Three days after the First Presidency announcement [denouncing the idea of an alliance between the church and the John Birch Society] Elder Benson spoke at a rally endorsed by the Birch Society in Boston. Newspapers reported this as a defiant embarrassment to the LDS church.
[Source: "Ezra Taft Benson Addresses Rally," Deseret News, 7 Jan. 1963, A-3; Drew Pearson, "Benson Embarrasses His Church," Washington Post, 22 Jan. 1963, B-23; "Church Embarrassed Over Ezra Taft Benson Stand," Ogden Standard-Examiner, 22 Jan. 1963, 4. From D. Michael Quinn, Ezra Taft Benson and Mormon Political Conflicts, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 26:2 (Summer 1992), also in Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power Salt Lake City (Signature Books, 1994), Chapter 3.]
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