60 years ago today - Apr 7, 1962

In rebuttal to the publicity of Benson's remarks the previous December, Brown instructed the LDS general priesthood meeting in April 1962: "The degree of a man's aversion to communism may not always be measured by the noise he makes in going about and calling everyone a communist who disagrees with his personal political bias." Then in a more direct allusion to his dispute with Benson, Brown said, "There is no excuse for members of this Church, especially men who hold the priesthood, to be opposing one another over communism . . ." In an obvious allusion to the Birch Society, Brown concluded: "Let us not undermine our government or accuse those who hold office of being soft on communism. . . . [or] by destroying faith in our elected officials under the guise of fighting communism."

[Buchanan diary, 7 Apr 1962. 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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