Sara,

I got your message this morning. Spent over an hour on the phone with some Indians and ended up getting all of my long distances services changed to AT&T and within 3-5 business days I will be able to call you for 67 cents per minute. They do not have a 40 cents per minute option. I had a meeting at 10:00 and so I asked Andrea to stay home from her Tuesday morning scripture study and conference to me. She called me at 11:20 and said you had not called, and so she was going to take a small check to the bank before going to do her mentoring at Mayde Creek High School. I got home at 11:40 and there was a message from you that you called. Oh Well! Andrea called and told me there was another small check at the Post Office, and so she had to go back to the bank, and it would have been better for her to wait at the house until I got home. She felt bad about missing your call. Oh Well!

Riley came last night at 11:00 to pick up his truck and we talked until after midnight. So after eating some lunch, I took a nap (I was up to wake Matt up for seminary at 5:30 and went for a run before seeing your message this morning). I woke up from my nap at 12:50, came in here and there was a message with your phone number. I called, and they only speak French and could not understand my request to talk to you. I think you had left by the time I called. Oh Well!

Four Oh Wells! and it is only 1:00 on Tuesday. Then I wrote most of this e-mail and had a "bus error" and lost it, and so I got to restart the e-mail system and start over. Oh Well!

What is different about a french keyboard? Keys in a different place than the qwerty keyboard?

In response to your question about concepts, from my perception entitlements and morals are key to the difference between democrats and republicans, and between bible belt Christians and latter-day saint Christians (note, like any generalization, this is not consistent across say Texas republicans). Because I think it was a religious difference before a political difference, I will respond from that standpoint, and you can ask me to elaborate if what I say is not clear.

There is a fundamental difference between Christians who believe in grace and those who believe in works. I could quote scriptural references, and I won't, because I don't think it matters to you.

There are many who believe we are saved by only through the grace of Jesus Christ. This interpretation means that every human being who accepts Jesus Christ will go to heaven and everyone who does not accept Jesus Christ the way they think they should will go to hell. The acceptance of Jesus Christ by these groups is a verbal acceptance, and once this verbal commitment has been made, there is no need to worry, the individual is now saved. They are "entitled" to salvation. It doesn't really matter what they do. The Bill Clinton sex scandal is a direct consequence of this philosophy. The US welfare system, food stamps, Medicaid, and other government "entitlements", due to any person, simply because they are born, are extensions of this philosophy.

I could really go off on a tangent here, because the same people who believe people are entitled to these benefits, kill unborn babies through abortion because the baby might be inconvenient to their lifestyle, and they are not willing to take on responsibility for their choices and their actions (and they dress up their choice by calling these murders "the right to choose"). I have been told by these types of people that you should have been aborted, because you were number 5. I vehemently disagree with them.

The other end of the spectrum, and just as damming in my opinion, are those who believe we are saved by works. Here the concept is that if we really have faith in Jesus Christ we will demonstrate that faith by our works. This sentence is fine. However, those who think in terms of "works" tend to blame the poor for their situation, and to say they are poor because they won't do anything about it. The poor simply need to get off their butts and get to work. These folks also tend to say, "I earned it, it is mine, and I should be able to keep it. The government has no right to tax me extra because I have worked harder, and certainly has no right to play Rob and Hood, and take from me and give to some poor person who isn't willing to go out and earn a living."

The Book of Mormon, or see the title page of Prime Words, teaches "for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." Some might call this a watering down of one extreme or the other, and yet it makes a lot of sense to me. The issue is that each of us fall short of the mark, and we all need to rely on the grace of Christ to return to our Heavenly Father. However, just because we each fall short of the mark, it does not give us the right to breach another person's rights (kill, adultery, steal, lie, envy, etc.).

At either end of the spectrum (caricatured by Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon or several presidents of companies I have started or worked with who have had a bad case of CEO-itus), are those who abuse power. Often this abuse is most vividly displayed by sexual perversion and sexual control over subordinates. This moral breach is not just among the business leaders, it is a rampant issue among those who are "socially conscious" and claim to be dedicating their lives for the benefit of the poor and the needy (i.e. the Kennedy's).

There is nothing wrong, in the minds of these men and women, with having sexual relationships outside of marriage. They do not accept as a principle that there are emotional, physical, and social consequences when individuals have sexual relations with anyone other than with their wife or husband whom they are legally and lawfully married to. Affairs, or masturbation, or homosexuality, or virtual sex, or sex before marriage, or other moral perversions are a natural and acceptable part of life to these people. They have no problem taking a young vulnerable intern or subordinate and seducing them. And folks who do this, who do not find a way to turn from their perversion, who do not repent, who do not take advantage of the grace of Jesus Christ and demonstrate by their faith by their works, always have something gnawing at the back of their mind. They can not understand why they can not have a relationship like say Andrea and I have. They put themselves in positions where they can do good things, and attempt to justify their mistakes and choices by the good things they do. And it is good they do good things, until the next time they "loose control" and take advantage of a subordinate or individual who does not have standards to hold on to.

Anyway, you asked, so I answered. You may want to revisit your interest in having my messages posted on a link off of your dialog page.

I find it very interesting you want to to up north. According to my old atlas it will be higher, dryer, just as hot with less rain, and much more religiously fundamental. Sort of like going from Houston to Cedar City in the states, only without e-mail.

I'm sorry we missed your call. If you send an e-mail so we get it by 8:00 in the morning and tell us what time you will be standing by the phone, on most days, either Andrea or I should be able to place a call to you at the time you request. You sound good.

Love,

Dad