Missionaries for Compassion toward Immigrants

Some of us served missions in places that typically send immigrants, documented or not, with legal permission or not, here to the United States. Some of us served in the United States and receive some of those people. Some of us are immigrants. Some of us recognize that at some point, everybody’s family has been migrant. There are a series of laws being passed that not only violate basic human rights and encourage racial profiling and discrimination, but also undermine missionary work in Utah.

Click this link for our charter to view in HTML or this link for our charter in PDF format.

The purpose of this place is for us to network, and prepare to demonstrate our opposition to excessively punitive laws, not commensurate with the gravity of the offenses, especially Utah State Senate Bill 81, that show nothing but a lack of compassion and likely will discourage people from receiving the Gospel who already here, may have come for economic reasons, but as we know, so often truly come for spiritual reasons. They didn’t know what we know about Article of Faith 12 when they came over, but they are looking for saving ordinances, and if they are working to deal with their documentation status, we know that’s enough to faithfully pass a baptismal interview. Let us not be hypocrites.

The plan: We will demonstrate our opposition to SB 81 and concern for anti-immigrant (not just anti-illegal immigration itself or even just undocumented immigrants) sentiment that seriously hinders missionary work, which among immigrants has up to now been especially successful here in Utah, with media appearances and canvassing. Then, we’ll take our group’s charter and a petition (hopefully with thousands of signatures) to legislators and talk with them politely, one by one if necessary. We will work with all the means we have, including video spots on TV and the net, and even movie nights. We are not directly representing the LDS Church, but ourselves, and what our missionary experiences led us to understand.

We will need to behave ourselves in a way that reflects respect for our previous mission calls, as full-time missionaries or as member missionaries, and in a way that lends all the due legitimacy to our claims and demands (see D&C 90:17). We want Utah to see the consequences of rash, and truly race-motivated actions, and to know how we feel about it. If you don’t support us, don’t join us.



To join the group, click here.

If you have any questions, here’s my contact information (e-mail and phone):