THE MISSION OF THE FUTURE: PRELUDE

Ripped from the headlines:

Hatch says LDS mission part of bill inspiration

Preserved from The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated: 04/22/2009 10:57:02 AM MDT
Tribune and wire

President Barack Obama, who got his political start as a community organizer, signed legislation Tuesday to more than triple the number of government-backed volunteers across the country at a cost of billions of dollars.

At a bill-signing ceremony at a public boarding school for disadvantaged youth before he headed off to a tree-planting project, Obama asked people to "stand up and play your part."

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who drafted the bill and served as the primary Republican sponsor, said: "Our country has a longstanding tradition of helping our neighbors, and I am honored to have been a part of such a monumental piece of legislation that will continue this valued tradition."

During the congressional debate, Hatch said he drew inspiration for the legislation from his two year mission for the LDS Church, which he served in the Great Lakes states. He said he wouldn't trade his two-year mission for all of the years he has served in the Senate.

Obama called Hatch "a class act" for leading the charge to rename the legislation the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.


RIGHT ASCENSION COMMENTARY

Heaven forbid I should write that Our Senior Senator from Utah has gone nuts, but at the very least his memory must be suffering from haziness. There is no kind way to put it. He says he would not trade his mission (2 years) for all his years (32 and counting) in the Senate. Really? Why?

He claims preference for two years of chastity, poverty, long tedious hard work without a guarantee of success, residing with guys he probably did not like, and enduring all sorts of people who considered LDs missionaries a pest on principle and did not want him in their town let alone their living rooms. . .

in favor of the United States Senate, where every last one of his whims is indulged, no questions asked, and lobbyests and staff treat him like a god, for years and years on end.

Yeah boy, he hopes they'll call him on a mission.


SPEAKING OF MISSIONS

I have speculated of late what exactly the Kennedy Serve America Act will do to the traditional concept of the Mormon Mission. Out of necessity, the LDS Missionary program has for long years relied on 19-year-old American guys because

(first) the restrictions associated with the late Selective Service.

(second) the unmovable timing traditions of university education.

If these two inconveniences of American lifetiming had not existed, the Church could have focused on more mature missionaries.

If the Service Act evolves into some sort of compulsory public service with educational benefits in the so-called Land of the Brave and Home of the Free closed quotes, it will become yet another competition for young men that the LDS Missionary System will have to compete for.