The Richard D. Poll and J. Kenneth Davies Cases : Politics and Religion at BYU during the Wilkinson Years
Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought
Spring 2012
45
1
Stanford, CA
Dialogue Foundation
2012
43-73
During the cold war years after World War II, Mormons, including some Church leaders, increasingly infused national concerns about Communism with strong moral and religious overtones. This emphasis among LDS authorities on the growth of Communism and what they viewed as allied economic and political evils manifested itself most dramatically in Ernest L. Wilkinson's 1951 appointment as president of Brigham Young University. Concurrent with the years of Wilkinson's presidency was the emphasis nationally on routing "un-American" faculty from US universities. As he labored to secure a sufficiently patriotic faculty, Wilkinson adopted a variety of measures to promote and guarantee political and religious orthodoxy. Here, Bergera discusses Wilkinson's attempt to promote an "orthodox" faculty.