This is an archived copy of a post written by Conflict Of Justice (conflictofjustice.com). Used with permission: Conflict Of Justice may not agree with any alterations made.
Bloomberg news released an important update in the story of a U.S. Christian pastor who was jailed in Turkey on charges of conspiracy. The Turkish government alleges evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson conspired with missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ, along with the terrorist Fethullah Gulen group, the PKK Marxist group, Israelis, Iranians, and the CIA to overthrow Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan. The church and all these other groups all operate under CIA control, they allege. Bloomberg’s excellent investigative journalism provides a greater picture than ever before of what is going on in this case which has rocked international relations, motivated President Trump to personally intervene, and led the United States to levy sanctions against Turkey.
Bloomberg reports Kenneth Abney, age 71, a couple missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, is currently under investigation by Turkey as part of the alleged CIA plot. Prosecutors allege Kenneth Abney met with the accused pastor Andrew Brunson, but the only evidence they present is a cellphone tower record that shows they were same vicinity at one time–which shouldn’t be suspicious considering they both lived in the same city. Also, Abney had left the country by the time one of the meetings allegedly occurred.
Lead Witness Is Bitter Antimormon
So where does this crazy allegation come from? Why does such a large portion of Turkey’s population buy into it? One shocking revelation in Bloomberg’s article is that the main witness in the Andrew Brunson case is an Ex-Mormon who has turned against the church.
The testimony by this Ex-Mormon witness fits right in with the Antimormon rhetoric that we have seen float around the internet for many years. The Ex-Mormon main witness alleges a secret handshake among church members with that involves a curled finger, missing fingers as a sign for all Mormon language teachers, and an effort by Mormon missionaries to bring about the apocalypse by reuniting the Kurds as the 13th tribe of Israel. It’s a kind of mashup of wacky Antimormon internet theories and local Turkish urban legends.
But what I find shocking is that Antimormonism turns out to be a catalyst for a huge international incident between the U.S. and a top Islamic country. Maybe we shouldn’t just dismiss Antimormon websites as harmless? Antimormon rhetoric shames our children, confuses a popular understanding of the church, inspires resentment against the church, inspires bigotry, inspires apostasy–and apparently causes the unjust jailing of other Christians abroad, causes the expulsion of our missionaries from an entire country, and leads to huge international incidents and dictatorial power-grabs by dangerous governments. Maybe Anti-Mormon rhetoric has a much bigger impact than any of us realize? Many missionaries who have served in foreign countries have seen people be suspicious that they are agents for the U.S. government. But now we see a once-moderate nation graft this suspicion with dehumanizing Antimormon rhetoric, leading to serious consequences for everyone.
Justification For A Dictatorship
Back when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints pulled all missionaries out of Turkey in 2016, it didn’t make much of a blip on people’s radars. Ah well, things always fluctuate between peaceful and contentious. Things will settle down and the missionaries will return, we thought.
How Turkey’s Antimormon Conspiracy Theories Began – But we were being kept in the dark, because US media did not give us a full picture of what was happening. The church cited “concern about unstable conditions there,” as the reason for pulling missionaries. There had just been a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 against Turkey’s radical government. Some speculated the pro-Democracy coup attempt was organized by the pro-democracy countries while others speculated it was staged by Turkey’s ruling government itself as an excuse to grab more dictatorial power. Turkey’s hardline government continued to take away democratic freedoms. That’s all we knew.
What we didn’t know was that less than a month later, Turkey’s leaders were accusing the “Mormon church” of being linked with Anti-Turkey terrorist groups, operating under the CIA. This was the genesis of the conspiracy theory at the heart of the Andrew Brunson case. Well, this wouldn’t be the first time a government used the church as a scapegoat to justify a power grab, would it? The stage for this conspiracy theory appears to have already been set, when you look at a 2011 article by Turkey’s government-run media that lists Mormons alongside historic crime groups: “narcotics, the Ku Klux Klan, the mafia, the Mormons, American crime gangs, corrupt union bosses.” After the coup attempt, Turkey’s governmnet-run media started spreading resentment about the Mormon church giving financial support abroad for missionary efforts in Europe. They also lumped their Antimormonism with Antisemitism. Turkey’s government-news agency complained that more Americans seek to preserve religious liberty for Jews and Mormons than for Muslims. Then they complained in October 2016 that Muslims “feel discriminated against” in Italy while the Jews and the “Mormon faith” is officially recognized.
Soon after that, in December 2016, the Christian pastor was jailed by Turkey under suspicion of spying. US media reported the incident, but what the US media didn’t report was that this Turkish conspiracy theory involving members of the church. Nor did they report on the Antimormon rhetoric being passed around by Turkey’s leaders and media outlets.
Turkish news site Bianet reported in December 2016, jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson’s activities allegedly “involved the LDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Church in Turkey, known as the Mormons,” and this was “one of the important proofs that link the suspicious Andrew Craig Brunson with the FETÖ / PDY terrorist organization.” To their credit, Bianet also pointed out: “The church that Brunson belongs to is an Evangelical church and they are not very good with Mormons, and some even do not see them as Christians.” A little bit of truthful reporting from an independant Turkish news source, which is probably due to the fact that Bianet is funded by the European Commision. But this important detail of a Mormon connection didn’t make its way to western media. Too busy with other issues, I guess.
Pretense For Further Power Grabs
The power grab is getting worse. A week ago, another important story made barely a blip in the news. Turkey’s supreme court rejected a plan by an “organization” to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque for Islamic prayer. This was a major story, because Hagia Sophia is one of the largest cathedrals ever built, and it is an emblem of the Christian Ottoman empire, which fell to Islamic Byzantium in 1453. Though they transformed it into a mosque, Turkey has respectfully kept it as a museum building. This push to make it religious can be seen as another power grab to expand Turkey’s modern cultural influence.
U.S. media refused to name the group behind the effort to allow Islamic prayer in the Hagia Sophia. They all just say it was a “request filed by a religious group.” That’s it. The news media in Greece give a slightly fuller story. The ruling political party Justice and Development Party is who is behind the proposal–the same political party that is behind the Mormon conspiracy theory, the jailing of the US pastor, and the government power grab. Soon after this announcement, the government-run Anatolia Youth Association began staging public protests for the cause, Greek Reporter reported.
If you look at the Anatolia Youth Association’s Twitter account, you see the top banner promotes “faith and jihad.” Their twitter posts are Anti-American, Anti-Semetic, and promote the “Islamic Union” western countries, “to save the world.” One post says: “For the peace of America, Asia, Europe, Africa and Australia #IslamicUnion” above a photo of the earth from space. I don’t see anything that promotes violence in their twitter feed, but it is clear that their goal is to promote the Islamic faith across the world. Their Twitter feed is also in English, not Turkish. Why would that be?
Antimormon rhetoric is a very convenient catalyst for this entire campaign, as well as the Anti-American events we recently saw play out in Venezuela. As I have said, Antimormon websites are some of the most convincing and well-written propaganda that has ever been written. It is easy for a malicious government to use it as a pretense for a crackdown on religious liberty–while complaining about lack of religious liberty among Western countries–and then for them to continue with a cultural power grab. Turkey’s conspiracy theories may sound crazy, but reading through Ex-Mormon forums I see much crazier stuff spoken all the time and believed by hundreds of thousands of forum members. With “soft Antimormonism” filling our social media, books, TV shows, music, news articles, movies, and musicals, perpetuated and accepted by so many, it shouldn’t be surprising when it escalates to this level and becomes part of drastic events.
This also affects me on a personal level, as I met many Turks while serving as a missionary in Europe. I found them to be great, fun, smart people, and we got along very well. It is sad to see this happen.