Strange New Respect for Mormon Faith When It Comes to Amnesty for Illegals at NYTimes
After warning for years of the dangers posed by the Religious Right in politics, the New York Times is suddenly interested in injecting Mormon (and Catholic) religion into politics, at least when it comes to pet issues like amnesty for illegal immigrants. The top of Friday’s National section featured religion reporter Laurie Goodstein’s “Romney’s Tough Immigration View Is at Odds With His Church.”
There was no “I Wouldn't Buy the Underwear Just Yet” mockery of Mormons this time. And while the paper aimed a harsh front-page spotlight on the Mormon church for its involvement in passing California’s Proposition 8, which preserved the state ban on gay marriage, Goodstein has no criticism of its involvement in the Democratic-friendly cause of amnesty.
While Mitt Romney is taking a hard line on immigration even as the Republican primaries head toward the heavily Hispanic states of Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, the Mormon Church to which he belongs has become a decisive player in promoting policies that are decidedly more friendly toward immigrants.
The church was instrumental last year in passing controversial legislation in Utah that would provide “guest worker” permits to allow illegal immigrants with jobs to remain in the United States. The church also threw its weight behind the Utah Compact, a declaration calling for humane treatment of immigrants and condemning deportation policies that separate families, which has been adopted by several other states.
(Strangely, the Times wasn't much interested in the church’s “instrumental” support for the Utah Compact in 2011, mentioning it only once before in a news story before Friday.)
The church’s endorsement helped shift the debate on immigration in a Republican state where more than 80 percent of legislators are Mormons. It was the church’s most overt involvement in politics since 2008, when it joined other conservative churches in the campaign to pass Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.
Goodstein even criticized Republican candidate Newt Gingrich for disagreeing with the Catholic Church on the Dream Act, which would grant amnesty to some college students.
Mr. Romney’s chief rival for the nomination, Newt Gingrich, has struck a softer tone on immigration, but he too is not entirely in step with his own Roman Catholic Church. Catholic bishops support the Dream Act and advocate broad immigration reform, including citizenship for the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants; Mr. Gingrich said he supports only “half” the Dream Act -- the part about military service.
The Utah Compact was conceived as a counterpunch to the stringent immigration law passed in Arizona in 2010, which gave the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. The compact’s principles call for federal solutions to immigration reform, policies that support families and individual freedom, acknowledgment of the contribution of immigrants in the economy, and local law enforcement focus on crime, not immigration laws.
The paper showed strange new respect for the theology of the Mormon Church.
The Mormon Church has a variety of motives for its immigration stand: it is eager to be perceived positively by Hispanics in the United States, and in Mexico and Latin America, where it is making new converts; it identifies with the immigrant experience, having fled persecution before settling in Utah; and it places a strong premium on keeping families intact, in this life and the next.
Paul Edwards, editor of The Deseret News, a church-affiliated newspaper in Utah, said, “Latter-day Saints, because of their history of persecution and forcefully being dispossessed of their livelihoods and properties, do have compassion and understanding” for immigrants.
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Comments
Suggestion for the NYT*
Submitted by cajun2 on Fri, 02/03/2012 - 6:23pm.
Have a fair and balanced discussion of LDS. Interview both Harry Reid and Glenn Beck....:-)
The job of a church is to
Submitted by deerjerkydave on Fri, 02/03/2012 - 7:21pm.
The job of a church is to help and save souls. The job of the government is to protect citizen rights by controlling immigration. It's that simple.
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"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. -James MadisonIt won't last. If Romney is
Submitted by Slyrr on Fri, 02/03/2012 - 8:14pm.
It won't last. If Romney is 'the' candidate, the NYT and every other Democrat media puppet organization will scour the world for as many anti-mormons as they can find.
Anti-mormon preaching was a big money market in the Bible belt states, with several regular and famous persons making regular tours. The typical modus operandi was to gather as many people to a meeting as they could, and get them to tell as many embarrassing stories about LDS neighbors as they could. Once the people were properly whipped up, they would give their lectures, which usually involved painting LDS persons as horned demons who torture folks for fun and who have evil agents lurking outside in the bushes, waiting to jump out and get you.
The lectures are usually topped off by the lecturers selling books, CDs, videos and other material. And also they pass around collection buckets, with the promise that they are the only ones standing between the innocent and the 'Mormon Menace' - and that they need the money to help defend people.
I fully expect Obama's puppets in the media to drag as many of these preachers out of their crypts as they can find. They'll set them doing their schtick on national TV programs to whip up mobs. It's an old tactic of tyrants and tyrant wannabes.
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/02/03/m-bs-nbc-martin-ba...
Sounds like
Submitted by misterbee241 on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 11:46am.
you've been to a few of those meetings.
however,, in my lifetime in a bible belt state, I've never seen one. So your claim is dubious at best.
While the Church supports. . .
Submitted by rickbren on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 12:48am.
. . . humane treatment of all, those who are in the country illegally cannot join the Church. They must either return to their native country or become a citizen. We believe in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law. . .
In happened in Arizona
Submitted by sugarandsass on Sat, 02/04/2012 - 11:30am.
On a smaller scale. The left was trying to oust State Senate President Russell Pearce. It worked. They used this same argument-that Mr. Pearce was a "bad Mormon" by not following the church's stance on illegal immigration. Unfortunately, because it worked so well here, it looks like they're expanding it to the national level. You'd be surprised how many Mormons in Mesa, AZ voted for the other guy, simply because they were told that Mr. Pearce was "going against church doctrine". THE UTAH COMPACT IS NOT OFFICIAL CHURCH POLICY CONCERNING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION. The "church's support" of the Utah Compact is not signed by any church official. I am free to read the Utah Compact and reconcile it with my own beliefs. My choice is to "...honor and sustain the law." (Do I like all laws? Of course not. But I don't suggest anarchy either. I work to get them changed-through the legal and proscribed procedures set out in the Constitution.)