This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

There are signs that the LDS Church's missionary program in the U.S. and Latin America has been hurt by the extreme behavior of far-right lawmakers in the Utah Legislature.

Delegates elected at the recent Republican caucuses will have a chance to improve things at the county and state GOP conventions in April by supporting mainstream conservative candidates and opposing extremists.

How can you tell a mainstream candidate from an extremist? It's not always easy, but there's one issue that may help you sort them out: immigration.

A mainstream candidate will usually support the Utah Compact and HB116, but an extremist will not. Ask them where they stand.

The Utah Compact is a framework of principles designed to balance justice and mercy to guide a civil, compassionate immigration policy. It was supported by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and signed by the Salt Lake Chamber and other business, religious and civic leaders and organizations.

HB116, one of four immigration reform bills that were passed by mainstream lawmakers in 2011, establishes a guest-worker program that provides a legal path for undocumented immigrants to work in Utah if they pay a fine and meet several rigorous conditions. It does not lead to citizenship or amnesty.

Following the 2011 legislative session, the LDS Church issued official statements on immigration in which it said it "has spoken in support of the Utah Compact" and "appreciates the package of bills that the Legislature had passed, including House Bill 116."

Why should delegates care where a candidate stands on immigration? Because any far-right legislative candidates you nominate this year that go on to win their election will almost certainly bring it up with a vengeance in the 2013 legislative session. They have been agitating to overturn the current balanced package of immigration bills ever since it was passed.

A painful example of how the LDS Church's missionary program can be hurt is when the Arizona Legislature passed one of the nation's harshest anti-illegal immigration laws in the nation. Former Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce, widely known to be a devout Latter-day Saint, was the primary sponsor of Arizona's notorious enforcement-only law.

Hispanics blamed not only Pearce, but the LDS Church, for what they believed was an attack on their ethnic group. The Arizona Republic reported on May 18, 2010, that "Kenneth Patrick Smith, a Mesa lawyer and president of the Valencia Branch, a Spanish-speaking LDS congregation in Mesa, said missionaries from his church have had doors slammed in their faces since Arizona's new law was signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in April."

According to the article, a Latino fourth-grade elementary teacher and father who was preparing to be baptized into the church "said he told the missionaries to stop coming because he considers the law to be anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic."

An article by Paul Rolly in The Salt Lake Tribune on May 7, 2011, reported that Tony Yapias, a local Latino leader and a native of Peru, visited his birth country and found that the nasty tone of the immigration debate in Utah, Arizona and other states had spawned a negative view of Americans and, by association, Mormon missionaries in that and other Latin American nations.

The delegates to Utah's GOP conventions this year have a choice. They can nominate mainstream candidates who will likely preserve the existing package of compassionate immigration laws. Or they can hand power to a rising tide of far-right extremists, who will attempt to repeal the current laws and replace them with an Arizona-style law which is bound to result in more doors being slammed in the faces of LDS missionaries.

Larry Alan Brown is a writer and business consultant living in Alpine.