Intent upon researching and producing an unusual feature story, Denver Post staff writer John Farrell, accompanied by Post photographer Jim Richardson, spent 13 weeks during the summer and fall of 1982 traveling throughout "The Church State"¹ of Utah. Their assignment? To penetrate what has been called "The Zion Curtain"² erected by the Mormon Church to protect its vast wealth and influence. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints so effectively controls one of the 50 American states, where it is "the largest private property owner,"³ that "the line between worship and government has become so blurred that some civil rights have evaporated."⁴ In this unusual state, "Jews are called Gentiles" and a "majority of non-Mormons" consider themselves to be "victims of discrimination."⁵

As anyone knows who has lived very long in Utah, far from encouraging freedom (as one might expect), the all-pervasive presence of the Mormon Church hangs like a heavy cloud of oppression that can't be escaped anywhere. One gradually acquires the uneasy feeling that "Big Brother" is always listening and watching. Farrell and Richardson discovered that in some ways conditions behind the Zion Curtain were uncomfortably similar to those behind the Iron Curtain. This was particularly true concerning two of the rights that Americans have traditionally held most dear: freedom of speech and freedom of the press. In Utah these are not exercised without "widespread constraint" imposed upon everyone by the Mormon hierarchy's long arm that reaches everywhere.

These rights are further inhibited by the disturbing fact that "the state's largest evening newspaper and . . . leading TV station are owned by the church,"⁶ which has been described as "America's biggest, richest and strongest home-grown faith."⁷ Giving its official approval to the Church's trampling on human rights, in 1975 the Utah Supreme Court with its Mormon majority handed down a surprising decision, that, as summarized by the Denver Post--

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution--which guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion--did not apply in Utah but was only a limitation on the federal government.⁸

The Foundation of Mormon Authority

John Farrell's assignment was "not an expose of the Mormon religion," but to give an honest picture of life inside Utah. Just as it is behind Marxism's Iron Curtain, however, so Farrell and Richardson discovered that in this bastion of capitalism and conservatism behind the Zion Curtain it was extremely difficult to find individuals who were willing to speak openly and freely in response to questions about the almost-omnipotent religious power that tolerates no interference in its control of the Church State. They soon learned that "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does not take kindly to dissent."⁹ For a resident of Utah to openly question the irresistible and self-serving influence exerted everywhere in Utah by the Mormon Church--or its activities, morals, or doctrines--could call down the wrath of a totalitarian power upon one's head. The results are sometimes frighteningly similar to those suffered by dissidents within the Soviet Union or some other Communist country.

Dominating the skyline of downtown Salt Lake City, a huge 28-story office building, tallest in the state, houses the corporate headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Here, lawyers, accountants, and computer experts try to keep up with the day-to-day commercial activities involving the vast business interests and real estate holdings of the multibillion-dollar worldwide financial empire of Mormonism. From his top-floor suite in the Church-owned Hotel Utah, the President of the Mormon Church (its "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator") exercises unchallenged control over the 5.2 million members through a hierarchy of Apostles, assistants, and advisors. Everyone entering the imposing Church

The Course of Wisdom is the Course of Obedience.

How well Mormons know the truth of that slogan! It has been drilled into their consciousness since earliest childhood. And in Utah, the Church State, even non-Mormons feel the pressure to conform to a power that insists upon overriding both conscience and God. The authority which the Mormon Hierarchy wields began with Joseph Smith's claim that every Christian on the face of the earth was following abominable creeds and was involved in a total worldwide apostasy that had completely destroyed the Church that Jesus Christ had founded. Smith claimed that he had been ordained to restore truth to the earth, and that as the modern founder of the true Church, he alone was the dispenser of God's revelation and will in this dispensation. That grandiose boast is the foundation of the absolute authority which the Mormon Presidents and Apostles claim as their divine right today. All who reject Joseph Smith's claims and do not submit obediently to his successors are "Gentiles" outside the true Church he founded and are without salvation.

Theocracy: The Original Goal Still Intact

Aside from its vast commercial income, the Church probably receives more than 4 million dollars daily in tithes.¹⁰ The billions of dollars it receives and controls are not accounted for by the Mormon hierarchy to the members who contribute so generously and sacrificially. The Mormon empire is a virtual theocracy. Its leaders claim to represent God to the people. Therefore they are accountable to no one on earth for anything. They only command, and their followers must obey without question. According to Apostle Boyd K. Packer:

Now, about the Church money, we've never published the income figures. . . .
It's been a policy. A lot of organizations are that way.¹¹

The original aim of founding Prophet Joseph Smith and other early Mormon leaders was to establish a theocracy that would eventually control the entire United States. Instead, the "Saints" were successively driven from Illinois and Missouri by "Gentiles," who didn't take kindly to such a goal nor to the attempts to accomplish it by trickery and force. Under the leadership of Brigham young, Smith's successor, the persecuted latter-Day Saints traveled westward, where they established their "nation within a nation" in the territory of Utah. Threatened with collapse of their theocratic kingdom under the onslaught of congressional laws passed in the late 1880's that outlawed polygamy and stripped the Mormon Church of its property and power, Mormon leaders finally decided in 1890 that they couldn't win a war against the United States Army, and so capitulated. Settling into a grudging but necessary peaceful coexistence with the other states in the Union and obeying federal laws to the extent necessary in the interim, Mormon leaders were then, and still are, biding their time until that prophesied day when their original goal will at last be accomplished.

That goal of establishing a theocratic rule over the United States and planet Earth is still an integral part of the Mormon faith and the underlying motivating factor in their desire to convert the world. Speaking of the uncomfortable adjustment that has been required in the meanwhile, Mormon author Samuel Taylor has written:

As we became accepted by the outside world, after decades of vilification and ridicule . . we went to work busily on a new public image replacing the polygamous rebel with the gentle Saint who didn't use coffee. . . .

They concocted a never-never land of Mormonism that presented a lovely, if unreal, facade for the outside world to admire and converts to embrace.¹²

Though he writes rather frankly, Samuel Taylor has remained a Latter-Day Saint. So have the publisher and staff of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, from which this quote was taken. Many other Mormons, however, have been driven by conscience to leave their Church because of what they consider to be heresies and fraud too serious to overlook any longer. Believing they are under a moral obligation to share their knowledge about the dark side of Mormonism with the world, many former Mormons have joined forces to accomplish this goal.

The Hidden Truth

In modern pursuit of Joseph Smith's original vision, the Mormon Church circles the globe with an aggressive missionary outreach. Mormon zeal is noteworthy and their motivation must be accepted as genuine. However, their methods include a great deal of misrepresentation. Mormon missionaries claim to be bringing true Christianity to the world. The vast majority of converts to Mormonism are proselytized from Protestant denominations. When questioned, Mormons insist that their gospel comes from the Bible and that they have the same God and the same Jesus as Christians. In actual fact, they have a completely different God from what the Bible presents, a different Jesus, and a different gospel.

These differences are denied or glossed over by the missionaries, who are often evasive and unwilling to tell the whole truth to a prospective convert for fear of losing him. Moreover, much about Mormonism cannot be revealed to sincere seekers, because those who know what is involved have taken an oath of secrecy. This means that Mormonism's most sacred and important doctrines and practices are discovered only after getting in too deeply to turn back.

Just beneath the carefully groomed facade of "true Christianity" that Mormons present to the world is another story so bizarre that non-Mormons find it difficult to believe even when the irrefutable evidence has been laid out in front of them. It is this story--the shocking and incredible truth about Mormonism--that we want to tell. Our purpose is not to harm the Latter-Day Saints, but to help them by exposing what many Mormons themselves don't yet know and might otherwise learn only too late. Everything in the following pages has been thoroughly researched and fully documented.

Unfortunately, Mormons have so often been told stories of the terrible persecution suffered by the "Saints" in the early days that they react to honest criticism as though they were being persecuted once again. The Denver Post team of Farrell and Richardson tried unsuccessfully to get LDS leaders in Salt Lake City to tell their side of the story. "The Mormon Church's hierarchy declined repeated requests for interviews" by Farrell. "Other Utahns, fearing they might be ostracized if they spoke freely . .. would talk only if granted anonymity." Farrell, however, used nothing from anonymous sources in his article.¹³

Sincere Response to the Mormon Challenge

We have found it almost impossible to enter into a friendly and meaningful dialogue with Mormons, especially those in positions of responsibility. This attitude is strange in view of the exhortation in Mormon scripture, Doctrine and Covenants 71:7-8, which urges all Mormons: "Wherefore, confound your enemies; call upon them to meet you in public and in private; and inasmuch as ye are faithful their shame shall be made manifest. Wherefore, let them bring forth their strong reasons against the Lord."

Both this book and a film of the same title represent a sincere attempt to meet this challenge.

We will give overwhelming evidence concerning what Mormons really believe and practice, and the many reasons why Mormonism is not Christian at all but a revival of primitive paganism in a modified form. We only ask for an honest hearing: the willingness to face facts and admit the truth. It is not our desire to dissuade anyone from being a Mormon who truly wants to be one. On the other hand, we want everyone who is in the Mormon Church or is considering joining it to know what this commitment really means. We sincerely accept the challenge that Mormonism presents to the world today, which early Apostle Orson Pratt explained in these words:

The nature of the message of the Book of Mormon is such, that if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it; if false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it. . . .

If, after a rigid examination, it be found an imposition, it should be extensively published to the world as such; the evidences and arguments upon which the imposture was detected should be clearly and logically stated, that those who have been sincerely yet unfortunately deceived may perceive the nature of the deception and be reclaimed... and that those who contribute to publish the delusion may be exposed and silenced, not by physical force, neither by persecutions, bare assertions, nor ridicule, but by strong and powerful arguments--by evidences adduced from scripture and reason.¹⁴

This we intend to do, avoiding bare assertions and ridicule. If it continues true to form, however, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints may be expected if not officially then through pressure at all levels, to discourage its members from reading this book. In good faith, we have accepted the challenge of Orson Pratt, Brigham young, and other Mormon leaders to make the truth known--and that includes Mormonism's darkest secrets that those privy to them have sworn upon penalty of death not to reveal.