Latest from Mormon Land: Plan for an even more immigrant-friendly LDS Church

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Money for migrants

The church has established a firm foundation of immigrant-friendly bona fides. For instance:

• It endorsed — twice — the Utah Compact, which called for federal immigration reform with an eye toward compassion and keeping families together. Apostle Dieter Uchtdorf, himself a two-time refugee, praised it as a “pillar” in the immigration debate.

• In the first major policy statement under President Russell Nelson, the church urged Congress to protect from deportation “Dreamers” who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children by family members.

• The global faith launched a worldwide push to assist refugees with its “I Was a Stranger” initiative and routinely sends supplies to help displaced people.

• Meetinghouses have doubled as welcome centers in places like Las Vegas and Mesa, Arizona, helping newcomers to the U.S.

By Common Consent blogger Sam Brunson says it’s time now for the church to put its money where the migrants are.

The idea? A church endowment — stoked with hundreds of millions of dollars from the faith’s tens of billions of dollars in reserve funds — dedicated to providing housing for migrants.

“The church wouldn’t have to administer the money itself. There are charitable organizations in Utah focused on helping refugees and other immigrants. They’re overwhelmed and under-resourced, but an influx of money is a great way to fix both problems,” writes Brunson, a Chicago tax law professor. “... Allocating 1% of the liquid assets that it currently doesn’t use for anything, and just using income on those assets, won’t affect either the day-to-day operations of the church or its long-term viability.

“But it will,” he concludes, “materially help the strangers whom God, Jesus and our church leaders have expressly charged us with aiding.”

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: Same-sex couples in the pews

Three women in same-sex marriages — one who recently lost her membership and two who remain on the rolls — discuss the blessings, challenges and, yes, risks they encounter every time they walk into church.

Listen to the podcast.

A new MTC

Here is fresh evidence that the church is booming in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a permanent Missionary Training Center will open near the Kinshasa Temple in August.

This new MTC “has been greatly needed for many years,” writes independent church tracker Matt Martinich. “The DR Congo has supplied large numbers of young adults serving full-time missionaries for many years, and the training of these missionaries has been a challenge due to difficulties with securing visas and transportation to other countries.”

Martinich states that church expansion in the Central African nation “has come after decades of careful planning and high standards for convert baptism, which has resulted in some of the highest member activity rates in the world (usually over 80%).”

From The Tribune

• Scholar Matthew Bowman, a Tribune guest columnist, explains why more and more people in Mormon circles are denying church founder Joseph Smith ever practiced polygamy — despite the consensus among respected historians that he did.

• Read Joseph Smith’s revelations that few Latter-day Saints know about.

• Watch Hugh Grant terrorize Latter-day Saint missionaries in a trailer for the new horror movie “Heretic.”

• Tribune columnist Gordon Monson wonders how any Latter-day Saint could vote for Donald Trump.