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