In the Mirror
“For the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man. And now I, Moroni, do not write the manner of their oaths and combinations, for it hath been made known unto me that they are had among all people, and they are had among the Lamanites. And they have caused the destruction of this people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi. And whatsoever nation shall uphold such secret combinations, to get power and gain, until they shall spread over the nation, behold, they shall be destroyed; for the Lord will not suffer that the blood of his saints, which shall be shed by them, shall always cry unto him from the ground for vengeance upon them and yet he avenge them not.” (Ether 19-22 Book of Mormon)
Secrets. Oaths. Conspiracy. Murder. Wealth. Power. Dominion.
Of all the indictments laid against Mormonism as a fraud, their own scripture—the “Gold Bible”—is the most damning. Yet the credulity of its adherents, with their concomitant cognitive dissonance, prohibits the realization of this simple conclusion from their reading in the Book of Mormon. As a missionary, I was commissioned to present the Book of Mormon as a new witness for the divinity of Christ, and by logical extension, such testimony made it one of the Movement’s pillars of proof of the Restoration. Neither I, nor any of my peers, had any conception of the American social and religious environment from which it emanated.
Long before I had abused my senses with more than forty readings of this plagiarized, late eighteenth century tale, I came to the conclusion that the bulk of the story had far less to do with Christ and His appearance among these purported aborigines, than it had to do with the human impulse to form “combinations.” The wail of its baneful civil effects is the summation of Mormon’s story. From beginning to end, along with the interrogatory comments of the “chroniclers”, the lament has to do with the destruction of their civilization due directly to the lust for gain, power, and domination. The theme plays out like the worst of contemporary “B” movies, also produced by aspiring but untalented writers and playwrights. This IS the message of the book; the activities of the Gadianton robbers with their plundering, murdering, oaths, conspiracies, subversion of law and justice, according to the prophet-priests who allegedly witnessed and chronicled their civilization’s destruction.
Early in my reading of this fabulous production I came to the conclusion opposite of what Joseph Smith told his twelve apostles convened at Brigham Young’s house:
“I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” (4:461 History of the Church)
I did not get any closer to God reading this book than any other, ever, save The New Testament (and that poorly). It did however, raise a lot of questions and inconsistencies that I spent years trying to resolve. Among them were the unpaid priests who labored with their hands for their support, the secret oaths and signs of the Gadianton robbers, the discontinuity between the form of worship described by Mormon versus in the CJCLDS, and numerous other inconsistencies already dealt with by other church history investigators. When “Endowed” as a missionary, a person has little chance of reflecting on the presentation. Everyone is too busy with getting up and down periodically to fuss with “priesthood attire.” Upon returning from the mission for the Church I renewed temple attendance to gain an understanding of what was being taught there. I was further burdened by inconsistencies and obvious references to itself during that portion consisting of Lucifer, his preacher, and that all religion was a production of deceit and confusion. Especially noteworthy was the purpose of the oaths, signs, and death penalties. These I did not understand until years later gaining access to the history of Joseph’s involvement with Free Masonry, and Joseph and Sidney’s alienation after Sidney’s 1838 “Salt Sermon.”
What the unwary and fully credulous Mormon members do not realize, is that this story appears during a period in world history when secret societies were sweeping Europe and appearing in Colonial America. Free Masonry, the Illuminati, Jacobinism, and several others had found their way into the political world, as well as the more fundamentalist religious movements such as the Jesuits. Not long into the investigation of this period of world history the presence of societies of every imaginable kind appear on the world stage. Of all the anachronisms found in the Book of Mormon, this is the most glaring and obvious to the student of history. But Mormons are characteristically ignorant of early American history, while the ideologues of BYU in defense of the Faith interpret the period in support of the Joseph Smith Mystique. They would rather see a sinister motive against their faith in the determination of View to the Hebrews and Manuscript Found as the substance of the Book of Mormon plot, than to see in all three the elements of secret society angst extant in late Eighteenth century American culture. Such anxiety is nowhere to be identified in the histories of native American inhabitants, such that we so far have. The theme of secret societies was wholly and totally consistent with late Eighteenth century civilization, and not within that of the Maya, Aztec, Toltec, or any of the various aboriginal cultures.
Some people have equated the phrase “secret combination” to mean conspiracy. But Webster’s defines a conspiracy to be either open or secret. In my view, “society” is a much closer contextual synonym to “combination.” Its usage also parallels the social fixation of the period in which the story was manufactured. Nevertheless, the important point of this topic is that secrecy, conspiracy, and the objectives of “secret combinations” as described in the Book of Mormon have been a fundamental part of Mormon history since before Joseph Smith courted Emma Hale.
One of the earliest persons to recognize the conspiracy surrounding the production of the Book of Mormon was Emma’s father, Isaac. Mormon ideologues have from the earliest days attempted to impugn Isaac’s eye-witness account of the book’s production as a hoax:
“…the whole "Book of Mormon" (so called) is a silly fabrication of falsehood and wickedness, got up for speculation, and with a design to dupe the credulous and unwary-and in order that its fabricators may live upon the spoils of those who swallow the deception.” Hale Affidavit
Since Isaac provided Joseph and Emma the very house in which this production began, who would know better what was going on therein and why? The problem I see with these refutations is they consistently extricate the eye-witness accounts from the historical context, and their polemics always have the unstated agenda of putting Joseph’s character in a positive light. What Rodger Anderson attempted to do was present a reasoned examination of why they should be accepted at face value, irregardless of imputed perjury. Why is it so difficult to let the testimonies of these contemporaries of Joseph Smith speak for themselves? Who knows better what was happening during the initial stages of the book’s “translation”, Isaac, or people who never knew Isaac, the conspirators in its production, or those who lived or now live removed in time and distance from the original events?
According to Cowdrey, Davis, and Vanick, the conspirators in the book’s production included at various stages, Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdrey, Martin Harris, Orson Hyde, Sidney Rigdon, and Emma Hale. Today we have the confessed account of the stated objective of the book’s production by Joseph and his relatives. Yet at every turn the Mormon ideologues attempt to discredit those who recorded what they heard and saw from the lips of these conspirators. All this is sufficiently documented by various investigators of Mormon history and I shall not attempt to review their research. Getting the story from their hand I relegate to the reader.
While reading some of the writings of Hannah Arendt, particularly her treatise of Totalitarianism, I could not help but notice strong resemblance in the history of the leadership of Mormonism to the characteristics Hannah identifies in movements that culminate in Totalitarianism. Hannah elucidates this fourth form of government that rose a century ago in the form of Bolshevism and Nazism. The parallels to the behavior of Mormon leaders and its organization are too numerous to be coincidental. Hannah explores further where Eric Hoffer leaves off in The True Believer, characterizing mass movements and their social development. Of particular interest germane to my thesis are the chapters The Totalitarian Movement, Totalitarian Power, and her later essay On the Nature of Totalitarianism. All this material I found available in the local library network. With some diligence, the reader can likely find all these on the Web. They are not particularly demanding of intellect, although Hannah’s ability to write lucidly in English is hampered by her German origin. One can read through all this material in a matter of a few hours.
Hannah identifies four basic forms of government:
Republican Rule
Monarchial Rule
Authoritarian Rule
Totalitarian Rule
The principle of action by which each of these forms respectively operate are Virtue, Honor, Fear, and Ideology. The first three were identified by Montesquieu, the last by Arendt’s study of Nazism and Communism. The important point to keep in mind with this study is that none of these forms manifest in human society in complete purity. There is always some overlap of form and character among them. Hannah’s tremendous point in her research is that had Nazism achieved complete totalitarian rule, the world would have been in far worse condition than where it was on V-day, perhaps never achieving liberation from their human and property destruction at all. The terror that unfolded from these movements is largely absent in the experience of society today, for only the oldest segment of the world’s population can remember the conditions that produced the holocaust. Hannah is certain that Totalitarianism in its elemental form has never left the world scene since the destruction of Germany, and this is born out with the history of the USSR as well as our own US of A. An important point to contemporary citizens is that the elements of Totalitarianism have been fully functioning in our society since that time. Technically, we entered the beginning of Totalitarian rule in this country during the administration of George W. Bush and the passage of the Patriot Act which “legalized” the use of terror through the suspension of Habeas Corpus. It is a matter of no small significance that Mormons contributed to the loss of several civil rights under the Act, just as the conservative Religious Right in Nazi Germany did beginning in the 1920s.
In comparing the history of the CJCLDS from beginning to present to these forms, I have observed numerous similarities to Authoritarian and Totalitarian political domination. The virtue of Eric Hoffer’s analysis is the reduction of political, religious, and social institutions to human mass movements. He devotes an entire section in his book, The True Believer to the interchangeability of mass movements. Eric, like Hannah, identifies the basic human quality that is the root of the motive force generating the production of movements, and the manifestation within them of Leaders who personify the same characteristics. Political terrorists such as Stalin and Hitler (or Bush and Obama), and religious terrorists such as Sidney and Brigham (or Benson and Packer) don’t suddenly appear in a vacuum. These personalities ride the wave of people coagulating around a central paradigm intended to be a substitute for their common deficiencies. Like attracts like, and it is just as true of mass movements as it is of married couples. (Incidentally, this also accounts for the lament of single women uttering the cliché that “All the good men are taken” being none other than a myth.)
Hannah identifies the common human need of Distinction as the root of motive energy. Its antithesis is Superfluity. If a person cannot achieve distinction among his peers, then he tends to feel superfluous. Eric describes the individuals who start or gravitate to mass movements as those who feel frustrated, are malcontents, misfits, or disaffected in their social relations. It is the suppression or prevention of individuality that causes these persons to seek substitutes for that innate need of human expression and validation. Obviously it is this basic need that Christ’s Beatitudes address, but which are perverted in the same manner as the hypocritical priests did in His day when members today are purged for failing to adhere to the Church’s priesthood party ideology.
The perspicacious Dr. Szasz wrote “In a modern totalitarian society, such as the Soviet Union, only the right man, who is the spokesman for the Party, can speak, and what the Party says is right.” This is a credible description of Mormonism, and the man who bemoaned of Communism coming to the center of Mormonism is precisely the man who entrenched and enlarged Totalitarianism in Mormonism. He was the man who was widely celebrated as the advocate of Liberty as a Church authority—just like Hitler was exalted as the savior of Germany. This man was Ezra Taft Benson, who institutionalized the Church’s equivalent of the secret police in creating the Strengthening the Membership Committee. While Church leaders had employed spies all the way back to Joseph’s day, it was never incorporated into the hierarchical structure of the Church until Ezra institutionalized his own spying upon “subversive” members of the Church. The objective of this Committee is not the actual strengthening of members in their Faith, but of purging the dissidents who the Leaders fear will expose the man behind the curtain. It is the Church’s Correlation Committee who have charge of publishing the dogma.
The Church’s Correlation program was Totalitarianized with the restructuring of the Church hierarchy under Harold B. Lee. This formalization of a process begun decades earlier was a consolidation of power within the elite—the fifteen Apostates. Part of its intent was to remove various doctrines that had crept in during its creative phase, to be replaced by a consistent indoctrination methodology across all departments. It is no coincidence that since that time purges of dissident factions and the creation of such categories (Intellectuals, Feminists, Homosexuals) has increased. Such an organizational change was required to make spying an institutional facet of the Church’s organization. There was no divine inspiration in such changes. They were a normal and necessary part of the consolidation of hierarchical power at the top over the individual member’s life, far greater than it had been since the administration of John Taylor.
A totalitarian organization develops through a single party system, and this is precisely what the Correlation Program accomplished—the unification of the Priesthood “party” of the Church, thereby compressing the beliefs of the various organizations into a singular ideology run by a single party—the Priesthood. If women are ever allowed to hold priesthood positions, it will indubitably require the dissolution of the Relief Society as a woman’s function. When Joseph threw this bone to Emma (to silence her complaints on his philandering), it also included the creation of an inner Priesthood organization composed of those who were given a “fullness” of the Priesthood. Brigham sought to suppress women’s influence in Church priesthood. (The reader can find Brigham’s attitude about women in the Journal of Discourses, especially where he threatened to dissolve all Church marriages.) A hierarchical form of it exists today among those who receive their “Second Anointing.” But they are all essentially neutered in terms of real Church power which was Brigham’s implementation of Joseph’s objective.
In a Totalitarian movement, such doctrinal denials that Gordon Hinckley made on Larry King to the world are ignored by True Believing Mormons, for they see themselves faithful to the Ideology and Leader, keeping their “eye on the Prophet.” Describing this same characteristic of Nazism Hannah explains:
“While the membership does not believe statements made for public consumption, it believes all the more fervently the standard clichés of ideological explanation, the keys to past and future history which totalitarian movements took from nineteenth-century ideologies, and transformed, through organization, into a working reality.” (p371-2 Burden of Our Time)
The entire point of secrecy in conspiracy is to conceal fraud. Fraud can only be imposed upon the ignorant and gullible. It is an instinctive reaction in human nature to disbelieve anyone who imposes upon one’s credulity. This instinct can be over-ridden by the emotional craving for distinction, and leads numerous people, lacking in self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-validation to attach themselves to movements where others of like deficiency can assuage the emotional emptiness. We hear this repeatedly in the news and television programs: I want to make a difference. Seldom do such people ever stop to consider that simply by being born into this world they are making a difference. Hannah is explicit about this.
The relation between secret societies and hierarchies in mass movements are described by Hannah in explicit detail throughout her writings. Reading the following passage I was startled in recognizing all the elements found in the Church’s “Endowment”:
“Secret societies also form hierarchies according to degrees of ‘initiation,’ regulate the life of their members according to a secret and fictitious assumption which makes everything look as though it were something else, adopt a strategy of consistent lying to deceive the noninitiated external masses, demand unquestioning obedience from their members who are held together by allegiance to a frequently unknown and always mysterious leader, who himself is surrounded, or supposed to be surrounded, by a small group of initiated who in turn are surrounded by the half-initiated who form a ‘buffer area’ against the hostile profane world. With secret societies, the totalitarian movements also share the dichotomic division of the world between "sworn blood brothers" and an indistinct inarticulate mass of sworn enemies.” (p364 Burden of Our Time)
A look at the Endowment dialogue a century ago reveals the blood oath of vengeance, removed in 1927, after it became known during Reed Smoot’s senatorial appointment.
The Church’s story of the Smith family is a whitewash of propaganda, intended to conceal the fact that this family was not humble, honest, pious frontier folk, but ignorant, indolent thieves, suffering therefrom in wretched poverty. After seeing the result of hard labor upon the life of his older brother Alvin, it would be no leap of the imagination to conclude that Joseph Jr. sought to employ the only skill he had—charlatanism (which he emulated observing the religious revivalism of the period). As a young man he could well have concluded that physical labor was likely to lead to a short life, especially if one suffered destitution from the indolence of a raging, often drunken father. Isaac Hale had the family pegged for what they did; “dupe the credulous and unwary-and in order that its fabricators may live upon the spoils.” Dupery depends on secrecy and gullibilty. The irony is Joseph was never fully accomplished at secrecy, though he strove for it his entire life. To the astute investigator of early Mormon history this is abundantly evident.
Because the fundamental nature of Man (and of Beast or Fowl etc.) is to obtain distinction, all associations congeal into hierarchies. Thus all mass movements inevitably develop hierarchies, whether they be political, religious, or social. Hierarchies therefore intensify the strife for distinction where self-confidence seeks substitution, becoming the motive force behind parties, groups, unions, and conspiracies. The history of the CJCLDS is no exception. Those who were at the fore of its formation and subsequent evolvement have been those bereft in varying degrees of self-confidence, esteem, and validation. One cannot scrutinize the lives of Sidney Rigdon, Martin Harris, Joseph Smith, Orson Hyde, Emma Hale, Brigham Young, Joseph F. Smith, Heber C. Kimball, Heber J. Grant, Harold B. Lee, Ezra T. Benson, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, and not observe this deficiency of character. In fact, it is an essential element of active hierarchies that the higher one ascends within them, the greater is the insecurity of confidence, and thus the more fervent the assertions of divine influence. A century ago theologian Reinhold Niebuhr observed:
“Extreme orthodoxy betrays by its very frenzy that the poison of skepticism has entered the soul of the church; for men insist most vehemently upon their certainties when their hold upon them has been shaken. Frantic orthodoxy is a method for obscuring doubt.” (pp2-3 Does the World Need Religion?)
A classic depiction of this state of mind is Jeffrey Holland’s Book of Mormon speech in General Conference, October 2009.
Nowhere is secret conspiracy more prevalent, than where orthodoxy and passion join to fuel the Holy Cause. To the Orthodox, departure from the Right Way is heresy. It doesn’t have anything to do with Truth—that is the nature of their scam. Heresy is contravening their ideology, asserted by their power. The seeming irony is, all Reformers (read prophets) throughout time were heretics who sought return to strict Orthodoxy. Purge of the heretic within hierarchies and conspiracies is an essential function to consolidate and maintain Power. Wars are not fought over scarce resources. They're fought to consolidate power, and so it is with the conflict in hierarchies. The ultimate end of consolidation of power is total domination. As Hannah Arendt’s investigations have shown, the final end of domination is complete destruction for no other reason than they must be infallible:
“Mass leaders in power have one concern which overrules all utilitarian considerations: to make their predictions come true. The Nazis did not hesitate to use, at the end of the war, the concentrated force of their still intact organization to bring about as complete a destruction of Germany as possible, in order to make true their prediction that the German people would be ruined in case of defeat.” (p339 Burden of Our Time)
All prophecy is self-fulfilling. It is the manifestation of the votary’s ideology. “Prophecy is a poor guide to the future. You only understand it when the events are already upon you.”(Ambassador Delen Babylon 5)
“…it is with prophecy as it is with miracle; it could not answer the purpose even if it were real. Those to whom a prophecy should be told, could not tell whether the man prophesied or lied, or whether it had been revealed to him, or whether he conceited it; and if the thing that he prophesied, or intended to prophesy, should happen, or something like it, among the multitude of things that are daily happening, nobody could again know whether he foreknew it, or guessed at it, or whether it was accidental. A prophet, therefore, is a character useless and unnecessary…” (p51 Age of Reason)
Michael Quinn who wrote Early Mormonism and the Magic World View chronicled the influence of astrology and necromancy in Smith's family and its influence in the Church. For that he was censured and ultimately booted out for embarrassing the Church. Brigham distanced himself from astrology and divination, but retained incantations and the secret oaths and combinations by formalizing the "Endowment" (while privately endorsing the Danite clan activity), which is nothing more than a loyalty test and covenant. The test used to be executed in the Temple upon threat of excruciating pain of death. The second token of the Aaronic priesthood administered to the Endowment initiate requires them to covenant to avoid “every unholy and impure practice.” Mormon wrote that the Lord forbade all manner of secret combinations and murder. Yet here we have in the very ceremony meant to prevent such an occurrence, administration of the covenant by oath, signs, and until 1990, the death penalty imposed upon all who failed to abide the covenant. Such irony. Such hypocrisy. Such craftiness.
Apprehensive about the growing unrest of the residents outside of Nauvoo, and perceiving the real possibility of extradition for treason and bank fraud, Joseph began measures to surround himself with loyal followers who ultimately would commit themselves by death oath to protect him and the Church leadership. A partial history of such measures is:
Joseph’s April 1938 Conference injunction “that "any person who spoke or acted against the presidency or the church should leave the country to die; that he would suffer no such to remain there; that they should lose their heads.";
Sidney Rigdon’s June 1838 “Salt Sermon” injunction; "It is the duty of this people to trample them into the earth, and if the country cannot be freed from them any other way I will assist to trample them down, or to erect a gallows on the Square of Far West and hang them up.";
The 1838 formation of the secret Danite society with its oath to "Sustain, protect, defend, and obey the leaders of the Church, under any and all circumstances unto death; and to disobey the orders of the leaders of the Church, or divulge the name of a Danite to an outsider, or to make public any of the secrets of the order of the Danites, was to be punished by death." Several Danite members became Nauvoo policemen;
Joseph’s March 1842 adoption of Free Masonry in the Church leadership, organizes the first Nauvoo lodge then considered to a be a secret society, at the behest of John C. Bennett;
Joseph gives the first Masonic laden endowments to leaders May 1842;
Joseph’s April 1843 Nauvoo City council statement that instead of hanging "I will shoot him, or cut off his head, spill his blood on the ground, and let the smoke thereof ascend up to God; and if ever I have the privilege of making a law on that subject, I will have it so.";
The March 1844 creation of the secret theocratic council under charge, constitution, name, keyword, and penalty of death for divulgence;
The April 1844 Temple dedication where Joseph claims the temple is “the most substantial and best finished Masonic temple in the Western states.”;
Further secret killings post assassination period into the Great Basin Kingdom infamy.
Just these highlights of Church history bring to mind the passage in Helaman 6:
22 And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words; and this that they might distinguish a brother who had entered into the covenant, that whatsoever wickedness his brother should do he should not be injured by his brother, nor by those who did belong to his band, who had taken this covenant.
23 And thus they might murder, and plunder, and steal, and commit whoredoms and all manner of wickedness, contrary to the laws of their country and also the laws of their God.
24 And whosoever of those who belonged to their band should reveal unto the world of their wickedness and their abominations, should be tried, not according to the laws of their country, but according to the laws of their wickedness, which had been given by Gadianton and Kishkumen.
The terror employed in the Church was a physical threat with the claim of saving a man’s soul by spilling his blood, as well as excommunication for offenses of disloyalty to Joseph Smith. All these threats when carried out were done in secret, with the sanction of a secret conspiracy.
Today the terror employed by Mormonism is the threat of, or actual consignment of, the offender to oblivion through excommunication. The person is not only out of the fold, but out of communication with anyone who is still a member. This often includes the destruction of family solidarity, marriages, and sometimes defamation with job loss. It is the equivalent of social and spiritual solitary confinement. Once this punishment was called an act of love. Now it is termed an act of discipline. It is neither. It is terror enacted to enforce conformity in the name of spiritual salvation.
Repeatedly in Church conferences members are admonished that spiritual safety can only be had through conformity, to obey without question, never be found disloyal to the Church’s head leadership, subjected to secret inquisition and reproach by the Bishop for voting opposed to Priesthood decree, investigated and subjected to threat of disfellowship or excommunication for publishing or preaching material embarrassing to the Church or its leaders. By these methods the Leadership compresses the boundaries between members wherein they define their own lives, their relations with their relatives, neighbors, and the world. This compression is possible when members feel lonely, fear, rootlessness, homelessness, and isolation. The compression drives out the individuality, the juridical and moral senses with the objective of amalgamating members into an unthinking mass, with only the Leader doing the thinking. It is no coincidence that Brigham chose the beehive as the State’s symbol. It represents the industry of drones who don’t think, only obey and do.
One consequence of terror is the destruction of moral judgment. In a web interview with Charles Moore, Catholic priest and district attorney he stated:
“If you base a religion on faith, and believing what somebody says, then you are vulnerable to believing a lie. And if you believe a lie, you are constantly in conflict with yourself, because your heart knows better. Your heart and your mind are divided. Consequently your whole life is in hostility, anger, and striking out. Faith based religions are the basic cause of war.” (Laura Lee Show History of Western Civilization 4-2003)
Along similar thought is this observation by Tom Paine:
“When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime. He takes up the trade of a priest for the sake of gain, and in order to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with a perjury. Can we conceive any thing more destructive to morality than this? ” (p3 Age of Reason)
Conspiracies are not characteristic of the absence of proclaimed moral values. The ideology often requires the highest standards, while the Leader and his inner associates often act arbitrarily indifferent to them. Members of the Nazi SS were required to posses the highest moral standards, and simultaneously follow orders to exterminate innocent people without question, for the good of the Party, or Germany, or whatever reason Hitler decided. How do they get away with this contradiction?
“The chief value, however, of the secret or conspiratory societies' organizational structure and moral standards for purposes of mass organization does not even lie in the inherent guarantees of unconditional belonging and loyalty, and organizational manifestation of unquestioned hostility to the outside world, but in their unsurpassed capacity to establish and safeguard the fictitious world through consistent lying. The whole hierarchical structure of totalitarian movements, from naive fellow-travelers to party members, elite formations, the intimate circle around the Leader, and the Leader himself, could be described in terms of a curiously varying mixture of gullibility and cynicism with which each member, depending upon his rank and standing in the movement, is expected to react to the changing lying statements of the leaders and the central unchanging ideological fiction of the movement.” (p369 Burden of Our Time)
“A mixture of gullibility and cynicism is prevalent in all ranks of totalitarian movements, and the higher the rank the more cynicism weighs down gullibility. The essential conviction shared by all ranks, from fellow-traveler to leader, is that politics is a game of cheating and that the ‘first commandment’ of the movement: ‘The Fuehrer is always right,’ is as necessary for the purposes of world politics, i.e., world-wide cheating, as the rules of military discipline are for the purposes of war.” (p370 Totalitarianism)
Hannah’s analysis of Totaltarianism is that the leadership operates in a similar manner to the gangsterism of America’s 1920s, from which the Nazis learned it. The movement has its stated purpose for the gullible altruist which is the lie, but the real purpose is otherwise. Isaac Hale saw through the ruse to the true purpose. For some, it is often difficult to recognize the inconsistency of purpose, especially for lack of familiarity with the movers and shakers of the movement:
“The lies of the movements, on the other hand, are much subtler. They attach themselves to every aspect of social and political life that is hidden from the public eye. They succeed best where the official authorities have surrounded themselves with an atmosphere of secrecy. In the eyes of the masses, they then acquire the reputation of superior ‘realism’ because they touch upon real conditions whose existence is being hidden.” (p344 Burden of Our Time)
Members like ex-area authority Hans Mattsson cling to the idea there is some element of divine inspiration in the Church’s leadership. Yet they do not answer his questions, remaining mute on the most critical of historical issues. They can’t answer them, because to do so reveals the secret of their existence and ultimate agenda. The real purpose of Mormonism is not to extend true salvation to the world. Its purpose is exactly what the Council of Fifty, a secret conspiratorial society, was invented to do—fill the earth in fulfillment of Daniel’s dream of the stone cut out of the mountain (p129 Origins of Power):
“The true goal of totalitarian propaganda is not persuasion but organization-the ‘accumulation of power without the possession of the means of violence.’ For this purpose, originality in ideological content can only be considered an unnecessary obstacle. It is no accident that the two totalitarian movements of our time, so frightfully ‘new’ in methods of rule and ingenious in forms of organization, have never preached a new doctrine, have never invented an ideology which was not already popular. Not the passing successes of demagogy win the masses, but the visible reality and power of a ‘living organization.’” p351 Burden of Our Time)
This, the “True and living Church” of Christ.... As Hannah characterized the ideological processes of Hitler it became evident that there were no new ideas ever incorporated into National Socialism. And so it is with Mormonism. Take for example the concept of salvation wrought by the atonement of Christ. Morgdoc proclaims it covers all the creations of Jesus Christ. It is the basis of the Creation story in the temple ceremony. This was not a revelation to Joseph Smith (never mind the personal differences of belief among the Church’s Apostles in recent times). This was a tenet had among American religious theologians more than fifty years earlier:
“From whence, then, could arise the solitary and strange conceit that the Almighty, who had millions of worlds equally dependent on his protection, should quit the care of all the rest, and come to die in our world, because, they say, one man and one woman had eaten an apple? And, on the other hand, are we to suppose that every world in the boundless creation had an Eve, an apple, a serpent, and a redeemer? In this case, the person who is irreverently called the Son of God, and sometimes God himself, would have nothing else to do than to travel from world to world, in an endless succession of deaths, with scarcely a momentary interval of life.” (p44 Age of Reason)
So where did Joseph’s or Sidney’s or Brigham’s ideas originate, really? Virtually every doctrine of Mormonism can be found in some American religious sect. This subject has been well covered by presenters at the Ex-Mormon Conferences, downloadable at their website.
Also an important part of Hannah’s analysis is that during the initial stage Totalitarianism destroys moral judgment, as also the sense of justice as established by civil Constitution and law. The holocaust of the last century was attributable to this state of mind, and that is what made the Nuremburg trials so difficult. Not just the inner circle of leaders, but many of the Germans had no sense of having committed any crime, much less affixing one appropriate to the magnitude of human destruction. In Hannah’s expositions we have the essence of what Voltaire meant:
"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities...."
And I may add to this: and not feel guilty for them but believe one is doing a service to Mankind. Tom Paine was incensed by this perspective of the modern priest and his ability to turn inside out the doctrines of Jesus:
“…what can be greater blasphemy than to ascribe the wickedness of man to the orders of the Almighty?” (p69 Age of Reason)
Looking at the whole of it, which is only obtained by diligent reading of the references and reflection upon the same, it is a sad, disgusting revelation to discover in Mormon history the behavior proscribed in their own Scriptures. It seems never to have occurred to any of them the words of Jesus to Peter in the Garden: “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword” (Matt 26:52), and his defense before Pilate:
“My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” (Jn 18:36)
During the first Endowment sessions in the Nauvoo temple Heber C. Kimball told the initiates the purpose of it was “to bring us to an organization, and just as quick as we can get into that order and government, we have the Celestial Kingdom here”. But didn’t Jesus say the Kingdom was already here, within? (Lk 17:21) The organization Heber refers to then is not an other-world kingdom, but a Totalitarian organization as Hannah described, a gang of thieves, liars, and murderers the purpose of which is to fill the earth, so that they might dictate to all men, with Joseph at the head. The destruction of Nauvoo and the depredations committed leading to it is not any different than what happened to the Jews in 70 A.D..
Here is a vignette from the Mormon temple ceremony prior to 1990. The pretension to authority is palpable, an indictment of themselves:
NARRATOR: Adam, on finding himself in the lone and dreary world, built an altar and offered prayer, and these are the words he uttered:
ADAM: Oh God, hear the words of my mouth. Oh God, hear the words of my mouth. Oh God, hear the words of my mouth.
LUCIFER: I hear you; what is it you want.'?
ADAM: Who are you?
LUCIFER: I am the God of this world.
ADAM: You, the God of this world?
LUCIFER: Yes, what do you want?
ADAM: I am looking for messengers.
LUCIFER: Oh. you want someone to preach to you. You want religion, do you? I will have preachers
here presently. There will be many willing to preach to you the philosophies of men mingled with scripture.
Minister enters—
LUCIFER: Good Morning sir!
SECTARIAN MINISTER: Good morning!
SECTARIAN MINISTER: A fine congregation!
LUClFER: Yes, they are a very good people. They are concerned about religion. Are you a preacher?
SECTARIAN MINISTER: I am.
LUCIFER Have you been to college and received training for the ministry?
SECTARIAN MINISTER: Certainly! A man cannot preach unless he has been trained for the ministry.
LUCIFER: Do you preach the orthodox religion?
SECTARIAN MINISTER: Yes, that is what I preach.
LUCIFER: If you will preach your orthodox religion to these people, and convert them I will pay you well.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: I will do my best
LUCIFER: Here is a man who desires religion. He is very much exercised, and seems to be sincere.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: I understand that you are inquiring after religion.
ADAM: I was calling upon Father.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: I am glad that you were calling upon Father. Do you believe in a God who is without body, parts, or passions, who sits on the top of a topless throne; whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere; who fills the universe, and yet is so small that he can dwell in your heart, who is surrounded by myriads of beings who have been saved by grace, not for any act of theirs, but by His good pleasure. Do you believe in such a great Being?
ADAM: I do not. I cannot comprehend such a Being.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: That is the beauty of it. Perhaps you do not believe in a devil, and in that great hell, the bottom less pit, where there is a lake of fire and brimstone into which the wicked are cast, and where they are continually burning, but are never consumed?
ADAM: I do not believe in any such place.
LUCIFER: I am sorry, very very sorry! What is it you want?
ADAM: I am looking for messengers from my Father.
The scene changes to the Godhead talking to Peter James and John who subsequently walk in—
PETER: I am Peter.
JAMES: I am James.
JOHN: I am John.
LUCIFER: Yes, I thought I knew you, what are you going to do now? (Speaking to the minister) Do you know who these men are? They claim to be apostles. Try them!
SECTARIAN MINISTER: Do you profess to be apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ?
PETER: We do.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: This man told me that we should never have any revelation or apostles, but if any should come professing to be apostles, I was to ask them to cut off an arm or some other member of the body and restore it, so that the people might know that they came with power.
PETER: We do not satisfy men's curiosity in that manner. It is a wicked and an adulterous generation that seeks for a sign. Do you know who that man is? He is Satan!
SECTARIAN MINISTER: What? The devil?
PETER: That is one of his names.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: He is quite a different person from what he told me the devil is. He said the devil has claws like a bear's on his hands, horns on his head, and a cloven foot, and that when he speaks he has the roar of a lion!
PETER: He has said this to deceive you, and I would advise you to get out of his employ.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: Your advise is good; but, if I leave his employ, what will become of me?
PETER: We will preach the Gospel unto you, with the rest of Adam's posterity.
SECTARIAN MINISTER: That is good ....
The first of several Masonic signs and tokens are then administered to the congregation.
The level of gullibility throughout is astonishing. If this is how smart Lucifer is, he could not very well deceive the elect (whoever they truly are). And Peter, why does he assume the preacher just wants his curiosity satisfied? Or Lucifer thinking that Adam is stupid enough to be looking for religion? If this is truly part of the restoration of an ancient Endowment performed in the Solomon temple, how did Peter, James, and John, and the sectarian minister get in there? Previous to this version that I was introduced to, there used to be a Protestant hymn and service along with the preacher. So that was restored too? Isn’t this what is called an anachronism—the “restoration” of a Free Masonry ritual claimed to have existed in the tenth century B.C.? The association of Lucifer with the devil was an early Catholic creation, and the word Satan had an entirely different meaning in Hebrew. Sidney Rigdon’s search for a Restoration is riddled with anachronisms.
Hannah tries to make a case for stupidity increasing over the previous century along with loss of common sense. But even two centuries ago it was on the decline, judging by the reference material. She does have a point to its presence among non-intellectuals:
“Stupidity has become as common as common sense was before; and this does not mean that it is a symptom of mass society or that "intelligent" people are exempt from it. The only difference is that stupidity remains blissfully inarticulate among the non-intellectuals and becomes unbearably offensive among "intelligent" people. Within the intelligentsia, one may even say that the more intelligent an individual happens to be, the more irritating is the stupidity which he has in common with all.” (p314 Essays in Understanding)
And this is precisely why Apostates Packer and Oaks were so adamant about Intellectuals being an enemy to the Church. They tend to peek behind the curtain to see who is really there. Intellectuals aren’t usually satisfied with walking down the yellow brick road with fools for companions.
Quite some time ago when Freud was perpetrating his fraud, Karl Kraus made this simple observation about fools and gullibility:
“Alas, journalists have fought with more success against corruption than the gods have against stupidity: …whereas profound stupidity carries deep conviction and cannot be bought off for any price." (p135 Anti-Freud)
I’m looking in the mirror. From the time I was inducted until I resigned was nearly fifty years. At least I woke up and smelled the pigsty. And this discussion takes the reader back to the beginning. Full circle.
Seth Smee
REFERENCES
John Robison, Professor of Natural Philosophy, 1798 Proofs of a Conspiracy
Hannah Arendt, political theorist,1994 Essays in Understanding
Hannah Arendt, political theorist, 1951 The Origin of Totalitarianism. Burden of Our Time
Hannah Arendt, On the Nature of Totalitarianism; http://www.cas.umt.edu/liberal/documents/152ArendtOnTheNatureofTotalitarianismAnEssayinUnderstanding-Copy.pdf
Eric Hoffer, American philosopher, 1951 The True Believer
Michael Quinn, historical investigator, 1994 Origins of Power
Cowdrey, Davis, Vanick, historical investigators, 2005 Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon
Mark McKiernan, historical investigator, 1971 Sidney Rigdon
Rodger I. Anderson, 1990 Joseph Smith’s New York Reputation Re-examined
Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry, 1990 The Untamed Tongue
Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry, 1990 Anti-Freud
Reinhold Niebuhr, American theologian, 1927 Does Civilization Need religion?
Thomas Paine, Colonial philosopher, 1794 Age of Reason
Joseph Smith, Charlatan, 1844, History of the Church
