The issue of immigration reform is in the news right now, with national leaders of both parties coming together to decide how best to help our brothers and sisters. As we think through these issues, it is important to consider what the LDS Church believes and has said when it comes to immigration. We've collected a few quotes below. For a very detailed history and analysis of this issue, we recommend this policy brief written by a Mormon for the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies.

Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy recently spoke out on the issue of immigration:

Immigration questions are questions dealing with God's children. I believe a more thoughtful and factual, not to mention humane approach is warranted, and urge those responsible for enactment of Utah's immigration policy to measure twice before they cut.

Elder Jensen later added that "LDS leaders had recently issued a 'very sincere plea' to lawmakers to consider the issue with humanity and compassion."

It was a bit out of the ordinary for the Church to so forcefully throw its support behind a piece of legislation, as the New York Times noted:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is known for its reluctance to be seen as meddling in politics. But on immigration, the church actively lobbied legislators, sent Presiding Bishop H. David Burton to attend the bill signing and issued a series of increasingly explicit statements in favor of allowing some illegal immigrants to stay in the country and work.

The Church's official statement on the matter first explains that it discourages individuals from entering a country illegally, but then pivots to the core of the issue at stake (here's a PDF of the statement in Spanish):

What to do with the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants now residing in various states within the United States is the biggest challenge in the immigration debate.  The bedrock moral issue for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is how we treat each other as children of God.

The statement then gets down to policy, sketching a broad outline for immigration reform it could get behind:

The Church supports an approach where undocumented immigrants are allowed to square themselves with the law and continue to work without this necessarily leading to citizenship.

In furtherance of needed immigration reform in the United States, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supports a balanced and civil approach to a challenging problem, fully consistent with its tradition of compassion, its reverence for family, and its commitment to law.

A wide variety of moderate and left-of-center immigration policies fall under this framework, including the Senate's recent immigration proposal and the President's plan, which he will released today at a policy speech in Las Vegas. The editor of the church-affiliated Deseret News urged members to consider our own history when debating the issue of immigration reform:

 “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.

This is the first in our five-part series titled "Mormonism, Agency, and Politics." In this post we will discuss the importance of agency in Mormon doctrine. In the second we will address Satan's strategy of limiting our agency. In the third, we will address the view that agency can be restricted simply by restricting freedom. In the fourth, we will examine the idea that agency can be restricted by removing differences between good and evil and explore its political implications.

There are few topics in the teachings of the Church that are as central to Mormon doctrine as agency. Our agency is one of the very few things we had in the pre-earth life that we brought with us into this life, and is one of the most important for our eternal progression:

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If there is one thing people on all sides of the aisle can agree with it's this: parents do incredibly important work. While not everyone wants or needs to be parents, there's no doubt that LDS Church leaders regularly preach the centrality of parenthood to the family, society, and eternity.

Parents of the world, we here at MormonLiberals offer you a big THANK YOU.

And, in the American economic market, that's basically all you're getting.

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Here's the scenario:

On the one hand, we have a candidate for Utah Attorney General that is probably the most qualified the state has seen in decades. He's a respected county attorney of one of Utah's most populous and diverse counties, with a tremendous track record in cleaning up gang violence and creating innovative solutions to drug addiction. He's spent his whole career in criminal law, and refused to actively fund raise among lawyers in his community because this former seminary teacher felt it would be an unethical conflict of interest.

On the other hand, we have a political operative and professional lobbyist and fundraiser who has no experience in criminal law, having spent much of his career working in the payday loan industry. He didn't turn away money from anyone in his quest to raise over a million dollars, including special interests doing business with the state of Utah. While moonlighting when he was the former assistant AG, he became involved in an influence-peddling scandal that had the Provo Daily Herald and the Salt Lake Tribune calling for his resignation, and Ogden's Standard Examiner citing the actions of this individual as an ethical "cesspool". This cesspool is simply a continuation of the previous AG's administration,where flying on private jets and accepting huge amounts of campaign cash trumped the business of being Utah's chief law enforcement officer.

Now for the quiz: Which of the above candidates win the AG race? The answer: In Utah, it's no contest. Candidate #2 wins in a landslide. Why? Because he's a Republican.

This is the latest in a long line of political scandals, in a state where powerful special interests who do business with the state of Utah are free to spend unlimited amounts of cash in campaign contributions to political figures. We are embarrassingly unique in the level of influence peddling and corruption we tolerate.

The problem here is not corrupt individuals. The problem is a corrupt system. D&C 121:39 teaches us that even the best of men will fall if given unlimited power. And we must be brutally honest in diagnosing the root cause of this corrupt system:  Most Utah Mormons consistently vote for the Republican candidate, without putting forth any effort whatsoever to actually investigate the candidates or the issues involved. They do this in direct violation of repeated counsel from the highest leadership of the Church.

This might sound melodramatic, but Utah has only one hope. It's us, the LDS Dems. It is our mission to help our fellow Latter-day Saints actually believe the words of the prophet, that the Church does not endorse any political party or candidate, that all political parties have principles consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that we should carefully and prayerfully study each individual candidate and issue. If we don't work to bring about this change, who will?

We need to use this latest scandal to get people's attention. It's time to "come out of the closet". The LDS Dems executive committee has exciting plans for 2013, including:

• A bold messaging campaign, including billboards along the Wasatch Front proclaiming our values.


• A new push for enlarging our membership


• Work to strengthen our organization outside of Salt Lake County


• Monthly "Family Home Evening" activities, where we will talk gospel principles, not politics, with the goal of inviting friends and neighbors

We plead with all of you to take an active role. When the letter comes asking for donations to fund our messaging campaign, give generously. Attend LDS Dems activities and leadership meetings. Get involved in local LDS Dems leadership; we are in critical need of proactive leaders in areas outside of Salt Lake County especially.

Our fellow Latter-day Saints are too unselfish, too kind, and too good for us to sit idly by and allow them to continue to vote straight ticket Republican, in violation of our prophet's counsel. It's hard and often frustrating work, but nothing you could do in 2013 could have a more lasting effect on our state. Together, if we speak boldly and with conviction, we can perform miracles.

So it officially begins - Obama's second term.  I watched the coverage with my favorite news team of PBS NewsHour.  One of the women interviewed commented (and I'm paraphrasing her) about how the reelection of President Obama was so special because it proved that his election in 2008, as the first African American president, was not a fluke - that America didn't just hop on the band wagon of history ("We'll give him a chance, but don't ask us again,") but that we really have turned a page in this American story.   So for all of this to happen, and on Martin Luther King Day to boot, really touched me today.

A friend of mine posted a picture on Instagram of her toddler in front of the TV watching Obama's speech.  She wrote the caption: "Breakfast with Obama."  I couldn't help but wonder how the world will appear to the children who grow up with an American history that includes an African American president.  It changes everything.

A good friend of mine emailed me this afternoon:

Dear Joseph,
I have been so teary today with enormous joy and celebration  engendered by what has transpired today.   I feel The Lord had been so gracious to enable Obama to continue--not allowing the values that are so repugnant to me to permeate the culture of the next four years .  JOY! JOY! JOY!

And I echo that sentiment here.  Additionally, I join Senator Harry Reid in raising a toast of crystal clear water to our 44th President - here are his words:

Americans todays are wishing the President Godspeed for the next four years.  People all over the world are looking at us, and our exemplary democracy, and wishing the President the best in the years to come.

I’ve had the good fortune for the last many years to work on a very close, personal basis with President Obama.  I’ve watched him in the most difficult challenges that a person could face.  I’ve watched him do this with brilliance, with patience, with courage, wisdom, and kindness, for which I have learned a great deal. So, Mr. President, I toast and pray for you, your wonderful family, and our great country four more successful years. Barack Obama.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvH01Z6ic0M?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

Opponents of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 frequently criticized the law’s central component -- the individual insurance mandate -- and argued that if Congress was permitted to compel everyone to purchase health insurance, it could also pass other laws that compelled Americans to buy products such as broccoli. In his ruling against ACA, Judge Roger Vinson, a conservative Reagan appointee to the Pensacola, Florida Federal District Court, argued that if ACA were upheld, “Congress could require that people buy and consume broccoli at regular intervals… because people who eat healthier tend to… put less of a strain on the health care system.”

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If you haven't heard it yet, there is a new event on facebook that is gathering some steam. It's the radical idea that people should ask the church leadership why women can't pray in general conference and/or to ask that this change. The event can be found here.

Now some of you might be surprised to realize that a woman has never said a prayer at General Conference. Some of you might think that it is bad to contact church leaders about changes to policy/practice. Well, whatever your reaction, you're certainly not alone. There are already comments pouring in. Thus far some of the vitriolic comments towards anyone who would dare to write a church leader about changing a policy looks like it might be on track to match the vitriol from the Wear Pants to Church event. I wanted to try to hit some of the primary complaints I've seen from people against this idea.

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The recent mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut reinvigorated the national debate about gun control. While I believe that additional measures must be adopted to make it more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to obtain firearms, it is equally important that Americans evaluate other areas in our society that may contribute to violent crime.

One major area where we need significant reform is mental health care. Because I am not a mental health professional, I am not qualified to give many specifics about improvements to mental health care; however, the recent mass shootings have clearly demonstrated significant failures in properly identifying and treating mental illness. Rather than just prescribing psychotropic drugs for people who are mentally ill, sending them home and calling it a day, we need to ensure that individuals who pose a danger to themselves or others are promptly committed, even against their will, to secure mental health facilities where they can receive appropriate treatment.

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When Barack Obama was re-elected to the presidency last November, House Speaker John Boehner observed, "the American people have spoken. They have re-elected President Obama. And they have again elected a Republican majority in the House of Representatives." Republican House Minority Leader Mitch McConnell noted that the voters, "have simply given [Obama] more time to finish the job they asked him to do together with a Congress that restored balance to Washington after two years of one-party control." President Obama was re-elected with nearly 5 million more votes than Mitt Romney. Democrats deepened their grip on the Senate by capturing two additional seats. Democrats also gained 8 seats in the House, but were far from recapturing it.

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Post by Joseph M -

All across America, people celebrated the end of 2012, the beginning of 2013, the love of friends and family, and the continuation of our world despite some presumably dire predictions by an ancient people; all the while, Americans with incomes between $250,000 - $450,000 popped their corks for a completely different reason: the aversion of the fiscal cliff and the preservation of the Bush-era tax cuts for their income brackets.  And interestingly enough, we all will be paying more in payroll taxes. Specifically: payroll taxes for the past two years have been at 4.2% and will now rise to the customary 6.2%. 

Alas, the fiscal cliff is averted (sort of) and the can is kicked down the road to be dealt with another day. Read this review from NPR of yesterday's (early this morning's? when did this happen?) voting in the House and the New Year's Day passage of the deal in the Senate.  In the end, it was not Obama and Boenher that brokered this compromise, but McConnell and Biden.  (Another pairing of the turtle and the hare.) But many on both sides of the debate are not happy with this outcome, and Boehner had some choice words for Sen Majority Leader Harry Reid, while the House is looking (especially) foolish in its handling of the fiscal cliff crisis.  Additionally, as if they wanted to verify their status as a fortress of ineptitude, the House declined to vote on the Sandy Relief Bill, which prompted sharp criticism from NJ Gov. (and 2016 presidential candidate) Chris Christie:

"There is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner.  This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. Natural disasters happen in red states and blue states and states with Democratic governors and Republican governors. We respond to innocent victims of natural disasters, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as Americans. Or at least we did until last night. Last night, politics was placed before oaths to serve our citizens. For me, it was disappointing and disgusting to watch."

Ouch.

But moving forward to more important things!  It is a new year, and with every new year comes our responsibility as Mormons to vote for the Mormon of the Year of 2012 over at Times and Seasons dot org.   And seriously, I realize Mitt Romney didn't win the presidency, but he most certainly deserves Mormon of the Year, does he not?  He should definitely beat out some band called "Neon Trees" anyway - especially when the first time I heard of them is when I saw them on the list of candidates.

Let's hope for a path forward this 2013 - and choices as easy as Mormon of the Year.  We need to move past this fiscal edge of the cliff mess and onto some real important things.  Otherwise, President Obama's second term will be one big fight over budgets and taxes and cliffs and nooks and crannies.  Seriously, we are ready to move on.