"GODMAKERS" and the Public Schools

Lee Nelson "Godmakers" and the Public' editorial in CENTRAL UTAH JOURNAL issue No. 10 5th February, 1984

When Religious Persecution Becomes a Constitutionally-Protected Freedom

. . . We received a letter from the Ku Klux Klan commander in Santaquin saying that it is not hate, but love (of the white race) that best describes the goals of his organization. Likewise the ExMormons for Jesus say it is love for the Mormons, not hate, that drives them in their efforts to destroy the Mormon Church. I suppose Adolph Hitler believed it was not hate for the Jews, but rather love for Germany, that motivated him to ship Jewish Germans off to Auschwitz and Dachau. And Hitler did not ship trainloads of Jews off to Dachau the first week in office. The persecution and eventual annihilation of millions of Jews was preceded by years of careful anti-Jewish propaganda similar to the anti-Mormon propaganda presented in the movie "The Godmakers." Before the German people would allow the annihilation of millions of Jews, they had to be

convinced that Judaism was a sinister force, an evil that society must be rid of. Germans were given convincing arguments about how Jewish businessmen were responsible for unemployment, food shortages, and runaway inflation. Hitler would have been delighted to have a film like "The Godmakers" that focused on Judaism instead of Mormonism. There are those who say nothing like what happened in Germany could ever happen in America. But Mormons know differently. In 1838 the governor of Missouri issued an official order for the extermination of all Mormons who refused to leave the state. When public sentiment is inflamed against a people or a religion, constitutional protection crumbles. The film "The Godmakers" is intended to inflame public sentiment against the Mormons. There are those who say the film "Godmakers" is not religious persecution but merely a presentation of facts designed to open the eyes of those who have been deceived by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have seen the movie "Godmakers" and taken careful notes. The film could best be described as a skilful presentation of truth, halftruth and innuendo to depict the Mormon Church as a sinister Satan cult bent on destroying families, distorting the Bible and suppressing blacks and women while encouraging sexual excess on the part of its leaders. The problem Mormons are having with this film is that it distorts and caricaturizes sacred doctrine. It is no wonder that a Protestant minister in Phoenix called the film religious pornography after seeing it. LDS Church leaders in Salt Lake City call it a vicious attack on the Church . .

"Godmakers" has the usual amount of mudslinging one might expect in a production of that sort, calling the LDS Church a sect that is into the occult and Satanism. The movie claims that in Chinese the word "Mormon" means "Gates of Hell." . . . [Of course, it
DOES not!]

And of course the film wouldn't be complete without the claim that the Mormon Church is not a Christian Church . . . The interesting thing is that the people who produced and show this film call themselves Christians. NB: Lee Nelson is not a Latter-day Saint