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.
“A must read!” “I can’t say enough good things about the CES Letter. Read it. Study it.” ExMormon Reddit about CES Letter
In Letter to a CES Director, I was shocked to find an incredibly bitter, derisive tirade–a hate message that is short on logic and thick with rhetoric. As more people view Antimormon literature to learn about Mormonism, it is stunning the level of hatred such literature inspires–akin to learning about Judaism from Mein Kampf. CES Letter expresses a profound sense of “betrayal, loss, and sadness unlike anything I’ve ever known” due to Mormonism. Germans post-WWI felt profound betrayal and loss as well, and needed to find a scapegoat for their problems. If you consider Antimormon literature as an effort to define Mormons we can see how Mormons become the scapegoat for social and economic strife.
The word “scapegoat” comes form the Hebrew tradition of driving a goat into the wilderness to carry away sins, and this is certainly something Mormons have experience with. As one of the only minority groups in America to experience state-sanctioned genocide and having been driven from city to city until finally they were driven to the untamed wilderness of Utah, Mormons were from the very start a scapegoat. “People who are easy to recognize by appearance or culture make perfect scapegoats; if they are easy to identify, they are easy to blame” (Magedah Shabo) Who is more recognizable and easy to ridicule in America than Mormons?
In 1844, the first serious Antimormon propaganda was printed. Compare the Nauvoo Expositor to Nazi Antisemitic literature:
| Nauvoo Expositor | Nazis |
| “Females” were victims of a “deep-laid and fatal scheme… with a penalty of death attached” if they refused to become “his (Joseph’s) Spiritual wife,” crushing vulnerable women and leading them to an “untimely grave… robbed of that which nothing but death can restore.” (see Nauvoo Expositor) | “The Jews systematically destroyed their honor and cleverly robbed them of their possessions until they suddenly died a “natural death.” We must leave to future historians the task of explaining how many of the “heart attacks,” “suicides” and other such causes of death for many opponents of the Jews were really the work of eternal Jewish hatred.” (Ernst Hiemer) |
The Nauvoo Expositor called Mormons “demons in human shape” and endorsed the government-led extermination of Mormons in Missouri: “The hostile spirit and conduct manifested by Joseph Smith, and many of his associates towards Missouri… are decidedly at variance with the true spirit of Christianity… all church members are alike amenable to the laws of the land… we further discountenance any chicanery to screen them from the just demands of the same.” CES Letter complains about “Joseph’s destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor” and says it was because they “dared expose his behavior.” Antimormons generally defend this Antimormon newspaper and use its destruction as the rallying cry against Mormons.
Mormons Portrayed As Dangerous
Anitmormons generally tells us that Mormons are simply dupes who got conned by Joseph Smith. But in CES Letter the rhetoric takes a much darker tone. Mormons are presented as having a “perverted license” who marry other men’s wives, victimize young girls, and who had “racist teachings.” CES Letter incorrectly claims Joseph Smith got 31 Mormons to lie in a sworn affidavit to cover up for his sexual perversions. Then then it spread with a “a set of very specific and bizarre rules” in Mormonism.
Matter Of Life & Death – CES Letter presents their arguments as a matter of life of death, saying they are “betting my life” when it comes to Mormonism. They falsely claim the story of Nephi killing Laban was “used as a defense in killings by religious people.” They incorrectly claim Brigham Young taught Mormons to inflict violence on unbelievers. Then, they say the Mormons believe in a God who “would kill innocent children.”
“To believe in the scriptures, I have to believe in a god who endorsed murder, genocide, infanticide, rape, slavery, selling daughters into sex slavery, polygamy, child abuse, stoning disobedient children, pillage, plunder, sexism, racism, human sacrifice, animal sacrifice, killing people who work on the Sabbath, death penalty for those who mix cotton with polyester, and so on.”
(CES Letter)
“Yes, the same god who tested Abraham is also the same crazy god who killed innocent babies and endorsed genocide, slavery and rape.” Letter to a CES Director “Jewry once again reveals itself as the incarnation of evil, as the plastic demon of decay and the bearer of an international culture-destroying chaos.” Joseph Goebbels
This paints Mormons as crazy and perverted. After all, don’t Mormons believe “as God now is, man may become,” right? So if Mormons believe in a God who is murderous, genocidal, child-killing, then all Mormons therefore believe in becoming murderers, genocidal child-killers, etc. It reminds me of what Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels said about Jews: “Jewry once again reveals itself as the incarnation of evil, as the plastic demon of decay and the bearer of an international culture-destroying chaos.”
Compare that with what CES Letter says about Mormons: “Yes, the same god who tested Abraham is also the same crazy god who killed innocent babies and endorsed genocide, slavery and rape.”
Superior Alternative – Why do Antimormons in general portray Mormons as evil? By presenting the outgroup (Mormons) as the incarnation of evil, authoritarian personalities lift themselves up as a righteous alternative. CES Letter does not directly heap praise upon themselves, but they definitely suggest they are a superior alternative because they took an opposing path.
“‘Do what is right; let the consequence follow’ now holds a completely different meaning for me. I desperately searched for answers to all of the problems. To me, the answer eventually came but it was not what I expected…” (CES Letter)
“As a child, it seemed so simple; Every step was clearly marked. Priesthood, mission, sweetheart, temple; Bright with hope I soon embarked. But now I have become a man, And doubt the promise of the plan. For the path is growing steeper, And a slip could mean my death… The expanse of heaven’s fountain Now unfolds before my eye. A thousand stars shine on the land, The chart drafted by my own hand.’ (CES Letter quoting The Journey)”
Nazi propagandists lifted themselves by attacking the outgroup and tearing them down: “Aryans were made synonymous with everything good and the Jewish people with everything bad.” Antimormons likewise has nothing good to say about Mormons and nothing bad to say about themselves. They associate Mormons with atrocity. Here are just a few paragraphs from CES Letter speaking about Mormons with all references to killing people highlighted:
Portraying Mormons As Anti-Intellectual
Mormons Portrayed As Anti-Intellectual – Nazis alienated Jews by portraying them as a threat to “intellectualism.” Joseph Goebbels warned that Jews had infiltrated every high intellectual profession of the country in order “to cause difficulties” for the German people. He thought Jews were oppressing the intellectual classes: “Is it not an abomination that people with the most brilliant intellectual gifts should sink into poverty and disintegrate, while others dissipate, squander, and waste the money that could help them?”
Economic class-warfare can be seen in CES Letter:
“$1.5 billion megamall City Creek Center… Of all the sum total of human suffering and poverty on this planet, the inspiration the Brethren feel for His Church is to get into the shopping mall business?… Would a loving, kind, empathic God really place parents in the horrible position of having to choose whether to feed their children or pay what little they have to a multi-billion megamall owning Church that receives an estimated $8,000,000,000 in annual tithing receipts?”
(CES Letter)
“Anti-Intellectualism… It was only after I lost my testimony and discovering, for the first time, the SCMC and the anti-intellectualism going on behind the scenes that I could clearly see the above cultish aspects of the Church and why people came to the conclusion that Mormonism is a cult.” Letter to a CES Director “When one further considers the alienation of German intellectual life by International Jewry… in short, the fact that nearly all intellectual professions were dominated by the Jews, one has to grant that no people with any self esteem could tolerate that for long.” Joseph Goebbels
Antimormons portray the Mormon church as greedy money-grubbers who push down the poor and the spirit of true intellectual thought. “Begging the Bishop for food when you had the money for food but because you followed the above Ensign advice and gave your food money to the Church you’re now dependent on the Church for food money.” (CES Letter) Gee, who would be that stupid, right? CES Letter further takes quotes out of context to make it look like “Researching ‘unapproved’ materials on the internet” is discouraged by Mormon leaders. CES Letter claims the church has a “spying and monitoring arm” that “most members have been unaware of,” its “primary mission being to hunt and expose intellectuals and/or disaffected members who are influencing other members to think and question.” A “secretive” committee that goes after “intellectuals”? CES Letter says it adds up to “practices you’d expect to find in a totalitarian system such as North Korea or George Orwell’s 1984; not from the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
We get a similar sense of an omnipresent conspiracy to suppress intellectual thought from the Nazis. The Jews secretly worked together as a “World Jewry and its allies” according to Goebbels. The Mormon church secretly works through a committee and anti-Internet campaigns, according to Antimormons.
CES Letter proclaims: “It was only after I lost my testimony and discovering, for the first time, the SCMC and the anti-intellectualism going on behind the scenes that I could clearly see the above cultish aspects of the Church and why people came to the conclusion that Mormonism is a cult.” You can only recognize the cultish aspects after you have cut yourself out? Only after they become the out-group? This reminds me of Joseph Goebbel’s insistence that the only way to overcome the Jews’ anti-Intellectualism was to “cut them out”:
“The Jews are a parasitic race that feeds like a foul fungus on the cultures of healthy but ignorant peoples. There is only one effective measure: cut them out.” (Joseph Goebbels)
Associating Disgust With Mormons – Antimormons in general seem to think the church preys on ignorant people as well: “It’s always people who are struggling in life and looking for an answer and unfortunately the mormon church preys on those people because they’re ‘helping them’.” (Ex-Mormon Reddit) As for CES Letter, they don’t outright accuse Mormons of preying on ignorance, but they use language of disgust to associate Mormons with disgusting things. For example, they claim that in Facsimile 3 we actually see: “Min is sitting on a throne with an erect penis (which can be seen in the figure). In other words, Joseph Smith is saying that this figure with an erect penis is Heavenly Father sitting on His throne.” CES Letter also relates an Old Testament scripture to Mormonism: “After picking up his concubine… The men of the city attempt to sodomize him, but end up raping the concubine until her death. As a response, the Levite dismembers his wife’s corpse and sends her body parts throughout the land of Israel. Who needs R or X-rated movies when you got scripture like this?” CES Letter relates disgusting and shocking language to Mormons which serves to push Mormons to the out-group.
Dehumanization – Admittedly, CES Letter does not outright dehumanize Mormons as severely as Goebbels did when he called Jews parasites and fungus. But there are five examples of direct dehumanization in CES Letter:
- CES Letter quotes a fake quote from an Antimormon about Martin Harris that says Jesus was a deer: “…on the way he met the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked along by the side of him in the shape of a deer for two or three miles, talking with him as familiarly as one man talks with another.”
- The poem quoted by CES Letter seems to call the world of Mormonism “untamed wild”: “Oh, where within this untamed wild Is the star that led me as a child?”
- After explaining at length why a Mormon person’s testimony should not be trusted, CES Letter compares a testimony to physical media, which is a mechanistic dehumanization: “Who cares whether you received the information from a stranger, television, book, magazine, comic book, napkin, and even the scary internet?”
- CES Letter suggests some or many Mormons are just ‘seat-warmers’, another mechanistic dehumanization: “Why is it that I had to first discover all of this – from the internet – at 31-years-old after 20 years of high activity in the Church? I wasn’t just a seat warmer at Church.”
- A diagram in CES Letter assigns numbers to the plural “wives” of Joseph Smith and cartoonish silhouettes, referring to them as “wife #2” and “wife #2” instead of treating them like people.
Portraying people as less than human, and imagery of disgusting things like Min’s phallus effectively illustrate a group of people in a negative way, and this has always been a preferred tool of propagandists, but I think a more effective and insidious dehumanization is the alienation of a group from society by declaring them “anti-intellectuals” who make people into slaves. Adolf Hitler did this in Mein Kampf:
“In the course of a few years he endeavors to exterminate all those who represent the national intelligence. And by thus depriving the peoples of their natural intellectual leaders he fits them for their fate as slaves under a lasting despotism.”
Adolf Hitler
We can compare this to how CES Letter claims Joseph Smith tried to “secretly steal other men’s wives and to marry underage and teenage girls,” and how CES Letter associates Joseph Smith with Moses who they claim killed off the Midianite men to steal their “32,000 virgins.” We similarly feel a chill run down the spine from imagery of stealing people and extermination and we can’t help but push Joseph Smith and his followers to the out-group. This kind of dehumanization is so powerful because it defines the out-group by generalized actions in order to justify an equal and opposite reaction. We say to ourselves “they did that so they deserve this.” This is where I think propaganda can lead to a dark road.
Mormons Conceal Themselves To Fit In – Mormons may look normal but they are anything but normal, is the message some Antimormons tell. Goebells likewise said Jews were trying to fit into their surroundings while secretly plotting against the intellectuals of the nation: “He had concealed himself, mimicked his surroundings, adopting the color of the background, adjusted to the environment, in order to wait for the proper moment.” We get this same sense in CES Letter that Mormons change their appearance. One day they polygamous, the next day they aren’t. Mormons even change the name of the church to conceal what they are about: “Why would Christ instruct Joseph to name it one thing in 1830 and then change it in 1834 and then change it again in 1838? Why would the name of Christ be dropped from His one and only true Church for 4 whole years?” (CES Letter) Goebbels said the best thing to do about this mimicry is to expose them: “What makes more sense than to at least make this plainly visible to our citizens?” CES letter says: “Just because a leader wears a religious hat does not follow that they’re exempt from
history and accountability from others… Truth has no fear of the light. President George A. Smith said, ‘If a faith will not bear to be investigated; if its preachers and professors are afraid to have it examined, their foundation must be very weak.’”
Do Mormons hide the truth about themselves in order to fit in? Do they hide their disturbing history in order to prevent people from seeing what they really are? CES Letter says: “How am I supposed to feel about learning about these disturbing facts at 31-years-old? After making critical life decisions based on trust and faith that the Church was telling me the complete truth about its origins and history?… all of this information that has been kept concealed and hidden from me by the Church my entire life…” Compare this with what Goebbels said about Jews:
“Schopenauer once said that the Jew is the master of the lie. He is such an expert on twisting the truth that he can tell his innocent opponent the exact opposite of the truth even on the plainest matter in the world. He does this with such astonishing impudence that the listener becomes uncertain, at which point the Jew has usually won… They are angry at us for uncovering them. They know we recognize them for what they are. The Jew is secure only when he can remain hidden.”
Joseph Goebbels
Superior Knowledge – A good portion of CES Letter is dedicated to attacking the Mormon method of faith. “Praying about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon does not follow that the LDS Church is true.” (CES Letter) They incorrectly claim Joseph Smith was fooled by a non-godly inspiration to make a trip to Canada. “How are we supposed to know what revelations are from God, from the devil, or from the heart of man if even the Prophet Joseph Smith couldn’t tell?” (CES Letter) They claim Mormons delude themselves into believing things that have an “abundance of evidence” against it: “Mormonism re-defines faith as embracing what you hope to be true in spite of science, fact and history.” (CES Letter)
Nazis considered their methodology for truth superior to the Jews. Goebbels said the German was “a specialist in every area, but the wonderful thing is that while most specialists never go beyond their knowledge, his knowledge is the raw material for understanding and action.” They likewise appealed to science as the higher truth. Richard Overy observed: “Hitler, like Stalin took a very modern view of the incompatibility of religious and scientific explanation.” Alan Bullock said: “Science, he declared, would easily destroy the last remaining vestiges of superstition ‘In the long run’, Hitler concluded, ‘National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together.'”
Authoritarian Personality
Authoritarian personalities crave an authority figure to submit to. How does CES Letter feel about authority?
- CES Letter is frustrated that they “have been unable to find official answers from the Church for most of these issues” that they bring up. Antimormons in general seem to want every little concern addressed and officially answered by the prophets, even though the church does address many of these issues..
- CES Letter: “This is the best God can come up with in revealing His truth to His children?… This is God’s model and standard of efficiency?… If God’s method to revealing truth is through feelings, it’s a pretty ineffective method.” Antimormons in general seem to want “truth” dictated in a loud way, where as many people learn “truth” as possible.
- CES Letter complains that the sermon by Jesus in the Book of Mormon does not match up word for word with the bible’s Sermon on the mount. Aren’t these the “same passages”? Well no, they are two different sermons given to two different groups of people that happen to say much the same thing. But Antimormons apparently expect everybody to receive the exact same sermon wherever Jesus goes.
- CES Letter is appalled that an apostle does not know exactly how the Book of Abraham was translated by Joseph Smith. CES Letter complains that Jeffrey R. Holland said: “I do not understand and don’t claim to know and know no Egyptian.”
- CES Letter complains that polygamy was banned in the church, even though they complain about polygamy as well. They ridicule Mormons for believing God “was against polygamy before he was for polygamy but decided in 1890 that he was again against it.” Antimormons in general want rigid policies and an unwavering dogma. Policies such as marriage are never allowed to change, apparently.
From these and other examples, it seems like CES Letter appeals to those who want an authoritarian leadership to provide orthodoxy answers to every detail of life. Authoritarian personalities establish an “ingroup” and “outgroup” division, and blame everything on the outgroup, which in this case is Mormons. The authoritarian personality projects his issues, so he doesn’t have to confront “his or her weaknesses which are projected onto the weak outgroup.” As part of the ingroup club, they enjoy “a feeling of superiority and security.”
Ingroup Devotion – This was what Goebbels meant when he boasted that the German people were “full of devotion under the care of a strong hand.” He was fostering an ingroup “devotion” to each other. I feel a sense of ingroup camaraderie as CES Letter points out a news article about people “leaving in droves” from the Mormon church. CES Letter had a “feeling of betrayal” from Mormonism. At the very end of the PDF, CES Letter invites the reader to be part of the ingroup: “If the CES Letter has added value to your life, please pay it forward. Your support will allow us to continue to help the honest in heart seekers.” (CES Letter)
Being part of the in-group “brings with it a feeling of superiority and security.” Is the purpose of Antimormon literature to persuade people to become part of their hateful ingroup and to despise Mormons? This is the reason Goebbels sought to “foment suspicion, distrust, and hatred” of Jews and Bolsheviks, after all.
Gossip – Gossip is the main tool of authoritarian personalities, as “instead of dealing with our own ugliness we create even uglier pictures of others around so we can feel better.” Group gossip unifies the ingroup and scapegoats the outgroup for all their problems. “Folk legends regarding the evils of a group are very effective in promoting the necessary level of fear. Detailed conspiracies about wide-ranging plots also are useful.” (Magedah Shabo) CES Letter alleges a secretive Mormon committee dedicated to “[g]oing after members who publish or share their questions.” They say: “It is secretive and most members have been unaware of its existence”. CES Letter goes well beyond the typical tall-tales about Mormon polygamy and accuses Joseph Smith of “deliberate deception in hiding and denying polygamy and polyandry.” CES Letter spreads lurid gossip about “a Warren Jeffs style revelation on polygamy that Joseph pointed to as a perverted license to secretly marry other living men’s wives and teenage girls barely out of puberty”. It is these kinds of disturbing folk legends that truly dehumanize a group of people.
Resentment – CES Letter appeals to feelings of betrayal and economic jealousy of a church that they falsely claim spent more on a “$1.5 billion dollar high-end megamall than it has in 26 years of humanitarian aid”. Ex-Mormon and non-Mormon alike can feel resentment towards Mormons. In general Antimormon literature, everybody has a reason to resent Mormons–oppressing gays, oppressing women, oppressing poor people, buying up land, investing in pharmaceuticals while opposing legalized pot, etc.
Ridicule – Then there’s the Mormon musical that is so heavily promoted on Broadway: “I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people. You can be a Mormon, a Mormon who just believes.” CES Letter gives a similar quote of this line from the bigoted Mormon musical: “He changed His mind again in 1978 about black people.” The Nazis were experts at using ridicule and resentment in their propaganda. If Goebbels had made a musical about Jews, there is no doubt that it would have carried the same tunes as the Mormon musical that so scornfully attacks Mormons.
Can we see some similarity to “the Nazi trick of defying and ridiculing authority, to destroy its prestige”? CES Letter‘s direct appeals to ridicule tend to be aimed at priesthood authority: For example, Elder Uchtdorf’s warning about the “scary internet.” Or CES Letter‘s repeated sarcastic label for church leaders “prophet, seer, and revelator.” It appears to be an attack on the notion of priesthood authority. Nazi propagandists attacked notions of authority in their enemies. Teachers and parents of Hitler’s Youth members said “pupils ridiculed them and undermined their authority.”
Divide The Enemy – Nazis sought to “demoralize the enemy, to destroy the cohesion, discipline and collective morale of hostile social groups… undermining confidence in authority.” Consider how Antimormons tell goofy hoax allegations about Joseph Smith plagiarizing some pirate story for the Book of Mormon. Even if we don’t believe the allegation, we still associate Joseph Smith with piracy. CES Letter plays this same trick several times. They point out alleged parallels between the Book of Mormon and some book about Great Britain. The parallels are goofy and most people don’t believe the Book of Mormon derived from this book. But what is powerful is that the parallels involved racist ideas such as “Righteous Indians vs. savage Indians” and we come away associating the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith with racism.
Is it all about attacking our confidence as Mormons in the prophets, foundational scripture, and church leadership? Without this confidence in church authority, it is easy for a Mormon–particularly young teenage Mormons–to be persuaded through endless rhetorical attacks to turn against the church. Antimormons in general seek to divide the Mormon community. What is the basis for the repeated slogan (reworded slightly differently) in CES Letter: “Yesterday’s doctrine is today’s false doctrine and yesterday’s prophet is today’s heretic”?
Repetition
Big Lie – We all know the famous Adolf Hitler quote: “Repeat a lie enough times and people will start to believe it.” It is not just a matter of repeating something over and over again, but repeating something in a way that leads to further lies. For example, when Hitler blamed Jews for economic strife, he backed it up with a bunch of small lies and continued with further implications of what it means that Jews are to blame for economic strife–further lies. The small lies build up to the Big Lie, and the Big Lie is bolstered by further lies.
Consider the repetition in CES Letter. The most telling case to me is their discussion of polygamy. From the start we are hit with the lie that Joseph Smith committed “polyandry”, that of his 34 wives “11 of them were married women of other living men.” This is false, as Joseph Smith was only sealed to them for eternity and that was a totally different thing than being married for earth life; it didn’t involve physical relations. But with this initial lie in place, CES Letter moves on to other lies: Joseph Smith married teenage girls, he married his foster daughters, only virgins may marry, etc. Then we are hit with the Big Lie: “Plural marriages are rooted in the notion of ‘sealing’ for both time and eternity”. False. Joseph Smith was sealed to those 11 women and young women like Helen Mar Kimball for eternity only. But after a long litany of lurid charges stacking up against Joseph Smith, and after having repeated them, the reader is more likely to accept the Big Lie. With the Big Lie in place, CES Letter moves on to implications of what it means: “sadistic, immoral, adulterous, despicable, and pedophilic behavior.” Efforts at covering it up. Warren Jeffs. Etc.
Clever Repetition – CES Letter repeated the initial lie about polyandry another 15 times that I counted. CES Letter is filled with constant repetition, and it isn’t just a matter of repeating a list of attacks, but clever repetition that builds up to big lies.
There are three types of clever repetition:
- Allegations are repeated within an argument to make them sounds more credible. For example, CES Letter claims Joseph Smith’s community “believed in folk magic, divining rods, visions, second sight… all shared a common worldview of second sight, magic, and treasure digging… believed they could see things as a vision in their mind. They called it ‘second sight'”. CES Letter doesn’t actually provide any evidence that “second sight” was a thing whatsoever, but they just repeat the allegation over and over again.
- Charged words are repeated within an argument to associate Mormons more strongly with negative things. For example, the word “mall” or “megamall” appear six times within a single argument. Words such as “mall” or “kill” are key words that embody how CES Letter apparently wants the Mormon church to be viewed.
- Arguments are repeated throughout the PDF. The argument that Joseph Smith and his buddies lack credibility because they were “treasure hunters” is repeated so many times in conjunction with so many other arguments that we can’t help but suspect that it is true.
“But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.”
Adolf Hitler
Slogans – CES Letter also makes effective use of slogans. We see the same sarcastic references to the Mormon church appear over and over again: “the one and only true Church,” “Prophet, Seer, and Revelator”, “Yesterday’s prophets are today’s disavowed heretics.” Often the slogan is reworded very slightly. One interesting repeated slogan is the CES Letter‘s claim that they are “betting” on church leaders as “as credible witnesses,” and that they are “betting” their “life” on the Holy Ghost even though it is an “inconsistent and contradictory Source.” Each time it is an attack on the church’s authority.
Hitler said about slogans: they should confine themselves to a few points, repeat, and converge on a single idea. “In the end must always say the same thing. For instance a slogan must be presented from different angles, but the end of all remarks must always and immutably be the slogan itself.”
Conclusion
The general Antimormon rhetoric against Mormons appears to stem from an authoritarian personality, as we can see as far back as the Nauvoo Expositor in 1844. They seek authority (as we know it in Mormon terms “priestcraft”) and desire a strong dictator to tell them how to live every part of their lives. They feel a strong sense of betrayal when this need is not met by the Mormon church, and deep resentment. They lift themselves up as righteous by pushing Mormons into the “enemy” out-group and portraying them as a threat to scientific knowledge and intellectualism. They project their own issues and divide society into an ingroup and outgroup so that they can blame Mormons for societal, personal, and economic strife.
What does this quick comparison with Nazi rhetoric tell us about Antimormon literature? Compare the cover of CES Letter with the graphic design of Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. A bold white title consisting of two words on a red-orange bar that runs left to right, over a dark grey background and the author’s name in smaller white text over the grey background. “My Struggle” verses “My Search for Answers…”
I think it boils down to the need people feel to tear down a group’s faith. That’s what Hitler felt about the Jews and that is what Antimormons feel about Mormons. You can dress it up however you want–call it “an exposé” or “personal experience” or “the other side of the argument for Mormonism.” It comes down to hate, and all such hateful screeds against groups of people tend to turn into the same kind rhetoric across the board. All such examples should be strongly repudiated for the bigotry they are. Once we recognize it, the shocking and deeply saddening thing is when we realize how pervasive this propaganda is in the media. We are surrounded by it and greatly affected by it. The next step is to address that.