Sunday Sermon

The LDS Church, extremism and our leadership vacuum

By Jerold Willmore

Utah Voices
Salt Lake Tribune
2/18/2006 12:35 PM

During the waning months of Eisenhower's presidency, I was in Washington, D.C., working for Sen. Frank Church during the day, pursuing a graduate degree at night and campaigning for JFK against Nixon on Saturdays.

Sundays, I presided over the Sunday school in the LDS Washington Ward, attended by Secretary of Agriculture (and LDS Apostle) Ezra Taft Benson and his family.

America was locked in the Cold War. Worse, the fires of nuclear fear were fanned by McCarthyist "red-baiters," none more rabid than Robert Welch, president of the John Birch Society. Welch saw a communist behind every tree. He even called President Eisenhower "a communist dupe."

Benson's son, Reed, was the Washington representative for the Birch Society and a frequent speaker at Sacrament meetings, although his talks often reflected extremist right-wing political ideology.

During one such talk, he invited everyone to "an important conference" at the Marriott Hotel. About 40 of us showed up. Reed ran a 30-minute Birch Society recruiting film - a jingoistic diatribe by Welch himself.

Then Reed enthusiastically invited our questions but got an awkward silence. So, I rose to say that I found Welch's presentation demagogic, that Reed's super-patriotism was making an Americanist political front out of the LDS Church and that I wanted the record to show that he didn't speak for me. The meeting erupted in applause and broke up.

The Salt Lake Tribune ran the AP story the next morning. To its credit the LDS Church First Presidency responded with a statement strongly disapproving of its members supporting extremist organizations, whether of the right or the left.

The worldview of extremists is toxic because it's distorted by juvenile, two-valued thinking. They see everything simplistically, as black or white, good or evil, "you're either with us or the terrorists," etc. Real world subtlety, nuance and complexity are lost on extremists. For them the end justifies the means - even if it divides our country against itself.

Right-wing extremist fixation has shifted from anti-Communism to anti-terrorism. But their divisive tactics are unchanged. Their professed ends are still national security and cultural purity - and their means are still chauvinism and sanctimony. But if, as Samuel Johnson said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel," then surely, moralizing is the first. For history teaches that those who wrap themselves in the flag ("Mission Accomplished!") and parade their religiosity (Terry Schiavo?) are neither patriotic nor spiritual. They're sitting in judgment on the "moral decline" of everyone else.

The self-serving claims of the self-righteous to "moral clarity" and "super-patriotism" are the tactic; neoconservative extremism is the result. Unfortunately, neo(new)conservatism and the New Testament have nothing in common.

Would Jesus do, even reluctantly, what the neocons do zealously - enrich the rich and impoverish the poor, bury our grandchildren under public debt and violate the law to lie, spy, torture and commit unprovoked aggression? Hardly.

The neocons have prostituted the press, distorted science, compromised government and religion by entangling one with the other and stained America's reputation for moral leadership.

Worse, neocons persist in raping God's green Earth instead of protecting it. Result? Catastrophic global warming will soon be irreversible. The true enemies of humankind are neocons who would drill or war for more oil - instead of ending its consumption altogether. Neocon denial, while pretending to be pro-life, is extremist, because pro-life begins with pro-environment.

Utah's congressional delegation is a virtual rubber stamp for this faith-based, counterfeit Bush administration. Might this be a good time for the LDS Church to reassert its leadership against extremism? Here in the reddest state of Utah, that leadership could repair the unconstitutional gerrymandering that has emasculated Utah's and the nation's checks and balances, return us to civil moderation and heal the religious divide - and the Earth.
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Jerold Willmore is president of a leadership training company in Salt Lake City
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The preceding article was submitted by one of our gentle readers. Standard-Examiner subscribers simply don't know what they're missing.

Don't let the cat get your tongue;)