Safest Smuggling of Missionaries

[_moksha]

Missionary's arrest sparks discussion, fear
-Salt Lake Tribune 04/24/2009

'The arrest of an undocumented immigrant returning last week from his LDS mission has sparked discussion at the highest levels of the church about how to limit such exposure in the future.
"With the known realization that those risks exist, then we want to do better, or at least learn more," LDS apostle Jeffrey R. Holland, said Friday during an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune . "We want to be more precise, if we can, about how to help, how to make [a mission] the calmest, most spiritually rewarding experience for everybody. Early last week, a missionary was detained at the Cincinnati airport for "lacking necessary documentation to board his flight home," according to Michael Purdy, LDS Church spokesman.

That triggered fears in the undocumented LDS community in Utah, and already prompted a change in how one Utah missionary returned home. The young man, a Salt Lake Valley resident, completed a mission in Oklahoma and was scheduled to return home two days after church leaders heard of the unrelated arrest in Ohio. The mission president contacted local Utah church leaders, and it was decided the missionary's uncle would drive out to Oklahoma to bring the missionary home, which he did.

The travel department of the church has to rethink everything. Things have changed, and they need a whole new policy," said a local church official who was aware of the situation. "With ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] hitting them at the bus terminals and airports, this opens a whole new discussion."

Wonder if private jets or perhaps cargo planes might be the best way to to keep illegal alien missionaries safe from immigration officials. I hear that items packaged in coffee can fool even the most astute canine sniffers. Anyway, if shipments from Colombia can reach their destination unfettered, why not missionaries?

[_Inconceivable]

The travel department of the church has to rethink everything. Things have changed, and they need a whole new policy," said a local church official who was aware of the situation. "With ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] hitting them at the bus terminals and airports, this opens a whole new discussion."

RETHINK? The church has an illegal (and non-doctrinal) policy in place. What's there to think about?

12 We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in
obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

(Pearl of Great Price | Articles of Faith 1:12)

It doesn't matter whether a General Authority agrees with the law or not. Their personal opinion's don't count here. They are duty bound to obey the law of the land by the doctrine commanded by their God - and obviously they have not been.

There is no black and white here. Or does the Mormon God have another secret spirit of the law doctrine?

[_Inconceivable]

And yes, it is illegal to aid an undocumented alien over state lines - whether it be by air, sea or land.

If Jesus' church intends to challenge Caeser's Law, they are still not justified in breaking it, right?

[_Thama]

And yes, it is illegal to aid an undocumented alien over state lines - whether it be by air, sea or land.

If Jesus' church intends to challenge Caeser's Law, they are still not justified in breaking it, right?

Really? So how is this person supposed to verify whether it is an illegal alien they are transporting?

-They don't speak English? I wasn't aware we had a legally enforced national language.
-They don't have their papers on them? Neither do I. I wasn't aware we were required to keep this with us at all times.
-They don't have a driver's license? Ditto.

Anything the Church does to piss on our asinine immigration policy is fine by me. If the contradiction between Mormon policy and Republican shouting points causes any heads to spontaneously detonate in Utah... even better.

[_moksha]

Anything the Church does to piss on our asinine immigration policy is fine by me. If the contradiction between Mormon policy and Republican shouting points causes any heads to spontaneously detonate in Utah... even better.

What if the Mormon half of the brain had a lower detonation point? Could the half-brained Republican remainder carry on with its purpose?

There will definitely be a disconnect between what it perceived to be right by the members and this policy of wanting to shuffle illegal alien missionaries around so as to thwart the law.

.

[_Inconceivable]

And yes, it is illegal to aid an undocumented alien over state lines - whether it be by air, sea or land.

If Jesus' church intends to challenge Caeser's Law, they are still not justified in breaking it, right?

Really? So how is this person supposed to verify whether it is an illegal alien they are transporting?

You raise some great, albeit irrevelant points.

I'm refering to what ought to be the foundational integrity of the church. Both you and I know the church has broken the laws of the land from the early days in order to fullfil their own so called higher purposes. Jesus did not teach such doctrine.

The church is aware of non-resident status missionaries. For one thing, those who cannot obtain a visa are required to reveal their status. Why? So the prophet won't be inspired to send him out of country. That would be an awkward call, wouldn't it.

I was raised in Mormonism to be bound by the laws in the country I reside in. Clearly, the church has not practicing what it preaches. Shame on them to teach me one thing and do another.

My point has nothing to do with whether I agree/disagree or am a republican whatever.

Honestly, there are truly evil governmental policy makers on both sides of the immigration issue (and the Mormon church has little to do with it so far, other than to break the law).

[_Thama]

I'm refering to what ought to be the foundational integrity of the church. Both you and I know the church has broken the laws of the land from the early days in order to fullfil their own so called higher purposes. Jesus did not teach such doctrine.

The only law that I'm aware of Jesus taking a stance on (in the New Testament, at least) is Roman tax law, and even that doesn't look to me as much like an endorsement of the righteousness of that law as it was a convenient opportunity for a metaphor. He certainly didn't seem to care much for what the Jewish legal authorities had to say.

The church is aware of non-resident status missionaries. For one thing, those who cannot obtain a visa are required to reveal their status. Why? So the prophet won't be inspired to send him out of country. That would be an awkward call, wouldn't it.

While undocumented status is probably the largest cause of an inability to receive a visa among potential missionaries, I don't think this can be looked at as a 1:1 relationship.

I was raised in Mormonism to be bound by the laws in the country I reside in. Clearly, the church has not practicing what it preaches. Shame on them to teach me one thing and do another.

It's a shame that the hypocrisy exists. As hypocrisy goes, though, this is pretty minor in my eyes. This particular point of Church doctrine has long been a problematic one, and is in some ways a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" scenario when a government practices clear injustices and/or human rights crimes. The Church catches a lot of flak for a willingness to go along with the "law of the land" during the advent of European fascism and the corresponding human rights atrocities, and now catches flak for resisting the "law of the land" in favor of the vulnerable and frequently disenfranchised minority.

I'll take the latter option, and I'm glad the Church is willing to risk PR and possibly criminal consequences to do so.

[_Thama]

What if the Mormon half of the brain had a lower detonation point? Could the half-brained Republican remainder carry on with its purpose?

So that's where Glen Beck comes from.

There will definitely be a disconnect between what it perceived to be right by the members and this policy of wanting to shuffle illegal alien missionaries around so as to thwart the law.

And the more people perceive that disconnect, the better. The more people who realize that often conservative =/= Mormon, the more committed conservatives will look more critically at their religious assumptions, and the more committed Mormons will look more critically at their political assumptions.

[_harmony]

I think tolerance for illegal aliens is at least partially geographically based. The further one is from the border, the less the problem shows up. If one lives in a target area for illegals, one tends to have a different view of them than if one lives in a place where few illegals exist. Too many mules spoil it for the rest of them.

Everyone agrees that immigration law is both discriminatory and nigh onto useless. So far, no one's come up with a viable solution. Too bad the Brethren don't use their revelatory power to find the solution.

[_ludwigm]

... the Brethren don't use their revelatory power to find the solution.

Have they such thing?