Joseph Smith was a Gold-digging Con Man. James Faust Simply Ripped the Gold from Native Americans' Mouths

How do you fund the construction of a Mormon temple? By having Native Americans yank their gold fillings out of their mouths. Sound familiar?

The Mormon church has two versions of this story. The first can be found in the May 9, 1998 edition of Church News:

[Faust] emphasized the need to sacrifice for temple building and shared how members in Argentina found ways to donate during the construction of the São Paulo Brazil Temple. They gave the gold from their dental work to help pay for the temple. He said that he had purchased some of the gold fillings for more than the market price to share with congregations the nature of the sacrifice made by these members.

The sanitized version minimizes not only Faust's involvement but also lies about the amount of gold fillings Native Americans had ripped from their mouths. It can be found here:

One memorable donation was a gold dental bridge presented by an Argentine man to a pair of missionaries. They declined the gift at first, saying they couldn't take the man's teeth, but he responded, "You can't deny me the blessings I will receive by giving this to the Lord for his temple." Elder James E. Faust, who was serving as the South America area supervisor for the Church, heard the story and paid a generous sum of money for the gold. From that day on, he kept the dental bridge as a reminder of the Saints' countless sacrifices.

And we've come full circle. Here is the building built on a racist foundation derived from a lousy work of fiction written by a gold-digging con man and funded by the extracted gold fillings of the indigent brown heathens Mormons so loathe. Would Smith be proud or envious?

Enhanced Interrogation Techniques, AKA TORTURE

This is the location of Evergreen, the Mormon church's "reparative therapy" headquarters.

"Reparative/conversion/reorientation therapy" is not only torture built on junk science, bigotry, homophobia and violence, it also beats into the victim the incorrect notion that there is something fundamentally flawed with who they are. Fuck the assholes who came up with this bullshit idea!

For YEARS BYU conducted "experiments" on young gay men to try to "cure" them of a non-existent illness. These men had electrodes placed on their genitals, and they were shown various pornographic images. If they became aroused "inappropriately" (measured by this device patented by Robert Card) they received electric shocks to their genitals. Some were given drugs that caused them to vomit if they became "inappropriately" aroused.

All these kids were trying to do was to become "good" Mormons so they could reach exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom. They wanted to be "normal." They wanted to fit into the rigid Mormon mold by which all members are confined. Why couldn't they be free? No Mormon in good standing is free, but these young people were not only alienated by fellow members, but they were also tortured in the name of God. Amen.

Affirmation discusses Evergreen and has several links to more in-depth articles and first-person accounts by people who have been involved in Evergreen as "patients" and as leaders.

Here are some videos (courtesy of antideity at YouTube) of interviews with gay men who underwent the torture "therapy" at BYU. Know that Evergreen is still in business, and the electroshock torture continued waaay past the 70s when the LDS church claims it halted the practice.