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Original E-mail Associated With:

Identifying Political Popery: A Decade of Reflection


Read the more in-depth, follow-up article, Identifying Political Popery: A Decade of Reflection.

Date: 17 Nov 2005
Subject: LDS Church Petitions Sen. Bennett to Allow Churches to Harbor Illegal Aliens

Citizens,

Congressman Tom Tancredo's report below provides further evidence that the greatest adversary of freedom in Utah is the very institution that claims to be its greatest advocate.  I have seen the LDS church's influence in promoting thought crimes, abortion on demand, gun control, etc.  Whenever significant headway is about to be made in abetting serious injustices in Utah, LDS church officials act to destroy it.  You might not like that, and you can go ahead and shoot the messengers if you want to, but it is the truth.

LDS church emissaries say one thing behind closed doors and feign official neutrality when confronted (I have already shared a clear  example via my interactions with LDS church spokesmen on the thought crimes issue).  Or they pretend to be acting alone when publicly exposed, as did Donald Staheli after he pressured LDS congressmen to support permanent "Most Favored Nation" status for the barbaric Chinese government (see note below).  Church officials repeatedly run interference from the podium and their press affiliates by promoting the very individuals who cause the greatest destruction to liberty (examples: Hinckley's public praises of govs. Leavitt and Huntsman and Deseret News praise of govs. Walker and Romney see note on Deseret News & KSL).

When will people stand up to them?  Our Creator demands that we seek justice, men and their titles and affiliations notwithstanding.  Whether people worship a rock or an ideal is not particularly relevant, so long as their beliefs do not enable unscrupulous men to manipulate and destroy all that is good.  As uncomfortable and painful as it might be, we must reject the notion that "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

To do otherwise is to insult our Creator and the gift of freedom he bestowed upon us.  I believe in being subject to only one King: my conscience, which I find is indistinguishable from my Creator when I exercise sufficient courage to set aside my own sacred cows.

Daniel

P.S. The federal statute discussed below is otherwise horrific in that it promotes vast federal powers of confiscation without due process (craftily referred to as "civil forfeiture" in TITLE 8, CHAPTER 12, SUBCHAPTER II, Part VIII, §1324(3)(b).
See the old code at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001324----000-.html  See senator Bennett's amendment, which he and his LDS lobbyist operatives snuck into an unrelated bill (signed with fanfare on Veteran's Day): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r109:1:./temp/~r109t34kMT:e53527:

 

From Congressman Tom Tancredo's website at http://tancredo.house.gov/reformnow/ [bold and caps added]:

Religious Groups Hiding Terrorists, II  11/15/05 2:03 pm
As we mentioned yesterday, a provision snuck into the ag approps bill allows religious groups to ?conceal, harbor, or shield? illegal aliens from detection so long as the groups "encourage" or "enable" the illegal to be a minister or missionary.  (Here is our release, the Denver Post's story and the AP's story). We're splicing this into a few blog posts below for easier reading.

Bennett's Spin  11/15/05 2:03 pm
Senator Bennett, the Senate Ag Chairman who inserted the provision, spun it around:

"It does not under any circumstances allow a terrorist or any illegal alien any kind of special sanctuary," Bennett said Monday. Church volunteers who are illegal immigrants could still face legal action, he said.

Bennett said that he inserted the provision at the behest of lobbyists for the Latter Day Saints, which claims to have the most foreign proselytizers in the U.S. of any religion. A lawyer for the church continued the spin:

"This narrow exception to the immigration act allows people of all faiths to fulfill their religious obligations," [Mormon lawyer] Purdy said.

Asked if a church might be protected if it housed illegal immigrants, he said, "No, I don't think so." He said the law does not protect religious groups acting as fronts for terrorists.

Quick Rebuttal  11/15/05 2:03 pm 
"
I don't think so? sounds a lot like "I'm not sure." Let's not take a lobbyist's word for it; let's look at what the legislation actually says.

A quick rebuttal to Mr. Purdy: the amendment says, specifically, religious organizations may provide "room, board, travel, medical assistance, and other basic living expenses" to illegal aliens.

A quick rebuttal to Senator Bennett: His amendment obviously does provide special sanctuary to illegal aliens who are associated with religious organizations, because it allows those organizations to help aliens break U.S. law. For the terrorist connection, read below.

The Terrorist Connection In Depth  11/15/05 2:03 pm 
Here's the in depth look: Bennett's amendment in effect strikes parts of three paragraphs in Title 8, Section 1324 of U.S. Code [again, see the old code at http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode08/usc_sec_08_00001324----000-.html

That's the section of federal law titled "Bringing in and harboring certain aliens."

If you claim to be a religious organization, now you can:

"transport[], or move[]" illegal aliens across the country (subparagraph ii)

"encourage[] or induce[] an alien" to reside in the United States? (subparagraph iv)

"conceal[], harbor[], or shield[] from detection" illegal aliens (subparagraph iii)

That's right. Religious organizations can conceal illegal aliens from ICE and other law enforcement agencies, and they're now protected under federal law.

It's no secret that there are terrorist front organizations in the U.S., and that these front organizations most often claim to be relief charities or religious groups. Just one example is the Holy Land Foundation, whose headquarters was only miles from our nation's capital, and which was shut down for supporting HAMAS among other terrorist-related organizations. Terrorists often come into this country illegally or overstay their visas (look at the 9/11 hijackers) because they fear that if they tried to come here legally, our immigration officers would flag their applications for suspicious ties to countries and groups of interest. Connect the dots, and you can see one reason why Bennett's amendment is so dangerous.

Secondly, immigration law is a key tool in the War on Terror. According to the Washington Post, since 2003 more than 500 persons suspected of terrorism have been arrested initially on immigration violations. When federal investigators suspect persons of plotting terrorist acts but yet don't have a complete case to convict them beyond a reasonable doubt, suspects are arrested on immigration violations, which buys prosecutors time and disrupts the terrorist plot. As of Thursday, federal prosecutors cannot use immigration tools to go after front organizations that harbor terrorists.

[END OF TANCREDO'S WEB PAGE QUOTE]

If you had trouble finding the amendment for some reason, the actual language is as follows:

SEC. Section 274(a)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1324(a)(1)) is amended by adding at the end the following:'' (C) It is not a violation of clauses (ii) or (iii) of subparagraph (A), or of clause (iv) of subparagraph (A) except where a person encourages or induces an alien to come to or enter the United States, for a religious denomination having a bona fide nonprofit, religious organization in the United States, or the agents or officers of such denomination or organization, to encourage, invite, call, allow, or enable an alien who is present in the United States to perform the vocation of a minister or missionary for the denomination or organization in the United States as a volunteer who is not compensated as an employee, notwithstanding the provision of room, board, travel, medical assistance, and other basic living expenses, provided the minister or missionary has been a member of the denomination for at least one year.
Source: AMENDMENT NO. 1803 at
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r109:1:./temp/~r109t34kMT:e53527:

 

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON DONALD STAHELI & PATTERN OF SUPPORT FOR COMMUNIST CHINA:
The LDS Ensign portrayed LDS Seventy Donald L. Staheli as follows, with my notes in bold brackets:

In 1977 he moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, to accept a position as executive vice president and director with Continental Grain Co., a large, private multinational agribusiness and financial services firm headquartered in New York City [better known to many small farmers as a monopolistic grain cartel that has crushed many independent farming ventures]. In 1984 he became president and chief operating officer and in 1988 was named CEO, eventually becoming chairman of the board. He has served on several corporate boards.

He is currently chairman of the U.S.-China Business Council and a director of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the U.S.-China Society. He served as chairman of an international business leaders advisory council for the mayor of Shanghai [which explains his pivotal role in pressuring LDS congressman to support tariffs that favor China over all other nations]. He is a member of the council on foreign relations [an organization dedicated to destroying the national sovereignty of America] and is chairman of the Points of Light Foundation, a national organization that encourages volunteer activities [among other things].
Source: "News of the Church," Ensign, May 1997, p. 107 at http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates$fn=default.htm In the Advanced Search, type "Donald Staheli council foreign relations points light"

In addition, the LDS-owned and -operated Brigham Young University have a Donald L. Staheli award at the Marriott School of BYU,  another church affiliate.  Are young people really supposed to emulate men like Donald Staheli?  Why do people turn a blind eye to this?

Staheli is joined by other leaders in embracing communism.  Current Seventy Jon Huntsman Sr. is a public fan of Communist spy Armand Hammer.  From the Deseret News, December 12-13, 1990, p. D7: "Huntsman remembers [Armand] Hammer as `a dear and valued friend.'"  Evidently, a special reception was held for Armand Hammer at the LDS church headquarters, where he was presented with a bronze likeness of himself by Elder Russell M. Nelson and Jon Huntsman, Sr. see a timeline of his Hammer's life at http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/business/armand-hammer/ ).

Staheli, Huntsman, and Nelson are joined by the LDS-dominated legislature and governor, who repeatedly go to bat for the Chinese government.  In 2002, members of the violently persecuted Falun Gong faith desperately implored Governor Leavitt to sign a pledge of support for their religious freedom.  Leavitt, whose LDS ancestors claimed to have been denied similar appeals for protection from the U.S. government, openly refused to sign the pledge.

In China, men, women, and children of the Falun Gong religion are imprisoned, drugged, barbarically tortured, raped, brainwashed, and murdered by the Chinese government.  To learn more, you can visit the Falun Gong Information Center (note that some of the material is very disturbing in nature).

Then-governor Michael O. Leavitt's spokeswoman Natalie Gochnour defended her boss's actions to the Deseret News with the following:

"We are preparing to host the world.  This is an international political issue that is really not our fight. We are committed to not causing international controversies right now."

"There are real sensitivities on this issue.  It is very clearly a big issue, a significant issue to the Chinese government. The governor was trying to be sensitive to that."

"We have many international visitors coming to our state and we are trying to be sensitive."
Source: "Leavitt skirts Chinese issue," Jerry Spangler, Deseret News, January 10, 2002.

During the 2002 session, House Joint Resolution 6, "Resolution Urging an End to the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners," by former Rep. Matt Throckmorton, was killed by house leadership in the house rules committee.  Like thousands of captured Falon Gong practitioners, this resolution never saw the light of day.  LDS Speaker of the House Martin Stephens saw to that.

The Falun Gong issue still causes my blood to boil.  We are supposed to provide a beacon of hope to people like this.  We can't even pass a simple resolution in support of humane treatment toward innocent women and children!  Members of this faith were begging and pleading for help from us.  I wanted to throw up when I had to offer my insignificant apologies to them for our inaction.

Why is this tolerated?  How much blood do we have on our hands for turning a blind eye to this?  Amazing that we can find the courage to "transport," "move," "encourage," "induce," "conceal," "harbor," or "shield," illegal aliens threatening our nation's survival.  Yet we had to pass on an opportunity to stand up for the right to worship for fear of upsetting "international relations".

 

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON DESERET NEWS & KSL OWNERSHIP:
KSL (1160 AM and KSL 5 Television) is a division of Bonneville International Corporation (BIC).  BIC and the Deseret Morning News are subsidiaries of the Deseret Management Corporation.
Sources: http://www.bonnint.com/section-e.php?p=2-0 and http://www.deseretmanagement.com/section-e.php?p=0-3

According to the DMC Website, it:

"is a corporate holding company whose purpose is to oversee the commercial companies affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to provide appropriate services to its subsidiaires [sp] and to its ownership. DMC's member companies are independently operated, commercial taxpaying corporations each having its own mission, objectives, assets, products, services, and board of directors. However, all member companies have the common purposes of (1) productively serving society; (2) promoting high values; (3) providing quality service to their respective clients, customers, and communities; (4) being sensitive to the needs of, and opportunities for, their associates; (5) upholding the values of and fostering the goals of their ownership; and (6) generating a fair financial return for their ownership.
Source: http://www.deseretmanagement.com/section-e.php?p=0-0

To claim that KSL and Deseret News are controlled and directed by LDS church leadership is considered an unrealistic attack on the LDS faith.  LDS officials apparently do not micromanage their subsidiaries and are not accountable for their output.  Yet to openly confront the horrible policies and practices of KSL or the Deseret News, is frequently interpreted as an attack on the LDS faith (note that many of the DMC officers have served in high leadership capacities in the LDS church).  Which is it?  If the LDS church is not responsible and the participants can not be scrutinized, then how can real accountability exist for these individuals and organizations?
Source on board members: http://www.deseretmanagement.com/section-e.php?p=0-2

Enough is enough.  Real people are being harmed by these games.  It is high time to put justice first and put our sacred cows out to pasture.

 

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Read the more in-depth, follow-up article, Identifying Political Popery: A Decade of Reflection.


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