Recently, I read a thoughtful blog post on mormonmonnywriters.blogspot.com
about the Relief Society General broadcast. The post was entitled “In case you thought
Mormons were sexist.”
Based on the title alone, the author was asking for trouble…in
my humble opinion. Perhaps she didn’t
know her blog’s readers as well as she thought she did. Perhaps she didn’t know the 3,000 hits wouldn't all agree with her.
After 64 interesting comments, she closed the comments section for that
post saying… “While I appreciate many of you who have been able to respectfully
share your differing views and contribute to the discussion, the post was
intended as an uplifting and positive message, not as an invitation for
contention. Mormon Mommy Writers is not
a battleground…”
The person called “Anonymous” in comment #3 or #5, depending how you count,
wrote “It does not matter how well the men in the church treat the women, the
point it that the men are in charge and that is the problem. There is no equality unless women are capable
of holding the same leadership positions as men. It’s okay for women to be okay with the
arrangement, and to say they don’t want the top leadership positions anyway,
which is often heard from Mormon women.
But this is not equality.” The anonymous
comment ends with “Just because you don’t mind being second class citizens, or
don’t feel that you are treated as second class citizens by the first class
citizens, does not mean that you are not, in fact, second class citizens.”
The farther you read in the comments the more interesting
they get. You also don’t need to read
them all to know how ugly they’d get. I
think I stopped around comment 20.
In the eyes of the world we are unequal. I think it’s rather harsh and rude to call it
sexist, but women do not hold high offices in our church. I believe by definition that is unequal. Many women are qualified to hold such
offices, but will never be called to hold the keys because they are women.
Through the eyes of the church, we have different
roles. Men hold the priesthood and are to ”preside over their families in
love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life
and protection for their families” while women “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. ”
So…that’s it? The
only responsibility we have that distinguishes ourselves from men is that we nurture
children. Huh. That doesn’t seem like much.
Now that I’m in the full motherhood mode, however, I feel
like, in order to be a successful homemaker, a mother needs the same skills one
needs to run a small country.
But still…motherhood.
That’s it. That’s all that makes
or breaks the success of a woman in the eyes of God.
Well, there are the other things. Faith, Baptism, Repentance, listening and
acting on the promptings of the Spirit, keeping the commandments, temple
service, enduring to the end…but all those things are what the men are expected
to keep up with as well.
The men have the priesthood, the power to act in God’s name,
and we have motherhood…the power to bare and nurture children. Hmmm.
Let’s say that the different roles, which God has set up,
really are equal. What would that mean?
For those of us that see the different roles as unequal, we most
likely don’t fully understand the importance of motherhood. We’ve been told that motherhood is a divine
calling. Motherhood is next to
Godliness. I think that we do have a divine role as
mothers. I’m sure I don’t fully
understand the importance of motherhood, but as I continue to try to be the
best mother I can be, following the teachings of Christ, the scriptures, and the
latter-day prophets, I think I might get a glimpse of its importance.
On the other hand…
Let’s say that God gave the women and men different roles
that He knew were unequal. What would
that mean?
For those of us that have difficulty working with a
presiding priesthood leader that’s not as qualified to fulfill his calling as
we are or another woman we know, we must understand that there is no obvious
answer why the inequality exists and rely on our faith to help us endure to the
end. After the trial of our faith with
much study, prayer, and fasting, we may see line upon line why we have the
duties we have and why men have theirs.
Or God’s a respecter of persons, and we are second class
citizens in the sight of God.
Or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not
true.
Or there is no God.
But there is a God.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint is true, and I believe in
the scriptures that tell us that God is not a respecter of persons. We’re all equally loved in the eyes of
God. Does that resolve the issue of
whether or not there is inequality in our church? No.
Not at all.
I didn’t even touch on women who don’t have children.
Yet, I do know the basic fundimentals of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are
true. I know that Thomas S. Monson is
the prophet who leads the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under the
direction of Jesus Christ. The Book of
Mormon is true. I believe that Heavenly
Father wants me at this time of my life to be a mother, and the best mother I
can be. Motherhood is my greatest
responsibility.
With this testimony, my faith keeps me going, keeps me
trying to be “a doer of the word and not a hearer only.” The more I've tried to live "the faith" the happier I've been.
I know that God lives.
Jesus is the Christ.
Amen.
