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Unsettling Mormonism

an archive of ​unsettling histories, mythistories, and mystories
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
​

Sex pt. 2: Queers, Commies, and the Civil Rights Movement--“Threats to the American way of life.”

6/6/2022

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“It is sought today in certain quarters to break down all race prejudice, and at the end of the road… is intermarriage. “It is sought today in certain quarters to break down all race prejudice, and at the end of the road… is intermarriage…Now, you should hate nobody…but do not ever let that wicked virus get into your systems... Biologically, it is wrong; spiritually, it is wrong." - J. Reuben Clark, 1946
As WWII ended white America wanted to get back to normal, settle down, have a family—a good Christian family.
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But in the cities there were “communists hiding around every corner” & “homosexuals plotting their agenda in secret cafés,” while “the streets were filled with the violence” of Civil Rights movement at least that what was on TV.
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So they followed the Great White Exodus to buy a house in the Suburbs, where they could raise their nuclear family in the nuclear age.
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This church, like its Earthly Father — the U.S.— also became increasingly paranoid about homosexuality, communism, and the Rights of Black / African ppl in fear of the safety of their “traditional” white American Christian family.
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These FamilyValues™️ are embedded in a eugenist, white-supremacist, U.S. Nationalism. And it continues on with this Church’s imperialist legal battle against homosexual marriage in the so-called US and globally in partnership with Russian oligarchs and an organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center & Human Rights Council.

The Quotes:
  • As World War II ended & the Cold War/Second Red Scare began (late 1940’s), Sen McCarthy (of McCarthyism) said that homosexuals and communists are “threats to the American way of life” as both were seen as godless subversives.
  • Into the 1950’s the Civil Rights Movement was also building. Ezra Taft Benson & his favorite org, the John Birch Society, believed that Black / African ppl in the US were being used as pawns by communists abroad. 
  • In 1946 Pres. J. Reuben Clark said: “It is sought today in certain quarters to break down all race prejudice, and at the end of the road… is intermarriage…Now, you should hate nobody…but do not ever let that wicked virus get into your systems... Biologically, it is wrong; spiritually, it is wrong.” 
  • In 1947 Apostle Spencer W. Kimball was assigned as a church specialist on homosexuality.
  •  In 1949, the Church released their Official Statement on their salvation ban against people of African descent: “The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord.” 
  • In 1952, with the first time a Church leader used the term "homosexuality" in a public discourse, President Clark warned the Relief Society of “the mixing of blood” and “the crimes for which Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed…homosexuality."
  • In 1948 the UN Genocide Convention was signed. It’s definition of genocide includes, “Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
  • In 1952 this Church took Indigenous children from their parents to be raised by white Mormon families as the Lamanite Placement Program began.
  • In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which set security standards for federal employment and barred homosexuals from working in the federal government.  (Ezra Taft Benson was Sec of Ag for Eisenhower)
  • In 1962 Elders Kimball and Peterson instructed BYU not to allow homosexuals to attend the university. Various efforts were used to expel gay men from campus including interrogating fine arts and drama students & spying.
  • In the 1960’s & 70’s John Birch Society members, in connection w/ Ezra Taft Benson, spied on BYU faculty & students seeking to out “communists.”
  • In the 1970’s, under Pres. Dallin H. Oaks, BYU students were spied on seeking to out homosexuals. Surveillance, entrapment, and gay bar stake outs were all used by security. Homosexuality was handled in-house at BYU, sometimes with “electroshock and vomiting” aversion therapy with pornography. 
  • In 1961 Gen Con, Benson said, "No true Latter-day Saint and no true American can be a socialist or a communist or support programs leading in that direction.”
  • In 1966, Gen Con Priesthood Ses, David O. McKay shared,  “The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work among men that exists on the face of the earth.”
  • In 1967 Ezra Taft Benson published a speech called “Civil Rights: Tool of Communist Deception."
  • 1969 – Kimball released his book The Miracle of Forgiveness, in which he teaches that masturbation can lead to acts of homosexuality which can lead to beastiality. 
  • In 1969, the Church released their Second Official Statement on their salvation ban against people of African descent: “The seeming discrimination by the Church toward the Negro is not something which originated with man; but goes back into the beginning with God”
  • In 1976 Gen. Con. Priesthood Ses. Boyd K. Packer gave his "To Young Men Only” talk in which he speaks against the "wicked practices" of gayness & the "malicious and destructive lie" that ppl are born gay. 
  • In 1976 - The church became politically and financially involved in opposing the Equal Rights Amendment as the ERA would result in “an increase in the practice of homosexual and lesbian activities.”
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Mormon church's statement on Communism, 1966
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Mormon church's statement on Communism, 1966
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    I am nicholas b jacobsen, an artist, researcher, historian, educator, and organizer. I am a trans-non binary Euro-settler raised in the Nuwu lands of so-called Utah. My family has been Mormon and Utahn for as long as either of those concepts have existed. My ancestors sacrificed everything--their identities, homelands, jobs, health, & safety to become Mormon, Utahn, U.S. American, & white--to settler their Zion. I take it as my personal responsibility to unsettle what my ancestors settled. and to help my fellow settlers do the same through writing, art, and community building.

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