The John Birch Society

Quotes

“When my son, Reed, was invited to be a state coordinator for the John Birch Society, he asked me if he should accept it. I had read the Blue Book and other basic materials of the Society. I had met Mr. Welch and other leaders and members. I had read Mr. Welch’s famous letter which has since been published in book form entitled The Politician. I knew Reed would be enrolling in an unpopular cause. I also knew he would receive a certain amount of vilification if he took this job. Nevertheless, I told him to go ahead if he thought this was the most effective way to defend the Constitution and fight the Socialist-Communist menace.…When he joined I expressed my opinion that I was convinced that the John Birch Society was the most effective non-church organization in our fight against creeping Socialism and godless Communism.…Some people have told me this was not good strategy, but I disagree. I feel it is always good strategy to stand up for the right, even when it is unpopular. Perhaps I should say, ESCPECIALLY when it is unpopular.(Ezra Taft Benson, December 19, 1963.)

“I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe.…Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing. Make them intelligent and they will be vigilant, give them the means of detecting the wrong, and they will apply the remedy.” (Daniel Webster, Works, 1:403.)

“I am only one, but I am one.   I can't do everything, but I can do something.   What I can do, that I ought to do.   And what I ought to do, By the grace of God, I shall do.” (Edward Everett Hale)

“Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” (George Washington, stating the importance of true education over self-serving government propaganda. Farewell Address, 1796.)

“The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God's work among men that exists on the face of the earth. In this connection, we are continually being asked to give our opinion concerning various patriotic groups or individuals who are fighting Communism and speaking up for freedom. Our immediate concern, however, is not with parties, groups, or persons, but with principles. We therefore commend and encourage every person and every group who are sincerely seeking to study Constitutional principles and awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us. We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it.(David O. McKay, Conference Report, p. 109. April 1966.)

“If the warning we are issuing isn't heeded, the American people will surely find themselves in bondage. And children of the future who ask their parents why such a fate wasn't prevented will receive little more than guilt-ridden and totally deficient responses.” (John F. McManus, Financial Terrorism, November 1993.)

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.” (Edmund Burke, April 23, 1770.)

“Since August, 1945 [to December 1958], the Communists have averaged taking over seven thousand newly enslaved subjects every hour. And please remember that these people, whether in Indonesia or Iraq or Korea, have the same love for their families, think of concentration camps with the same despairing horror, and feel the same pain under torture, as do you and I.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 17. December 1958.)

“In summary, Gentlemen, we are losing, rapidly, a cold war in which our freedom, our country, and our very existence are at stake. And while we don’t seem to know we are loosing this war, you can be sure the Communists do. There is just one thing—only one thing in the whole world—which the Communists fear today. It is that, despite their tremendous influence in our government and over all of our means of mass communication, the American people will wake up too soon to what has really been happening, and what is now happening right under their very noses. The only thing which can possibly stop the Communists is for the American people to learn the truth in time.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 25. December 1958.)

“You may think I am an alarmist. Frankly I am. For in my opinion, based on many years of intensive study of the conspiracy, there is ample reason for extreme alarm; and I hope to make you alarmists too. It seems to me that all you need, to cause you to share my alarm, my fears, and my determination, is simply to get a map of the world and Look at the Score! And the first thing for you to do, as a newly awakened alarmist, is to become better informed about many things that we cannot cover here.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 25. December 1958.)

“The number of people subject to these cruelties is now increasing by tens of millions every year, and we are directly in the path of the conqueror. Are we really so hopelessly blind, so stupefied by “prosperity” on one side and insidious propaganda on the other, that we cannot even see the wolves devouring the carcasses of our brothers or drawing ever nearer to ourselves? Are we going to let our country and our whole civilization go under, and the new “Dark Ages” of serfdom be ushered in, while we happily play at our little games? May God forbid; but may we speedily become more worthy that He should.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 28. December 1958.)

“For whether you believe it or not, we are far along in a gathering crisis that is going to make us all search deeply into our beliefs, and into the values and loyalties that motivate our actions. This is a world-wide battle, the first in history, between light and darkness; between freedom and slavery; between the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of anti-Christ for the souls and bodies of men.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 28. December 1958.)

“For we need disciplined pullers at the oars, and not passengers in the boat.…So we are asking for a lot, and we want you to know it, if and when you sign an application blank for membership in the John Birch Society.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 153, 155. December 1958.)

“For, as I have said, we are not kidding, or just talking, and we do mean business every step of the way.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 155. December 1958.)

“Unless we can win that battle, the war for a better world will again be carried on through long and feudal Dark Ages, after we have been killed, our children have been enslaved, and all that we value has been destroyed. That is not rhetoric, and it is not exaggeration. It is a plain statement of the stark danger that is rapidly closing in on us right now.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 156. December 1958.)

“As to what is expected of you, in either effort or money, if you are thinking of half-way measures we might as well quit now. But I might as well also reveal my own fanaticism by telling you that there is no force and no discouragement which could make me quit or even put less of my life and energy into the struggle.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 157. December 1958.)

“I am far more comfortable working sixteen hours a day, seven days per week, on the same problem and without pay, than I would be in a concentration camp behind an electrified barbed-wire fence. And while I am not actually suggesting quite so drastic a level of work or sacrifice for anybody else at this time, I do want to repeat that we are not going to be saved from concentration camps by those who plan to do the saving every Saturday morning before lunch…” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 157. December 1958.)

“All we must find and build and use, to win, is sufficient understanding. Let’s create that understanding and build that resistance, with everything mortal men can put into the effort—while there is still time.” (Robert Welch, The Blue Book, p. 160. December 1958.)

“…the JBS devotes its efforts to the strategy employed by the Founding Fathers in the decades leading up to American independence: educating the citizenry in sound principles of government; warning the public about the existence of an organized, covert threat to our liberties and free institutions; and mobilizing patriots in an organized, principle–centered effort to defeat the enemies of freedom.” (William Norman Grigg, Global Gun Grab: The United Nations Campaign to Disarm Americans, p. 122-123. October 2001.)

“On December 9, 1958, during the founding meeting of the John Birch Society, JBS Founder Robert Welch warned that the long-term objective of both international Communism and its allies within the American political elite was “to induce the gradual surrender of American sovereignty, piece by piece and step by step, to various international organizations—of which the United Nations is the outstanding but far from the only example….” It was not until 16 years after Robert Welch uttered this “extremist” statement that the chief organ of the American political establishment confirmed Welch’s description of the incremental, conspiratorial approach to the creation of world government.

“In his notorious April 1974 Foreign Affairs essay “The Hard Road to World Order,” Richard N. Gardner, using terms nearly identical to those used by Welch, wrote that a “case-by-case approach can produce some remarkable concessions of ‘sovereignty’ that could not be achieved on an across-the-board basis.” Rather than pursuing “instant world government,” Gardner explained in the policy journal of the Council on Foreign Relations, “the ‘house of world order’ will have to be built from the bottom up rather than from the top down”—by means of “and end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece.…” (William Norman Grigg, Global Gun Grab: The United Nations Campaign to Disarm Americans, p. 123–124. October 2001.)

“President David O. McKay received an invitation from former Congressman John Rousselot, asking that I be authorized to give a patriotic speech at a testimonial dinner for Robert Welch. President McKay after careful consideration told me I should take the talk and that I had his permission and blessing. And so the invitation was accepted.

“This talk was given at the Hollywood Paladium, September 23 of this year. Nearly 2,000 heard my talk that night and 4,000 Kiwanians heard a similar message the following day when I spoke at their annual convention.

“Both talks dealt with the preservation of the Constitution and the need to resist the Communist threat. At the Welch Testimonial dinner I commended that John Birch Society and encouraged them to protect the principles of liberty throughout our land.

“Of course, as all of you know, this talk brought an immediate outcry from some liberal elements in Washington. These voices said that I, as a Church official, had no business speaking at the Robert Welch dinner. They said it was making me “controversial.” Patrick Henry and the Founding Fathers were “controversial,” as true patriots have ever been. Perhaps they did not realize that I had filled this assignment with the full approval of President McKay. And perhaps they did not realize that President McKay has not hesitated to speak out for freedom even if some people have considered such patriotism as “controversial.” And neither will I hesitate.” (Ezra Taft Benson, Prophets, Principles and National Survival, p. 294. December 19, 1963.)