"Benson linked the civil rights movement to Communists and made vague insinuations about "trators in the church." Last month the NAACP protested the Mormons' failure to endorse civil rights legislaton by picketing the church headquarters wile the Utah Legislature was in session. [Hugh B. Browns pro-civil rights statement] was contradicted at this month's conference [by] Ezra Taft Benson, an apostle of the church. ... "Before I left for Europe, I warned how the Communists were using the civil rights movement to promote revolution and eventual takeover of this country. When are we going to wake up? ... Do you fear the destruction of all vestiges of State government? Now, brethern, the Lord has never promosed there would not be traitors in the church. We have the ignorant, the sleepy, and the deceived who provide temptations and avenues of apostasy for the unwray and the unfaithful."
[Source: "Mormons Bickering Over Rights Issue," Pittsburge Courier, Apr 4, 1965]
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