-- 7 Oct 1963
[Hugh B.] Brown endorses "full civil rights for any person, regardless of race, color or creed." (1)
-- 8 Oct 1963
BYU professor of English [Ralph Britch] wrote: "Even my conservative friends on the faculty are disturbed by Elder Benson's Birch activities . . ." (2)
-- 18 Oct 1963
When his father [David O McKay] privately told Benson of the mission assignment [to Europe] on 18 October Robert McKay wrote to Congressman Harding: "We shall all be relieved when Elder Benson ceases to resist counsel and returns to a concentration on those affairs befitting his office. It is my feeling that there will be an immediate and noticeable curtailment of his Birch Society activities." Robert McKay was his father's secretary during trips to stakes and missions outside Utah, and would later read the ailing president's talks to general conferences. (3)
-- Oct 23, 1963
Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, president of Twelve, writes: "I am glad to report to you that it will be some time before we hear anything from Brother [Ezra Taft] Benson, who is now on his way to Great Britain."
-- 24 Oct 1963
The First Presidency announced they were assigning Benson to preside over the church's European mission in December. The media immediately described this as a "reprisal" or "exile" for Benson's virtual endorsement of the Birch Society at general conference. (4)
-- 25 Oct 1963
U.S. under-secretary of state W. Averill Harriman asked Hugh B. Brown how long Benson would be on this European mission. Brown reportedly replied: "If I had my way, he'd never come back!" (5)
[Hugh B.] Brown warned a BYU audience against "extremists and self-styled patriots who label all those who disagree with them as Communists." Then in a more obvious allusion to Benson, he said that the First Presidency "deplore any attempt made by individuals to ascribe to the Church personal beliefs which they entertain." Newspapers observed that Brown's "remarks were taken as a rebuff to Mormon apostle Ezra Taft Benson who has repeatedly expressed his admiration for the John Birch Society and its founder, Robert Welch." (6)
-- 26 Oct 1963
In introducing [under-secretary of state] Harriman to BYU students, [Hugh B.] Brown [said] ... "A lot of this nonsense gets disseminated by the professional, self-styled anti-Communists who make a comfortable living scaring people all over the country and who have a financial stake in making the Communists look stronger than we." (7)
Endnotes:
1 - "Give Full Civil Equality to All, LDS Counselor Brown Asks," Salt Lake Tribune, 7 Oct. 1963, 1; Hugh B. Brown, "The Fight Between Good and Evil," Improvement Era 66 (Dec. 1963): 1058; Sterling M. McMurrin, "A Note on the 1963 Civil Rights Statement," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 12 (Summer 1979): 60-63, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson a nd Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992). See also Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
2 - Ralph A. Britsch to Ralph R. Harding, 8 Oct. 1963, photocopies in folder 2, box 4, King Papers, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson a nd Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992). See also Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
3 - Robert R. McKay to Ralph R. Harding, 18 Oct. 1963, photocopy in folder 2, box 4, King Papers, and in folder 22, box 5, Buerger Papers; quotes from letter first published in "Ike, LDS Leaders Thank Harding For Anti-Birch, Benson Speech," Idaho State Journal, 20, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson a nd Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992). See also Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
4 - "Elder Benson To Direct Europe Mission," Deseret News, 24 Oct. 1963, A-l; Improvement Era 66 (Dec. 1963): 1065; "Mormons To Send Benson Overseas," New York Times, 25 Oct. 1963,18; "Apostle Benson Denies Being Sent Into 'Exile' for Political Views," Ogden Standard-Examiner, 29 Oct. 1963, A-7; "Mormon Church Sends Benson to Europe," U.S. News and World Report 55 (Nov. 1963): 12; "Mormon Church Is Gaining in Strength Despite Tensions," New York Times, 27 Dec. 1965,18, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson a nd Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992). See also Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
5 - Brown statement to Harriman and Richard D. Poll in Salt Lake City, 25 Oct. 1963, quoted in Poll's letter to D. Michael Quinn, 13 Aug. 1992. For the visit of Harriman, Brown, and Poll in Provo, see photograph in Provo Daily Herald, 27 Oct. 1963, 3, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson a nd Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992). See also Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
6 - "Church Leader Rebuffs Self-Styled Patriots," Ogden Standard-Examiner, 26 Oct. 1963,9; also "President Brown Supports U.N., Hits Extremists," Deseret News, 26 Oct. 1963, B-l, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson a nd Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992). See also Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
7 - "President Brown Supports U.N., Hits Extremists," Deseret News, 26 Oct. 1963, B-l, as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson a nd Mormon Political Conflicts", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992). See also Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3
LDS History Chronology: Ezra Taft Benson
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Ezra Taft Benson
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
