Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Gritz - Mormon officials warn against his teachings
From: kmcvay@oneb.almanac.bc.ca (Ken Mcvay)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 21:04:37 GMT
Organization: The Old Frog's Almanac

In article <17737@pitt.UUCP> geb@cs.pitt.edu (Gordon Banks) writes:

>The LDS Church is relatively intolerant of people teaching things
>that directly contravene church doctrine.  Perhaps if Gritz

Someone recently sent me the following file, which underscores your point:

File: LDS.press

The Salt Lake Tribune, 29 Nov 1992 Sunday Edition, Page A1

IT'S JUDGMENT DAY FOR FAR RIGHT:  LDS CHURCH PURGES SURVIVALISTS

by Chris Jorgensen and Peggy Fletcher Stack

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is purging hundreds of
Mormon dissidents who church officials say are preoccupied unduly with
Armageddon.

This massive housecleaning may be one of the church's largest since the
1850's, when thousands were excommunicated for everything from poor
hygiene and low church attendance to disobeying the Ten Commandments.

In recent months, Mormons from Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho have been
expelled and many others have been threatened. Numbers are impossible to
determine because excommunication records are guarded closely.

Don LeFevre, LDS spokesman, would not confirm that mass excommunications
are unfolding. However, he did say LDS Church leaders increasingly have
been concerned about ultraconservative "super patriots" and survivalists,
many of whom have quit their jobs and moved their families to mountain
retreats.

Those interviewed by _The Salt Lake Tribune_ say they have faced church
discipline for a range of transgressions - from having too much emergency
food storage to adhering to the doomsday predictions of popular Mormon
presidential candidate Bo Gritz, who received more than 28,000 Utah votes
in the November election.

Targeted are those obsessed with the early speeches of LDS Church President
Ezra Taft Benson and who believe the ailing, 93-year-old leader has been
silenced because his opinions no longer are politically popular.

"We support President Benson 100%," says Elaine Harmston, who was excommun-
icated from her Manti ward last month with her husband, Jim. "He has warned
us thoroughly. But there are some brethren who speak 180 degrees against him."

LDS Church leaders worry that some members are taking too literally state-
ments made decades ago by Elder Benson before he became president.

In a recent speech, Elder Malcolm Jeppson, a member of the Second Quorum of
the Seventy who oversees the Utah-South region of the church, urged Mormons
not to "take out of context words and statements made by church presidents
that were given at a different time and circumstance than the present."

He urges Mormons "walking on the fringes of our faith to seek the safety of
the center."

At the church's October general conference, LDS apostle Boyd K. Packer
cautioned members about falling for the survivalist line. "Do not be
deceived," he warned, by those "who have not been regularly ordained by the
heads of the church, who tell of impending political and economic chaos,
the end of the world - something of the 'sky is falling.' ...they are
misleading members to gather to colonies or cults."

LDS Church leaders from central and southern Utah complained of such
"troublesome ideologies" during a Nov 13-14 meeting at the Edgemont Stake
Center in Provo. Elder Jeppson outlined a profile of dissidents. Stake
Presidents have used that profile to compile a list of warning signs.

There is a lot of concern about some things that are going on," says
Harold Nicholl, one of six Sanpete County stake presidents using the list
as a guide for excommunications.

Among activities sounding the alarm at stake houses across the West:

  o The practice of home schooling.
  o Having leanings or membership in the John Birch Society.
  o Holding study groups.
  o An inordinate preoccupation with food storage.
  o Reading doomsday books and other material unapproved by the church.
  o People who sell their services of gospel understanding for money.
  o Quoting the exact day of the coming of Jesus Christ.
  o Performing temple ordinances outside the temple.

To some, the list contradicts  church standards. For decades, Mormons have
been urged to store food for an emergency. The church always has insisted
that members follow the president, whom the faithful believe is a prophet.

By the new standards, "President Benson wouldn't even be allowed to stay
in the church," says a prominent Utah Mormon, referring to the leader's
association with the ultraconservative John Birch Society.

The profile apparently was used to finger Elaine and Jim Harmston. "Our
stake president said, 'You cannot discuss the gospel in your own home with
anyone except your own family or you will be excommunicated,' " says Elaine
Harmston. "That was something we couldn't go along with."

But it was more than scripture study that upset the Harmstons' Mormon
leaders. The couple continue to teach and practice a special form of
prayer prohibited outside Mormon temples.

Several weeks ago, the Harmstons' bisphop read an open letter to the
congregation warning them to stay away from the Harmstons' study group or
risk discipline.

The next week, more people attended the study group than ever,
Mr. Harmston claims. "There are thousands of people hungry for the truth and
they're tired of the pablum they're getting from the church," he says.

As the study group swelled, Manti church leaders began surveillance on the
Harmstons' home, taking down visitors' license-plate numbers. The visitors
were later called in for interviews by LDS leaders, says Mrs Harmston.

Larry Garmoth believes that's how he got caught. "It's a small town," he
explains. "Everyone knows what everyone else's car looks like."

Mr Garmoth says he was interviewed by his stake president and told not to
associate with the Harmstons. Within weeks he was demoted from his security-
guard job at the Manti Temple to groundskeeper.

LDS church officials feared Mr. Garmoth was letting apostates into the
temple after hours to perform clandestine religious rituals - a charge
Mr. Garmoth denies. "My guts are just torn out because of the stupidity
of this thing," he says.

Another church mamber in nearby Fairview says he was threatened with
excommunication for having too much food in storage. "I was told that
one year's worth of food storage is enough and anything more is excess,"
says the lifelong Latter-Day Saint, who asked not to be identified.

He says he amassed a huge cache of food to help other church members
during a crisis. "I haven't done anything I haven't been told to do by
the prophet."

The extreme actions taken by LDS Church leaders indicate their sense of
urgency in squelching the survivalist movement among their ranks. No fewer
than three LDS general authorities spoke directly to fringe Mormons at
the October conference.

Apostle M. Russell Ballard told members "not to overreact" to signs that
the end of the world is near. He cautioned against being "caught up in
extreme preparations."

While the church is focusing on the ultraconservatives for now, Elder
Jeppson also has counseled stake presidents to watch out for feminists
who advocate women holding the priesthood and pray to a Mother in Heaven.
He also warns of intellectuals who challenge the origins of the _Book of
Mormon_ and church authority.

-- 
The Old Frog's Almanac - Public Access UseNet for Central Vancouver Island
     (604) 245-3205 (v32) (604) 245-4366 (2400x4) SCO XENIX 2.3.2 GT 
 Ladysmith, British Columbia, CANADA. Just south of Tupperware Central...  
                 Information is power - get connected
Xref: sparky alt.conspiracy:13160 alt.revisionism:854