Monday, July 13, 2009

Real work gets done beneath the legislative meetings

The Communications legislative committee completed its work this morning, having perfected and adopted all our resolutions. One set of issues was difficult for us, because they arose out of some hard feelings among various constituencies in the Church. One of our members said that s/he didn't like the legislation because it had put our committee in the difficult role of "mediator," which is not our role. Another deputy on the committee said tome privately that good legislation never rises out of people's being "pissed off."

I agree that good working relationships cannot be legislated. And trying to "strong-arm" other people through legislation is a really bad idea. However, as a tribute to our"formidable" process, our polity, we heard many voices telling hard stories. We tried to incorporate the underlying issues into our perfected resolution, and in some ways, we have managed to provide a bridge on which people of various opinion and perspective could talk and listen.

We don't know whether the particular piece of legislation will even make it to the floor of Convention, but we believe that through prayer and the Holy Spirit, we have in fact done some real work that will last beyond our committee. It's a little bit of grace that shines through all of the activity and higher-profile issues.

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