Hey Mormon friends,

I love you, but we have to have a talk. You need to chill the fudge down.

You’ve filled my facebook newsfeed with panic. You’ve convinced my grandma to stock up on guns and ammo. And I imagine church on Sunday is going to be a bit gloomy.

So please, my loved ones, settle the heck down. The end of the world’s probably not going to happen in the next four years. Probably not even in ten (Unless they cancel Downton Abbey!!!).

The Bible tells us in Matthew, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” But you, my dear armchair prophet. You, the constitution doomsayer of Mormonism, you know the end is here. Somehow you, armed with your Skousen quotes and your scriptures have made forecast to the signs of Mormon Millennialism the rest of us can’t see. What gives?

You’re upset. I get it. The Presidential election didn’t turn out how you wanted. It’s a bitter pill to swallow and something you have every right to feel passionate about. A lot of my Mormon Feminist friends are bummed too, since many of them voted for Romney.

It’s tough, this democratic process. The election has been rough. If you want to turn to your scriptures for comfort, please do.

But before you start quoting scriptures on your FB feed about how President Obama is going to usher in the Second Coming, I thought I’d help you out and give you a leeeetle bit of context to all this “doom and gloom.”

I’m doing you a favor, I really am. This way you can save your food storage for a very literal rainy day, not an armed insurrection against your neighbor and country. You’re welcome.

Here are some things you’ve told me about the consequences of the recent election:

1.Well, actually no. No he didn’t. At least not credibly. Which is why in early 2010, the LDS Church issued a statement saying that “the so-called ‘White Horse Prophecy’ is based on accounts that have not been substantiated by historical research and is not embraced as Church doctrine.” [1] This famous saying comes from something we call “The White Horse Prophecy” which is basically a bunch of crazy talk coming out of some guy’s diary. According to a diary entry made by John Roberts of Paradise, Utah in 1902, Joseph Smith gave the White Horse Prophecy in early May, 1843, to a friend, who later told him. Smith is recorded as saying that the Mormons “will go to the Rocky Mountains and will be a great and mighty people established there, which I will call the White Horse of peace and safety.” Adding that “I shall never go there,” and predicting continued persecution by enemies of the church, Smith reportedly said that “You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed.…. I love the Constitution; it was made by the inspiration of God; and it will be preserved and saved by the efforts of the White Horse, and by the Red Horse who will combine in its defense.” Smith additionally said, according to the diary, that the Mormons would send missionaries to “gather the honest in heart from among the Pale Horse, or people of the United States, to stand by the Constitution of the United States as it was given by the inspiration of God.” Roberts’ account quotes Smith as predicting numerous wars involving Great Britain, France, Russia, China, and other countries, and saying that the European nobility “knows that [Mormonism] is true, but it has not pomp enough, and grandeur and influence for them to yet embrace it.” [2] He is also reported to have said that a temple which the Latter Day Saints had planned to build in Jackson County, Missouri “will be built in this generation.” So yes, nearly 59 years after the fact, a man wrote down what he thinks a friend remembered the Prophet saying. I met President Hinkley once in the 90’s and he told me the young women in my ward would grow up to be beautiful women. Oh, and we did! Not exactly prophecy people.There are plenty more of these, but in his 1966 book Mormon Doctrine, LDS theologian (and, later, apostle) Bruce R. McConkie wrote that “From time to time, accounts of various supposed visions, revelations, and prophecies are spread forth by and among the Latter-day Saints, who should know better than to believe or spread such false information. One of these false and deceptive documents that has cropped up again and again for over a century is the so-called White Horse Prophecy.”So, let’s say it together, “The Constitution will not be hanging by a thread.” Unless the legend of Betsy Ross includes a cross-stitch project we don’t know about.



2. Which brings us to President Ezra Taft Benson. Communism, Socialism, bad, bad, bad!

Oh boy, do you love to use Benson’s quotes when talking about Obama. Here’s a heads up, you probably shouldn’t. Elder Benson’s ideas were even a little too extreme for his apostles. Let me give you an example. President Benson loved to throw around the White Horse, which we mentioned above:

“In connection with attack on the United States, the Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith there would be an attempt to overthrow the country by destroying the Constitution. Joseph Smith predicted that the time would come when the Constitution would hang, as it were, by a thread, and at that time “this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.” [3] His own church later refuted it, so even Elder Benson got it wrong, or 2010 got it wrong. One or the other….

Although he was a beloved prophet of the church and an active politician, he had some serious (understandable) hang-ups about communism. His family would later say his hatred of communism was rooted in his experience as a new apostle sent by the LDS Church to oversee its relief efforts in Europe after World War II. Benson later wrote that he watched half of the continent quickly fall to communism and lose the right to worship freely. However, these opinions sometimes spilled into his prophetic duties and he was known to preach about politics over the pulpit. ( Our Divine Constitution from the October 1987 General Conference is an oldie but a goodie). Prophets are men of their time no doubt, and that’s okay. Benson lived in turbulent times and that influenced his mantle, but there’s a reason why the church doesn’t perpetuate his ideas- they’re not prophecy. Ezra Taft Benson opposed the U.S. civil rights movement, strongly believed the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a tool of the communist party, opposed the ERA and associated with racist groups like the John Birch Society. Now if you’ve read “The Black Hammer,” you might agree with him, but I would say his predictions about Dr. King didn’t exactly prove… helpful.







3. Quoting anything from Doctrine and Covenants 130.

Ever since Mormonism was hatched, Mormons have been prophesying the end of the world. Hey, we’re an apocalyptic people! Anytime someone quotes from this section of the D&C, they need to remember some context. Joseph and the Saints were arriving at the height of mob persecution when this was written in April, 1843. Not only was the small and growing world of Mormonism in turmoil, the rest of the world was too. The country was watering seeds of political strife and contention. The frontier idea of finding and creating your destiny was mixed with new and emerging political ideologies and Mormons were not exempt from the fervor.

The end of the world was coming at any time. Verse 15 states: Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore alet this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter. That verse had many saints gearing up for the “end” in 1890…. but as we know, it didn’t come.

A portion of Church History 2:182 tells us that it doomsday even got a tentative date at Zion’s Camp, “President Smith then stated that the meeting had been called, because God had commanded it; and it was made known to him by vision 3 and by the Holy Spirit. He then gave a relation of some of the circumstances attending while journeying to Zion—our trials, sufferings; and said God had not designed all this for nothing, but He had it in remembrance yet; 4 and it was the will of God that those who went Zion, with a determination to lay down their lives, if necessary, should be ordained to the ministry, and go forth to prune the vineyard for the last time, or the coming of the Lord, which was nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene.” [4] Again, it didn’t happen. Matthew 24:36 friends. Say it with me, Matthew 24:36.

4.I’ll make this one easy for you and lump all of these various scriptures in together. Any time you hear that our country is getting more wicked, let me just let pictures tell you how I feel.In this country, our moral issues are a little lopsided. We’re voting on this:

Instead of this:



Yep. We’re heading into moral decay alright. What, with our huge priorities in order. There’s nothing like two adults holding hands to bring in utter and awful devastation of children and the family. Oh wait…

Listen, I know money is tight. Times are rougher than you’ve seen for a while (unless you lived through the plague, the world wars, the great depression.) I’m not saying you have to be happy about it. Is ringing the bell of death knell really the way you want to react? Really?

That “end” you’re afraid of? The utter devastation and fear and poverty? The neighbor-stealing-your-food-at-gun-point sort of nightmare? Um, yeah. That’s already happened. It’s been happening for thousands of years.



You don’t want to lose your home or job. You’re worried about groceries and gas? Yeah, welcome to the rest of the world:



What? You don’t want to be like them? Me either, but I think we’re a ways from that.

Speaking of pride cycles, we might want to check ourselves if we start thinking that the end for us, looks like what 90% of the world looks like. We might want to see if maybe we’re a little spoiled if we watched those scary election results on our big screened TV’s in our warm homes and lamented on how “it’s all going to end.”

Context people. Perspective. That’s all I ask.

You want to be disappointed with the results? Great. That is perfectly reasonable and okay.

You want to be mad, pissed and upset? Sure. Go for it!

You want to stock up on ammunition and food storage? Have fun.

You want to tell me the world is going to end because of it? Try again.

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Notes:

1. Church Statement on ‘White Horse Prophecy’ and Political Neutrality”, Public Affairs Department, LDS Church, January 6, 2010. Retrieved August 25, 2011.

2. “The White Horse Prophecy”, George Cobabe, Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research (2004). Retrieved August 25, 2011.

3. Conference Report, October 1961, p.70

4. http://byustudies2.byu.edu/hc/hcpgs/hc.aspx