I'm sure we have all heard of the controversial power house WikiLeaks, well as of today the world has been introduced to MormonLeaks (#MormonLeaks)!
MormonLeaks appears to have the same basic mission of WikiLeaks, to expose secrets and damning information that governments and corporations don't want the general public to know, only this time the information in question directly and only involves the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
At the moment the videos are available on YouTube at this URL: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTIFO9JJWiXABNXHDUKj4A?app=desktop
However, there is concern that the LDS Church's legal department will not allow the videos to remain public so various parties, including myself, are working to save copies to our own devices. If in the future you cannot use the provided link, contact me or John Dehlin or any other prominent LDS detractor for access to these videos.
So far fifteen videos have been uploaded, all of varying importance and lengths. The videos I have watched so far are dated to 2008 - 2009 and include a panel of LDS Apostles sitting alongside various other General Authorities and Public Relations officials discussing matters of politics, economics, international relations, LGBT issues, Abortion, and other similar topics with presumed experts. These are essentially situation briefings that were kept private, viewed only by appropriately ranked LDS officials and staff. The fact that the Church was engaging in situation briefings is not damning at all, but the content of these videos showcases content that is in fact quite damning to the Mormon addiction to a Good and Saintly Public Image.
I'll go ahead and upload the two videos I have repeatedly watched and paid the most attention to: A discussion in 2008 regarding WikiLeaks and Private Bradley Manning's homosexuality; A discussion in 2009 with then Senator Gordon Smith on issues in politics.
Both of these videos clear show LDS Apostles in the panel asking questions and interacting with the guest speaker. You will clearly see and hear Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Quentin L. Cook, President Boyd K. Packer, Elder Russell M. Ballard, Elder L. Tom Perry, Elder Ronald A. Rasband (then of the Presidency of the Seventy) Elder D. Todd Christofferson, and others. Below each of the two videos I will provide a short summary of the discussed points.
This first video is titled: In Which the Apostles Obsess over Bradley Manning's Sexuality. This video is only about 7 minutes long but it horrifies me beyond belief.
The video starts with the guest speaker explaining the circumstances and positions of WikiLeaks as well as its general mission. The theme is quickly interrupted by Elders Oaks and then President Packer who begin questioning Private Bradley Manning's motives due to his stated homosexuality. Elder Oaks then specifically suggests the following:
"I'm suspicious that the News Media [would] cover up anything involving homosexuals when it would work to the disadvantage of the Homosexual Agenda and so on. And I just wonder if there is some of that in this."This statement by Elder Oaks directly follows his previous question: If the News Media was covering, or including, the fact that Bradley Manning was a confirmed homosexual in the larger story of the famous WikiLeaks hack performed by Manning that shared confidential and classified information. Elder Oaks decidedly turned a discussion on hacking and vulnerable information into a discussion on the villainy of homosexuals.
In watching the video it becomes very clear that Elder Oaks and President Packer wanted to frame the entire idea of WikiLeaks and "radical freedom of information" methods on homosexuals who are wanting to undermine society. President Packer later pointedly asks if the founder of WikiLeaks (who the guest speaker had just described as being more of an anarchist than a noble activist for the freedom of information), Julian Assange, was a homosexual.
President Packer and Elder Oaks seemed to care more about creating a scapegoat out of homosexuals than they did about the actual realities of leaked information. They wanted to find some way to acknowledge gays as villains bent on destroying society and when the guest speaker did not expressly agree with that assumption they promptly ended that presentation with President Packer saying "Thank you for that, I guess".
This video is about 49 minutes long and covers a lot of points on a wide range of topics but there are a few that are the most damning which I will point out in this post.
1. Senator Smith jokingly calls Democrats "an assortment of miscreants" to which the Apostles and others present burst out into loud unmistakable laughter. Aside from being disrespectful it also shows us that the LDS Church's officials are not as politically neutral as their PR department would have everyone believe.
2. Senator Smith openly and blatantly advises the Apostles and other General Authorities to directly avoid interaction and cooperation with the LGBT community, calling gays "insatiable" and implies that the community is ungrateful and willing to betray you if you do not do everything they want. The Senator then advises the Church to instead speak only to the "wider" American population on anti-LGBT issues to protect families and children.
3. Senator Smith claims that the LDS Church should specifically use its members who hold political offices to give the Church multiple advantages in the United States and Internationally. He happily described his own personal story of using his position in the United States Senate to secure a meeting with the Ambassador from India where he (the Senator) emphasized just how important the free exercise of Religion was to the future of relations between the United States and India and then pointedly claimed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was not being treated fairly in India (at that point LDS Missionaries were not permitted to proselyte in India since the LDS Church was not yet recognized as a religion in that country). The next day the Ambassador frantically called Senator Smith personally and offered to authorize as many Visas to Mormon Missionaries as the Senator wanted. I should point out that when Senator Smith asked for 200 Visas the Ambassador is described as making a noticeable "gulping" sound over the phone just before hesitantly saying ok. Senator Smith resoundingly claimed that this was appropriate behavior and that the Church should have all its members in offices of political power act in this manner to advance the interests of the Church. To be clear: Senator Smith advised the LDS Church to engage in using American politicians as leverage to gain influence and recognition in other countries.
4. Senator Smith also advised LDS officials to make temporary alliances with other religions (including Churches that he describes as Priest-crafts) nationwide in order to find out which lobbyists and politicians were capable of "killing" specific bills sent to Congress. He suggested that the LDS Church operate more behind the scenes with these select Churches, lobbyists and politicians "arm in arm" in order to reduce the "footprint" of the Church in politics and to avoid some of the fallout that was experienced in California after Prop. 8. To be clear he suggested that the LDS Church get directly involved with political lobbying and to form political partnerships with Churches and Church businesses to influence lawmakers anywhere in the United States. (A practice that the LDS Church seems to have taken to heart considering its power over the Utah State Legislature.)
There are a great many other damning points in this video but it is just too long for me to examine in great detail. I highly recommend that you watch the video from start to finish for yourselves though.
It is interesting to note that Senator Gordon Smith has since been called as a General Authority, currently serving in the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy.
Why do I care so much about what is in these videos? The answer is simple: You learn more about a person or a group by listening to what is said in private and safety than you do from publicly prepared remarks. There is always a face that is shown to the world and then there is often a separate face that is only shown at home. The LDS Church has famously remarked recently that it expects its members to avoid hate and mistreatment of those who do not live according to LDS principles, but does the LDS Church honor these statements in their private conduct? Are the Prophets and Apostles sincere in their pleas for kindness and humility? Or is the Mormon Church instead engaging (from where they think no one will ever hear them) in power plays and vulgarity and name-calling of political and social opponents?
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