Just wondering if you had any personal interaction with Boyd K?

. . . wheelchair track marks up my back.

However, I did have indirect contact, if you will, with him through my grandfather, as follows:

--The Mark Hofmann Bombing Scandal: Grandpa/Then-President of the Quorum of the Twelve Ezra Taft Benson (and Eventual Mormon Church President) Orders Me to Toe the Line--

When I drew a cartoon, published in the “Arizona Republic,” about the Mark Hofmann scandal, I got a telephone call directly from ETB in SLC. He had seen the 'toon (reportedly thanks to fellow Twelver traveler, Boyd K. Packer, who apparently first brought it to his attention). The dastardly doodle showed a stereotypically-plump Mormon PR man, sporting a flat-top buzz cut and conservative business suit, frantically on the phone to his secretary, screaming, "Mad bombers, white salamanders, forgeries, con men! Golly darn, Sister Jones, that does it! Get me a cup of coffee!"

(To view that offensive and odious cartoon, go to “Ezra Taft Benson: A Grandson's Remembrance: An interview with Steve Benson,” by Steve Benson and Elbert Peck, editor, "Sunstone" magazine, December 1994, p. 33, at https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/097-29-37.pdf)


Here's what my grandfather then wrote me on official Church stationery regarding the same drawing, reiterating the point he had first made in an earlier phone call to me at my workplace:

"Dear Stephen:

"I still love you and encourage you to keep up the good work by pointing out by the cartoon method the evils of the day. I would just like to suggest that you go easy on the Church.

"The Lord bless you, my devoted grandson. I am proud of you. Love and blessings to all."

(Ezra Taft Benson, "Grandpa," to Stephen Benson, 7 November 1985)


Interestingly enough, my grandfather's Hofmann cartoon letter was the last personal piece of correspondence I received from my him. He died nine years later, after becoming Mormon Church president and then descending into eventual mental and physical incapacitation. A few days after he sent it to me, he found himself the acting President of the Mormon Church, following the sudden death of Spencer W. Kimball. Once under control of LDS Inc.'s seasoned backroom handlers at the top of the Church chain, I received no other personal letters from him.

But back to the "White Salamander" cartoon. After I had come up with it in November 1985, I picked up the phone one day from behind my drawing board at the "Arizona Republic" to find my grandfather on the other end of the line. He somberly informed me that he had a cartoon in front of him which he wished to read aloud to me.

Uh-oh.

After repeating the punch line, he paused and asked, "Why?" (I was tempted to respond with, "Why not?," but didn't want to be cut out of the will). So, I tried to explain to him that one of the best defenses in the face of criticism is an ability to laugh at oneself. Without a hint of humor, he replied, "I still love you. Just go easy on us." He followed up a few days later with the above-quoted letter (the last one he ever wrote to me), delivering me the same cease-and-desist order.

My grandfather should have counted his blessings. He was actually damn lucky that--thanks to my non-Mormon editor--I hadn't gotten away with publishing the cartoon I really wanted to do. That one showed a smiling salamander atop the Hill Cumorah, decked out with a halo and heavenly robes, popping his head out of the open stone box. Looking down at him was an anxious Joseph Smith, holding the three-ringed gold plates and saying to the angelic amphibian, “No one's going to believe me. Can't I just say an angel gave them to me?” My unbaptized boss refused to publish it, saying it could be seen as offensive to Mormons. I thought, “So?” I drew up a rough sketch of it anyway, which ended up making the rounds of the Anti-Mormon Cartoon Underground (Who ended up linking it, I don't know).
_____


Anyway, thanks, Boyd, for giving my grandpa a heads-up on that dastardly doodle. It gave me yet another funny thing about the Mormon Church to laugh about.



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Thanks for the entertaining, albeit belated, reply ;)

Good to see you back.

That took guts to stand up to your family and call them out on their bu#*$##t.

I haven't heard back from my father since I called him out and it's been 10 years.

Pious idiots.

Yes, I'm a bit bitter and sad that the cult still controls them.

Topping. Cuz this is such a treat for a Friday.

Thanks Steve for sharing your stories. I was a young kid back in the 80's. But I remember hearing things about how Benson's grandson had left the church and became a....*pause every time for effect* Anti-Mormon!!!

it was always said with such disbelief. How could the grandson of a Prophet act this way? Satan was a wily son of a gun.

So for me it's a real treat to hear your stories on here. To read your posts. Because I would have never guessed in a million years I'd be on a forum where you posted. :)

Hey steve,

I met you back in the early 90's at AZ Republic when I was first questioning the cult. You were (and I suspect still are) a nice guy.

Well, took me many years to get out, but I'm out, now my kids hate me, my ex-wife posts about how evil I am in facebook.

Took getting my email intercepted by the Strenghtening Church Members committee to shake me up enough to make me come around.

Now, out, re-married, and it all seems like some f'ed up bad dreamn

Anyway, always loved your stuff in the Republic

. . . they aren't a Cowboys fan.

I was raised in Dallas. :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2015 11:54PM by steve benson.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2015 11:57PM by steve benson.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2015 11:56PM by steve benson.