CLICK
Posted on 10/31/2010 8:22:05 AM PDT by Colofornian
(PROVO)-Although vast strides have been made in alleviating slavery throughout the world, in the United States it is alive and well in various shapes and forms, Kevin Bales said in a human trafficking conference at Brigham Young University Thursday.
Bales, the president of the nonprofit Free the Slaves, said in modern times, slavery occurs more in recruiters showing up in villages around the world offering jobs.
Since many people are living in dire straits, despite the shady visage recruiters have, many people take a chance in order to give their families a better life.
Currently, what may be the largest U.S. human trafficking escapade in recorded history, involves Thais who were recruited by Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Global Horizons Inc. and eventually ended up working on hog and chicken farms in Utah.
As the Salt Lake Tribune reported, they mortgaged farms in Thailand to pay huge upfront fees to Global Horizon upon the guise from the company promising three years of high wages in the United States.
The Thais found that if they quit, they would lose their homes and farms and ultimately, were not paid at all after experiencing worsening conditions.
Roughly 60 Thais in Utah were able to attract help from Utah Legal Services and contacted officials concerning their plight.
Bales said some countries, including the U.S., don’t follow up well on workers brought into their boundaries, at least not poorer ones from developing countries.
Donna Hughes, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and international researcher of human trafficking, said many countries prosecute prostitutes but should drop charges against those who are human trafficking victims, while offering them compassion and help. .
You conveniently fail to answer on the part of members who live in societies where polygamy is legal, if they don’t allow members to be polygamist there, they are not using the Laws of the Land as the Template in that situation.
THEY are going to have to stand before a VENGEFUL couple of PERSONAGES and explain just WHY they no longer follow Their command found in D&C 132!
Do you seriously believe in this at all? I certainly don’t, and wouldn’t bother throwing it at others for that matter! While a negative fate is possible, we should not desire it for these people, we should desire that they should come to see the light of Christ, and use Christ himself as our example in what we do. It is not easy to live the example of Jesus Christ, and it never will be. I personally would hope that you are being serviceable and the “Good Samaritan” to whatever Mormon neighbors you do have, because there are plenty of virtues to be expounded to them.
The number one criticism Jesus ever threw, especially to the Scribes and the Pharisees, was the fact that they became hypocrites, they supposedly believed in a loving God, but really only cared about the parts of the law that pleased them, or also only cared about the judging part, rather than offering people correction and an opportunity to help people turn around from going the wrong way. I don’t agree with this Church, but I very much would like to show them the nature of Christ, rather than be the person who obsesses about their condemnation. I desire the best for them, and seek it.
Well goody for you; but if YOU 'believe' it or not is irrelevant.
The MPORMON 'scripture' is replete with dire consequences for failing to follow what GOD has said.
Just look at THIS; directed at ONE PERSON!
| The Official Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints © 2006 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. Rights and use information. Privacy policy. |
Sorry; but if I ain't MORMON; I have NO 'virtues' that they'd be interested in.
Thanks for posting them.
If you can see this with the eye of a Prophet and non-revolutionary visionary leader you will understand that Joseph Smith was acting with the same spirit of Martin Luther King. While it might seem wise to adopt a “kill em’ all” attitude toward government policy, it’s not the best position to take. Obviously there were many in the LDS community who would be willing to “mingle religious influence with civil government” but Joseph, like MLK and Gandhi understood that there where other routes. Peaceful routes, not “dangerous to the peace of every government ALLOWING human beings to be held in servitude.” He in wisdom understood that it was a Government issue that required the influence of a Government Leader, not a Religious Leader. I kindly invite all to trust and know that Joseph Smith was indeed a Prophet. And as such he was prophetic regarding the slavery issue and the Civil War (Down to the very details of where the first shot would be fired in South Carolina)D&C 130: 12-13 That was his responsibly as a Religious Leader, to Prophecy of The Civil War, not to start it. That calling and responsibility would come to Abraham Lincoln; a Government Leader. So, this is actually the essence of the above scripture you referenced. Separation of Church and State is and always has been essential to peace; our Founding Fathers knew this, Joseph Smith knew this and I get a feeling that you know this as well. Perhaps your statement is not really about slavery at all, but simply an opportunity to slam Joseph Smith. It’s OK, he can take it; he was treated that way in life, why not in death? Has that not been the lot of all The Prophets? Of Jesus Christ himself? Peace.
Well, let's look at how "prophetic" Smith was re: blacks re: slavery, shall we?
Joseph Smith’s position on slavery, 1836-1843:
April, 1836: Messenger& Advocate, pp. 299-301: If those who run through the free states, exciting their indignation against our brothers of the South, feel so much sympathy and kindness towards the blacks, were to go to the southern states, where the alleged evil exists, and warn those who are guilty of these enormous crimes, to repent and turn from their wickedness, or would purchase the slaves and then set them at liberty, we should have no objections to this provided they would place them upon some other continent than ours… What benefit can the slave derive from the long harangues and discussions held in the north? Certainly the people of the north have no legal right to interfere with the PROPERTY of the south, neither have they a right to say they shall, or shall not, hold slaves (Joseph Smith, Messenger & Advocate, p. 299) .
Tell us, Narayanyaj, if Smith was speaking as a "prophet" of the Mormon gods...does the Mormon gods regard slaves as mere "property?" Really?
April, 1836: If we dislike slavery we are free from it and are in no danger of being afflicted with it. If they are satisfied with it, it is their right as governments…Where can be the common sense of any wishing to see the slaves of the south set at liberty, is past our comprehension. Such a thing could not take place without corrupting all civil and wholesome society, of both the north and the south! Let the blacks of the south be free, and our community is overrun with paupers, and a reckless mass of human beings, uncultivated, untaught and unaccustomed to provide for themselves the necessaries of life-endangering the chastity of every female who might by chance be found in our streets-our prisons filled with convicts, and the hang-man wearied with executing the functions of his office! This must unavoidably be the case, every rational man must admit, who have ever travelled [traveled] in the slave states, or we must open our houses, unfold our arms, and bid these degraded and degrading sons of Canaan, a hearty welcome and a free admittance to all we possess! (Smith, Messenger & Advocate, p. 300)
Wow! You call the above "prophetic utterances" as of the Mormon gods? What? Are you as racist as Joseph Smith clearly shows there?
More Joseph Smith: …we are not accountable for their conduct-they have long since fled to be here no more: and why disgrace ourselves by contending about that that we cannot better by contention, at the same time involving ourselves in everlasting ruin? In this matter we consider we have spoken in behalf of the slave, as well as the slave holder. It has not been a thing of hasty conclusion; but deliberately and carefully examined, and we are sensible, if there are any who believe the gospel as we, and differ from us in point of national government, and would take the pains to inform themselves, not only by searching the holy scriptures, but by visiting the south, they would soon commend us for the course we have now taken. (Smith, Messenger & Advocate, p. 301)
May 6 or 7, 1838: "Are the Mormons abolitionists?" No...we do not believe in setting the negroes free." (Joseph Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 120, published 1938)
Jan. 2, 1843 : Later in the same book, pp. 269-270 under the sub-heading "Status of the Negro": "Elder Hyde inquired the situation of the negro. I replied, they came into the world slaves, mentally and physically." (p. 269) p. 270: "Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization."
Smith not only supported slavery, but the above quotes show the Lds founder and precious "prophet" was racist to the core.
How shameful of you to defend such a racist on these very grounds!
No, Ma'am; we're not slaves. We do this freely.
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