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Can We The People Draw a Line Somewhere?
by Ilyan Kei Lavanway
7 December 2016 (Pearl Harbor Day)
I have often asked myself: How should we, as Christians, respond to the atrocities perpetrated in our own lands by many of the Syrian refugees that are now flooding into Europe and the United States?
While we are generally obligated to help the poor and the needy and the strangers among us, are we required to stand idle while those same refugees force themselves into our homes and rape and beat our wives and children, and beat our brothers and fathers (and maybe rape them, too) and steal our food and destroy our property, and roam our streets in gangs bent on harassing, raping, and molesting our neighbors? I realize this does not happen everywhere. Yet. But it does happen.
Our governments do not stand up for us. Do we have the right to stand up for ourselves? Even if we must resort to violence and the inflicting of death upon our enemies to preserve our own lives and our families and our homes and the peace and security of our neighborhoods?
I feel like taking a lesson from Captain Moroni:
See Alma 43:45-50
See Alma 44:1-23
See Alma 46:11-21
See 3 Nephi 4:13
See Alma 60 (this best applies to cleaning up our federal government and then going after terrorists who pose as refugees)
I think neighborhoods should set up organized watches composed of citizens who are armed and trained to use firearms and knives and bats and any other object useful as a weapon (SureFire flashlights are designed with a handy bezel that works great for peeling a face off a skull), and patrol in shifts day and night.
Those not trained or not physically capable of wielding a weapon or engaging in hand-to-hand combat could operate in surveillance and intelligence roles. Drones are now affordable consumer products. Let's start deploying them to defend ourselves.
Little Free Libraries are a recent trend popping up across America. These could easily double as covert communications networks, avoiding the obvious vulnerabilities of electronic communications. Even kids can help with this. In fact, kids can be far more effective at passing encrypted messages coded in books through this venue than adults.
If refugees are witnessed initiating violence in any manner, use decisive, lethal force, without hesitation. Make the refugees understand they are guests in our land, and we will not roll over and let them rape us and beat us and rob us and force their will upon us.
Of course, we should first offer them peace and kindness. We should never go looking for trouble, and we should never provoke a confrontation. Picking a fight and then using self defense as an excuse to kill makes us as bad or worse than our enemies.
And yes, I believe many of the Syrian refugees are our enemies. The are not our friends. They do not want to be our friends. They show no gratitude whatsoever for the hand of fellowship extended to them. They bite the hand that feeds them. They curse the heart that blesses them.
And if they are so distressed, where are their women and children? Why are thousands of strong, combat-ready, young men, in their prime, flooding across our borders with no families in tow?
Makes me wonder if perhaps they have killed or abandoned their women and children, like the wicked priests of King Noah (see Mosiah 19:11-12) and then blamed that on the Western war machine!
If they cannot or will not understand the language of peace and kindness, then speak to them in the only language they get: Death! Self defense is not a crime. Did not the Lord deliver them into our hands?
These are just my personal thoughts at this moment.
Here is what Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in an address on religious freedom at Oxford University:
"Governments have an overriding interest in preserving the security of their national borders and defending the health and safety of their citizens. They obviously have the right to insist that all organizations, including religions, refrain from teaching hate and from actions that can result in violence or other criminal acts toward others. No country need offer sanctuary to organizations that promote terrorism. Religious freedom is no barrier to government power in any of these circumstances."
http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/transcript-elder-oaks-university-oxford
