In this era of leaks and hacks, secrets have been stolen from organizations as varied as the Democratic Party, the Vatican, Sony Pictures and Yahoo. Now comes “Mormon Leaks,” a breach of the inner sanctum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that has provided a rare glimpse into the workings of the church’s leadership and its cozy relationship with Mormons in politics.
Fifteen videos were posted online this week showing senior leaders of the Mormon Church in private meetings discussing issues including same-sex marriage, marijuana, Somali pirates and even whether the church could be vulnerable to WikiLeaks. The church has acknowledged that the videotapes are authentic.
Unlike other hacks in which WikiLeaks was the culprit, this leak of videos from church headquarters in Salt Lake City is the work of disaffected Mormons who found one another online, in a Reddit forum for ex-Mormons. It comes not long after another leak of internal church documents.
The videos reveal clubby exchanges between the leaders, most of whom belong to the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles (the church’s second-highest leadership body after the First Presidency), and Mormon politicians and other experts invited in to brief the apostles. In a presentation that has provoked some criticism, former Senator Gordon H. Smith, a Republican of Oregon, shared with the apostles that he voted in favor of the Iraq War partly because he believed it could open the region for Mormon missionaries.
“If that succeeds, there will be an opportunity to begin building the church in the Middle East, which is a deeply troubled place,” said Mr. Smith, who at the time had recently lost a re-election campaign after two terms in the Senate.
He also told the apostles that Iran was close to having enough fissile material to create a nuclear bomb, information he said “may be classified.” He volunteered that he had persuaded the Indian ambassador to give visas to 200 Mormon missionaries and had pushed government officials in Spain, Italy, Belgium and Russia to give missionaries greater access.
Mr. Smith, now president and chief executive of the National Association of Broadcasters, declined to comment, but said through a spokesman that nothing he told the apostles was classified information.
