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Latter-day Saints have long been associated with conservative political movements, but that wasn’t always the case. The 1950s and 60s represented a period of enormous social change, not just within American culture, but within Mormon culture. Ezra Taft Benson, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles, and President Eisenhower’s Secretary of Agriculture, was famous for his far-right political and social views, and he brought along a large number of the Church with him. Today, we’re going to explore how Ezra Taft Benson played a pivotal role in Mormonism’s shift to the right.

Dr. Matt Harris is a professor of history at Colorado State University-Pueblo. He received a BA and MA in history at BYU, his MPhil and PhD, also in history, at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He is a scholar of Religious Studies, with a special emphasis on Mormons and Race, Mormon extremism, and Mormons and civil rights. His most recent publications include Thunder from the Right: Ezra Taft Benson in Mormonism and Politics (University of Illinois Press, 2019), Watchmen on the Tower: Ezra Taft Benson and the Making of the Mormon Right (University of Utah Press, forthcoming spring of 2020), and (with Newell Bringhurst) The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History, which was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2015. 

His recent articles include “Mormons and Lineage: The Complicated History of Blacks and Patriarchal Blessings,” 1830-2018,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Fall 2018), "Confronting and Condemning Hard Doctrine, 1978-2013," Mormon Studies Review (forthcoming), and "'Utah is the last in the union to recognize the Martin Luther King holiday by name': Mormons, Martin Luther King and the Quest for Racial Justice," Utah Historical Quarterly (forthcoming). 

Currently, he is at work on two books: The Long Awaited Day: Mormons, Blacks, and the Lifting of the Priesthood and Temple Ban, 1945-2018 and Hugh B. Brown: Mormonism's Progressive Apostle. He lives in Colorado with his wife and three kids.

Transcript

Geoff Openshaw:

[2:43] Matt Harris thank you for joining us.

Matt Harris:

[2:55] It's a pleasure Geoff.

Geoff Openshaw:

[2:58] And Jared oh by the way injury to everyone.

Jared Gillins:

[2:59] That's right Jared Gillins I'm welcoming myself back since Jeff didn't welcome me.

Geoff Openshaw:

[3:05] Well we might do some stuff you know before after who knows we'll be fine anyway I'm I'm excited by the

building up for this interview for a while I haven't read the book that the primary driver for this interview is the book that's out now a thunder from the right by Ezra Taft Benson which I think is an amazing title Matt what was the did you help name that title

or was that somebody else.

Matt Harris:

[3:27] Sister actually it was the title of one of the essays on offense in the presidency and.

The press in consultation with me said how can we Co-op that title for the book and I said sure no it wasn't my idea where this another SAS and then you can press that it would be a

clever title so I agreed that's how we got it.

Geoff Openshaw:

[3:53] And I should know by the way you are the editor you you would have peace and it within the book we are the editor of the book of is a series of essays in the sense it's not a single work just bite you.

Matt Harris:

[4:02] Yeah that's cracked I wrote I wrote the introduction which talks about Benson views on church and stay now so what a le...