Deja Vu: The JBS Was Right to Oppose Amnesty 20 Years Ago and Still Is Today!

thenewamerican. ^ | June 2, 1986 | William F. Jasper

[Spiff]

I suspect that you're LDS given your screen name.

Are you old enough to remember Ezra Taft Benson?

President Benson was a strong support of the John Birch Society. He purchased a yearly subscription of The New American magazine for every member of the Quorum of the Twelve and the First Presidency. I even have a letter signed by President Benson on Church letterhead where he said that aside from the Church itself, the John Birch Society is the finest organization on earth.

I agree that because of leftist opposition, and the lies and smears that go along with that, that the JBS's public image does suffer. So does the image of the LDS Church for other similarly unfair reasons. That doesn't make it right. I avoid attacking the JBS. You may want to consider that before you join the crowd attacking the organization.

[panaxanax]

"Get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the USA"

They were right then and they're right now. Too bad so many uneducated folks labelled them as kooks.

[Nephi]

My comment wasn't so much of a "bash" against Birchers, as it was an appraisal of the effectiveness of the organization. Twenty years later...look who's forced attention on the border? Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox, not JBS.

My wife and her family are Birchers, but I'm not impressed with their history of accomplishing...what? My wife subscribes to their magazine and I used to read it until I read yet another of their "UN is taking over the world" articles and I had enough.

They paint a dire picture, but when do you see them making the rounds on TV? They can't even get on Fox News segments as writers for The New American? That's weak. Because all that JBS has accomplished amounts to destroying their own image I seriously wonder if their real purpose is to create a fringe image for conservatism.

You bring up the JBS connection to the church, but look at the recent grassroot effort in Utah to get the UN out of the US and good ol' Sen. Hatch comes back home to kill it! Then, he is rewarded and endorsed with reserve seating up front in General Conference?

More importantly, with regard to global conspiracy, the church needs to work out the dychotomy between the 12th article of faith and "...blossom like a rose." Afterall, it doesn't say, "infest like termites."

[No.6]

"The difference between Reagans anti-communism stance and his stance on immigration is that one of the two actually worked."

The Birchers, in this article, warn of mortal danger, 90 million Mexicans coming over, and the destruction of America 'soon' if their recommendations (identical to the enforcement-only faction's recommendation today) weren't implemented.

Nonetheless, here we are still standing. I'm not saying all their points are bunk but the existence of a 20 year old article predicting certain and swift doom to America if we didn't adopt their anti-immigration policy kinda loses its punch when those predictions fail to come true.

As a prediction, it's right up there with the "population bomb" scares of the '70s.