No more strangers?
7June 14, 2011 by Robert Poort
Brother Felix Callejas, LDS Branch President of Draper, Utah, was deported to El Salvador with his family yesterday.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/51998759-90/callejas-family-felix-immigration.html.csp
Notice the outpouring of support for the Callejas family in the comments of readers of The Salt Lake Tribune.
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I find the comments, as usual in the tribune, to be seeded with hatred, racism and utter ignorance.
This is a real tragedy, both the deportation and the sentiment of the “people.”
@James – I was about to say the same thing.
As I read the following comments of one of the SLT readers I realize that not everybody thinks this way, but I get the uncomfortable feeling that many Latter-day Saints do …
“What a horrible tragedy! Why would the church subject an entire Branch to a leader that has a complete disregard for the laws of this country? What kind of example is this law-breaking man for the youth of the church to follow? I find it amazing that the church did not know this felon was here breaking laws AND leading one of their flocks! Now the members of that community will need to teach their children that even though what this law-breaker was doing was very very wrong, there is a repentance process for him and his family. Thank goodness the government stepped in and stopped this imposter before other children were damaged by his blatant disregard for the law! The church should make a new article of faith for it’s members that reminds them to adhere to the laws of the land. Wait a minute, isn’t that what number 12 is about?”
The Prophet Daniel was a law of the land breaker. Paul was a law of the land breaker. As were the other disciples who had been instructed to not preach Jesus.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo were law breakers. The early Saints were sometimes law breakers by simply practicing their faith. Lehi and his family were law breakers who had to go into hiding. The writer of these comments is seriously out of sync with God. He or she may be good with the laws of man but is at conflict with the laws of God. At baptism it is true that even if the individual is “illegal” by man’s unrighteous laws,,,,,,,no one is “illegal” in the Kingdom of God. They truly are no more strangers.
This reminds me that it’s definitely not good for my health to read comments to any newspaper article without large amounts of sedatives.
And that those hard-hearted, mean-spirited comments from the above article are likely coming from Utahns, I am again reminded of how glad I am that I do NOT live in Utah.
You’d be surprised at that attitude from many throughout the Church.
I believe this is a time of great sifting. We will lose those who’se prideful hateful support goes to the wicked laws of man instead of choosing Christ. The Lord said it would begin at His House. They will leave, who choose the world’s ways.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again here: American Mormons who get all upright about obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law in the context of inveighing against illegal immigration need to ask themselves this: When you or a loved one served a mission for the LDS Church in a foreign country–were you there legally? I wasn’t when I served my mission. My father wasn’t when he served his.
Whatever there is to be said in defense of conservative Mormons’ concerns about illegal immigration, they need to stop invoking the Twelfth Article of Faith. They’re living in a glass house on that one.