I remember hearing in the late 60's, 70's and maybe 80's the U.S. Government required recording devices in every US Temple. The U.S. Government was concerned the LDS Church might use the temples to plot an overthrow of the U.S. The church agreed to prove they were loyal citizens.

Does anyone have information or first hand knowledge about these recording devices and why the U.S. Government required it?

OK, put the bottle down and slowly back away from the keyboard.

Friday night crowd. Sheesh.

There are so many things wrong with the rumor I have no idea where to start. Didn't happen.

It was common knowledge among high priests in the 70s that Kimball wanted to convert more "Lamanites" to create an army to kill all the wicked white people, including LDS members who masturbated or briefly took off their garments for sexual activity.

That man just oozed narcissistic political ambition. Any government still in control of its territory would investigate a group headed by a man like that.

after the nasty vicious oaths of vengeance and retribution against those supposedly responsible for the demise of Joseph Smith (including the government) that had been administered in MORmON temples for decades, there is some motivation for the government to be concerned. But it is very doubtful that installing recording devices in MORmON temples would really be viewed as any kind of veritable security countermeasure. Besides the LDS Inc MORmON church was very cozy with the US government by the 1950's and 60's.

The MORmON church has not always been so cozy with the US government. In fact, I am kind of annoyed that Brigham Young's offspring were so quickly allowed /admitted into US military academies after so many of nasty utterly subversive and seditious statements issued against the United States by Brigham Young in earlier years. and before that Brigham Young was perfectly willing to send some LDS/MORmONS off to fight against Mexico in the US Army so he could collect their paychecks to finance the big MORmON move to Utah. Some things that happen in history are ridiculous. OF course the US has always been great allies with Great Brittain ...... when the US has not been at war with them.

Yep, not possible.

State of the art in recording back then was 1/4 inch reel-to-reel. The miles and miels of tape necesary would have been a not-insignificant expense, not to mention the .gov could not have afforded the hundreds of personnel necessary to monitor LDS temples, of all things.

The united states government saw quickly the value of a dedicated, fanatical, american centric, foreign language speaking, muderous, group with malleable ethics. The CIA was formed with much success causing major fuckups in places like Vietnam.

I heard that rumor to! But the USG wasn't worried about the Mormons being disloyal, they were monitoring to see if Jesus or any other angelic being ever visited the temples. Apparently Nixon, though not a Mormon, actually thought the priesthood had real power!

I also don't think the "recording devices" we're actually "in" the temples. I heard that the USG used spy satellites to scan and monitor the temples. However Ezra Taft Benson got a tip from someone in the John Birch Society that the satellites could be easily blocked by wearing tin foil hats.

My brother didn't really believe all this, but my sister was totally convenienced that ETB was in actuality a communist agent. My sister and my mom thought that all his John Bircher stuff was actually just a cover for him so he spread his Leninists ideas. Similar to how many people thought that SWK covered up his homosexual leanings by coming hard down on sexual immorality.
My dad heard that because ETB had successfully blocked the USG/CIA monitoring with his hat the FBI had to place a device in one of ETB's tooth fillings to record everything. My cousin had a friend who had a guy in his ward who working in the church office building who heard that this device in ETB's tooth could not only be used to record everything, but also could be used to give instructions and orders to ETB! My cousin heard that the US Army told the National Security Agency to use this device to order ETB to use his conference talks to warn against the "infiltration by enemy agents within OUR American borders"! (Emphasis added).
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1979/10/a-witness-and-a-warning?lang=eng&media=video#watch=video

I totally believe this because generally in a church service I would expect to hear about Jesus and stuff. ETB's conference talk about enemy agents and Carter giving away or "surrendering" OUR Panama Canal can only be explained by the fact that ETB was ordered to give this speech by the secret device the NYPD placed in his tooth!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2015 09:24AM by zero.

https://nsa.gov1.info/utah-data-center/

There's probably an intelligence officer who at one point had access to all the electronic communications of the COB. Imagine what a leak like that would have done.

Too bad Snowden did not work for the Morg.

What do you guys think that a leaker would reveal about the church?

The current financial situation of both the corporation and the church would be great. Actual net worth of the G15 would be nice. Don't forget about current activity rates, temple attendance, etc.

Over at the NOM site they recently had a long thread speculating on the juicy information a leaker in the COB could reveal.

My opinion is that a leaker probably wouldn't reveal anything much interesting about the current church.

Sure a leaker could reveal the exact amount of money the church has, but Fortune magazine and Time have already published experts' estimate that the church as billions and billions. The exact value would be interesting but not shocking.

As for activity rates, I think the convention wisdom is that it is around 30% or so. I think that figure can also be roughly confirmed by just attending a ward and seeing how many people are there. The exact figure might be interesting, but hardly new information.

As for the income of the GA's, my opinion is that they probably get about the same as a successful doctor, lawyer, or business management type (i.e. upper middle class). But they are nowhere near being a televangelist that lives a life of excess. I think the GA's do it for the ego trip, not the money.

True the exact amount they get could be shocking to a working class TBM who thought that they didn't get paid or that a "reasonable living stipend" would be only $50,000. But for senior executives of a multi-billion dollar corporation I think most of secular world would think that the GA's are very low paid.

But what do I know! When I first saw the South Park episode showing Joe using a rock in a hat to translate the BOM I thought they were relating an anti-Mormon lie! (Sad but true......)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2015 08:32AM by zero.

I'd be interested in policy communications so that we can understand exactly how new apostles, GAs are screened and selected and how new relevalation is decided.

I WOULDN'T want personal data revealed - tithing amounts, TR, etc. It would be my hope that a future leaker would first turn over the cache to a reputable news organization. They have policies and procedures in place to properly filter information that could harm the rank and file.

The tithing that individual members have paid, now that would be interesting!

Then we would see who are the hypocrites and who are the delusional suckers!

If tbms believe in the church I can see a small pocket believing in this rumor way back then. Few would take the time to logically think and reflect on the processes for recording things in the temple.