The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a "sanctuary church" — that is, it's not a place where lawbreakers can hide out, call Kings-X and escape the authorities. But the church is a "refuge church," a place where the overburdened and bewildered can find shelter from the storm.
In the United States, that shelter is often an escape from relationship problems, financial woes, society's immorality or personal demons. But in other parts of the world, the church — and specifically the chapel itself — is a refuge from the very real threat of bodily harm.
A few weeks ago my friend, Luis Casas, and I visited the small LDS ward in the border town of Tecate, Mexico. You don't have to be a news junkie to know that the Mexican border is awash in violence these days as drug lords roam the streets like hyenas while the Mexican army attempts to corral them. Even tiny Tecate, a town with the picturesque look of a colonial postcard, has seen violent crime become a part of daily life.
"Things have really changed here," says Juan Gerardo Rendon, a member of the Tecate LDS ward. "Not long ago there were no fences here, no locks on the doors, but now the narco-traffickers are hiding in Tecate to escape the police in Tijuana. A few weeks ago one of the sisters and her daughter were walking along and heard gunshots nearby."
The stark reality of life in Tecate gets even more stark, however. Armando Garcia Munoz, a newspaper sports columnist and the high priest group leader in Tecate, was assaulted on his way to church.
"I was wearing my white shirt and tie," he says, "so they must have thought I was somebody important."
One thug put a .22-caliber rifle to Brother Garcia's chest while another held a revolver to his head. They stole his car, his cell phone and his wallet. He was so traumatized he had to call a member of the high council to come and get him.
"They stole my car, my cell phone and my money," he says, "but they couldn't steal my faith. This little church has been the best refuge. Associating with the members and attending church gave me the courage I needed to go back onto the streets. You know, I'd been inactive for many years and had just been back to church for a couple of weeks when I was attacked."
The Young Women president agrees that the church is vital to life on the border. Out of privacy concerns, we'll just call her Sister Laura.
Sister Laura was leaving her home when a thug grabbed her and tried to force a handkerchief laced with ether over her nose. She fought mightily and finally was able to escape in time, injured but alive. The experience was devastating.
"The church has helped so much," she says. "My calling has helped. Members of the priesthood gave me a blessing and everybody visited me in the hospital. The members and missionaries have given me so much strength.
"In all of Baja California — Tijuana, Ensenada, Mexicali — the LDS church has become a refuge, a place of peace," says Francisco Lopez. "It is where members go when they need to find help and hope."
The missionaries, of course, stay away from certain parts of town and haven't been bothered. Most say the place has actually been rather tranquil for them. The battle is a battle for the soul of Mexico, not the United States. And the fact that missionaries are considered noncombatants has freed them to minister to the many Mexican members who find themselves literally between the forces of good and the forces of evil. Mothers may squirm a little at the thought of their sons going to the border, but the missionaries we spoke with say they feel very needed and appreciated. They wouldn't be anywhere else.
In the end, sometimes when we members in the states count our problems, it's not a bad idea to factor in the problems of others for perspective. Along those lines, when the LDS members in Tecate sing "Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing," they aren't thinking poetically. They are thinking in very real terms.
Thankfully, the church is there as a haven for them while "the tempest still is nigh." At church, they find the peace and serenity that their border villages have watched slowly slipping away.
Jerry Johnston is a Deseret News staff writer. "New Harmony" appears weekly in Mormon Times.
E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com