Scott Lloyd

You have to find a way to use it in conversation at least three times today.

Several years ago, my family and I hied to Kolob — Kolob Canyon near St. George, Utah.

Deseret Management companies tend to offer fair-minded severance packages to laid-off employees.

Actually, apostles had ceased to serve on the boards of Church-owned businesses some years before that. What is likely to have happened is that Mark Willes, the retired executive powerhouse whom the First Presidency had brought on in those days to be CEO of Deseret Management, likely engineered the arrangement between the companies, this under close consultation with the Church leadership. However it was done it was a brilliant move. The Church has no need to be in the life insurance business anymore, and this allows Beneficial to come in for a smooth and safe landing rather than crashing and burning with a monetary hit to the taxpayers of Utah.

I quite disagree, but I’m not going to get into that with you here.

Oh, I am too! And I believe it has gotten alarmingly worse over the last six months! It had started to improve before then, though it was still a mess. Lax border security has exacerbated it.

If we did, no tithe payer in the Church could ever take Social Security, which is arguably the most pervasive benefit offered by the U.S. government. And by the way, the typical Social Security recipient, over the course of time, receives far more from Social Security than he or she ever paid into it.

To be honest, when I wrote “lawful and orderly immigration,” I wasn’t thinking of the buzz phrase “law and order.” It never even entered my mind until I saw the Nehor’s post. So it did not influence my word selection, even if I had viewed “law and order” as having a “dark history” or a negative connotation, which I don’t.

I agree there is a great deal about our immigration system that is in urgent need of fixing. The separation of families at the border, egregious as it is, is not the worst part about it. The worst, in my view, is the trafficking of children and the sexual assaults and organized crime fostered by the unchecked flow of undocumented persons across the border. But if you’re not for open borders, then, by definition, you have to be for orderly and lawful immigration. Don’t mock me for saying I am. And I will continue to call out you or anybody else who impugns the morality of a fellow Church member over a political issue where morality is not a clearly defined element of disagreement.

In the minds of thugs and anarchists, perhaps.

Quite serious. Orderly immigration policy includes documentation of persons coming into a country, screening to inhibit the inflow of criminals, issuance of visas or work permits, and applications for those seeking refuge or asylum. It’s quite standard in the countries of the world. I couldn’t even drive across the border into Canada a few years ago without showing a passport and stating my reason for entering the country. For those seeking citizenship, it includes a formal application process and procedures for naturalization. And by the way, where the Church has not clearly identified a matter as being a moral issue, you need to be more careful to avoid insinuating immorality on the part of other Church members who hold a political opinion that contrasts with yours. That is altogether improper.

How about laws that safeguard the free exercise of religion? You don’t think the Church cares if those are enforced? What about laws against murder, robbery, theft, rape, assault, embezzlement, arson, vandalism? You think the Church is indifferent about those as well? Don’t you think the Church wants a safe environment for its members — and for others — in which to live, work and worship? How about traffic laws that make it safe to drive on streets and highways or to be a pedestrian in a busy city? The Church doesn’t care about those either? Your placement of a question mark at the end of a declarative sentence struck me as odd. But if it means you’re not sure of your statement, I can see some sense to it, because your assertion doesn’t seem very well thought out to me.

To say that Beneficial Life was “bailed out” is misleading. Like many other institutions, the company fell on hard times during the recession late in the first decade of this century. At that time, the company ceased to issue any new policies. So it has been slowly going out of business since then. It will cease to exist when the last extant policy has been paid out or expires, probably well within your lifetime. Meanwhile, the infusion of funds has allowed the company to make good on its obligations to widows and orphans without foisting the obligation off on the state of Utah and its taxpayers. Seems pretty righteous to me. City Creek was constructed to preserve the environs around the Church’s sacred spaces from the urban blight that was besetting downtown Salt Lake City. Presumably, it has turned a profit by now and been able to compensate the capital used for it. So yes, I’m quite comfortable that both of these uses of funds are well within the confines of righteousness. Thank you for asking.

A nation securing its own borders and enacting orderly immigration policy has not been declared immoral by the Church. On the contrary, the Church has acknowledged a nation’s right to do it and its legitimate interest in doing so. Where the Church has not taken a position on a matter of government law or policy, your opinion in opposition to it is not binding on any other Latter-day Saint. It’s an individual matter of conscience and reasoned consideration.

President Ballard’s association with This Is the Place Heritage Park and Ensign Peak has been chronicled over the years in the Church News. He is a direct descendant of Hyrum Smith and Mary Fielding Smith through Joseph F. Smith and, as such, has a keen interest in the Church’s pioneer heritage. On a personal note, he’s a particular favorite of mine among the Brethren.