For those of us outside Utah and Idaho, getting to the temple can often be an adventure. Right after I joined the Church, I moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the closest temple was a six-hour bus ride away. When I got my endowments at the Sao Paulo temple, I heard the story of Brazilians from Manaus, Brazil. There are no roads to Manaus. So, the members there would take a boat for three or four days, then catch a bus for a week to get to the Sao Paulo temple. They would stay for several days and then head back. That, my friends, is sacrifice: a 3-4 week temple trip. (There is now a temple in Manaus).

When I moved to Miami the closest temple was 4-5 hours away in Orlando. Our stake included Key West, which is a 6 or 7 hour drive from Orlando. The temple bus would leave Key West at 4 a.m. to get to the temple by 10:30 a.m. It would leave again at 3 p.m., and the hearty Key West residents would get home by 10 p.m. or so. That is one long day on a bus. (Yes, they watched a lot of Church movies on that bus).

But of course Florida members who had been around longer remembered that the closest temple before Orlando was built was in Atlanta, and that is a 12-hour drive from Miami. And before that, the closest temple was Washington, DC.

Now, the Church is building a temple in Fort Lauderdale, which is just 45 minutes from Miami.

We now live north of Denver. The temple is only an hour and 15 minutes away. Somehow that still seems pretty far. We try to get there once a month but with kids and babysitting and business travel it’s more like 9 or 10 times a year, and the trip seems like an all-day trek.

But — hallelujah — the Church will soon break ground on the Fort Collins temple, which is only a half-hour from our house. So, the temple gets closer and closer.

Zion does exist in our fallen world, and it is closer every day.

The Church responded to today’s Supreme Court decisions on same-sex marriage this way:

By ruling that supporters of Proposition 8 lacked standing to bring this case to court, the Supreme Court has highlighted troubling questions about how our democratic and judicial system operates. Many Californians will wonder if there is something fundamentally wrong when their government will not defend or protect a popular vote that reflects the views of a majority of their citizens.

I would like to do a thought exercise on this statement. I am willing to be convinced that I am wrong, so if you have a polite disagreement with me, bring it on.

Let’s say that the people of California decided via referendum to confiscate all guns. Let’s say it was a close vote 52-48 percent. And let’s say by some miracle there is a governor and an attorney general in California who read the 2nd Amendment and say: “we cannot enforce this. This is unconstitutional.” And they refuse to enforce the confiscation. And then a federal court overturns the referendum and the Supreme Court agrees with the federal court.

Personally, I would support the governor and attorney general who refuse to enforce an unconstitutional law and I would support the federal judges who overturn said law.

So, it seems to me that focusing on the process itself is not really the issue. We are a republic, not a democracy, and this means that we do not determine something is right because 52 percent of the people support it. The purpose of government is to protect the natural rights of life, liberty and property. These natural rights are the foundation of the Constitution and our entire system of government. The Constitution has a series of checks and balances on the democratic process because pure democracy leads to mob rule. Under a pure democracy, 51 percent of the people can decide that all property should be confiscated from Mormons, and it will happen. Under a republic, there are systems in place, competing governmental forces, that will prevent mob rule.

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Here it is:

SALT LAKE CITY —
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the following statement today regarding the decisions announced by the United States Supreme Court on cases involving marriage:

“By ruling that supporters of Proposition 8 lacked standing to bring this case to court, the Supreme Court has highlighted troubling questions about how our democratic and judicial system operates. Many Californians will wonder if there is something fundamentally wrong when their government will not defend or protect a popular vote that reflects the views of a majority of their citizens.

“In addition, the effect of the ruling is to raise further complex jurisdictional issues that will need to be resolved.

“Regardless of the court decision, the Church remains irrevocably committed to strengthening traditional marriage between a man and a woman, which for thousands of years has proven to be the best environment for nurturing children. Notably, the court decision does not change the definition of marriage in nearly three-fourths of the states.”

Church leadership held a special broadcast on missionary work Sunday and, among other things, announced that missionaries would be spending time on social media networks in an effort to improve missionary work.

Elder (L. Tom) Perry also announced changes Sunday in how missionaries will spend their time finding people to teach. Because many people prefer to connect online, missionaries will use the Internet and digital devices in their ministry, Elder Perry said. He noted that missionaries will use “mormon.org, Facebook, blogs, email, … text messages” and other platforms to reach out to people. “The Church must adapt to a changing world,” Elder Perry said.

Speaking earlier in the day to new mission presidents, Church leaders said that missionary use of the Internet and digital devices such as iPads will begin in phases and only in designated missions for the rest of this year. The Church anticipates these tools will be available to missionaries throughout the world sometime next year.

Church leaders also announced a surge in interest in missionary work.

The number of missionaries continues to rise since President Monson’s October 2012 announcement of lower missionary age requirements. At the time of the announcement, 58,500 missionaries were serving; as of this week, Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, more than 70,000 missionaries are serving — the most ever at one time in Church history.

Female missionaries comprise more than 20 percent of that number, with 14,650 serving. As the Church announced in April 2013, the increasing number of female missionaries has led to the creation of a mission leadership council that will include both men and women as missionary leaders. This council will consist of the mission president and his wife, assistants to the president, zone leaders and sister training leaders — a newly created role.

As the Church reported in February 2013, 58 new missions were created to accommodate the influx of missionaries, bringing the total number of missions to 405. By year’s end, the Church anticipates having 85,000 missionaries.

Deseret Industries is cutting the number of hours its workers can work because of Obamacare. You can read about it here.

The bottom line is that Obamacare requires companies that employ more than 50 people to provide health care to workers who are employed more than 30 hours a week.

So, instead of providing health care to its workers, DI is cutting the number of hours worked.

This step is completely appropriate and in line with how many companies will deal with Obamacare. Some companies with 60 workers are firing 11 so they can get under the Obamacare mandate, and others are cutting back on the number of full-time workers.

This is exactly what some of us predicted would happen under Obamacare, the single worst piece of legislation passed by Congress in many decades.

Of course the liberal lurkers are mentally decrying the greed of employers, why don’t they care about the workers, etc, etc. Only one problem: DI is a non-profit with the mandate of employing as many people as possible. Nobody at DI is getting rich. DI is taking this step to continue to provide entry-level training and employment to the maximum number of people.

And many of the same principles that apply to DI also apply to for-profit businesses.

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