand help from the federal government to prevent bankruptcy, then it will stop remitting taxes to the federal government when it does not get the help that it needs, essentially seceding from the Union. Joining California will be Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. They will form a new country (the California Republic) that will be strongly influenced by China if not outright annexed by China. Hawaii and the Pacific islands will be seized by China or Japan. Alaska will return to Russian control. The northern midwest will form another country dominated by Canada, while the southern midwest, the Texas Republic, will be dominated by Mexico. The Atlantic seaboard may join the European Union. The interesting thing about Panarin's predictions is that he has been pretty close to being right on the money so far. However, Panarin himself says that this worst-case scenario is only about 45-55% likely.

Let us hope Professor Panarin is wrong. If he is right, it is far too late to do anything about it.

[ERayR]

So it has been since the beginning.

The following was circulated before the War of 1812, and remains ever so true today:

God and the Navy we adore;

In times of danger, not before.

The danger past, all is requited-

God is forgotten and the Navy slighted.

A recent fulfillment of this phenomenon came in September 2001- when all (or nearly all) of the Senate gathered on the Capitol Steps to sing "God Bless America"- in the midst of peril and fear, God was again in vogue.

Then, as we went eight years without a further attack, the Congressional architects set about removing all traces of God and religion from a museum dedicated to the history of that august institution.

The bottom half of this cycle came earlier this year, with a prominent member of Congress floating the idea of a 50% cut in the military budget.

Contempt and dereliction then is matched by contempt and dereliction now- and the fair weather friends and sunshine patriots are engaged in a conspiracy of willful blindness and craven ineptitude- just as they have been on the eve of every major conflict this country has been engaged in.

We have been woefully unprepared before every major war this country has fought- and so it will be again.

History will be no kinder to the willfully blind and deliberately unaware than it was to the Tories, to the Isolationists, and the Chamberlains of the world.

"Never again" sounds very grand- but our political classes invariably and almost inevitably grow weary of the eternal vigilance and preparedness that are the price of our liberty.

It is axiomatic that "an inch of prevention is worth a pound of cure"- but our chattering classes invariably balk at the price of the ounce- ensuring that the butcher's bill is always higher when we're forced to buy the pound.

How many lives could have been saved had Hitler been stopped at the Sudetenland?

Appeasement is ALWAYS more expensive than swift, harsh, retribution and deterence.

So it has been but the difference then is that we had the will to win, the manufacturing base to make it possible and the economic wherwithal to accomplish it. Now we are a nation of self centered whiners, our manufacturing base has almost all gone to foreign countries causing us to be on the brink of an economic collapse. Repentance is the only thing left.

[Sparty]

Sparty:

"vendre un canard

[thesometimesaint]

While I still defend and support ETB in his role as Prophet and President of the church his political/racial ideas were a big negative.

[Tribunal]

While I still defend and support ETB in his role as Prophet and President of the church his political/racial ideas were a big negative.

Why were his political views a big negative? Was he wrong in his political views?

I wonder if this is just another example of people not liking a man because he called them to repent?

[John Larsen]

Why were his political views a big negative? Was he wrong in his political views?

I wonder if this is just another example of people not liking a man because he called them to repent?

Benson said that, among other things:

1. The NAACP was a front organization for communists.

2. He claimed Communists had infiltrated the highest levels of government and bantered the word "treason" about.

3. He suggested that other high ranking Church leaders were communist sympathizers.

4. He suggested that the civil rights movement was a communist plot to cause a red revolution.

5. He routinely questioned the patriotism of those with whom he did not agree.

[cjcampbell]

Benson said that, among other things:

1. The NAACP was a front organization for communists.

2. He claimed Communists had infiltrated the highest levels of government and bantered the word "treason" about.

3. He suggested that other high ranking Church leaders were communist sympathizers.

4. He suggested that the civil rights movement was a communist plot to cause a red revolution.

5. He routinely questioned the patriotism of those with whom he did not agree.

Ezra Taft Benson's views were rather widely held at the time. And, in fact, there were a significant number of communists involved in the civil rights movement and there was a string of convictions of people in government positions who were selling nuclear secrets and others to the Soviet Union.

[Deborah]

Ezra Taft Benson's views were rather widely held at the time. And, in fact, there were a significant number of communists involved in the civil rights movement and there was a string of convictions of people in government positions who were selling nuclear secrets and others to the Soviet Union.

I'm rather appalled at the apparent ignorance of history and the real threat of Communism at the time.

Here is from the Congressional Records in 1963:

Communist Goals (1963)

Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35

January 10, 1963

Current Communist Goals

EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Thursday, January 10, 1963

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one, or both, of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture -- education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etcetera.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit, and eventually dismantle, the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

Note by Webmaster: The Congressional Record this far back has not be digitized and posted upon the Internet.

Sources are listed below.

Microfilm:

California State University at San Jose

Clark Library, Government Floor

Phone (408) 924 2770

Microfilm

Call Number:

J 11.R5

Congressional Record, Vol. 109

88th Congress, 1st Session

Appendix Pages A1-A2842

Jan. 9-May 7, 1963

Reel 12

http://www.nationmakers.com/com_goals.htm

Also this 10 Platforms of the Communist Party: http://www.nationmakers.com/com_man.htm

[John Larsen]

Ezra Taft Benson's views were rather widely held at the time. And, in fact, there were a significant number of communists involved in the civil rights movement and there was a string of convictions of people in government positions who were selling nuclear secrets and others to the Soviet Union.

Name 5 prominent civil rights leader connected to Soviet communism. This should be easy since there were a "significant number".

[Lamanite]

Name 5 prominent civil rights leader connected to Soviet communism. This should be easy since there were a "significant number".

John, It's because he was a GA that so many refuse to accept that he may have been looking past the mark on some of these things.

I'm sure we both accept that Communism was a real threat. But indirectly accusing President Eisenhower of being a sock puppet? Pathetic. And then he wouldn't even apologize.

Robert Welch said that "in our firm opinion he [Eisenhower] had been planted in that position [President], by Communists..."

Asked to comment Benson said he "supported me in matters of agriculture. In other areas we had differences."

That's Bush League. How about solidarity. How about a "Hell no I don't agree with that. He was good to me. And I was with him long enough to know he's not a Communist sock puppet!"

I still love ETB. I love him a great deal. He made some mistakes. It give me hope that as I stumble along the path, I can continue to grow as well.

Big UP!

Lamanite

[Deborah]

Name 5 prominent civil rights leader connected to Soviet communism. This should be easy since there were a "significant number".

I think you misunderstand what the infiltration was. It was more insidious than just putting in leaders who were Communists. It was manipulating leaders who may have had good intentions but using Communist methods and ideology to get those leaders to move in certain directions.

[cjcampbell]

Name 5 prominent civil rights leader connected to Soviet communism. This should be easy since there were a "significant number".

Why specify Soviet Communism when I did not? Is it because you know that there were more than five civil rights leaders involved in American Communism? In any event, Stalin ordered the Communist Party USA to support civil rights until the beginning of WW II, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union and Stalin decided he needed American help.

Stanley Levison, New York civil rights lawyer and lieutenant to Martin Luther King, Jr., was involved in the Communist Party, USA.

Hunter Pitts O'Dell, another King associate, was named a Communist in sworn testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy both urged King to disavow Levison because Levison was a well-known Communist, but King refused.

Bayard Rustin, one of the organizers of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a Communist until Stalin ordered the CPUSA to abandon civil rights work and instead to work for American entry into WW II. After that, he was vehemently anti-Communist.

Huey P. Newton organized the Black Panthers around Mao Zedong's Little Red Book and enumerated anti-capitalist and pro-communist goals in the Ten Point Program.

Eldridge Cleaver organized the Peace and Freedom Party. Although it claims to be Democratic Socialist, its organization and political goals at that time were virtually indistinguishable from those of the Communist Party USA. Cleaver became a conservative Republican and an inactive member of the Church, supporting Ronald Reagan for both terms.

[John Larsen]

Why specify Soviet Communism when I did not? Is it because you know that there were more than five civil rights leaders involved in American Communism? In any event, Stalin ordered the Communist Party USA to support civil rights until the beginning of WW II, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union and Stalin decided he needed American help.

Stanley Levison, New York civil rights lawyer and lieutenant to Martin Luther King, Jr., was involved in the Communist Party, USA.

Hunter Pitts O'Dell, another King associate, was named a Communist in sworn testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Robert F. Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy both urged King to disavow Levison because Levison was a well-known Communist, but King refused.

Bayard Rustin, one of the organizers of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a Communist until Stalin ordered the CPUSA to abandon civil rights work and instead to work for American entry into WW II. After that, he was vehemently anti-Communist.

Huey P. Newton organized the Black Panthers around Mao Zedong's Little Red Book and enumerated anti-capitalist and pro-communist goals in the Ten Point Program.

Eldridge Cleaver organized the Peace and Freedom Party. Although it claims to be Democratic Socialist, its organization and political goals at that time were virtually indistinguishable from those of the Communist Party USA. Cleaver became a conservative Republican and an inactive member of the Church, supporting Ronald Reagan for both terms.

I specified Soviet Communism because that was the focus of Benson's threat-rhetoric. Additionally, since "communism" is an economic philosophy--it covers is a wide array of the political spectrum. There are many communists who do not seek the violent overthrow of the government, for example, and find police states intolerable.

You are the first person I have ever seen cast Eldridge Cleaver as a "civil rights leader". You cast a pretty wide net.

[selek]

You are the first person I have ever seen cast Eldridge Cleaver as a "civil rights leader".

Ah.

Presented with solid evidence and named names, you resort to the "No True Scotsman Fallacy".

How utterly predictable.

[John Larsen]

Ah.

Presented with solid evidence and named names, you resort to the "No True Scotsman Fallacy".

How utterly predictable.

I reviewed my post and I confused Cleaver with someone else. Cleaver was a leader in the Civil Rights movement. I appologize for my oversight. However, Clever wasn't a communist. In fact, he was a republican.

[koakaipo]

One thing to keep in mind. Communist or at least socialist sentiments tend to attract groups who feel marginalized, even if historically they can't deliver what they promise.

I don't think it's too surprising that certain voices and groups within the civil rights movement held certain sympathies, or individuals dipped their toes into their sympathies either. The movement was in place because a whole class of people, based on race, were being systematically oppressed. If the system ain't working for you, you tend to either try to change it if possible, or you look elsewhere for something that might work. Overall though, moderate voices led the movement's direction. It was by no means a radical movement, and the more moderate it came off, the more support it got from the mainstream of society.

With that, I find Ezra Taft Benson's political concerns and sentiments more extreme than the conventional wisdom of the day. Him and Hugh B. Brown made for an interesting contrasts in terms of political ideas for the time.

And at the same time, by the time he became Prophet, some of the more extreme views never filtered into his rhetoric and I think he's given some of the most inspiring talks in modern times.

[Lamanite]

One thing to keep in mind. Communist or at least socialist sentiments tend to attract groups who feel marginalized, even if historically they can't deliver what they promise.

I don't think it's too surprising that certain voices and groups within the civil rights movement held certain sympathies, or individuals dipped their toes into their sympathies either. The movement was in place because a whole class of people, based on race, were being systematically oppressed. If the system ain't working for you, you tend to either try to change it if possible, or you look elsewhere for something that might work. Overall though, moderate voices led the movement's direction. It was by no means a radical movement, and the more moderate it came off, the more support it got from the mainstream of society.

With that, I find Ezra Taft Benson's political concerns and sentiments more extreme than the conventional wisdom of the day. Him and Hugh B. Brown made for an interesting contrasts in terms of political ideas for the time.

And at the same time, by the time he became Prophet, some of the more extreme views never filtered into his rhetoric and I think he's given some of the most inspiring talks in modern times.

Oh, how I adore Hugh B Brown!

Big UP!

Lamanite

[cinepro]

If Soviet and American Communists supported and infiltrated the Civil Rights movement, does that change the way we should feel about the leaders and goals of that movement?

Other than raising the sad reality that we needed a Civil Rights movement in this country at all, and that there was enough resistance to it from democratic Americans that there was an opportunity for communists to try and exert influence, what does it mean to say (or at the time, warn) that there is communist influence?

[thesometimesaint]

cinepro:

I guess all this blather about the commies means that because France supported the formation of the US. We're somehow a less legitimate country.

[Lamanite]

It seems as though there was a mad scramble to defend Elder Benson in this thread. Even if his "EXTREME"(Harold B. Lee's words) were accurate, are these rantings part of his role as a "Special Witness" of Jesus Christ?

Big UP!

Lamanite

[ERayR]

It seems as though there was a mad scramble to defend Elder Benson in this thread. Even if his "EXTREME"(Harold B. Lee's words) were accurate, are these rantings part of his role as a "Special Witness" of Jesus Christ?

Big UP!

Lamanite

Rantings is a very inflamable word for one whose words have come closer to being acurate than those of his detracters. Extreme - maybe maybe not.

I think it was conclusions from his study of current events of the time and not part of his prophetic calling, which I respect and honor.

[Lamanite]

Rantings is a very inflamable word for one whose words have come closer to being acurate than those of his detracters. Extreme - maybe maybe not.

I think it was conclusions from his study of current events of the time and not part of his prophetic calling, which I respect and honor.

At times DOM seemed to allow him some latitude in his political speeches. Does that imply that his political rhetoric was part of his calling as a GA, then I will shut my mouth. I will not kick against the pricks. But there seems to be a BIG CLUE, in that DOM asked him to knock it off several times, and when Elder Benson refused and and acted insubordinate to DOM, he got shipped off to England, where he did a tremendous job. And Harold B. Lee and Joseph Fielding Smith held a small soir