Comments on: For All You Cleon Skousen Fans

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:45:33 +0000

Thanks Ardis!

By: Chris H.

Chris H. — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 05:03:12 +0000

Hip and easy?

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 04:26:18 +0000

Thanks, Matt. I’m not aware of any real biography of Skousen — everything I’ve seen has been short pieces that are stumping for or against his political stands in a modern rather than contemporary-to-his-life context. Maybe it’s too soon to be able to evaluate him fairly? or maybe the current interest via Beck will prompt the kind of biography you want? I hope so.

Such a biography would have to look at why he was so popular on so many fronts — his politics, his scriptural studies, his child-raising advice (So You Want to Raise a Boy), his popular tourist groups to the Middle East and to Central America. He obviously met a need for Mormons of the ’60s that wasn’t being filled by anyone else, no matter how inadequate his approach was according to current popular views. How did he zero in on what people were looking for? Why was he able to engage where other people didn’t, or weren’t trying? I think a real study of that would be even more interesting to me as a student of Mormon culture than as a biography. But I don’t know of anyone who has been or is engaged in that kind of study.

I don’t think he was a bad man by any means, and it’s just a little too facile to sneer at his puffing up his own biography and his other shortcomings without analyzing what need he filled, and how and why. It’s nice to know that his work has produced some terrific results, as you have outlined in your own family. Thanks for that.

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 04:12:13 +0000

I guess what I’m wondering is if Skousen was just the right guy in the right place at the right time, or if there was more to it than that.

By: Matt W.

Matt W. — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 04:05:48 +0000

Ardis: As someone I genuinely trust when it comes to history, are you aware of a really good biography on Skousen? Not a fluff piece, but also not a "Skousen's the devil" shtick? I am particularly interested in his role as a popularizer of Mormonism. You see, my wife's grandfather joined the church in the 1961 partly due to reading "The Naked Communist". My wife and I have estimated that her grandfather, either through himself, his children, his grandchildren, or through the efforts of he converted to the Gospel, has brought over a thousand people into the church. While I know it's rather hip(and easy) to lambast Skousen's history and philosophy, I really would love to understand his popularity and how he was able to have such an impact bringing people who were not LDS into the church.

By: Curt A.

Curt A. — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:59:33 +0000

This stuff is seven months old, but be advised Cleon Skousen was my first cousin, twice removed. AND his son Paul writes fun books. I especially like his “The Mormon Bathroom Reader”.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:47:54 +0000

No, I’m sure that’s not right, Norma.

By: Norma J Entrekin

Norma J Entrekin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:56:35 +0000

Hi Ardis
from Norma in Tucson,

Was cleon Skousen excommunited from the LDS chuch? I seem to remember reading that. But can’t remember where and details. Thanks
Norma

By: Noray

Noray — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:09:53 +0000

I have a half jar of Postum in my desk at work. It is only about three years old. I am open to bidding.

By: Rudy

Rudy — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:35:43 +0000

I moved to Washington, DC a year and a half ago and was out of Postum so I went to the Safeway store and found a lonely jar there which I bought. That would have been about January of 2008. I later discovered that Postum had been pulled off the shelves in June of 2007, a year and a half earlier. I drink it every day and I have about two weeks worth left and am starting to worry. I don’t mind Pero but I can’t find it either. With sales of coffee wannabes so unbrisk, I’m sure Postum couldn’t pay for its spot on the shelves.