In a bizarre display, a Utah State Board of Education member transformed a routine welcome message into a 20-minute sermon, praising both the Unabomber and Senator Joseph McCarthy while warning her colleagues about Satan's influence in government and the creeping threat of communism.
To kick off most meetings of the UBOE, a board member is asked to provide “an inspirational thought, provide a moment of silence, or deliver appropriate welcome and solemnizing remarks as they choose.” District 8 Republican Christina Boggess used this opportunity at the August 7 meeting to launch into what would become a political and religious manifesto.
In perhaps the most startling moment of her address, Boggess praised Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber, who killed three people and injured 23 others in a mail bombing campaign from 1978 until he was captured in 1995. Dismissing his deadly campaign of violence, Boggess suggested his 35,000-word manifesto contained some good ideas.
“If you don’t know who Ted Kazynski is, he is the Unabomber. And despite the fact that he did morally reprehensible things, he wrote a manifesto that many called a work of genius,” Boggess said.
“If you actually read his manifesto, he’s warning about a technocratic state and the rise of communism.
Boggess then pivoted to defending another controversial figure, comparing herself to former Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who alleged that communists and Soviet spies had infiltrated the federal government, academia, and the film industry.
“I know this is the time where everybody says this is McCarthyism. Red scare,” Boggess said, before making making the remarkable claim. “I don’t know if you know this or not, but McCarthy was right.”
“If we look at history and we look at what happened in the early 1900s in America, and we look at what happened during McCarthy’s era, history proved they were right.”
During his career, McCarthy became notorious for making outlandish accusations that people were communist sympathizers or disloyal to the United States. Many of those accused lost their jobs. In 1954, the U.S. Senate voted to condemn McCarthy for conduct unbecoming of a senator. He died three years later.
Despite the historical record, Boggess urged her colleagues to follow McCarthy’s example.
“I would ask all of us to say today that we are going to stop the advancement of communism in our halls, in our walls, and in our policy.”
Boggess’ also delivered an extended religious commentary during her presentation, arguing that Christians should not be afraid of confrontation when talking about their faith in public.
“Life after rejection of the world and its ways to follow Jesus almost always comes after division, and the sanctification journey may be different for everybody, but it is under the same set of values, and those values are not negotiable, and it is not a Christian crime to discuss them openly,” Boggess said.
“It seems that non-believers are more courageous in this day and age than those who claim the name of Jesus.”
Continuing down that path, Boggess suggested that Christians needed to assert themselves more in public because Satan’s influence has corrupted government governments at every level, leading them to embrace “tolerance.”
“It is legitimately tragic and it is odd to me that even those with a clear biblical understanding that Satan is the father of lies, that governments are corrupt, and that Satan is the ruler of this world, will also assert that publicly questioning the government narrative, their practices, and universal truth is somehow un-Christian,” Boggess said.
“ I would challenge us today that truth cannot be sacrificed at an altar of pretend tolerance, and that it also inherently divides.”
Boggess was first elected to the UBOE in 2022 and is currently in her first term. She unsuccessfully ran for the Utah State Senate in 2024, losing the GOP primary election to incumbent Republican Wayne Harper.
