A Quick Retrospective on Latter-day Saints & immigration
Plus a message on "picking sides". When a student asked Jared Halverson which side to err on between patience and zeal, he responded, "Err on the side that best allows for ongoing adjustments."
In his 2024 Restore talk, BYU professor Jared Halverson spoke about political polarization and this quote from Joseph Smith:
“By proving contraries, truth is made manifest.”
In short: political positions have competing values behind them, and most values have a place in healthy political discourse. This idea has been well-developed by Moral Foundations Theory. When we overreact to values we don’t like, or claim that one side is simply right and the other simply wrong, we risk losing sight of the truth.
Once, after teaching this principle in an Institute class, a student asked Brother Halverson which side to err on when life where life forces you to choose. He said:
“Err on the side that best allows for ongoing adjustments.”
The past couple of weeks has seen a rapid “swoosh” in the pendulum swing of US politics, and effects are already being felt around the world. Perhaps Brother Halverson’s wisdom here can guide peacemakers in finding an anchor.
You can access the community chat here.
Bonus: Last night, Elder Soares spoke to a group of faith and other world leaders in Washington DC about how protecting human rights is vital to peacemaking.
Latter-day Saints & Immigration: A 15-year Retrospective
On Thursday, the Church released a statement on immigration. We thought it might be helpful to provide a retrospective on the Church’s actions and positions on immigration in the last 15 years.
The Church’s immigration approach focuses on three principles: love for neighbors, family cohesion, and obedience to the law.
Last week, new guidelines were issued to local leaders on assisting undocumented immigrants: fast-offering funds to support undocumented (yes), meetinghouses as sanctuaries (no), legal advice (no), connecting to community resources (yes).
The Immigrant Services Initiative has supported over a dozen welcome centers in places across St. George, Utah helping immigrants integrate into their communities.
The first official statement under President Nelson asked political leaders to “to create policies that provide hope and opportunities” for Dreamers, individuals brought to the United States by their parents as children.
In 2018, leaders issued a statement opposing the forced separation of parents and children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In 2010 and 2019 the Church endorsed the Utah Compact, a set of guiding principals on immigration that Elder Uchtdorf called a pillar of the immigration debate and others a national example.
Early Latter-day Saint immigrants faced a Mormon ban. In 1879, American diplomats were asked to prevent Mormon immigration from Europe to the U.S. and in 1884 Congress attempted to disincorporate the Perpetual Emigration Fund.
The connections to these pioneer ancestors have led some to argue that Latter-day Saint theology is a theology of migration while others have looked to the Book of Mormon for answers.
This theology and growing numbers of immigrants joining the Church globally may explain distinct Latter-day Saint views on immigration.
Bonus: Check out the Mormon Migration Project, which tries to understand what Mormon migration patterns around the world say about Mormonism overall.
Though we’re focusing on the US in this issue, migration shapes the Latter-day Saint story all around the world. In Hong Kong, Latter-day Saint congregations are largely immigrants from the Philippines and Southeast Asia. There is a growing number of LDS expatriates in the Middle East. Most missionaries in Europe and other parts of the world find that a large proportion of investigators and converts tend are migrants. See here for another scholar’s take on how the migration experience shapes what it means to be a Latter-day Saint.