I think Todd’s “Flyer” is excellent. Much of this has already been said but here’s my take on the “Elders Quorum Moving Company”:

The elders quorum is not a free moving service.

The relief society is not a free maid service.

The elders quorum and relief society should be spending their limited available service time helping the sick, the poor, the widows, and attending to true emergency situations. Although, under certain dire circumstances, a move can be considered an emergency.

The bishop and/or elder’s quorum president should be sure the assistance is actually WANTED. Sometimes the “help” is literally forced on a family that just wants to take their time and move a few pickup loads at a time.

If a family that is moving just needs a hand with a couple of key items just grab your neighbor, a friend, your home teachers, or a nearby family member.

However, families should do what they can to move themselves. That includes putting the kids, teenagers, and college students in the family to work (in my experience the kids tend to stand around and watch everyone else work).

If a family needs help and can afford movers, then they should hire the movers. If the family needs help and can’t afford movers then they should ask their extended family, if any live within a 100 mile radius (well, let’s make that 150 mile radius). Then, if they need more help they should ask their home teachers. If the home teachers need help, the home teachers should talk to the bishop. If the bishop is sure the family needs help then the bishop should ask the elders to help out.

If the family can’t afford a moving van, then it is fine to ask family; then home teachers; then the bishop/elders quorum to help with pickups, etc. But if they can afford a moving van they should rent one even if it is a local move.

If someone needs help moving, then they should be prepared when the volunteers show up. As much work as possible should already be done so that only the heavy or awkward items that the family can’t move themselves are left to load. Things should be boxed and the boxes should be labeled clearly. The van should be open and waiting in the driveway. Small kids should be out of the way or even at a neighbor or family members home. Beds should be down. Electronics should be taken down and boxed and should not still be sitting in the cabinets all wired up. There should be plenty of blankets or other soft packing materials available to keep furniture from being scratched. Volunteers should have been contacted and be ready on the receiving end to help unload so the poor souls who are donating their time and gas to move out don’t also have to do the moving in.

Once the volunteers show up, the movee should stop what they were doing and direct traffic. Otherwise, the volunteers will be forced to make decisions on their own.

BEFORE volunteers show up, hold a garage sale, donate tons of stuff to charity, and DEJUNK. Nothing is more demotivating for a volunteer than hauling and loading countless bags and boxes of what appears to be nothing more than junk. Especially if the family is obviously well-off

The comments mentioned are legion here. They are usually coming from the branch president so the notion of going to talk with the bishop over some inappropriate lesson is not really an option. I’m usually the one teaching lessons and he’s usually the one bringing up the political bits from the congregation. It’s a mystery to me that they have me teaching at all given my penchant for of white shirts and the occasional facial hair laziness. Anyway, the issue is a hard one to deal with and I know many others deal with it regularly. Shawn’s opening post apes my feelings perfectly and I thank him for writing it down. It does give a bit of hope. We are a people of tradition and trends. They are often confused for the other, sadly, and we are in a trend of extreme conservatism (and I use the word here purely in it’s present political meaning) that is so often taken as part of our tradition. Hopefully the stark division will fade and though we may have some of those black and white things doctrinally, politically we will be wise enough to seek out the positives from any point of view.

It’s late…

Gay marriage?

But in any case, does the Republican party love war, hate the environment, and hate charity? (I’ll take your point on abortion. I wouldn’t classify the church’s position as pro-choice, but it is not purely pro-life either.)

Of course you would think that the church agrees with Democrats if you believe those things about Republicans, just as one could believe the church agrees with Republicans if he believes that Democrats want to limit our religious freedom, legalize drugs, and teach our children in school to be gay. Neither caricature is correct.

I can’t think of a single issue that the church agrees more with the Republicans than with the Democrats.

I never had a problem with doing lockup, mostly because I “gird my loins” by just picturing the Lord walking beside me as I travel the dark hallways of His house. That seems to help.

As for reports of bad things that have happened, we had a group of people come into the church and try to steal computers and other equipment late one evening, and when the poor old LDS guy came to do his lockup duty, he caught them in the act and they actually shot at him! They did a number on the building, including bullet holes everywhere and several shot-out windows, but luckily they left with nothing and nobody was injured. Police caught the people within 24 hours, but man – tell me that wouldn’t catch you off guard and make you not want to do lockup ever again!