So a high councilor visited our ward today and told the following story. He served as a missionary in the Brooklyn area of New York. Like all good missionaries, he would fill his backpack with Books of Mormon before leaving the house. He would usually leave his phone number in the books so contacts could call him. One day he gets the following call:

“Hey, is this an Elder?”

“Yes.”

“You gotta help me. I stole one of your books out of your backpack in the subway. It is sitting there in my apartment. Every time I pick it up it starts burning. You gotta come here and take this book out. I can’t even think about it or touch it. It is driving me crazy.”

“Ok, we’ll be right over.”

So, the missionary went to the guy’s house with his companion. He knocked on the door, and the guy yelled “come in.” The guy was sitting in a chair, and the Book of Mormon was on a coffee table in front of him.

“OK, you got to get this book out of here. I can’t touch it.”

The elder picks up the book and gently tosses it to the guy. He falls out of his chair so as not to touch the book and then sits on the floor.

The missionary then explains to the investigator that it is his conscience that is bothering him because he stole the book. The man realizes this and eventually takes the discussions and is baptized.

When he gets up to give his testimony he starts out, without any irony, “I know that stealing is true.” Eventually he gets the whole testimony thing down and ends up serving in the branch presidency in that area.

Think of states’ rights. I bet the majority of you are conjuring up some vision of a red neck holding a Confederate flag. Or perhaps these days you are thinking about crazy people in Utah calling for more respect of the 10th amendment and the adoption of gold and silver as currency.

Well, like most political slogans, states’ rights has some baggage, perhaps an unusual amount given this country’s horrible history of race relations. But it is time to resurrect the idea that everybody is better off if we give more space to state and local governments to pass laws without federal interference.

Let me start off by addressing three areas where the left generally favors state and local rights against federal overreach.

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I have been reading the Book of Mormon every morning to my young boys (ages 3 and 5).  We just read about the Amlicites and the Lamanites attacking the Nephites.   I was struck with how the people responded to their great victory over the Amlicites and Lamanites (Alma 4:2-4):

But the people were afflicted, yea, greatly afflicted for the loss of their brethren, and also for the loss of their flocks and herds, and also for the loss of their fields of grain…and so great were their afflictions that every soul had cause to mourn; and they believed that it was the judgments of God sent upon them because of their wickedness and their abominations; therefore they were awakened to a remembrance of their duty..and they began to establish the church more fully.

Now, contrast this to the evil Nephites at the end of the Book of Mormon after winning a battle against the Lamanites (Mormon 3:9):

And now, because of this great thing which my people, the Nephites, had done, they began to boast of their own strength, and began to swear before the heavens that they would avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren who had been slain by their enemies.

The contrast could not be more clear.
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Anybody who has gone to the grocery store or gas station lately has seen that prices are going up.  It used to cost $30 to fill your tank with gas — now it is $50.  It used to cost $100 to do a week’s worth of shopping for a family.  Now it is $150.  What has happened?  What is going on?

To answer this question correctly, we must examine first:  are all prices going up or just some?  It turns out just about everything you need is going up in price.  Check out the price of milk.  Or the price of wheat.  In fact, all food and beverages are way up.

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I went to see “Atlas Shrugged” last night, part 1 of the depiction of Ayn Rand’s novel.  Meh.  There were some nice scenes (the depiction of Reardon Steel and the steel bridge made on the John Galt Line was really elegant).  A lot of the acting was very wooden.  The movie was about as good as you’re going to get, but in the end the Gary Cooper depiction of “The Fountainhead” is still better for Rand fans.

In any case, I have four other suggestions if you want to see movies about freedom.  These are not necessarily popular or well-known movies, but each of them is wonderful in its own way.

First, “Sometimes a Great Notion,” with Henry Fonda and Paul Newman, directed by Paul Newman.

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