Why is the LDS Church Silent on Immigration Abuses? (And it Also Covers up Sex Abuse)

This is an op-ed I recently sent to the Salt Lake Tribune, which I'm publishing here and now because, predictably enough, they didn't.

 In January 2025, in response to the re-election of the most xenophobic American president in a century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued another brief, unsigned statement reiterating its nuanced stance on immigration. “We follow Jesus Christ by loving our neighbors,” it said. “The Savior taught that the meaning of ‘neighbor’ includes all of God’s children.”

This statement and similar ones that came before obviously weren’t enough, because many of the church’s American members feel no cognitive dissonance about cheering for the government’s wanton cruelty against marginalized people, then going to sacrament meeting to worship a man who said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

I can already hear those members retorting, “We believe in obeying the law.” With that glib statement, they intentionally disregard all nuance and basic human empathy, and their pioneer ancestors who told the government to pound sand while they broke the law for decades to practice polygamy must be rolling in their graves. I could say something about their church more recently breaking the law for decades to hide the size of its stock portfolio from the government and the public, too.

Furthermore, these members refuse to accept the obvious reality that the government itself is not obeying the law. Not even its own unjust law, and certainly not what Mormons ostensibly believe to be God’s law.

The LDS Church is obviously concerned about this administration’s human rights abuses – it didn’t issue that immigration statement for no reason – so why has it chosen to remain silent as they escalate? Why won’t it condemn ICE’s brutal, lawless behavior in no uncertain terms? Why won’t it speak out against the concentration camp being set up in its backyard with our Mormon governor’s support? Why won’t it clarify – since this somehow isn’t obvious enough – that members cannot simultaneously love God and support people who tear-gas children?

The church’s consistent silence on other authoritarian regimes throughout the world is understandable, albeit not particularly admirable. But on its home turf in the United States, it still enjoys special privileges simply for being a church. While maintaining a general stance of political neutrality, “it reserves the right to address issues it believes have significant moral consequences.” In recent memory, though, it’s mostly exercised this right to impose its current teachings about gender and sexuality on people who don’t believe in them.

And what of the recently anointed prophet, Dallin H. Oaks? I could almost be convinced that this former lawyer and Supreme Court justice was raised up by the Lord for this time, when the Constitution is undeniably hanging by a thread. He’s been vocal about the importance of “our divinely inspired Constitution.”

Oaks obviously has a certain political leaning, but he’s no Ezra Taft Benson. He’s more nuanced than he gets credit for. In 2017, he acknowledged the reality of climate change and lamented “the politics of conflict and the uncertainties sponsored by the aggressive new presidential administration.” (That was Trump.) In 2020, he said that “Black lives matter” is an “eternal truth that all reasonable people should support.” I used to love this quote of his: “I find some wisdom in liberalism, some wisdom in conservatism, and much truth in intellectualism – but I find no salvation in any of them.”

Yes, I vehemently disagree with many opinions Oaks has expressed – you can guess which ones – but I thought his refusal to back down on them in the face of widespread disapproval at least showed a degree of courage and integrity. Given his past demonstrations of nuance, I had hope that as the prophet, he would use the same courage and integrity to defend democracy and human rights. I’ve been disappointed.

If I had to guess, I’d say the LDS Church has taken the wrong lesson from the backlash of many American members against its “woke” positions in 2020-1 – racism bad, masks good, and Oaks’ own reminder that “we peacefully accept the results of elections.” I saw some members on Facebook tearing up their temple recommends after the prophet asked them to get vaccinated, which implies that they stopped paying tithing… but that’s just speculation on my part.

Somehow, without millions of followers, hundreds of billions of dollars, my own law firm, lobbyists, or government contacts, I’ve managed to find the courage to speak out unequivocally against fascism because once upon a time, I was taught, “Do what is right, let the consequence follow.”

I still believe that. I’m not sure if the people who taught me ever did.

​Around that same time, in one of my Signal chats, I also suggested protesting the church's silence at General Conference. I hoped someone more experienced would run with the idea so I didn't have to do the work, but I was willing to do the work if I had to. It got some interest, but not enough to encourage me to persist after someone brushed it aside to talk about the NIck Shirley protest at the Draper aquarium instead. I kid you not, a couple of weeks later, the same guy suggested the same idea. I'm not mad. Whatever it takes is fine by me. Then some women took over the planning, made it into a protest against the church's sex abuse cover-ups, and said that the men were welcome to participate but the focus needed to remain on them. I felt that this topic would be less timely and effective than one tied into the current national political situation, but of course I still supported it. I encouraged everyone to keep it respectful, not because the church deserves respect but because triggering its members' persecution complex would be counterproductive. We were all on board with that. The other guy still backed out after he became too concerned about alienating his Mormon parents. I didn't worry about that because my Mormon parents alienated me years ago.

By most measures, frankly, the protest was a flop. We ran out of time to make signs beforehand. Some people showed up to the rendezvous point late, so the Mormons attending conference were inside by the time we reached Temple Square. We just walked up to the Capitol in Handmaid's Tale robes with no signs. It wasn't originally part of the plan for me to wear one, but we had an extra after a woman had to back out, and walking to the Capitol in it was much less embarrassing than walking to the rendezvous point in a suit on conference day and making people think I was Mormon. Waiting for the bathroom in the gift shop was a little weird, but I survived. So anyway, I don't think we accomplished much, but people took notice of us and I had a great time with my friends, and that's important too.

I also made a new friend while i was waiting at the rendezvous point for the late people. Some nice random woman sat by me, complimented my suit, chatted about her life, and showed me things from her backpack - a very interesting poem, her favorite book (which used to be an overdue library book), and two pictures (one on each side of the paper) that she let me keep. I love people like her who are kind and intelligent but just don't understand that it's weird to discuss random things with strangers. She may have been homeless, but she said her boyfriend designed video games, so hopefully that keeps them afloat, unless she made that up, which she might have because I couldn't find the game she told me about - Ring Quest, a game about a cat who's searching for a wedding ring and knows that he's in a video game. I couldn't find her zine, "Jewish Cocaine," either, but that might plausibly just not be on the internet. Bummer. At least I have these cool pictures.

Oh yes, and after our protest, a woman with no shoes approached us in the parking lot, sobbing, breathing hard, and telling us that she'd been framed for murder and every cop in the city was looking for her. She wanted to go to her uncle's house so he could say she'd been there the whole time. We took her to the general area she said her uncle lived in so she could go sleep off whatever she was on. So once again, this was a very worthwhile experience.

Oh yes, I suppose today is Easter. Naturally, after another protest today against the Supreme Court legalizing verbal conversion "therapy" because First Amendment rights somehow trump professional standards of conduct, I'll celebrate in my usual manner by getting high at home by myself. Respectfully, THC has blessed my life more than Jesus ever did.