-- 17 Mar 1966
[T]he First Presidency published a denial of any sponsorship of the [Birch Society - Robert] Welch dinner and emphatically stated that "the Church has no connection with the John Birch Society whatever." McKay stopped publication of his photograph in the Birch magazine and withdrew his permission for Benson to introduce the president of the Birch Society at its meeting during April conference. (1)
-- March 17, 1966
[Letter from former neighbor of McKay Robert Hinckly to McKay] The head of the Birch Society, Robert Welch, is due in Salt Lake City on April 6th or 7th, the time of General Conference. Efforts will be made to have him recognized in some way during Conference (Elder Benson may even propose to have him come to the stand to make some brief remarks). But this is the Robert Welch who slandered President Eisenhower by writing that "there is only one possible word to describe his purposes and actions. That word is 'treason.'" Welch bore the same kind of false witness against Eisenhower's Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, calling him "a Communist agent." He also accused the late President John F. Kennedy, during his brief term in office, of being sympathetic to the Communist goals of world conquest…. President McKay, I beseech you to give heed on these matters to all of your dedicated Counselors in the First Presidency…. I fervently hope that Mr. Welch, the Birch head, will receive no recognition of any sort from you or the Church while he is in Salt Lake City. And I beseech you to require a decision from Elder Benson forthwith as to whether his life will be dedicated to Church or Birch. He is doing the Church a great, great disservice by mixing the two. (2)
-- March 23, 1966
[David O. McKay] "I told Brother Benson that I think it would be best for him not to speak at strictly John Birch Society meetings, but approved of his filling speaking appointments already accepted which were not associated with this group." (3)
-- 26 Mar 1966
Mark E. Petersen's [Deseret News] editorial proclaimed that the LDS church has "nothing to do with racists, nothing to do with Birchers, nothing to do with any slanted group." This 1966 editorial further warned Mormons to "avoid extremes and extremists." (4)
-- March 29, 1966
[David O. McKay] "Brother Benson inquired about the dinner, that in the letter that had been sent out it was announced that he would be in attendance and introduce the speaker. President Tanner said that he told Brother Benson that he could not give him any further answer than was given in the meeting on Thursday. Elder Benson asked President Tanner if he would clear this matter for him with President McKay, and President Tanner had said no, that he felt that it was just as clear as anything could be." (3)
-- 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." (5)
-- April 1966
In the Priesthood session, McKay delivered a statement on communism. The portion below was ommitted in the official conference report:
"We, therefore, commend and encourage every person and every group who are sincerely seeking to study Constitutional principles and awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us. We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it. Supporting the FBI, the Police, the Congressional Committees investigating Communism, and various organizations that are attempting to awaken the people through educational means, is a policy we warmly endorse for all our people." (6)
-- early Apr 1966
During a four- month period, [Quinn McKay] attempted several times to get a statement from Reed Benson denying that he was the author of [the] September 1965 letter: "Two-and-a-half weeks ago I wrote a third letter, stating that if I heard nothing from him I could only arrive at one conclusion. I have heard nothing." McKay did not name Reed Benson specifically in his talk but described the rumors of September 1965 and paraphrased the letter that "all who belong to this group do all they can to foster a whispering campaign that there would be a racial demonstration at General Conference." McKay named Reed Benson specifically in his letter to J. D. Williams, 20 May 1966, Williams Papers. (7)
-- Early April 1966
[Apostle Harold B.] Lee's April 1966 conference talk was a thinly veiled assault against the Birch Society. Lee said, "We hear vicious attacks on public officials without the opportunity being given to them to make a defense or a rebuttal to the evil diatribes and character assassinations." He added "that the sowing of the seeds of hatred, suspicion, and contention in any organization is destructive of the purpose of life and unbecoming to the children of God."
Even more stunning to the Mormon audience aware of the controversy, Apostle Lee's general conference talk also publicly criticized Apostle Benson. Without naming his apostolic subordinate, Lee next told the April 1966 conference, "I would that all who are called to high places in the Church would determine, as did the Apostle to the Gentiles, to know and to preach nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified." Then Lee darkly added: "The absolute test of the divinity of the calling of any officer in the Church is this: Is he in harmony with the brethren of that body to which he belongs? When we are out of harmony, we should look to ourselves first to find the way to unity." Apostles Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, and Mark E. Petersen had already indicated that Apostle Ezra Taft Benson was not in harmony with his quorum.
Apostle Lee concluded [the] April 1966 conference address with a devastating assessment of the unnamed Ezra Taft Benson. "A President of the Church has told us where we may expect to find false leaders: First, The hopelessly ignorant, whose lack of intelligence is due to their indolence and sloth," Lee noted. Then he continued, "Second--The proud and self-vaunting ones, who read by the lamp of their own conceit; who interpret by rules of their own contriving; who have become a law unto themselves, and so pose as the sole judges of their own doings." This "insinuation" (so described by Lee's biographer) was a far more direct condemnation of Benson than Benson's "Judas" allusion to Hugh B. Brown at general conference less than three years before. Brown had immediately recognized the personal reference in Benson's remarks, and no doubt Benson was equally astute as he listened to Lee's April 1966 talk. (8)
Endnotes:
1 - "Church Tells Position On Dinner for Bircher," Ogden Standard-Examiner, 17 Mar. 1966, A-10; "Notice To Church Members," Deseret News "Church News," 19 Mar. 1966,2; "So Much For Mr. Welch," Rocky Mountain Review, 17 Mar. 1966, 4. These are referenced in in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", 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
2 - Robert Hinckley to McKay as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)
3 - David O. McKay diary as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)
4 - "Politics and Religion," Deseret News "Church News," 26 Mar. 1966,16 -- as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", 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
5 - John Birch Society's American Opinion 9 (Apr. 1966): cover page, and 112 -- as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", 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
6 - McKay, Conference Report, 109 as referenced in Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Write, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press (2005)
7 - Quinn G. McKay statement, 25 Apr. 1966, in J. Kenneth Davies, Political Extremism Under the Spotlight (Provo, UT: Young Democrats and Young Republicans of Brigham Young University, 1966), 21 -- as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", 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
8 - Quinn's telephone conversation on 7 Nov. 1992 with L. Brent Goates. He described his father-in-law's April 1966 conference address as "an insinuation" concerning Benson but declined to comment further on the differences between the two apostles. Goates, Harold B. Lee, makes no reference to the dispute -- as referenced in D. Michael Quinn, "Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts", 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
LDS History Chronology: Ezra Taft Benson
Mormon History Timeline: the life of Ezra Taft Benson
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
