Everyone knows that Mormons are Republicans, but it's worse than that.
I grew up in Utah in the 70s. My Mom votes Democratic. She told me that my grandparents had been called "Jack Mormons" because they voted for John F. Kennedy.
True Mormons, I guess, voted against Kennedy.
In high school, some of my friends, neighbors, and even some family members started discussing the Rothschilds family and a conspiracy to take over the world. It sounded kooky -- incoherent rambling about bankers and communism -- and I ignored it. I wondered where the ideas came from. Recently, part of the same kind of kookiness, La Verkin, Utah outlawed the United Nations.
After reading a recent Salon article that described how Cleon Skousen had become Glenn Beck's inspiration, I started putting the pieces together.
After reading more, I now believe that over the past 50 years, Cleon Skousen has been the greatest corrupting influence on Mormonism.
In 1950, McCarthy gave a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, where he claimed that there were known communists working in the State Department. He went to Salt Lake City next. McCarthy was caught up in a media whirlwind that fanned the anti-communist flames. The Tydings committee was formed. The Democractic Majority that authored the Tydings report called McCarthy's claims a "fraud and a hoax." Some Republicans called the report treason.
Joseph McCarthy was dead by 1957, but McCarthyism lived on. Within Mormonism, Cleon Skousen was its hero.
The anti-communist message had been internalized by the Mormons in Salt Lake City. In 1962, Skousen was the police chief of Salt Lake City, and he'd just published a book called "The Naked Communist." At a general conference, Mormon prophet David O. McKay recommended "The Naked Communist" to Mormons everywhere: "I admonish everybody to read that excellent book of Chief Skousen’s." (David O. McKay, "Preach the Word," Improvement Era, 62 [December 1959], p. 912). By the early 1960s, anti-communism thus had the official stamp of approval of Mormons everywhere.
To put this in context, Mormon "general conference" is a set of two day meetings held twice a year. The head of the Mormon church is called the prophet. Mormons believe that the prophet talks to God, so when the prophet speaks, Mormons believe they're hearing God's will.
David O McKay's official stamp of approval is still used to promote the sales of Skousen's book to Mormons. The following information was taken from Cleon Skousen's website, promoting the book that is said to be Glenn Beck's inspiration, "The Five Thousand Year Leap":
When President McKay finished reading it, he went up before the conference of the Church, and said, "Now I want everyone to read this, and let us commence to get informed on what is happening to our country." You see, practically everyone was being given a misinterpretation of world events. Things like this were being absolutely ignored. And President McKay said, "This is the number one responsibility of the Latter-day Saints — to get in the struggle to preserve freedom."
People said, "Well, isn’t genealogy our number one responsibility?" "Isn’t missionary work our number one responsibility?" President McKay said, "Everywhere that Communism succeeds, missionary work, temple work, everything the Church does, dies. Your number one responsibility is to preserve freedom."
Two other minor point of note. First, Ezra Taft Benson was the Mormon Prophet from 1985-1994. He was named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1943, and served in Eisenhower's cabinet, with the permission of David O McKay. Ezra Taft Benson was a strong supporter of the John Birch Society. Second, "The Naked Communist" was first published by Publisher's Press, which was then run by Thomas S. Monson, who is the Mormon Prophet today. (The Mormon conservative website mentions this here).
Cleon Skousen's basic message is that the constitution is a divinely inspired document, that the devil has organized a grand conspiracy to bury it, and that the devil's tools are communism, socialism, atheism, and evolution.
To understand the Tea Baggers, it helps to know that Skousen's fans think he has a supernatural ability to channel the true will of the founders. Skousen's extreme interpretation of the constitution emphasizes the limitations on the powers of the Federal Government. Growth of the federal government, Skousen argues, is part of the devil's plan to promote communism. Here's the formula:
Constitution = Limited Federal Government = God
Communism = Big Federal Government = Devil
If the Tea Baggers seem to be driven by religious zeal, it's because they are actually driven by religious zeal.
I once heard Cleon Skousen speak about religion. I still remember his talk because he presented radical, but very compelling ideas. Mormons believe in the atonement: Jesus suffered in Gethsemene and died on the cross for our sins. Skousen told us how and why the atonement worked. I wondered why, after serving a Mormon mission, I was hearing it for the first time.
Skousen's theory is wildly speculative and drawn out of thin air. He occasionally takes a phrase of Mormon scripture out of context to support his wild claims. (Here's a published version of Skousen essay. It's probably incomprehensible, unless you're Mormon). He described the ideas as if they were absolute fact. They are, in fact, wildly heterodox.
In the fall of 1993, Mormons excommunicated six Mormon intellectuals, now called the September Six. Their sin was being heterodox.
I compare the religious sins of the September Six to Cleon Skousen, and I have to wonder at the kind of cozy relationship Skousen enjoyed over his life. For nearly 50 years, he seems to have functioned as a kind of underground prophet. Marc Hofmann tried to rewrite Mormon history by forging documents starting around 1980. Skousen has been actually rewriting Mormon doctrine out in the open, first from a position at Brigham Young University in the History Department, and then later from a position in the Religion Department.
Skousen was a dangerous man. This is the original stoopidity. He has carried the torch for McCarthyism for fifity years. He is, for all intents and purposes, the prophet and writer of mythology for a modern cohort of crazies, including Mormons and non-Mormons alike. The best solution, IMO, is to expose his ideas for open debate, where they will whither and die.