Mexican, undocumented. . .Mormon?

Fronteras ^ | April 23, 2013 | Jack Rodolic

[greyfoxx39]

Since 2000, the number of Spanish-speaking members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the United States has doubled. Many of those Latino Mormons lack legal documentation, which poses a problem for the church.

Young Mormons are called to serve missions — two years on the road, trying to convert strangers to the faith. So what happens when Mormons without papers come of legal age, and set off on their missions?

Isaac’s story sheds some light on this quiet demographic. Isaac is his middle name. When his father, Rafael, was 17 years old in Mexico City, he got a job building a Mormon church. The local bishop took an interest in him, and they became fast friends.

“My dad decided to read the Book of Mormon and be baptized,” Isaac said.

Rafael was not alone: If the Mormon Church continues to grow at current rates, it will be majority Latin American by 2015.

Nine years later after Rafael converted, when Isaac was 18 months old, his family moved from Mexico to the U.S. When Isaac was 5, his father died in a car crash. Isaac immediately felt responsible for his mother and little sister.

“Do you see that little star?” Isaac asked his 2-year-old sister a few nights after the accident. “That’s dad. He’s watching over us right now. So don’t worry. I’m here to help you out.”

And he did. As a teenager, Isaac would slip $20 bills into his mother’s purse, money he earned mowing lawns. And when Isaac was 18, he was getting excited to set out on his Mormon mission. But then, his mother told him something completely unexpected.

“She told me, ‘I don’t know how to put this in words to you. You’re not a U.S. citizen. You are an illegal immigrant from Mexico,'" he said.

The Pew Research Center estimates there are more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants of working age in Utah, where Isaac lives. While those immigrants are filling the ranks of many churches, they are putting the Mormon church in a particularly tricky spot.

Tony Yapias is a Peruvian immigrant, a Mormon and a longtime community organizer in Salt Lake City. He says he has known hundreds of missionaries who lacked papers. The issue became critical, he says, in 2009, when immigration agents in an Ohio airport arrested a Latino missionary. “That had a profound impact in the church,” Yapias said. “It became a concern for parents, a concern for missionaries.”

The Mormon church declined to comment on this story, but it has clearly taken steps along the way to protect itself and its missionaries. In 2005, it backed an amendment by a Utah Senator to a federal law giving churches immunity for having undocumented immigrants do volunteer service, including serving missions. Over the years, the church has developed an evolving "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy on its undocumented missionaries.

“When the immigration issue started heating up, at some point the church knew they were undocumented, and they knew they could no longer send them outside the country on missions," Yapais said.

So by the time Isaac went on his mission, the church was encouraging these missionaries to accept assignments in the U.S., off airplanes, within a long drive from home.

On his mission in Denver, the problems Isaac faced were less legal and more spiritual.

“I remember being rejected constantly,” he said. “It was nonstop. We’d knock on the door and they’d insult us.”

But he found an open door at the home of Guadeloupe Paredes, a Mexican Mormon immigrant who had been inactive in the church for 24 years. She let Isaac speak with her daughters, who decided to be baptized. Paredes says one day, Isaac pulled out a picture of his father. “When I saw it,” she said, “I recognized Rafael. And I said 'I know this person.'” In fact, she knew him very well back in Mexico. It turns out Paredes’ father was the Mormon bishop in Mexico City who built the church alongside Isaac’s father and baptized him.

Paredes told Isaac stories about his father. Meeting her opened up a window into his father’s life, and his faith.

“When we let fear take over us, we lose faith, and when we lose faith, we don’t have a future,” Isaac said.

Two years later, Isaac is now applying for the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. If approved, he can go to college without fear of deportation.

/div

[greyfoxx39]

The mormon church is complicit in law-breaking by illegal aliens and goes to great lengths to aid and abet illegal acts by aiding illegal missionaries in dodging exposure.

It's all right here in this article.

[greyfoxx39]

Ping

[iowamark]

And when Isaac was 18, he was getting excited to set out on his Mormon mission. But then, his mother told him something completely unexpected.

“She told me, ‘I don’t know how to put this in words to you. You’re not a U.S. citizen. You are an illegal immigrant from Mexico,'" he said.

Does anybody believe that this kid had no idea at age 18 that they were illegals?

[svcw]

If the Mormon Church continues to grow at current rates, it will be majority Latin American by 2015. hahahaha!!!! Were do these people get this stuff?

SLC lds have been supporting illegals for decades, they do not deny it or try and hide it, they do make excuses for it.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Of course they are complicit as are all American churches. Ultimately one can trace it down to money, more members, more income, more power for the leaders. Our churches are no loner religious in the sense of say Medieval Christianity or the Reformation Christian. Today they are money machines giving wealth, comfort, ease, power and prestige to those at the top of the religious hierarchy.

[svcw]

41,739,000 - population of Central America, 2010

Catholic/Protestant 41,125,000 = 99.87%

mormonism 538,000 = 0.13%

islam 41,000 = 0.001%

other 35,000 = 0.001%

Someone please, inform the author of this article that SLC lds maybe able to over take Catholics/Protestants some day.....but not in this reality.

[svcw]

It would be better to say some church groups not all churches.

I personally do not know any church group who would knowingly break the law.

[Utah Binger]

Rubio was a Mormon boy in Las Vegas. Funny how he is all of a sudden for immigration reform.

[svcw]

Today they (churches) are money machines giving wealth, comfort, ease, power and prestige to those at the top of the religious hierarchy.

I do not know any churches like this personally.

I wonder where your jaded perspective comes from.

[svcw]

Only until he reached the age of maturity and he ran like hell away.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Observation.

[scottteng]

Time for Fair Tax, open borders and repeal of all mimimum wage laws and entitlements

[DuncanWaring]

I read the story to mean more than half of all Mormons will be Latino; not that half of all Central Americans will be Mormon.

[svcw]

Weird?
So you appear to be condemning all church groups because you have observed a few who are possibly corrupt.
How sad, you have never been to a Biblical based church.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

You are probably right but I think they are very few in number. Probably non money driven churches are lay meetings(which could be called a church)devoted to prayer and bible study. The only danger arising out of such lay churches is that of falling into heresy. Knowledge skill and experience are needed to properly interpret scripture. However, an educated sincere layman is probably better than a Sodomie priest or preacher.

[svcw]

Well, if that’s the case you could be correct.

The story said:
If the Mormon Church continues to grow at current rates, it will be majority Latin American by 2015.

[greyfoxx39]

“[T]he kingdom of God... is to be a POLITICAL INSTITUTION THAT SHALL HOLD SWAY OVER ALL THE EARTH; TO WHICH ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTS WILL BE SUBORDINATE AND BY WHICH THEY WILL BE DOMINATED.” The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo, 1900, p. 180

“The Almighty has established this kingdom with order and laws and every thing pertaining thereto…[so] that when the nations shall be convulsed, we may stand forth as saviours…and finally redeem a ruined world, not only in a religious but in a political point of view.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, p. 342, April 13, 1862)

“What the world calls ‘Mormonism’ will rule every nation...God has decreed it, and his own right arm will accomplish it. This will make the heathen rage.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 53)

[DuncanWaring]

I believe you interpreted it as saying “...it will be THE majority IN Latin America...”.

[svcw]

Tithing is for supporting the Shepard IE pastor/lead elder, the idea being they lead and not have to worry about everyday living.
Offerings support meeting places, out reach.
Alms for missions.
Church groups can not function with out funds, its that simple.
I have never attended a church group where the pastor/lead elder lived a lavish life style or where finances were not open to all attendees (summaries monthly, fully disclosed quarterly) or missions were not active in the community (local, state, national or world wide)

Because people are flawed people stray, it is unreasonable to say all.

I really wonder where you observed.

[svcw]

Yep