Rolly: Selective prohibitions of LDS Church lobbying:

By Paul Rolly

Tribune Correspondent

First published 5 hours ago

Updated 2 hours ago

Updated Apr 21, 2011 09:50PM

The rant posted this week against the LDS Church’s support of the guest-worker bill passed by the Utah Legislature comes from a conservative group of mostly Mormons who seem incensed by any notion the church lobbied for immigration bills.

That group, however, hasn’t seemed too concerned about other instances of alleged church involvement in secular affairs.

Ron Mortensen, co-founder of the Utah Coalition on Illegal Immigration, wrote on the Center for Immigration Studies website and repeated in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, that the LDS Church was involved in lobbying for the package of immigration bills that included the guest-worker bill. The guest-worker program, which would allow those in the U.S. illegally to apply for a legal work permit after paying a fine and meeting other conditions, would take effect in 2013.

Mortensen’s point is that LDS Church lobbying on the issue is a bad thing.

There wasn’t the same angst from that group or the vocal Republican delegates at the Salt Lake County convention when the church expressed its support for a bill taking flavored malt beverages out of grocery stores and put exclusively in state-controlled liquor stores — a statement that insured the change would happen.

Where was the angst from that group when the church was accused of meddling in California’s Proposition 8 election, which banned gay marriage?

Somehow, though, the church isn’t allowed to have an opinion on what to do with illegal immigration.

[b]Mortensen also claimed that the LDS Church “specifically asked Sen. Curt Bramble to put together an omnibus immigration bill that reflected the church’s interests.â€