Do women need to be liberated within the LDS church?
Question
Gramps,
Growing up in the 60’s I clearly understood feminism and its intent. However, a good friend of mine asked me my thoughts and position on Mormon feminism. Honestly, I had no idea how to answer her. Being a life-long member of the Church it never occurred to me that I was missing something as it relates to the gospel’s position on the roll of men and women. Why do I women think they need to be liberated within the church?
Cherie
Answer
Cherie
I am not quite sure I am following exactly what your question is. If we were talking face to face I would ask more questions to see if I fully understood what your concern is. However this format doesn’t really allow for that, so I am going to take my best guess at what I think you are asking. If I get it wrong please accept my apologies for misunderstanding.
Out in the world we are taught that ‘different is not equal’ . This is in our laws. This law came to be, because people would see differences between themselves and someone else. They would try to capitalize on those differences as a sign of divine favor, or superiority, and, in general, a license to suppress or harm those who are different. Some of these differences can be and have been things like race, gender, nationalities, and religion. It can also be trivial things like favorite sports teams or brand of drink. Clearly such thoughts need to be countered strongly.
The world counters this tendency by trying to homogenize everything and everyone. They want all to be exactly the same, trying to enforce through law and social pressure that there is no difference. They have accomplished much good in their effort. However they approach it differently than God does.
God has created each person to be different. Different strengths, different weaknesses, different experiences. But unifying all these differences is that we are all His children, and none of our differences make us superior or better in his eyes then any of our fellow brothers and sisters. God then expects us and teaches us to come together, to lend our strengths to all who might need it, to allow others to help and support us where we are weak, so that we can all be one with the Lord.
Paul covers this quite a bit in 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 which reads
12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
14 For the body is not one member, but many.
15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:
25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
The system that the world uses and the system that God uses are not compatible. The world would try to make everyone the eye, or the ear, or the head, in a very Christ-like effort to make sure no one is suppressed or afflicted by those that might think they are better or superior. But there is a very real difference in dealing with a member that has ‘taken honor unto themselves’ and trying to pull down the whole system that God has set up.
Now to the issues of the differences between the genders. The Lord has been very clear about the importance of both and the necessity of both. The Apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 11:11 Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
Then in The Family Proclamation To The World we learn this about some of the different roles of men and women and the importance of both of them.
By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation.
It is clear that the Lord expects everyone to have different strengths and weakness, and He also expects and allows for individual adaptation when circumstances alter the typical balance of differences. Now there are many that like to belittle or hold as unimportant the role women can and should play. I find that this talk by Elder Ballard addresses this fallacy very well. You can read about it here.
I think it very clear what the Lord and His Church think about this issue. Individual members, of course, might have different ideas, but in those cases they need to be corrected and taught true principles. This is the case for any gospel principle a person might struggle with.
Gramps
I have often heard that the Church treats women as second-class citizens, but that has not been my experience as a woman. I am a convert to the Church and it wasn’t until I became a member that I felt truly valued simply for being a woman. The world tells me that I can do whatever a man can do and that if I don’t attempt to prove that, then I am not living up to my full potential. The Gospel teaches that I have value as a woman because I am a daughter of God, that the very traits and abilities that make me different from a man have value in and of themselves. I do not feel that I need to be “liberated”. I already was when I discovered the Gospel and the Church!
There is a fantastic book just out be Sheri Dew called “Women and the Priesthood”. It covers this subject in depth. I would recommend it for further study on this subject.
I’m not a woman, so I can’t speak to what it’s like to be woman in the Lord’s restored Church. But as I’ve pondered this topic, I’ve received some insights that I believe might help. One insight is that the Spirit of the Lord is never going to lead you to push the envelope. The attributes described in Mosiah 3:19, which all of us should be striving to emulate, describe what the Spirit of the Lord will lead us to do, think, and become: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive,
meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things
which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth
submit to his father.” The world’s ways are not the Lord’s ways. The world would work from the outside in. The Lord works from the inside out. “Now I would that ye should remember that God has said that the inward vessel shall be cleansed first, and then shall the outer vessel be cleansed also.”(Alma 60:23) We’ve always had our critics, and those who would seek to try to promote change via persecution, antagonism, and by “pushing the envelope”. As Elder McConkie once said: “Please do not put too much stock in some of the current views and
vagaries that are afloat, but rather, turn to the revealed word, get a
sound understanding of the doctrines, and keep yourselves in the
mainstream of the Church.” So that’s one insight. Another one is that women having the priesthood is simply not how the Lord has set things up in His church. Part of the rationale, as far as I understand it, that was given by the group of sisters who demanded they get the priesthood, a conference or two ago, was that they were asking if it was the right time for the brethren to ask the Lord if they could be given the priesthood. To be both blunt and direct, those sisters had no idea how revelation actually works. It’s not about asking questions. It’s about asking inspired questions. Questions that the Holy Ghost puts into your mind and heart, as you seek for that inspired question. So those are some of the insights that came to me, I hope they’re helpful to someone else.
Women have held more power historically than they do now. For example, on January 7, 1944, the Quorum of the Anointed vote one-by-one to expel William Law. The women voted on an equal basis.Obviously, this is something that would never happen today. The reason that woman might want to have the priesthood is because the concept of different but equal does not apply when decisions are made at higher levels.
I believe you meant 1844 not 1944. 🙂
Liz,
Sorry for the delay for getting back on this I needed to do a bit of research I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight.
The Quorum of the Anointed was a group of men and women who were chosen by Joseph Smith to be the first people to receive their Temple Ordinances in Nauvoo. This group was gathered together to discuss and decide on spiritual matters. They did not have an official administrative function. Back then terminology of the church was not standardized like it is today. Today in the Church, Quorums reference priesthood organizations, but back then it really just meant a group. Today we would probably call it the Council of the Anointed or the Committee of the Anointed. The church has many councils and committees. Women are very much a part of these today as the women were a part of the Quorum of the Anointed.
Now you cite the specific case of William Law. Brother Law fought being excommunicated from the Church. Brother Law was also a member of the Quorum of the Anointed. During his fight against excommunication his membership in the Quorum of the Anointed was also brought up. As you correctly noted everyone (men and women) had a voice in expelling him from the Quorum. Please note that many confuse this with him being excommunicated from the church. That was not a power Quorum of the Anointed had. The excommunication was handed later by the church courts.
In the Church’ modern day committees and councils by design and intent everyone (men and women) are to have a say. Any leader who ignores or silences the women on their committees and councils is shooting themselves in the foot. They are running counter to the will of the Church in such matters. The whole point is to have many different voices and opinions and ideas so that the best one can found.
The women in the church have not lost anything they had in the Quorum of the Anointed. They are part of all kinds of councils and committees from the Ward level and up. Any leader who ignores them acting under a personal bias would stand in need of correction.
Speaking from the viewpoint as a professional researcher, I can only offer the following observance – not really much of an “opinion”: We are seeing the results of the last 30 years of American and western media portraying men and women in a one-sided manner: female smart, men stupid and irrelevant. In nearly all TV shows, movies, advertisements, Facebook posts etc, women are being portrayed as the domninant, intelligent gender and men are increasingly portrayed as cavemen who need to be educated, corrected, babied, and “taught lessons” to demasculate them. It has indeed reached the point of “man-bashing” which is being packaged and sold as “humor”. Even now, few are recognizing this for what it is and on what level it has saturated the media. In the media, gone are the chivilrous days of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and noble men rescuing the damsel in distress – this has been replaced with such gender confusion as armor-clad, sword-wielding women who rescue befuddled, depressed, uneducated, and dysfunctinal men. Can you name the last Disney movie where a male role was portrayed as the rescuing hero (think carefully)? Or where Fathers or husbands played virtually any role whatsoever? Consider the brainwashing effect this has not just on young women, but young men as well. Gender is under attack by the adversary in ways it never has been before, and has been brilliantly packaged and sold as “humor” more than any other form. The rumored “female liberation” movement in the church we are increasingly hearing about (a media-driven movement) is a result of this now decades-long brainwashing effect that our new culture of man-bashing has produced. Clarity: The only way women can be “liberated” in the church is the same way for men to be “liberated” – by either leaving the church or corrupting Gospel doctrine, both of which only serve earthly whims based on pride and ultimately serve satan’s goal. Men and women are designed to be perfect equals in partnership and union. Heavenly Father knew what he was doing in creating genders, associated roles, gifts, blessings, and responsibilities.