Gordon B. Hinckley's eldest son, as it so happens, is a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, patterned after the 70 missionaries ordained by Christ to assist the apostles. But it was in his capacity as son and priesthood holder that he dedicated his father's grave, just as he probably gave his father a blessing or two during his recent illness. As Kathleen Flake notes, Mormons believe the Church is temporary, while it is the family that is eternal, and that our most important and original relationship to Heavenly Father is as His children.

Positions in the Church are transitory for those outside the 85 positions that are full time, life-long church callings (the 70, the 12 apostles, and the President and his two counselors, also apostles). A leader of a couple thousand Mormons in several congregations in a city like Boston may serve in that capacity for a number of years, but eventually the day comes that he is released and might become, a week later, a Sunday School teacher. That is what happened to Mitt Romney. The positions belong to the Lord and the Church, not to the individual who holds them for a time.

Mormons even have catch phrases that remind them of this. "No other success can compensate for failure in the home," said David O. McKay, president of the Church from 1952 to 1970. That means, very pointedly, not just success in a profession but also in the Church organization. Fathers are reminded that their families come before their church callings.

One thing this viewpoint does is make each congregation function a little like an extended family. The people you attend church with are those who live inside a boundary line drawn at Church headquarters. You don't get to shop around for a better looking bishop. You are stuck with your fellow congregants, just as you are with your brothers and sisters. And we call each other by those titles: Brother Wagstaff and Sister Kumagai, Brother Hernandez and Sister Wisniewski. By learning to put up with each other's shortcomings, and they with ours, we get to practice the real meaning of commandments like, "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Even when she may not seem lovable.

When Newsweek profiled Mitt Romney, it started out by recounting a conversation with Romney about the small church building where his family had attended church for a few years when they first arrived in Michigan. The reporter expected Romney would act like a typical politician and reminisce about the pastor and some homely story told to the youth. Romney didn't because the pastor in that very small group was probably his own Dad. And even if he weren't, it is not the bishops and youth teachers who stick in our memories, that form our lives as Mormons, but our own parents. The bishops come and go, but parents are forever. It is their influence that is the most decisive in forming a young Mormon into an adult Mormon. And Romney has told many stories about the influence of his Dad, who was quite literally the pastor, the religious minister of his family. As is every good Mormon father.

As was Gordon B. Hinckley.