Building on files created while Benson was an apostle [related to surveillance of LDS professors and students suspected of being “left wing,” “liberal,” Communist, or socialist], staff members of this now-centralized committee began maintaining files on every member of the church regarded as critical of LDS policies or as too liberal…. During the past decade [i.e., the decade preceding 1997] this committee, whose total number of staff members and operatives is unknown, has staked out a daunting task. Its files include even a sentence regarded as controversial in an LDS member’s writings about any Mormon topic for such independent publications as the academic Utah Historical Quarterly, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Journal of Mormon History, for the LDS magazine Sunstone with its open-forum and sometimes irreverent format, and for LDS feminist publications such as Exponent II and Mormon Women’s Forum.
This clipping service at LDS headquarters is also interested in published letters-to-the-editor in all Utah’s newspapers, including the student publications of BYU and other Utah colleges. Statements considered controversial about LDS policy to national media are also targets for these files. In addition, the [committee] uses operatives to obtain tape-recordings of every Mormon who gives presentations at public forums regarded as suspicious. As a glimpse into the extent of these files, a history professor at Utah State University [Ross Peterson] was informed during a meeting at LDS headquarters in 1990 that his surveillance file included an anti-war statement he made as an undergraduate in college ” (p. 311).
We hate to seem like we don’t trust every nut with a story, but there’s evidence we can point to, and dance while shouting taunting phrases.
Do non-member critics get files? Anyone have an idea?
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
Bond...James Bond wrote:Do non-member critics get files? Anyone have an idea?
No, nobody has any idea.
But let me say this: Among the General Authorities, I've never sensed that anybody pays much specific attention to individual critics or "ministries." They're aware that there are critics, but that's about as far as it goes; they're not following it closely. And I've never met anybody working in the Church Office Building who seemed to be paying much attention, either. A few of them have occasionally asked me questions about current critics -- like once every year or two -- and the nature of the questions has made it clear to me that I know a lot more than they do.
But let me say this: Among the General Authorities, I've never sensed that anybody pays much specific attention to individual critics or "ministries." They're aware that there are critics, but that's about as far as it goes; they're not following it closely. And I've never met anybody working in the Church Office Building who seemed to be paying much attention, either. A few of them have occasionally asked me questions about current critics -- like once every year or two -- and the nature of the questions has made it clear to me that I know a lot more than they do.
Do you think the next generation of LDS leaders (who actually know about the Internet and the reach it has) will be more concerned with criticism of Mormonism?
I guess that even leads me to wonder if the LDS leaders even know about the various criticisms of Mormonism....I wish Gordon B. would grant me that Veritaserum interview.....sounds like a parody.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
Bond...James Bond wrote:Do non-member critics get files? Anyone have an idea?
Didn't I read somewhere that as part of the initial More Good Foundation's Electronic Surveillance of Mormon Critic Thought on the Net proposal, that a giant underground facility was constructed in the basement of the Neal Maxwell Institute?
(I think this research lab also has a cold storage facility dedicated to preservation, storage and quick retrieval of Provo's now defunct Krispy Kreme donut supply).
Bond...James Bond wrote:Do you think the next generation of LDS leaders (who actually know about the Internet and the reach it has) will be more concerned with criticism of Mormonism?
I guess that even leads me to wonder if the LDS leaders even know about the various criticisms of Mormonism....I wish Gordon B. would grant me that Veritaserum interview.....sounds like a parody.
I doubt they'll pay much more attention. When talking with a recently-called Seventy he said that when he was first called his mailbox was barraged with Anti-Mormon literature and letters. He said at first he wrote back trying to point out errors and explain things but the volume was too much and after a week he gave up. He said he hadn't dealt with it since.
I expect they'll pay as much attention to it as they did to the literature since the beginning. Collect it under their obligations in the D&C with their secret committee and that's about it.
"Surely he knows that DCP, The Nehor, Lamanite, and other key apologists..." -Scratch clarifying my status in apologetics "I admit it; I'm a petty, petty man." -Some Schmo
The Nehor wrote:Collect it under their obligations in the D&C with their secret committee and that's about it.
Actually, the Church has done very, very little -- and nothing systematic -- to fulfill that obligation. A few of us are trying to remedy the situation. Not, despite what a certain person will immediately presume, by surveillance of individuals, etc., but simply by gathering up published materials and archiving them for purposes of study and research.
Last edited by Guest on Fri Aug 17, 2007 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The Nehor wrote:Collect it under their obligations in the D&C with their secret committee and that's about it.
Actually, the Church has done very, very little -- and nothing systematic -- to fulfill that obligation. A few of us are trying to remedy the situation. Not, despite what a certain person will immediataely presume, by surveillance of individuals, etc., but simply by gathering up published materials and archiving them for purposes of study and research.
Last night I noticed an unmarked van parked across from our new home in Provo. The next morning, there was nothing there but a discarded Krispy Kreme box. It looked as if someone had searched our mailbox and taken some peaches from our trees. Should I be worried? ;-)
But could you please leave your blinds up this evening? And -- the weather's getting a bit cooler in the evening now, you know -- why don't you leave your windows open? That'll lower your air conditioning bill. And please speak louder.