I am a student of security. My family say I am obsessed with it. They listen as I drone on about home security, internet security, personal security, et al, ad nauseam¼ Yes, they are sometimes, understandably, annoyed with me. But I have seen some of that obsessive behaviour pay off. They are more careful, ergo, I continue. Now how the heck is that of any interest to you? I only bring up my “paranoia” to say that I keep track of some obscure data. For instance, I have been (very unofficially) tracking acts of violence on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints property. I also have been interested in anti-Mormon activities for many years. On my mission I had the mission’s largest collection of anti-Mormon material. I did not spend much time reading it or studying it (heaven knows it’s not very deep) but I was interested in what would make someone be “anti” anything. I learned a lot from that “literature”. So, between my crazy anti interest and my security obsession (that’s what happens when you get shot at!) I have had some interesting conclusions.
The following is snip from a NY Times Op-ed piece in 2012 when Mitt Romney was running for President of the United States.
“Why We Fear Mormons” Op-ed in The New York Times
JUNE 3, 2012
“When a perceived oddity is backed by Mormon money or growing political clout, the left gets jumpy. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and HBO’s Bill Maher have resorted to caricature, stereotyping and hyperbole in their anti-Mormon attacks. Liberals were outraged by Mormon financing of Proposition 8, the 2008 ban on same-sex marriage in California. They scoff at Mormonism’s all-male priesthood and ask why church leaders have yet to fully repudiate the racist teachings of previous authorities.
For the right, Mormonism figures in even more complicated ways. The Mormon Road to respectability has often led, as it did for Mr. Romney, through Harvard Business School; pro-business Republicans have found ready friends among well-placed Mormons. But many rank-and-file evangelical Protestants call Mormonism a cult — as the pastor Robert Jeffress did last fall — or a “non-Christian religion.” Indeed, evangelical hatred has been the driving force behind national anti-Mormonism.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/opinion/anti-mormonism-past-and-present.html
Our religions opponents are generally light weights. I’ve never put much stock in their rantings and ravings. I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints my entire life. There are those who think they are “experts” on our Church and our religion. Studying something for X number of years, does not an expert make. I am a gun instructor. “Experts” in that field abound yet I feel you can always learn, and the term “expert” is very fluid.
In my study of those who study us, I’ve found there is usually an agenda in their interest. There may be some who honestly want to learn about our religion from a scholarly point of view. But most are trying to tear it down and some are even bent on destroying the Church. As I’ve believed for many years, if the Church has any enemies, the worst would usually be ex-members. Some of these are even, in my opinion, physical threats to the Church.
Actual acts of violence against the Church are considerably less common in the United States today than they were in the nineteenth century. However, one major event related to the persecution of the Church is the murders of two missionaries in La Paz, Bolivia in May of 1989 by a terrorist organization called the Zarate Willka Liberation Armed Forces. On May 28, 1989, in the streets of La Paz, Bolivia's cemetery district, two Anglo missionaries were cruelly assassinated. For the first time, Guerrillas deliberately stalked and struck at representatives of the Church. This type of violence has increased.
Other events happened in the 1980s. Anti-Mormon protestors stood outside the Denver temple and threw rocks, and a firebombing scare was also reported there. Another Bolivian terrorist group, the Tupac Guerrilla Army, claimed responsibility for two attacks against chapels. The Latauro Youth Movement in Chile conducted twenty-seven small-scale bombings against Mormon churches in 1992 as well. It has been reported that a total of one hundred and forty-nine individual attacks had been carried out against LDS targets in Latin America since 1983. There have been 27 acts of violence on Church property in the United States from 1999 until 2018. In 2018 there were 3 separate incidents. I’m not an alarmist but my time in the military taught me to look for trends. This violence is a trend. Now I will be the first to recognize that these acts of violence are not the acts of someone persecuting the Church. Most of them are acts by individuals targeting other individuals.
This is from an article from Bloomberg Businessweek September 25, 2018
Turkey May Target Mormons Next After Case Against U.S. Pastor
By Marc Champion and Cagan Koc
“The indictment, filed in May, ties Brunson to three alleged coup attempts against Erdogan since 2013. Yet the sole evidence for the Brunson-Abney meetings at the center of the prosecution’s conspiracy argument consists of cell phone tower records showing that, on the days the planning allegedly occurred, the two men’s phones were in Alsancak. Given that both men lived there, that would have been true most days of the year. “We never met Brunson” or even knew of his existence until his 2016 arrest, says Abney, now 71 and on a Mormon mission in the U.S. Nor, says Abney, had he conspired in any way against Turkey. “We just wanted to help people,” he says, by bringing wheelchairs to the disabled, pomegranate trees to poor villagers, and computers to schools.
According to Abney, the main witness against Brunson is almost certainly a former LDS member whom the prosecution has code-named “Dua,” a word meaning “prayer,” to protect his identity. Some of the evidence Dua produced comes from the Abneys’ computer, according to Kenneth Abney, who says the laptop was taken for repair by an interpreter who was later expelled by the church for allegedly embezzling $10,000.
Dua makes some spectacular claims—for example, that an umbrella organization for Christian churches that’s led by Mormons but involves the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency controls the deployment of all U.S. Christian missionaries; that they identify each other in the field with a secret handshake, a curl of the middle fingers into the palm; that LDS members sent to infiltrate Turkish military high schools as language teachers all had a finger missing; that Mormons make up 40 percent of the U.S. military stationed overseas; and that evangelicals and Mormons are driven to Turkey by a common desire to bring about the end-of-days prophesies in the Bible’s Book of Revelation, by reuniting the Kurds—the lost 13th tribe of Israel.”
It's not interesting to me that the Church is targeted in Turkey, I think that is pretty typical for these days. I think it will change soon though. What is interesting to me is that an ex-member has fabricated a wild story of conspiracy. Even in Turkey ex-members are the Church’s worst enemy.
Then enter Deseret Nation. (#DezNat) This is the Twitter/X hash tag that represents what the users of the hashtag describes as:
DezNat participants have typically insisted that their sole purpose is to gather orthodox Latter-day Saints and defend the church against critics. Correspondingly, they see the term "alt-right" as inaccurate and even defamatory.
When this hashtag first appeared, I embraced it. I thought of it as those trying to support the church and to defend it. I feel it has been exploited to mean other things lately. I would not want to use it now because of some alt-right and violent ideas it has been associated with. I think it would have been better if the creator actually started a movement and established standards with the movement. By leaving it open to interpretation just about anything will be used to the extreme.
I do not like “secret” groups whatever their cause. But I understand the need for secrecy because if you’re involved in something that others consider “radical”, your life can be eviscerated by the internet. People have lost their jobs over tweets if you can believe it! Free speech in this country is basically over. I would like to belong to a group that defends the Church. I would want to remain anonymous, but others would want to “expose” me, I’m sure. Anonymity in this situation would be security related, not cowardice. I try to remain anonymous on this blog, but like I’ve said before, it’s probably not that hard to figure out who I am. But being a part of a group like that, with standards of behavior, would be a great opportunity I believe. Defending the Church is what I have been advocating for many years. This does not include physically or verbally attacking any lifestyle, organization, or idea we would not agree with.
But unequivocally standing up for and defending it. If need be it might be physically one day.
Semper Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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