Which takes me over to Clark’s thread.

And yes, if federalism dies, the Louisianans may still have grits and jumbalaya, but they’ll no doubt lose a lot of their own quirky autonomy.

I’m mostly interested by your point that politics influences religious belief more than we think. That’s something I’d never considered. Write a post about it sometime. (and submit it to a blog that won’t make you bow and bend).

1. Covey sometimes does an excellent job of synthesizing gospel principles in an easy-to-teach and easy-to-understand package. As long as people don’t get carried away there is nothing wrong with quoting him or using an example from one of his books in a church talk or lesson. I say this as someone who has done his share of eyeball-rolling over Covey quotes. As long as Covey’s used in moderation, and in an illustrative manner, he’s fine. But I could say the same about any LDS, non-GA author. Or about C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton or Tolkien or other sacrament talk favorites.

2. General rules for the entire Church membership are an unfortunate result of the need to come up with a rule that will not result in arbitrary application. I really dislike the way this approach plays out in reality but I accept it. For example, departing missionaries now speak all by themselves in sacrament meeting, with no parental involvement. I think this is a sad loss of a fine and beloved tradition. I understand it resulted from a problem exclusive to the Wasatch Front: So many missionaries were leaving that some wards were devoting half of their sacrament meetings to “farewells,” and the bishoprics were much less involved in planning sacrament meetings than they were supposed to be. Solution: Missionaries are simply to be one of the usual two main speakers,and that’s it.

The problem is that in someplace like my Los Angeles ward, we send out 2 or 3 missionaries a year (and that’s in a big year). It would be no problem to have the usual “missionary + mom + dad + friend singing special music” formula. So we lose out because of the Wasatch Front.

But what is the alternative? If the decision were left up to bishops, chaos would result. Some bishops would be softies and would let the family run wild. Others would be in the middle, and still others would be hard-core “by the book” enforcers and never allow more than a single missionary speaker. There would be no rhyme or reason to the rule’s application and all would depend on who the bishop is. Perhaps most important, the bishops’ job would be harder because all the pressure would be on them to make decisions about something that is very emotion-laden but is not really all that important. (Note: I’m sending my own son on his mission in 3 months and so I think I have some credibility on this issue.)

So that’s why we have sometimes annoying across-the-board rules. It’s a matter of practicality that does not thrill me but, but I can live with it.

Time to go . . . .

Ryan, I like to refer to the Rehnquist Court lovingly as a bump in the road–that being said 7 republican appointed justices have made a very small dent in the historical flow away from federalism.

I also don’t see the tie between federalism and local flavor. Sure legal regimes and federal spending have enormous impact but I think even with a near total swing away from federalism Louisiana will still have great cajun, grits will abound, and deep fried turkeys will be enjoyed by thousands.

As far as the main point. I think the consistency is rarely seen, however, this points toward 2 observations which I often make but people seem reticent to comment on. 1. politics often dictate our religious views as much or more than vice versa–which I think is flawed. And 2. political conservatives in the Church often assume that if you are a political liberal you are less orthodox. Also, a stance I think is often wrong. Oh, and finally, our speaker on Sunday quoted Covey–either I’m a “Covey as gospel” magnet or this guy is quoted frequently from pulpits around the country–unbelievable!!

While Ryan may rationalize all he wants, if he really wants to support correlation he needs to rescind his belief in federalism forthwith–I for one will welcome you into the democratic party, Ryan with open arms. All Hail Correlation!