Some years earlier, the war in Vietnam had been gaining momentum and arousing greater domestic opposition. As consternation grew in the Church membership over this issue, especially among the many families with young men being conscripted into the war, Hugh Brown, one of the highest authorities in the Church, spoke at a general assembly at BYU and affirmed that the Church not only upheld the “laws of the land” but also specifically supported US involvement in the war. The statement was in the context of many years of pronouncements against communism from high Church authorities. This position was directly reaffirmed to me by another Church authority, Boyd Packer, in a private conversation I had with him over my reservations about the war. With my reservations answered, and like a loyal subject, I volunteered for duty in Vietnam in 1970, believing that I would be helping stop the spread of dreaded communism. As an intelligence officer there, my perspective on the war began to shift. Years later, I was finally able to admit the truth of what had become abundantly clear: US involvement in Vietnam, by any analysis and from any perspective, was catastrophically wrong, its devastation to the Vietnamese and to ourselves was enormous, and no positive outcome was achieved. I was ashamed for my country and disillusioned with my Church authorities for not having seen it coming. It was their job as inspired leaders to be “the voice or warning” against such debacles. The Church”‘s support for the war has now been largely ignored and forgotten. But I have not forgotten. For me it was a decided failure of Church leadership that cannot be explained away. Mormon leader and attorney Bruce McKonkie liked to call priesthood leaders “legal administrators.” Mormon leaders were definitely administrating, but they were certainly not looking like “prophets, seers, and revelators.” In this critical sense, there was neither prophecy nor backbone. It is one thing to make pious words from the pulpit, but when such words lead to five million real people who really die in the real world, then it would seem time for real accountability.
–Robert Bushman
Read his full story here.
For more information, see The Mormon Mirage 3rd Edition: A Former Member Looks at the Mormon Church Today (Zondervan, 2009). Also available as an audiobook and as an expanded-text E-book for Nook, Kindle and other reading devices.
