To you innocent ones who have not transgressed, but were abused as little children and still carry an undeserved burden of guilt, I say: learn true doctrine — repentance and forgiveness; lay that burden of guilt down! Boyd K Packer, Little Children
We’ve always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. The counsel has been wise. You may say again, Well, I know of exceptions. I do, too, and they’ve been very successful marriages. I know some of them. You might even say, I can show you local Church leaders or perhaps even general leaders who have married out of their race. I say, Yes – exceptions. Then I would remind you of that Relief Society woman’s near-scriptural statement, We’d like to follow the rule first, and then we’ll take care of the exceptions. Boyd K Packer
This little factory moves quietly into operation as a normal and expected pattern of growth and begins to produce the life-giving substance. It will do so perhaps as long as you live. It works very slowly. That is the way it should be. For the most part, unless you tamper with it, you will hardly be aware that it is working at all.
As you move closer to manhood, this little factory will sometimes produce an oversupply of this substance. The Lord has provided a way for that to be released. It will happen without any help or without any resistance from you.
There is, however, something you should not do. Sometimes a young man does not understand. Perhaps he is encouraged by unwise or unworthy companions to tamper with that factory. He might fondle himself and open that release valve. This you shouldn’t do, for if you do that, the little factory will speed up. You will then be tempted again and again to release it. You can quickly be subjected to a habit, one that is not worthy, one that will leave you feeling depressed and feeling guilty. Resist that temptation. Do not be guilty of tampering or playing with this sacred power of creation. Keep it in reserve for the time when it can be righteously employed. Boyd K Packer, Church-wide pamphlet, ‘For Young Men Only’ 1976-2006
My dear special sweet young spirits, I wish to address a topic that is very sacred and dear to the Lord.
The Lord has blessed us with special bodies. Our bodies are like a house. We have many different rooms for many different purposes. Dear girls, the Lord has instructed us on the proper use and purpose for all our rooms.
This morning, I would like to talk about your garage.
As you mature, you will find new vines growing around your garage. You may discover an urge to raise the garage door and explore the opening. Satan will tempt you to fiddle with the automatic opener button, causing the door to rise and fall again and again. Resist Satan’s temptations, for he simply likes to watch.
My dear sweet special things, the Lord has asked you to keep your garage closed until you have chosen a car for time and all eternity. Keep your garage empty until you’ve found that one special car to join you in the Celestial parking lot. Resist the urge to put your own bicycle in your garage. Do not allow foreign tools into your garage. Keep the door locked, for that is what our Heavenly Housebuilder has requested. 100Proof, board post 3rd February 1999, ‘For Young Women Only – Your Body, Your Garage’ (The Salamander Society 2000 Awards)
Packer’s sermon claimed that homosexuality was not born of inbred ‘tendencies’.
In the Church’s online text version of Packer’s talk, the word ‘tendencies’ was changed to ‘temptations’.
During his original talk, Elder Packer spoke of homosexual tendencies saying, ‘Some suppose that they were pre-set and cannot overcome what they feel are inborn tendencies toward the impure and unnatural. Not so. Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone? Remember, he is our Father.’
Another change to Packer’s talk includes the omission of the entire sentence, ‘Why would our Heavenly Father do that to anyone?’ JoD3:360, board post 8th October 2010
I asked McConkie why, in fact, his reference to the Roman Catholic Church as the ‘Church of the Devil’ had been removed from the 2nd edition of his book, Mormon Doctrine.
McConkie insisted to me that it was excised not because it was not doctrinally sound but because it was too difficult for people to accept. Steve Benson, board post 12th January 2006, ‘The Day Bruce R McConkie Out-And-Out Lied to My Face’
Oaks confessed that the Mormon Church had not, in fact, been honest about its practice of polygamy during that time. He admitted that the case, as laid out by Quinn, was, in fact, true. Oaks admitted that, in his opinion, lies had indeed been told by Mormon Church leaders about the continuing practice of polygamy after it supposedly was ended by the Manifesto of 1890 ...
Oaks then proceeded to attack Quinn personally by accusing him of breaking his word.
Oaks said that Quinn had been given access to all of J Reuben Clark’s papers for the purpose of writing a book on Clark’s years of Church service. Oaks said he had assured the Church that Quinn was credible, in order that Quinn could be given access to those records. Oaks noted that shortly after Quinn’s research was published on Clark, out came Quinn’s article on post-Manifesto polygamy.
... He accused Quinn of having taken more information out of Church archives than he had been given permission to examine and research, going in.
Oaks said that Quinn was not an innocent victim in this affair. Oaks indicated that he subsequently wrote Quinn a letter, in which he expressed his ‘deep disappointment’ with him and telling Quinn he had exceeded the limits of their original understanding.
In that letter, Oaks further said, he told Quinn that he now regarded him as someone who could not be trusted. Oaks added that Quinn would not tell us about these things, if asked, because of Quinn’s involvement.
On that last point, I wanted to see for myself.
In August 2001, I personally recounted to Quinn Oaks’ version of events and asked him for his own recollections.
Visibly agitated but in a controlled and calm voice, Quinn emphatically denied that he had violated any research agreement with the Church Historical Department.
He told me that it was clearly understood going in that he had open access to archival materials. Steve Benson, board post 21st April 2008, ‘Lying For the Lord and to the Press: The LDS Church on Its Actual Polygamous Beliefs and Practises’
Oaks privately owned up to me, however, that Packer had inappropriately injected himself into local Church action against Toscano – and, in the process, violated Church disciplinary procedures and opening the Church up to a possible lawsuit from Toscano.
Referring to Packer as the source of these headaches, a frustrated Oaks told me, ‘You can’t stage manage a grizzly bear’. When subsequently asked by the media about rumors that Packer had worked behind the scenes to get Toscano excommunicated, Oaks claimed ignorance and denied that Packer could ever do such a thing. Steve Benson, board post 8th May 2008, ‘The Day LDS Apostle Dallin H Oaks Reportedly Offered to Quit the Quorum of the Twelve’
In 1966, an organization spearheaded primarily by John Birchers and known as the 1976 Committee, nominated my grandfather as its choice for President of the United States, with avowed racist and South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond as his running mate.
At the time of the announcement, I remember the excitement among the Benson clan at the prospect that the grand patriarch of our family might become the president of the country. I recall buttons and bumper stickers being passed around and my grandfather smiling proudly amid all the buzz.
Thurmond was the prominent White supremacist who had himself run for president in 1948 on the platform of the States’ Rights Party, commonly known as the ‘Dixiecrats’. The primary goal of Thurmond’s earlier presidential bid was to preserve racial segregation. As he declared at the time, ‘All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negroes into our homes, our schools, our churches.’ Steve Benson, board post 14th October 2009, ‘Given LDS Doctrine and Practice, Dallin Oaks Has no Moral Authority to Lecture Anyone on Civil Rights’, citing Jeff Jacoby, The Death of American Racism
The premise that the Mormon Church’s official racist doctrines have supposedly been left unclear by speculation and opinion based on limited understanding is a deliberately-peddled falsehood that, as the historical record proves, was not demonstrated in the official doctrinal position statements of (drum roll, please) the Mormon Church’s own First Presidencies. Key evidence of that reality is demonstrated by First Presidency pronouncements issued during the leadership tenure of George Albert Smith (and supported by back-channel counselor writings from said First Presidency). Indeed, that First Presidency provided various scriptural and historical defenses of not only the Mormon Church’s official Black priesthood ban, but also of the Church’s official position against interracial marriage with Blacks ...
In an August 1947 letter signed by all three members of the First Presidency of George Albert Smith to Lowry Nelson, a Mormon faculty member at Utah State University in Logan, it was emphatically noted that official Mormon Church doctrine decrees that the Mormon Church priesthood ban was rooted in established and identified Mormon Church doctrine, to wit that ‘[t]he basic element of [the] ideas and concepts ... that all God’s children stand in equal positions before Him in all things ... is contrary to the very fundamentals of God's dealings with Israel dating from the time of His promise to Abraham regarding Abraham’s seed and their position vis-a-vis God Himself’ ... ‘some of God’s children were assigned to superior positions before the world was formed.’ Steve Benson board post August 2014, ‘Mormon Church Knew and Taught its Racist Doctrine’, citing George A Smith’s August 1947 letter