“I don’t believe you can be a good Mormon and hate illegal immigrants and want to deport them and break up families and leave children without their parents here.”

by David Safier

Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times, aka "Feathered Bastard" has a wonderful piece about a "Fireside" by Daryl Williams, a Mormon who believes his faith is incompatible with Russell Pearce-style nativism.

"I don't believe you can be a good Mormon and hate illegal immigrants and want to deport them and break up families and leave children without their parents here," he told attendees. "I don't believe you can be a good Mormon and be a nativist."

Williams is not one of your bleeding heart lefties. Far from it.

Referring to himself politically as "right of Genghis Khan," Williams contended that the market should dictate the flow of immigrants onto American soil. He also pointed out that our immigration laws are not criminal in the traditional sense that there is no intent to injure involved, or an "evil mind," which lawyers refer to as mens rea.

The thing is, the leadership of the Mormon Church is closer to Williams' position than to Pearce's. Though the church didn't sign on to the Utah Compact, which advocates a sane immigration policy, it publicly gave its support to the document.

Here is what Williams had to say when he was asked why the Utah Compact hasn't caught on with Arizona's Mormon community.

"The problem is East Valley Mormons, who are sort of like sheep. They get behind a guy like Russell Pearce and they go, `You know, it must be the right thing.'"

The positive here is, the immigration issue has the potential to separate Pearce from some of his base. It's difficult for loving members of any faith to support hatred, and hatred is what spews from Pearce's mouth every time he opens it. Every faith has many loving members who have conservative political views but have the potential to become more moderate when they lead with their compassionate hearts on issues like immigration, health care and social services.