I'm confused about the term "Correlation". What is it? Who started it? I hear that term a lot, and I hear that it was bad for Church members, but I'm confused. I've heard it has something to do with creating the three hour block on Sundays, but I'm not sure what that means.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2019 07:47AM by behindcurtain.

I remember this too. I don’t know, and it’s not listed on their website as an official meeting...

I think it carries different connotations and contexts in the cult. There is "ward correlation" where leaders of the auxilliaries (i.e. Relief Society, Priesthood, Young Men, Young Women, Primary, Ward Mission Leader, etc) get together once a month to litterally pick people apart, gossip about them, diagnos perceived mental impairments, and basically have a gossip session. That meeting was the most uncomfortable gawdless meeting that I have ever experienced. Then there's other "correlation" meetings. In general, the word applies to various administrative groups within a ward, stake, regional, or general entity - getting together to "correlate", i.e. goal setting, accounting performance, discussion on stats, etc.

One of the biggest changes to the church involved the flow of tithing. Bishops used to be more autonomous with their collected tithes. They had a bigger budget for local needs of the ward and more of that money was spent on fun activities: plays, dances, recitals, roadshows, socials. The Relief Society collected their own monies to spend on themselves. Now the biggest down side was if the wards or stakes wanted to construct a new building. Then the members would have to kick in additional funds (beyond tithing) to the ward's building fund. (My Mom fondly remembers getting hit up for additional monies during tithing settlement and asking "Well what am I supposed to feed my son Messy? A bag of cement?" Apparently, I was promised to play all I wanted in the construction's sand piles.

So correlation reversed the money flow so most of it went to SLC and only a fraction stayed behind. Nearly all of the activities disappeared if they were too much fun. The church also moved to coordinate its lessons, teachings and doctrines so that the same lesson/theme would be taught on any church throughout the world. Music was also part of the correlation. Whimsical hymn about nature were tossed out, and a lot of junk like McConkie crap was added. Correlation really emphasized the importance of obeying CHURCH POLICY. Handbooks were created for every church calling that detailed how to act, think and respond to every potential situation. Primary and ym/yw became more "spiritually" orientated. The youth used to recite the articles of faith before being promoted into the youth programs. A lot more interviews to determine worthiness were part of the scheme. The fun was wiped off the agenda.

In my ward these activities got the axe after correlation.

Green and Gold ball
Relief Society Bazaar (A rummage sale)
Monthly movie night (used by the youth to raise money)
Monthly ward dinners
Seasonal Activities. (Christmas party, Halloween Party, Summer Picnic etc)
Ward Garden (a vacant lot used to raise veggies that were sold)

Youth "Road Shows"

Messy and Heartless got it right.
Before correlation wards could have a sort of "local" flare. Some affluent wards could throw some nice parties. SLC decided they had to made everything uniform worldwide, so correlation came out and every ward around the world does the same thing. Same lesson, same week. No more local fun--dances, roadshows, bazaars- only boring church in each meeting house.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priesthood_Correlation_Program

According to this article, it has a surprisingly long history. I think it got a major upgrade when The Men coopted Relief Society in the 1979s

the confusing euphemism "correlation" that is favored by the Church bureaucracy.

Just as the word "sacred" is misused to mean "secret"...

Just as the word "revelation" is misused to mean whatever the CEO of Mormonism thinks is a good idea at the moment...

Just as a "patriarchal blessing" is not given to you by someone who is actually a patriarch in your family lineage...

Just as "salvation" can actually be a form of damnation...

Mormonism's abuse of language is something that would probably astonish and surprise even George Orwell.

The word "correlation" has often been used in the church to refer to various programs for coordination between different units and organizations. THE BIG CORRELATION program that you are no doubt referring to was a program that was started by Harold B. Lee. It was not really a program for two-way communication and coordination (as the word would seem to imply), but rather was a top-down, sweeping, program of standardization that focused on centralizing all power and authority into the hands of a tiny few committees (under the FP and Q12) in Salt Lake City.

Here's a good summary:

--> "The movement began in 1960, when Harold B. Lee, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS church, took over a committee formidably titled the All-Church Coordinating Council. Their mandate was to coordinate the curricula of the church’s various programs—youth organizations, Sunday school, and so on—and eliminate overlap. But Lee, a talented administrator and forceful personality, had grander visions than simply curbing waste. Over the next decade, he successfully revamped the church’s organizational chart, consolidating governance in the Quorum of the Twelve and stripping independent authority from the women’s association, the Sunday school, and the youth programs. He also established a system of review for all publications produced in the church, from hymnbooks to Sunday school manuals to periodicals. This material is now surveyed for theological accuracy and adherence to various church goals. If it is given the official stamp of approval it is deemed 'correlated'."

https://slate.com/human-interest/2012/04/mormon-correlation-the-bureaucratic-reform-policy-that-redefined-mormon-culture.html

Notice that it was not simply a power grab vis-a-vis wards/congregations at the local level, but it was also a power grab vis-a-vis other departments, divisions and programs within the overall system of church management.

By analogy, it was like there was a nationwide "Association of Restaurant and Diner Owners" who were committed to following certain sound principles for owning and operating clean, safe, family-friendly restaurants and diners, but still allowing for independent local management, independent menu decision, independent decor and building design decisions etc.... One day it gets bought out by MacDonald's and all of the members of the Association have no choice but to standardize everything according to the MacDonald's business model. (Of course in a voluntary association, many would simply leave, but under the authority hierarchical structure of LDS, Inc., that was not an option.)

It's one size fits all baby, from here to eternity! Send all your money to the Church Office Building and they'll decide what fraction of that, if any, they will send back to you to fund your local programs and activities.

Basically, it changed one of the key operative assumptions of the church with regard to local activities and programs from "whatever is not expressly prohibited is permitted" ... TO ... "whatever is not expressly permitted is prohibited."

about correct principles and self-governance? It goes something like: "I teach them correct principles, and they [the members of the church] govern themselves."

Mormons love that quote because it makes them feel like empowered, intelligent human beings instead of like mindless sheep being herded from field to field at the whim of their leaders.

Well, it was always a suspect quote. Joseph Smith and his successors have always been control freaks.

But after correlation, they basically threw away all pretenses in actual practice.

Now instead of "we teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves" the attitude most exhibited by the top leadership appears to be: "we don't bother teaching them correct principals because they're too stupid, and we can't allow them to govern themselves."

They can’t even allow them to talk to each other, like back during the three-hour block. They were losing too many that way.

Missionary supplemental payments

For families supporting their son/daughter on a church mission. The amount used to vary depending on what part of the world they would serve. Some of the missionary farewell talks referenced about their cost. "I am so thrilled to be going to Honduras because the cost of living is minimal. I look forward to eating a lot of rice and beans." Others were almost in tears because they had been called to Japan and it had a 600-700 a month payment. I remember one single mom in tears during f/t because she couldn't afford to send the monthly payment (She was laid off from work, a well to do member stepped up and made the payments so the son could finish an honorable mission). Correlation created an equalization plan so everybody's mission cost the same regardless of where a person was sent. I think it's going up to 500 a month come January.

When I was a toddler I gained a powerful testimony of the Cheerios in Nursery. And thanks to how the Church's Correlation department has overseen that all the manuals for Primary, Sunday School, YM/YW, and everything are all well-correlated I've been able to be nurtured and get a good washing of my brain by immersion in the way the Correlation program wants so I am now the wondrous thinker about everything in life.

So what do I think? Obedience to the Holy Nelson without ever allowing a single solitary doubt to enter my mind. Isn't this marvelously peculiar? If it wasn't for Correlation then I might do something risky, like ask a "why" question, because people who ask questions like that tend to drop out of our wondrous Church.

For example, its unthinkable to ever not pay tithing because of some "why" question coming to my mind. Instead I just pray, pay, and obey. Oh and I also have to try to be a good member missionary by going and yelling at all the gentile neighbors that they should get assimilated into this beloved Church because its true - i.e. super honest/transparent.

I think it became widespread in the 1990s because mediocrities and power trippers like Boyd Packer got hardons dreaming about being able to control every aspect of mormon lives.

"Correlation" is simply shorthand for Soviet-style central command over church beliefs and activities. *Everything* is top-down and has to be cleared through the mormon Politburo.

I was a relatively young man called as ward clerk. At the time, the ward membership data program operated on a primitive modem system. While the church's data program monitored what changes you made to the records, SLC data was always correct until YOU submitted a changed data report. Every ward/branch had to mail a monthly data reconciliation report and some church data entry clerk would make the official changes on their hub. I had to BEG the bishop for postage (this dot matrix report cost about 7 bucks) to send. Well one month, the bishop was just a bit cranky and told me to figure it out. He really hoped that I would eat it and pay it out of my lousy retail job paycheck.

A-ha! So clever. The financial clerk came to the rescue! He gave me a pre-paid mailing pouch that was provided for FREE by the church's financial records division (aka tithing). So he helped me cover up the financial address and re-write the membership address. Ah, we were so smart and resourceful. Off it went through the mail and I forgot about it.

About six weeks later I got a curious phone call to report immediately to the stake center. I had a sinking feeling that something was not right. It was Thursday night and the high council were seated. In the middle of this table was a bigger package that was already opened. The church paid money to return the package to my stake. There was another set of 3 letters that addressed the stake leaders to "correct" the errant ways of a misguided ward clerk.

Two of the letters were required to be sent back to SLC. One was from "Bob", the head honcho of church records. The other was sent by a member of the 70 and oversaw by Tom Perry. The letters included the detailed handbook of ward clerk's duties and protocols. The part of using ward funds to MAIL the envelope were highlighted in case I was too stupid to follow their directions.

What happened?

I failed to cover up the routing marks at the bottom of the envelope. Instead of hand delivering the misdirected envelope and package, it was brought to the attention of the church officials. The worst part was that the bishop denied knowing about my "scheme" to cause trouble. He said, "I had know idea that Messy would engage in such a penny-pinching plan and deliberately use the wrong mailers."

I think the church easily spent $20 to prove that I was in the wrong.