![\"Mountains](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/04\/SquawPeak_699.jpg\")
<\/a>I mentioned this case in my immediately prior<\/a> post, but I regard it as such a manifest outrage that I\u2019m going to mention it again \u2014 and I\u2019m going to encourage you to write your senator and your congressman about it: \u00a0\u201cBYU Ph.D. student\u2019s international student visa revoked over apparent fishing license violation:\u00a0Husband and father of 5 may have to return to Japan unless the courts allow him to continue his graduate studies\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n In order to make contacting your representatives in Congress easier (for at least a few of you here), I share the contact information for my own senators and for my own delegate to the House of Representatives:<\/p>\n I hope that some of you will write. \u00a0All that\u2019s needed is a very quick and brief note. \u00a0One or two lines would almost certainly suffice. \u00a0The point is to show that members of the public are watching, that at least a few of us are aware of the matter and that we don\u2019t approve of what\u2019s currently being done to this Latter-day Saint husband, father, and doctoral student from Japan.<\/p>\n Increasingly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is a global church, and its educational system appropriately seeks to serve the Saints whatever their nationalities or places of origin. \u00a0But this is a case of the federal government directly interfering with that aspiration. \u00a0And just wait for the new BYU medical school to arrive, with its explicit goal of supporting the Church\u2019s humanitarian mission around the world and its express intention of enrolling students from many nations. \u00a0(Especially, I would think, from developing<\/em> nations.) \u00a0Will a foreign BYU medical student be deported if she receives a speeding ticket? \u00a0If she participates in a ward activity that somehow ends up violating a technicality in some Fish and Game regulation \u2014 a violation that, in the aftermath, isn\u2019t even deemed worthy of being prosecuted \u2014 will she be expelled from the United States?<\/p>\n By the way, a couple of the comments responding to my recent blog post entitled \u201cNairobi: A Memory, A New Temple, And, Yes . . . Opposition\u201d<\/a> have raised the issue of the insistence of some evangelical Protestants that Latter-day Saints \u2014 and Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses and Catholics and the Orthodox \u2014 aren\u2019t Christians. \u00a0In other words, if y9u carry the sentiment to its logical conclusion, that the majority of Christians living today aren\u2019t really Christians at all, and that the overwhelming majority of Christians historically<\/em> weren\u2019t Christians. \u00a0Which has reminded me of Parson Thwackum, a character in Henry Fielding\u2019s classic 1749 novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling,\u00a0<\/i>who explains that,<\/p>\n When I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion; and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And it also reminded me of one of my very favorite jokes. \u00a0This joke was apparently originated by Emo Philips, but I\u2019ve modified it very, very slightly for stylistic reasons:<\/p>\n Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump.<\/p>\n I said, \u201cDon\u2019t do it!\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cNobody loves me.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cGod<\/em> loves you. Do you believe in God?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cAre you a Christian or a Jew?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cA Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cMe, too! Protestant or Catholic?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cProtestant.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cMe, too! What denomination?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cBaptist.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cMe, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cNorthern Baptist.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cMe, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cNorthern Conservative Baptist.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cMe, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cNorthern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I said, \u201cMe, too! \u00a0Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?\u201d<\/p>\n He said, \u201cNorthern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.\u201d<\/p>\n I said, \u201cDie<\/em>, heretic!\u201d And I pushed him over.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This article about the annual Easter pageant that is staged on the grounds of the Mesa Arizona Temple was written by a non-Latter-day Saint journalist (whom I know slightly) and published in a non-Latter-day Saint venue. \u00a0I think that some of you might find it interesting: \u00a0\u201cInside The Popular Easter Pageant That Draws 100,000 Visitors\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 And here\u2019s an article on the same topic, from the Church\u2019s official newsroom, that illustrates the uniting power that religious faith can often represent, rather than its power to divide: \u00a0\u201cFaith Leaders Unite at Mesa Easter Pageant: The production is one of many ways the Church is celebrating the \u201cgreater love\u201d of Christ\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n I will, by the way, be heading to Uzbekistan next week, where I\u2019m slated to participate in a conference in the city of Samarkand under the title of \u201cDiplomacy of the Heart.\u201d \u00a0The theme of the conference is \u201cThe Power of Intercultural Dialogue and Education in\u00a0Peacebuilding.\u201d \u00a0It should be an interesting event. \u00a0For one thing, a sizable contingent of Iranian academics will be among the participants. \u00a0(Iran and Uzbekistan are located fairly close to one another.) \u00a0I hope to file reports from Uzbekistan, and will do so if the internet is working there. \u00a0(One never knows.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 I mentioned this case in my immediately prior post, but I regard it as such a manifest outrage that I\u2019m going to mention it again \u2014 and I\u2019m going to encourage you to write your senator and your congressman about it: \u00a0\u201cBYU Ph.D. student\u2019s international student visa revoked over apparent fishing license violation:\u00a0Husband and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":36378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4799,1619,2905,788,1622,4820],"class_list":["post-109897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-evangelical","tag-kenya","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-nairobi","tag-protestant"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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