Why this past LDS anti-communist zealot is relevant today | Episode 446

There was a time in the 1960s when W. Cleon Skousen, who died in 2006 at 92, was a widely known and controversial conservative figure in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Skousen was a popular speaker, teacher and writer, whose books about scriptures reflected a literal, nonmodernist approach to the Bible.

He was a zealous anti-communist who freely mixed his Mormonism with his political views. He worked for a time as a special agent for the FBI and later as Salt Lake City’s police chief. His books — including “The First 2,000 Years” and “The Naked Communist” — became ubiquitous in Latter-day Saint homes as members grappled with the Cold War and predictions of an imminent apocalypse.

On this week’s show, Latter-day Saint historian Benjamin Park, who is working on a biography of Skousen, discusses the man’s early beginnings and why his works are finding an unexpected audience among President Donald Trump’s supporters today.