Mormon Stories Podcast 1350: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right (Matt Harris) - Pt. 1
05:39:30
Utah's Great Depression Welfare Crisis
- Utah was disproportionately affected by the Great Depression, with welfare usage five to six times the national average.
- Church leaders opposed New Deal programs fearing government dependency, prompting creation of LDS welfare as a voluntary alternative.
Benson's Wartime Europe Experience
- Ezra Taft Benson witnessed war-ravaged European Latter-day Saints suffering extreme hardship post-WWII.
- He was traumatized by seeing concentration camps and destitute conditions, which shaped his anti-communism.
Irony of Benson's Anti-Coercion Stance
- Benson despised coercive communist systems because they stripped away free agency and liberty.
- Ironically, he employed surveillance tactics in government similar to coercive systems he condemned.
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Introduction
00:00 • 2min
Ezra Tap Betson and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
01:59 • 4min
The Importance of Deb Benson
06:07 • 4min
Benson's Wage World
09:47 • 5min
The Great Depression and the New Deal
14:35 • 5min
The Relationship Between Latter-Day Saints and the New Deal
19:07 • 2min
The Importance of Efficiency in Mormonism
21:20 • 5min
Franklin Roosevelt and Benson's Opposition to the New Deal
26:33 • 2min
Benson's Relationship With Racism
28:25 • 3min
The Church's Doctrine Regarding the Mark of Cain
31:41 • 3min
How to Deal With Two Colored Sisters in the Ward
34:51 • 2min
The Fear of Interracial Marriage
36:21 • 5min
Benson's Life and Times
41:16 • 3min
Benson's Call to the Core of the Church
43:54 • 3min
The Importance of Elder Benson
46:31 • 2min
Why the Church Doesn't Give You Access to Elder Benson's Full Journal
48:20 • 5min
The First Quorum of the Latter-Day Saints
53:48 • 3min
The Importance of Transparency in Historical Documents
56:24 • 4min
The Life and Times of Elder Benson
59:56 • 3min
Elder Benson and Elder Babble Traveled Throughout War Torn Europe
01:03:25 • 4min
Benson's Bitterness Toward Socialist and Communist Regimes
01:07:13 • 2min
The Trauma of John Benson
01:09:21 • 2min
The Power of Coercive Systems
01:11:04 • 2min
The Coerciveness of Elder Benson
01:13:06 • 5min
The White Horse Prophecy
01:17:41 • 3min
The White Horse Prophecy
01:21:00 • 3min
The Significance of Benson's Time in the Eisenhower Administration
01:24:03 • 4min
The Importance of Being a Christian
01:28:22 • 2min
Benson's Interview With the Fbi
01:30:30 • 3min
The Rise and Fall of Dwight Eisenhower
01:33:45 • 5min
Benson's Wolf Lginski File Is an Fbi File That You Are Not Permitted to See
01:38:16 • 4min
The Anti-Semitic Literature of John McCain
01:42:22 • 4min
Benson's Views on the Spread of Communism
01:46:20 • 3min
The Letter Jin Ski Affair
01:49:30 • 2min
Why I Benson Will Turn on Ison Hauer
01:51:04 • 1min
Benson's Farm Policies Are a Disaster
01:52:30 • 5min
Benson's Relationship With the Church President in the Sixties and Seventies
01:57:27 • 3min
The Importance of Faculty Voting
02:00:52 • 5min
The Naked Uh Communist
02:06:07 • 2min
The Anti-Communist Speaker Circuit in the Late 50s
02:08:32 • 4min
Richard Paul and Dallen H Oaks
02:12:33 • 5min
The Socialists of the 1950s and 60s
02:17:23 • 2min
Benson Wilkinson and the John Burt Society
02:19:39 • 3min
The Tent Metaphor of a Communist University
02:22:27 • 5min
The Law of Consecration
02:27:51 • 2min
The Rise and Fall of Scows
02:29:52 • 4min
The Importance of Right Wing Politics in the Church
02:33:32 • 4min
The Importance of Brown Versus Board of Education in American History
02:37:58 • 4min
The Brown Rule in Little Rock Arkansas
02:42:21 • 3min
The Importance of a Lawyer in the Civil Rights Movement
02:45:47 • 3min
Benson's Tour of the Soviet Union
02:48:20 • 2min
The Apostles Who Don't Feel Comfortable Around Black People
02:50:36 • 4min
Crucief's Visit to the United States
02:54:48 • 5min
The Rise and Fall of Benjamin Netanyahu
02:59:41 • 5min
The Legacy of Ese Tanbenson and the Making of the Mormon Right
03:04:35 • 6min
Esita Blinn in the Making of the Mormon
03:10:16 • 3min
The John Bertz Society
03:12:55 • 2min
Dwight Eisenhower's Private Track
03:15:11 • 2min
The Importance of Being a Patriot
03:17:33 • 3min
Eisenhower and the First Presidency
03:20:18 • 5min
Moyle's Reprimand for Disloyalty to the First President
03:25:32 • 2min
Benigno's Propaganda for the Bertz Society
03:27:50 • 3min
Reed Benson and Ezra Join the Bertz Society but Scowlsman Never Officially Joins
03:30:59 • 4min
Reed Benson's Response to Eisenhower's Resignation From the White House
03:35:13 • 3min
Eisenhower's Letter to a Brother in Europe
03:37:47 • 2min
Elder Benson and Eisenhower
03:39:50 • 5min
Eisenhower's Lie About Benson
03:44:38 • 3min
The Burt Society and the Eisenhower Trigger Point
03:47:51 • 4min
The Dissension of the Brethren in the Quorum
03:51:48 • 1min
Robert Welch and the Burt Society
03:53:13 • 5min
The Confessions of Robert Welch on Eisenhower
03:58:36 • 3min
The New York Times' Incendiary Comment on Ralph Harding
04:01:40 • 5min
The Political Risk to Harding's Career
04:06:22 • 2min
The Church's Way to Avoid a Scandal
04:08:10 • 2min
The Dishonesty of Benson
04:10:31 • 4min
McKay's Apology to Elder Benson
04:14:23 • 3min
The Birtz Society and the First Presidency
04:16:57 • 5min
The Rise and Fall of Robert Welch
04:22:22 • 5min
Dr. King's Inner Circle
04:27:31 • 2min
Robert Welch and the Civil Rights Movement
04:29:52 • 5min
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
04:34:37 • 4min
President McKay's Statement on Civil Rights
04:38:20 • 2min
Joseph Fielding Smith and Reuben Clark Opposed to Civil Rights
04:40:37 • 5min
The Origins of Power, Extensions and Power
04:45:21 • 4min
The Rise and Fall of David O. McKay
04:49:04 • 6min
The Bircher Front Group
04:54:36 • 6min
The Second Biggest Segregationist
05:00:17 • 2min
Wallace's Diametrical Opposition to Race
05:02:11 • 5min
The Proper Sphère of Government
05:07:10 • 3min
Gordon B. Hinckley and the Benson Problem
05:10:16 • 3min
How to Stop the Bad Publicity From Overwhelming the Church
05:13:17 • 6min
The Importance of Free Agency in Mormonism
05:18:51 • 4min
The Impossible Question
05:22:28 • 3min
The Differences Between Moderates and Hardliners
05:25:01 • 5min
The Importance of Revelation in the Church
05:30:03 • 3min
Desert Tap Benson and the Making of the Mormon Rite
05:33:28 • 3min
Estepp Benson and the Make You the Mormon Right
05:36:08 • 3min
Ezra Taft Benson is perhaps the most controversial apostle-president in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For nearly fifty years he delivered impassioned sermons in Utah and elsewhere, mixing religion with ultraconservative right-wing political views and conspiracy theories. His teachings inspired Mormon extremists to stockpile weapons, predict the end of the world, and commit acts of violence against their government. The First Presidency rebuked him, his fellow apostles wanted him disciplined, and grassroots Mormons called for his removal from the Quorum of the Twelve. Yet Benson was beloved by millions of Latter-day Saints, who praised him for his stances against communism, socialism, and the welfare state, and admired his service as secretary of agriculture under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Using previously restricted documents from archives across the United States.
Matthew L. Harris breaks new ground as the first to evaluate why Benson embraced a radical form of conservatism, and how under his leadership Mormons became the most reliable supporters of the Republican Party of any religious group in America.
Matthew L. Harris is professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He is the author of The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History and editor of Thunder from the Right: Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics.
Matthew's new book can be purchased here: https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/watchman-on-the-tower/