I keep trying to organize my thoughts about this whole "Ordain Women" movement. And I'm having a really hard time. For the most part, I don't agree with what they are doing. BUT I do feel for the women who are genuinely trying to find their place in this church. I wrote a blog post
here on my other blog about how I felt sad about the wear pants to church event. I have a few acquaintances who are struggling and I have read their blog and facebook posts and am trying to understand their point of view. Granted, I think there are also some in the movement who are just trying to rile people up, but not all of them are that way.
I read
this article today, and would definitely recommend it. I think the author makes some good points.
The founder of the movement says that women are ready for the priesthood. To which I respond, I am sure not! It is only a handful of women who are involved in this movement, and who are they to speak for the whole body of women of the Church? I also think, even if they/we think we are ready, Heavenly Father really knows if we are, He is all knowing, and keeps some doctrine from us that He knows we aren't ready to learn and do yet.
He (the author of the article I linked above) quotes a Church News writer, who in turn quotes Elder Ballard. I'd like to write the quote, here. (Phrases in quotation marks are the words of Elder Ballard.) (Bolded emphasis is my own.)
Men and women have different but equally valued roles. Just as a woman cannot conceive a child without a man, so a man cannot fully exercise the power of the priesthood to establish an eternal family without a woman. In the eternal perspective, both the procreative power and the priesthood power are shared by a husband and wife. . . . “Why are men ordained to the priesthood offices and not women? . . . When all is said and done, the Lord has not revealed why He has organized His Church as He has.” Women are integral to the governance and work of the Church. “Let us not forget that approximately one-half of all of the teaching that takes place in the Church is done by sisters. . . . Much of the leadership provided is from our sisters.”
Men and women are equal in God’s eyes and in the eyes of the Church, but equal does not mean that they are the same. Although responsibilities and divine gifts of men and women differ in their nature, they do not differ in their importance or influence. “It takes a man and a woman to create a family, and it takes men and women to carry out the work of the Lord in the Church.”
When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is by definition priesthood power. “All who enter the house of the Lord officiate in the ordinances of the priesthood. This applies to men and women alike.”
That is what I believe. I believe that we are all equal, but that equal does not mean "the same". I believe that both the procreative power and the priesthood power must and is shared between a man and a woman, husband and wife. We learn so much in the Temple, and I believe that this is taught there. Some say that women do not have authority in the Church. I don't believe that. Women carry many leadership roles, and have for years. Again, we have different roles, but we can all be leaders. He also quotes Sheri Dew, and I loved what she had to say. (Again, bolded emphasis is my own.)
“Sisters, some will try to persuade you that because you are not ordained to the priesthood, you have been shortchanged. They are simply wrong, and they do not understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. The blessings of the priesthood are available to every righteous man and woman. We may all receive the Holy Ghost, obtain personal revelation, and be endowed in the temple, from which we emerge ‘armed’ with power. The power of the priesthood heals, protects, and inoculates all of the righteous against the powers of darkness. Most significantly, the fullness of the priesthood contained in the highest ordinances of the house of the Lord can be received only by a man and woman together.”
We need to work together, in our different roles, and help and lean on each other.
Some have said, maybe the Lord or the Church leaders haven't revealed or asked about certain things because they have not been asked. I can see that logic, to a degree. Our Church was brought back to the Earth because a 14 year old boy had a question and took it to His Father in prayer. A majority of the sections in the Doctrine and Covenants came from Saints asking questions of Joseph Smith. But that doesn't necessarily mean that that is how revelation always comes. We believe and sustain Thomas S Monson and his counselors as prophets, seers, and revelators. Is is, essentially, their job to communicate with the Lord and teach us His doctrine. It is our job to listen and believe and do what they ask, because they speak as if they were God.
I am not saying that asking questions is wrong. Asking questions can be a huge part of the building up of our own testimony. But we do not need to nit-pick at every little thing in our history or in the doctrine, or wonder why something is or is not the way we would like it to be. That is when we must exercise FAITH and believe that we will some day learn and know all these things as God knows it. We are simply not ready for it, here in our mortal bodies, with our mortal mind. We are not able to comprehend all things right now, nor do we need to.
I am also not saying that we need to be complacent. I am not suggesting that we ideally sit by, or that we blindly follow the prophet. What I am saying is that we need to exercise our faith, and gain testimony of the truths we do have on the Earth today, and that we should follow those truths and doctrines to the best of our abilities.
The author of the article quotes this phrase, "Never lose faith in the things you know, because of the things you don't know."
I know there are many questions yet to be answered, and many things that have not yet been revealed to us, but we must "trust in the Lord with all [our hearts] and lean not under [our] own understanding."
I want to close with the quote that this author closed with, which is one I had never heard before. In his notes he cites it from a devotional given at BYU in 2010, by Elder Glenn L. Pace.
“Sisters, I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and you look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny.”
How beautiful. We need not worry about what the world thinks about our "inequality", we need not worry about sameness. We have different roles for a reason. But together, we can be made perfect in God, and go on to create our own worlds, with our spouses, together. And that is really what all this is about.
A caveat:
Some will say, what about women who are unable to bear children, or who don't have the opportunity to get married in this life? To them I say, our God is a just and merciful God. He will make all things right. Though those trials may be hard in this life, if we keep the commandments and keep our covenants, God WILL make things right. No ifs, ands or buts. If you don't believe that, you do not understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
One more note:
Our stake president in Pocatello spoke on the equality of men and women, and women's divine nature, in the Church twice while I was in the stake. One of my favorite things he said is that because of women's divine nature we are LITERAL partners of Heavenly Father. He didn't delve into that, but I think it is a beautiful thing. He then said that before men can be literal partners, they must be set apart with the priesthood. Again, he didn't go deep into that but he also said that we make covenants in the Temple, by the priesthood, and we are then in partnership with our husband - and with the priesthood. Even though our husband's "hold" the priesthood, they CANNOT have eternal life without us. We are partners in every sense of the word.
