“Saving the Constitution” with White Christian Nationalism: Ezra Taft Benson, W. Cleon Skousen, and Their Attempt to Solicit the Help of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover

When Mormon apostle Ezra Taft Benson moved to the nation's capital in 1953 to begin his duties as the Secretary of Agriculture, he had a secret to keep. The president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, David O. McKay, who called communism the “anti-Christ,” had given him a special blessing before he departed. He blessed Benson that he “might see . . . the enemies who would thwart the freedoms of the individual as vouchsafed by the Constitution” and instructed him to “be fearless in the condemnation of these subversive influences.”1 McKay uttered these powerful words during the turbulent Cold War, and Benson interpreted them as “a call from God.”2Benson was not the first person the president asked to help preserve American freedom. Benson's close friend, W. Cleon Skousen, received a similar call and during his sixteen-year employment at the FBI (1935–1951) he sought to capitalize in that position as he gained valuable insights into the “threatening clouds of communism.”3 In subsequent years, Skousen and Benson would combine their energies and efforts to warn Americans that democracy and capitalism were under siege—and could only flourish if they followed the teachings in holy scripture, which they insisted the nation had strayed from. Citing a ubiquitous Mormon prophecy, they proclaimed that “Mormon elders”—a majority white male patriarchy bearing the priesthood—would “save the Constitution” as it “hung by a thread.”4When Benson and Skousen advanced this exceptionalist narrative—a narrative that would intertwine free market economics with Mormon theology; and one that deemed liberal president Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs a precursor to communism and socialism that presaged the End Times (some Christians called him “the anti-Christ”)—they realized they needed more.5 Given what was at stake, Benson and Skousen turned to the director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, in their ambitious effort to save the Constitution. Enamored with Hoover's bold vision of a white Christian patriarchy at the vanguard of communist resistance, the Mormon duo sought to share this timely message with anyone who would listen, especially members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Benson's and Skousen's FBI files, now declassified, reveal their relentless efforts to enlist Hoover's help. They also reveal that, because of Benson and Skousen's affiliation with the John Birch Society, an anticommunist fringe group, the director shunned them.6 When J. Edgar Hoover became the nation's sixth FBI director in 1924, the world was mired in political and social upheaval. Only a few years earlier the Bolsheviks had established a communist state in the wake of a bloody civil war.7 Subsequent efforts to establish communism in other European and Asian countries floundered. By 1921, only two states—Russia and Mongolia—were ruled by communist parties. But by 1954, three decades into Hoover's tenure as director, communist regimes had been established in most of Eastern Europe, all of the Soviet republics, as well as China, Mongolia, North Korea, and North Vietnam. There was even fear that communism would take hold in the United States, but this was met with stiff resistance from right-wing groups and the federal government.8Hoover's tenure as FBI director paralleled the rapidly growing struggle between Washington and Moscow in which competing visions of capitalism and communism dominated global politics, creating a bipolar international system that triggered a global Cold War.9 Hoover, like all Americans, was affected profoundly by the Cold War's potent reach, which, in turn, shaped everything he did leading the agency. Indeed, over the course of his directorship until he died in 1972, Hoover argued vigorously that Americans could only defeat communism by living Christian teachings and by recognizing that the nation's laws were biblically based. Raised in a devout Presbyterian household, he proclaimed the “United States a Christian nation” founded by “Christian men.”10 For Hoover, this meant that the country's natural order was biblical, meaning that it was white, Christian, patriarchal, heteronormative, and authoritarian—the essence of what scholars would call white Christian nationalism.11In subscribing to this political and cultural framework, Hoover “viewed segregation as part of God's law and order.”12 This explains why he refused to crack down on violent protestors who rejected the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education or why he failed to dispatch federal agents to protect embattled Freedom Riders in the South. It also explains why he was reluctant to investigate the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups unless the president ordered it. All of this clashed with his perceived natural order.13To this end, Hoover ensured that the FBI remained both “lily white” and male dominated. Of the eight thousand agents on the FBI payroll, wrote Bill Sullivan, Hoover's assistant director, only seventy of them were African Americans while 99.4 percent of the bureau was white and male.14 Sullivan further acknowledged that Hoover “hated liberalism, blacks and Jews,” adding that “he had a great long list of hates.”15 Hoover's racism was most evident toward Martin Luther King, whom he personally loathed and whose influence he sought to curb. The director ordered wiretaps on King's home and office in a devious attempt link him with communism. Historian Paul Harvey perceptively writes, “Hoover's prurient style of Presbyterianism, his self-image as an upright defender of ‘Christian Renewal’ against ‘Soviet Rule’ turned him from a spiritual Cold Warrior to a domestic stalker.”16But it was not just King that Hoover loathed. He held condescending views toward Black people in general, fueled by an unshakable conviction that they were uninformed and uneducated and could be easily duped by propagandists within the Communist Party. Hoover therefore saw civil rights organizations as targets for communist subversion and as a danger to national security. In short, he warned that communists used racial discontent to their in Hoover's of the most anticommunist in the years Hoover on the by of which he wrote for as part of their In both Hoover that Americans of all needed the to communist and and he to He that communists had the nation's and and that as most in of he with communism. He not only called communism a but he that could not with Christians because they the of all that Hoover that communism a on all which not only and but also the In Hoover that were in communism. like Hoover and as an to and to Americans on communism cultural freedom. that communism was by of rejected and that liberal and civil rights groups were part of the Indeed, they were the he had warned in of and of these Hoover that Americans would their and to God's he a people to be free and had been white Christian for years before he met W. Cleon Skousen, a devout Latter-day who would one of most and at It was a of that the two Skousen to the FBI on a by a who at the Skousen the of the director and other who his and a sixteen-year Skousen in to take an position at and Hoover he would a at the FBI if he to Skousen's for the director, by years of close with was Skousen called Hoover “a great and one of the in was this or Skousen for the director in a he to close Skousen to Hoover to the at in The director it because he the years earlier he had a by in the nation's and before that he the to one of his in a Hoover also He their their He that the most he was Mormon the of apostle who was in a with the But Hoover the he he was to this was or not to the Hoover, and he Skousen and the David O. McKay, who he them a in his Hoover even McKay an of of the of to Hoover to Skousen was his on white Christian He had with these at he a and In Skousen that the United States had a special The country's in world had been in Mormon scripture, for the United States was in Skousen's “the would be and Jesus Christ would to in the End He called the United States an with an and an of in a that the as “a to the words of Skousen that it was his as a Mormon to save the from of a of communists and in the of by scripture, Skousen warned that were to the of all and By Skousen that Franklin D. and other were the with their and to the of which the federal into a on these with in The two decades and the Cold rapidly Skousen sought to the that he had the federal He of the as of a few earlier in and at of the Skousen on FBI and Hoover's to his bold The two were in both and that Americans them for in national and their and them both became and Skousen was into the national was to the his with Hoover's not only but also his In the Hoover was one of the most in the United during two he ordered his agents to and of a of American In his even further him on their and a him called on which a of the director and his that percent of Americans him Hoover's that the was The of global with the perceived of communist subversion at He Hoover's that only by and could Americans He also Hoover's that Black people were to people of other Skousen was in a majority white Christian by a majority white male that a majority white which with Hoover's Christian Skousen's in the his Mormon of and which Black people to the in a racial Mormon apostle that not with other a Christian that Black people a Black people this Mormon in to them the and to the that were both and in the racial these were in Mormon that proclaimed that Black people would to their and to their state of before they could for the of in the Mormon these teachings and with in which he to Black people as “the of He also that people to they would be and but and by which he meant they would their a in their Skousen's white supremacy was not just to He called Martin Luther King “a and Hoover's that the civil rights was a in a international communist that his views would be Skousen and civil rights in The both over the like a with white Christian Skousen Americans to save the from communism by the and the the would a he and the United States as a Christian Skousen, for that was the to communists who sought to American Hoover, he that was the of and to that if this of be the This Washington what under most he that a close to Franklin D. and one of the of the New had the nation's to the Skousen also that agents had the an to American bold had the the of the by from the United Skousen would on these in an called The he on to that a of international had advanced communism to a failed to a of or at for of these who this was not He a for David a friend, Mormon apostle J. called The Communist Hoover, Skousen had the of and was of his that he Hoover a He the director that he to his the as Hoover him for the and Skousen he was for his the and the in the against not of The of Skousen's from within the Mormon it for and Skousen for it of and it as a to They called him a and a Skousen's to the that they were Skousen his by to enlist the help. He Hoover that by him were also the director their were The director, saw this and refused to be used this Hoover was also he that Skousen his that he was Hoover's in what was a attempt to his When to Hoover what Skousen was he instructed his to his not the into political The director that Skousen had his which the he sought for the their Latter-day received The Communist with an of and The Church members to it as a of the the Skousen's McKay and apostle Ezra Taft was he asked Skousen to it and the in the Cold Warrior McKay had warned of that it clashed with both and Mormon of Benson's was only was he Skousen's close friend, and but he him for Benson would in his Hoover “the in the United States on the growing Communist Benson the director could Latter-day Saints. In and the apostle Latter-day to of in and The Communist in In Benson's these would help them why they had to save the before it was In the of Benson a from Hoover before he on his as the of This was not at the but Benson to his the eight years, the two would as both they similar in communism. The apostle was an of the special the on violent he the on and in from the in his and them to he the that had the federal Benson the of communism by communists in in He that had the of communist agents and into of American be these were Benson that and all federal were and he even one of the under his of a communist of which to be and were Soviet Benson to that other communist within the the and had also The that the communist was and further most had and communist he had the the and of a of in the nation's capital who and Hoover both that were and Benson the saw Benson that other the nation in anticommunist Benson's in Washington had him that the was from of the the he was Martin Luther King, the whom Benson was a of the There that Benson's this but Benson to them over to his He he that King was the of he from Benson called this a the civil rights as that it was with communist him to civil rights and the of the Brown years he the Benson his to civil rights in even he an to on a with one of the nation's most When that he asked to a with but McKay him as Benson wrote the for a in which the a of an African American on the on the was a and communist between and The message Benson's that communists had the civil rights Skousen, Benson's white supremacy from teachings and right-wing politics, which shaped his views on racial and the civil rights This was realized white Mormon to Black Mormon at and Benson that the Black would to from the white This and his views white with and the apostle sought to all that he could to the When the Mormon for to Benson asked Hoover to his at the was of he asked the director to his for a position within the Of Hoover the He called Benson a and in with him during his When Benson and was to the to from the director asked Benson was to help Hoover was Benson's of in the FBI of in he most Benson his in the director him a him for of white Christian shaped their to the Cold War, Hoover's to what most It of that he was well in he was a Benson from Mormon the was from the and of of Mormon the that the established under the of by whom the In Benson called the United States “a founded the of Christian and the nation's Christian in even to nation the of in these It the of Jesus Christ was the as the the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board and the the Benson became in white Christian The “Mormon which and Skousen, had to save the from racial This the he sought Hoover's help. of the apostle became by the which him to Hoover to to to Latter-day Saints. FBI the of the a and he asked the to on a of and him to programs by organizations in that Benson also the director to to the American anticommunist in that Skousen Hoover turned both he was Benson failed to Hoover to he to his what Skousen had in The In a his Benson The in were a of from of that the Hoover and he to that Jesus Christ was the only to save the nation from Hoover Benson wrote that in democracy and in a in a Supreme that “Christian . . . this nation that he proclaimed that American democracy and capitalism was in “a in a Supreme Americans, he had to the of this who Jesus There other course of this Benson the on the that the nation's were the into only were programs he but they to a of that the United States on the to The apostle Americans to that this was and that political and rights in the United States were in a in The of the in all the that he had in The He from a by and Hoover American of It over a political and rights for Americans, but it like a free market capitalism with the Benson American rights with Jesus whom he was to American of Jesus of was not in the Cold of and a white Christian that free market economics with a they to a world of to and was on the nation's and into the of the nation's capital in Benson had on this by to and of his he Hoover a of The with an that J. Edgar American and defender of It the director his agents the and . . . to the and from of as well as from and by the few years Benson these in what was his most to on white Christian He it Christ and the Constitution” and “Christian to save American democracy from communism. He to preserve the nation's “Christian The first was Americans could only as long as they “the of the they needed duties to his and they needed they needed to of the John Birch to their efforts to the they needed to be This meant the and like American Birch would to free they had to “be not only be to protect but he on to and his in an In the Benson called on American to be a “Christian They had to to and the Constitution” to save the as Black a and a the Benson that the nation needed Hoover's message He would with his Benson to Hoover's into the that Skousen had He the white patriarchy to be on communist and But it. They that communism and socialism would the especially as Church to the Benson to Hoover to in the Church but he Benson from Hoover for the to his Hoover did Hoover to the Church to two of his Hoover's and or was in a Church which with a They could of with or they could “a which the of the were from the with an as to which he was Benson followed this with one of In with Hoover's the Church of which as one of the nation's in and as in of American Benson and Skousen that had The in their the of in Mormon of with civil rights groups to thwart freedom. The apostle called this a of communist and to their and the mired in racial Benson and Skousen turned to Hoover's they would especially at a majority white they that Mormon with civil rights In the duo a to the director to Benson one of Hoover's and that in in and He used the as a to Hoover to it at The director Benson and Skousen why he but Benson's and Skousen's FBI became to in his were In only Benson's he and Skousen to with the John Birch anticommunist that The to in the they that communists had the United that Black and were communist that the was and by and that communists had John because he was not in civil of these to the of as Birch American a with Supreme and and his of which the of the director, and other over to Franklin Roosevelt's liberal New Deal to the of The his to He called the president and his of the communist one these were met with resistance, not from Hoover who who that was a Communist with was not in that only percent of the held a of the Birch the the right-wing and other the Birch him as a of political For had in the Party. There was to be gained by an American like or his or on with whom they The they would not communism or or the nation to They were at at a for and did not to be with the even they a the and civil the for federal because of communist into Hoover's white Christian to which of and of the nation's Christian They and other as of and and part of a style in American called them “the and them while their failed to at the that would by the and Skousen the for of the in the they down to it. a national against the Benson Hoover a of The that he would in this why help to the He also to of to the Birch as a Skousen, the Birch in a as just an that was part of the or FBI reveal that, even the director with Benson and Skousen in the their to the John Birch had their When they at Birch in the it Skousen to in on his by as Hoover's during his bureau it a of to FBI from Americans to if it was of these had a asked Hoover his even he had his Skousen called him an in and one and everything to the Skousen's also Hoover, and he that his was not a but a he Benson just as Hoover in his office the or his Washington a Hoover to his not that the take to to with Benson and Skousen remained to In he under for his in FBI that civil rights him that Hoover had the by civil rights Benson and Skousen to Hoover's to the that just to Benson with the on that great J. Edgar . . . of of and of most the FBI, he he a of the in Benson the to and at the He even one of his and one of Hoover's Skousen, the He Latter-day that Hoover was “the most that had in the United States in He was “a great to Hoover them to his When Benson was Church president in for he was Hoover, even the director had been for In during his Benson a of white Christian of which the Cold Benson on the in to Latter-day that had the as a for the Mormon to In a he called the a and that words were to the of Benson Latter-day to programs that were Americans of their as with other and became failed to Franklin and that these programs were the country's into communism. Of even Benson that “the of who these programs were growing at a under to that most of these federal he For the was had to “save the Constitution” by to office who would the remained on the of Black people in the Constitution. the and was in position Benson to that he a for Black people in Church two decades earlier he the civil rights for communist now he him that civil rights communists was the efforts in majority Black even as Benson efforts to Black people in the he refused to the Martin Luther King federal which Black Latter-day to that he of to In the the FBI founded an anticommunist called the into the which of Hoover's teachings in the of the Skousen and his the the in a of Skousen that the would it for to a of the the were the of white Christian They from a of the one of the country's most an of white Christian He Skousen the of the was with of and a also the as did other members of of Skousen's to his in a The in which he that the was at “the and of American political He that and had the the that the to the at the he that the in by a Supreme that would this a years on the of the he The of The and of the Constitution. He that the nation was from the of and free would be a to all if these great were to or Skousen also remained Black people the and He for Black but he on it or it. while he to Black to in the he did not the Church or the people like to Skousen was for people who needed be in their their and their which meant white not even decades of against Black people were to him that the had a to in racial Black people to be in their and he they would to it on their and what the Black Washington and to the of Skousen to the Martin Luther King federal Hoover and he in his that King was a The Cold to an in Benson's and Skousen's as as in the Mormon Hoover as his the of Benson and their views a of Mormon as well as with the End from to and to and most Latter-day to white Christian and Mormon the from the of which a of white Christian into the Mormon on the to his as a to the nation's first African American who founded to save from in on his he on Washington and in which he them to Mormon exceptionalist white Christian the most the to which Latter-day white Christian both a and a to the of Benson and Skousen's from the that in Latter-day with white Christian The right-wing in of president effort to the the on to the of the were Latter-day Saints, but they were not in their of in their of white Christian the and as and white Christian in their not only and but they to Black and Brown Americans from as a of Latter-day with white Christian Mormon in the they their on the they white supremacy in a they of to the to racial they racial in their and and most they the Church from the Cold of Benson and Skousen, which all of Mormon the the now at and with most of members living of the United States, Church rejected white Christian in order to the Church of global