by David Safier
I received a very interesting comment to my post, Mormons split on SB 1070, from Ken Smith, who refers to himself as "a Branch President in the LDS Church for a Spanish speaking congregation
in Mesa." You can read the whole comment below.
The earlier post was about Mormons who object to anti-immigrant laws in Utah and in Arizona. One reason is, "Some estimate that 50 percent to 75 percent of members in Utah's 100-plus Spanish-speaking congregations are undocumented." At the end of the post, I quoted from a letter by William R. Richardson of Mesa, who is, in his words, "the branch president of one of the Spanish language congregations in Mesa," and an opponent of SB 1070.
Smith's comment has a similar tone to Richardson's letter. Here is Smith's entire comment.
My name is Ken Smith. I am a 4th generation of Mesa and have been practicing law for over 25 years. I too am a Branch President in the LDS Church for a Spanish speaking congregation in Mesa. We have many new families from Mexico that have recently joined the Church. Just last Sunday, two of the new members got up in front of the whole congregation and gave thanks to their Heavenly Father for their membership in the Church and expressed their love for their Savior Jesus Christ. To think that a so called "member" of the Church, i.e., Russell Pearce, would hunt these members and their families down like animals and deport them makes me sick to my stomach. In my humble opinion, Russell Pearce is not living his religion. The Savior taught that the first great commandment is to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and the second is like unto the first: Love thy neighbor as thyself.
To those who hide behind the weak mantra, "Well, they broke the law when they came here and therefore, they are getting what they deserve," I ask, what would you do if you and your same family lived 5 hours to the south and there was absolutely no way to support your family there. If you love your family and are not a liar or a hypocrite, you would admit that you too would cross a line in the sand and go to a job and better life that was waiting for you. Under the law, there is a doctrine called "legal necessity" whereby one is justified to break a minor law under life and death circumstances.
I can also tell you that there is no doubt in my mind that the Lord himself has led many of these people to Mesa, Arizona–just so that they could be introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Russell Pearce and his ilk rant about the U.S. being a country of laws. If they really believed that, then why are they shredding the U.S. Constitution? They do so because they are racist bullies. They pick on a segment of society that cannot vote and cannot fight back.
You should also know that the fact that they "made it illegal" for law enforcement to use racial profiling is a big fallacy and a waste of ink to write it. I know there are good and honorable policemen that will refuse to do it. But there are also many racist cops who will use SB1070 as a hunting license to round-up Hispanics.
All they need is a pretext to pull an Hispanic over, i.e., "You didn't stop completely at that stop sign, you didn't signal for that turn," etc. Believe me, I have heard the stories. One sister in my Branch was pulled over and she knew enough English to ask why she was pulled over. The officer replied that it was "just a routine stop." I know a family of 4 that was pulled over in Gilbert at 4 in the morning for not stopping "completely" at a stop sign. The cop was just fishing for Hispanics. The parallels to Nazi Germany are not inaccurate.
The most sinister part of the bill is that the Hispanics that are stopped, detained and deported under such a pretext will be in Mexico before they can ever complain about it.
The Savior taught that in the last days, even the very elect will be deceived. That prophesy has somewhat been fulfilled in that Russell Pearce has been elected and now he has been deceived.
99% of all the immigration problems could be solved with a fence and a guest worker program. Because they are blinded by hate and racism, our state leaders cannot see that simple solution.
I can also tell you that the Republican party is making a generational mistake by not taking the lead to embrace the 12 million or so undocumented economic refugees and turn them into Republicans that would help keep the Dems out of power for generations. They would make great Republicans in that they believe in God, they are against abortion, they believe in strong families, they are hard working, they don't like big government, they like low taxes, etc, etc. Does that sound like Republican or Democratic principles?
Thanks for letting me vent. Ken Smith
I speak for myself and not the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
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I can just see the Good Samaritan walking by and thinking, Oh why bother, God will take care of it. We are God’s hands, are we not?
And who would criticize a human for attempting to feed their children? If you do not believe this about the immigrants, you do not know them.You will know something when our economy goes under further, when we lose the consumer (unlike the moneys we send to India for outsourced customer service telephone jobs, in which they have no need to recycle their money back into our economy.
Marketers on Westside Phoenix know Hispanics are worthy consumers and they benefit from it. But now,Get ready for another layer of real estate and business collapse during the Exodus of immigrants out of here. It is called Unintended Consequences
You think you are safer? Bad guys stay. But some of you think you are doing the right thing, though you do not really know the facts. I feel for you because they are not easily available. Most of you do not understand the impossibility of getting “legal” to be in US unless you are from a particular country or have money to create jobs.
But you think you do not want Big Government?, Arizona might be the first with the Mark of the Beast tattooed into the White heads.
I feel for Russell Pearce because he feels the need to punish those that represent who hurt his son. Yet the Church sent out a notice to have compassion, just as we do not criminalize those that took food from stores in Katrina. Forgive him for he does not know what he is doing (other than making a bad name for Mormons, when it comes to people of color,again)
The difference?, I am working with children and teens from other countries, and all they talk about is earning money for mother’s kidney operation,or to make sure mother does not have to sell her soul so they can eat. I have never seen such humility!
The media shows you the exceptions to the rule. Yet I agree that we are a house of order,and the border needs fix (as well as NAFTA that aggravates the poor economy w/our Brother Mexico) but our solutions are faulty. History is full of proof of bad laws.
But must we be bad Christians? In love may we find true solutions and Fear Not, because that is precisely what SB1070 is based on. Otherwise it would be based on Constitutional principles, and avoid unintended consequences. Pray for Wisdom.
Alexandra
I just don’t get it?
Looks like we have three very simple things to do to fix this entire mess:
1) Deal with the 12 million illegals curently in the US by offereing them amesty if they are good citizens and contributing to our country that 99.99% are. They work hard, pay taxes, and fill jobs that Amercan’s don’t want.
2) Create a Social Security Card that can be verified by every employer via the internet, just like the SENTRI card I have to enter the USA from Mexico. If an employer can verify who has access to work in the USA and stills hires an illegal shame on them and they should be fined. If there is no chance of getting a job, the illegals will not cross the border. Every other country in the world does not let illegal work in the their country, why is the USA differnet. I can not work in Mexico without a work permit, seems strange that the USA illegals can get work by showing a driver license???
3) Create a Guest Worker Program to satisfy and future need that is for a specfic period of time only!
J., you surpassed yourself! An inspired, heartfelt comment. I enjoyed every word.
I learned from this line of your “sermon.” “[Compassion] is the elixer to free will run amuck and it is the very catalyst to inspire someone to an action of choice.”
And I loved this one. “But for those with a heart so cold that compassion will never bleed warm and true, I’d urge you to take some documentation to the pearly gates. I suspect you’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do.” What, will Desi Arnaz be standing behind the lectern there looking down at Russell Pearce as he tries to sneak through the gates? Priceless!
I pray to a God who I often rage against. I have a LONG list of grievances, of injustices, for moments of failed inspiration. For not being taller, faster, smarter. And on more than one occassion, when I hear of a profound unjustice that shakes me to my core, I find it all too easy to identify with a line delivered by Al Pacino in “The Devil’s Advocate”: that God at times is “an absentee landlord.” The rage against a god that will set things into motion and step back without saving a child from starvation, from molestation, from losing his/her mother in childbirth or a father either by choice or accident, it never ends. Not when the well of injustice never. Ever. Runs dry.
But compassion. Compassion runs deep. And it moves within the hardest of places (and sometimes from the coldest of hearts) for the most just of causes. It is the elixer to free will run amuck and it is the very catalyst to inspire someone to an action of choice. Compassion is the spring that replenishes a raging soul. It is the hand of the unseen God working through the people, through the actions of free will. It is the choosing of right over wrong even when right is far from popular. And it is the spirit that calls upon us all to hold a moment. To slip out of our shoes of comfort and plenty and imagine a child, a mother, a father, a human being fighting for a better tomorrow. NOT because they believe it owed them. NOT because they feel it’s their right to steal it out of your grasp. They fight because they – those huddled masses yearning to breathe free – aspire to reach and have what the melting pot of the world, the embodiment of democracy has always said was theirs to take, hold, and own: the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. How they get here – irrelevant. But they are here. And we must help them find LEGAL and righteous ways to stay. It is in the best interest of our souls, and believe it or not, it is in the best interest of our state’s economic security.
I sometimes don’t trust God to take care of those regardless of where they are and/or their circumstances. But I trust that God speaks to our hearts, whispers to our souls “Compassion.” And our feet are urged to move. To lift up those who cannot lift themselves. In that sacred moment of acceptance, God is present. For the one receiving your grace, and for you the betower of grace. And He sure as hell isn’t going to ask for your papers. But for those with a heart so cold that compassion will never bleed warm and true, I’d urge you to take some documentation to the pearly gates. I suspect you’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do.
One last point, before I surrender this hijacked post. Ignore my flawed and bleeding heart. While my outrage is not the “breaking” of our laws by those seeking a better life, it is as an AMERICAN – whose father’s GREAT grandparents were immigrants. I am most outraged over the use of this law to make those who are here legally feel like criminals. Because of their skin, their accent, their last name. If you don’t think it’ll happen, you’ve either not lived here long enough OR you’ve been out in the sun TOO many long July afternoons.
And I would remind Tina and all others who support SB1070 to examine the FEDERAL Constitution and those little “notations” in those laws called AMENDMENTS and consider just how UNCONSTITUTIONAL this bill will be WHEN it becomes law – which it is NOT right now, no matter what the “t-ball pundit” at the baseball park said. Remember it takes 90 days after the Legislature Sine Die’s for session legislation to become law UNLESS passed with an emergency clause and this one was not.
Amendment XIV, Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html
Sorry Mr. Safier. And thank you for allowing me to get THAT off of my chest. Peace of Christ be with you…
I first wondered about this issue, which I’ll for the moment call “Mormon Mesa vs. White Supremacist Mesa” while looking at that notorious photo of Russell Pearce, arm-in-arm with neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, as though nothing in that moment seemed wrong. And I’m sure that, to those two, nothing did. Now we know a little more, what with Kobach, FAIR and what is now looking like the beginning of the end of what history will likely record as Arizona’s 21st-century experiment in legislating white pride.
The racist’s conception of racism, like the addict’s conception of addiction, necessarily becomes bent. Reality becomes bent. Pearce’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t understand his faith; it’s that he doesn’t understand himself. Somehow, over the course of the last century’s epic rise of Maricopa County and especially the latter half of it, the place became something of a cultural haven for what has become a suburban concentration of frightened elderly bigots. It’s an unfortunate condition and a demonstrably unsustainable one, and it’s something communities of geography (Mesa), politics (Republicans) and faith (Mormons) stand to ignore only at their own peril.
We have a constitution and laws for a reason. People need to follow them. I am sure that the lord will love and take care of them no matter where they are. If you are not here legally then do so or go home no matter what race or religion you are.
We cant take care of the people we have here.