I have heard the term correlation many times on this and other boards. I hate to admit this, but I have a rather poor understanding of it.

What exactly is it ? Is it like a committee that decides things? Sort of a middle management? If so, doesnt that largely negate the need for Prophets, Apostles, 70's etc?

Why have those callings if the real thinking is done by committee? Wouldnt it just be as easy to have some sort of supreme council and let that be the upper echelon of church?

Correlation is fancy term for damage control. Everything in the church is correlated, meaning tied together in a structured way. All the manuals are given to all the members at the same time across the world in order to increase unity and control and also to counteract dissent among those who would care to bring up things that would damage the church, such as church history, deep doctrine, faulty doctrine and bad social/cultural ramifications stemming from the church. All of everything is done under priesthood direction, including the teaching of relief society, (which makes zero sense), in order to stop dissent and an open discussion of issues that would tear down the church. (We all know how fragile most people's faith is. It is built on faulty assumptions that the person next to you actually believes the crap that is taught in church). Of course, this has also seeped into social interactions and events and has caused everything to be correlated back to the church. This means that all social interactions must be based on the church and include at least a prayer, but are typically supplemented by a spiritual thought, which causes the church to seethe into ALL aspects of society in the Mormon corridor. This is probably the main cause of false friendships or the entire lack of them, since we have no time to talk about our OWN lives and interests and would have to lie anyway, since we are at a church function. We all know how social life in happy valley does not really exist without the crux of the church, so therefore all interactions become church based. Dogma, assimilation, coercion and so forth are the negative aftereffects of correlation. It is used so that the church can reach its tentacles into every aspect of your life and control you, just like we all know is one of its primary purposes. Hope I cleared that up.

Correlation was the resulting monster of David O McKay trying to get the church manuals synchronized. In the 1950's the Relief Society, Sunday School, and Primary were stand alone organizations who owned their own assets, had their own budgets, and printed their own manuals.

When the prophet discovered there were discrepancies in the manuals he set up a correlation committee to make sure the manuals were the same. He put Harold B. Lee in charge of it.

In time, the manual correlation project grew into a huge monster that took over the whole church and ruined anything that was remotely good in Mormonism.

Correlation is the Frankenstein's monster of the church.

Good quick history lesson from Rubicon and a nice analysis of correlation's psychological impact and contribution to the church's mind control.

Church really just turns into a time where people probably want to meet each other and make friends, but the entire time, everyone is staring straight ahead, like gnats to a light. Social interactions are best done with people FACING EACH OTHER. How many times has there been where you tried to talk to someone, but the church is there to distract you from talking and draws your attention to, of course, the church. There is not very much time for social interaction, except between meetings, which is hurried and superficial, with people feeling like they have to be somewhere. This causes people's attention or feet to point in a different direction, like out the door, which makes people cut off any resemblance of a conversation that was once started. Add to the fact that church is 3 long hours, and most people are tired and want to go home. But the only thing that really matters to the church is the church anyway. Seriously, if the church were conducted in a group circle, apostasy would immediately result, since you would finally be able to see the looks of disgust on people's faces upon hearing such insulting nonsense all the time.

Damn, Rubicon, that was an awesome explanation. So much simpler. I didn't really know the hardcore facts, just the negative results and general assumptions.

It does not imply causation, though most mormons believe it does.

from a grass roots local group with lots of variety and options into a monolith where the only function of the locals is to send money to the top.

Correlation is actually very disturbing. One of the effects of correlation is that every lesson/gen. confrence talk (and most sacrement talks) boil down to one of 72 topics that are "blessed" by the correlation commitee (Last I heard it was 5 guys and no gen. authorities on the commitee, however it is "overseen" by a gen authority).

The realy disturbing effect is that most mormons will never see the actual talks and lessons taught by the founders of thier faith. Instead what they get is quotes from those talks (possibly out of context) to make it appear that there is a harmony between what was taught at the founding of the church to today.

The end result is a church full of spiritually stunted individuals that are bored out of thier minds at church because after 2 years they have literally heard every lesson they will ever hear for the rest of thier lives. How can a member expect to grow and progress if they are only ever fed "milk" and never "meat". Some members will assert that the temple holds the "meat" of the gospel, but there is never a clear explanation of what is taught in the temple or the meaning of the various aspects of the ceremony so the "meat" of the gospel remains a mystery to most mormons who believe if they attend the temple enough times (read: continue to pay tithing) eventually they will recieve this knowledge.

We could see where this was headed years ago.

I can remember DH saying to HT, so sincere that there were tears in his eyes, "There is so much RICHNESS in the Gospel!! Why aren't we ever allowed to talk or hear about it any more?"

HT just said, "Well, it's all up to the Brethren."

DH is still a devout believer, but inactive for years and thoroughly disgusted with the diluted, repetitive drivel being spouted week after endless week at church. He just couldn't take it any more.

When you alienate the true believers, I think you are headed for trouble.

We might disturb the other two wards having meetings in the various classrooms.

Ha-ha! I sat on the stand every Sunday, and you're right about seeing the looks of disgust and boredom on people's faces. Watching the audience was the only interesting thing about those meetings: men furtively trying to keep track of a sports event on their devices, people with their day-planners, kids passing notes back and forth, old folks sleeping and pretending to be thinking, teens grooming their hair or nails, couples fondling each other (I had to avert my eyes sometimes.) The little children were the best, though, because they let it all hang out, until they finally broke down crying or in a tantrum. Who could blame them.

Three hours is just too long to endure.

I was transported back for a moment. What agony. Great answers.

Thank you all for your replies. Thank you for the true history of correlation.

It just seems so sad. Where Correlation has basically devolved the church into something rather drab, mind-numbing and uninspiring.

You had a general topic, like "Cultural Refinement" was the third week of the month, and I was called as the teacher for that aspect of Relief Society. It was up to me to pick which of the lessons I wanted to offer. We were encouraged to liven the lessons up with personal anecdotes, our testimonies, bringing in art and music from the library, etc.

In other words, your calling was an expression of your own contribution to others. It was fun. You learned about your fellow members while you learned interesting skills and expanded your knowledge of the world.

All that ended with correlation. We were specifically told NOT to "embellish" the lessons, that they were inspired of the Lord and there would be lots of "enrichment" available to us to make our jobs easier.

Needless to say, the watered down lessons were far less interesting than learning from each other.

I used to show the sisters how to make gluten in the washing machine, how to cook corn in the dishwasher, how to organize socks in laundry bags where you never had to match them--they washed right in the bag, and how to make everlasting crocheted slippers where you just rip out the soles when they got holes and stitched in a new sole. The other sisters had great ideas they shared and it was the highlight of my week.

Interestingly, we were all asked to turn in our teaching materials. They also wanted back all the old Family Home Evening manuals. Like a recall of a faulty product.

Too bad.


Anagrammy

What my old Bishop would call "correlation meeting" was a once a month Sunday meeting when we'd get together with EQ, RS, Primary, Sunday School, etc. presidencies and "correlate". That's the only correlation I've ever known. But I'm finding out so many things since I left TSCC, learning something new everyday :)