I am not a feminist, at least I don't call myself one.
Recently, though, I realized how passionate I am about some
issues that fall under the topic of feminism. I decided I need to
explore feminist ideas to see what I think.
When I went to the
temple to receive my endowment for the first time, I felt offended as a female.
After that initial experience, Ben and I went to the temple every week
for ten months. It took time, effort, and lots of prayers to view things
in a way that didn't feel offensive to me as a female.
Here's what I
think: Our culture and society is part of who we are and how we think.
The United States of America's culture is definitely patriarchal.
Joseph Smith, a young boy, received a revelation to start the church I am
now a part of. Most people thought he was insane. If he would have
been a young girl, though, even less people would have listened.
I believe Heavenly
Father lets us function and move forward with our natural-occurring
misunderstandings and misinformation. Heavenly Father reveals to us only
the things we seek. We don't seek things that we take for granted as
"natural". For example, in our church, black males were given
the Priesthood (the power of God on earth) in 1979. I don't believe
Heavenly Father ever told the prophets prior to '79 to not give the priesthood
to black males. I believe the prophets assumed that black men shouldn't
have it because they lived in a time in which people that were black were
viewed as less than people that were white.
It took a prophet living in a different time with different ideas to question
and pray for revelation about this in order for Heavenly Father to reveal how
things really should be.
I read some of Rough Stone Rolling, the
biography about Joseph Smith. Apparently
it wasn't uncommon for women in the days of Joseph Smith to use the Priesthood
to give blessings. I thought this was a
really neat idea. Why would Heavenly
Father not want all of his children to be able to use his power on earth? Why would he only want males to be able to
have it? I don’t think there are good
answers to these questions.
If one of my kids got seriously hurt and
lay dying and I was alone with him, I would not hesitate to call on Heavenly
Father’s power to heal him, and I do not believe I would be acting out of line.
Ben asked me recently if I am waiting for
it to be revealed that women should have the Priesthood. I am not.
I don’t expect that to happen. I
have never taken that idea seriously, but now I am wondering why not.
I really, really hate that in every lesson
about the Priesthood at church, some woman always makes the comment that women
don’t need the Priesthood because we have the babies. Like the Priesthood and motherhood are equal
and comparable instead of being two totally different things! Often I think the point of these comments is
that men need the Priesthood to be humbled and made more righteous and closer
to Heavenly Father. Women have
motherhood that does that. Or, some of
them may even be implying that women are superior and don’t need anything to be
made closer to Heavenly Father, which is just idiotic and untrue. There are certain things that are just said
at church that actually make no sense, but somehow we have heard them so many
times that we don’t realize how dumb they are.
I actually think the idea of women not
being allowed the Priesthood would be more troubling if our ministry was
paid. Most normal people don’t seek
positions in our church because there is no financial compensation for the
positions and the work for the positions has to come out of each person’s
already limited time. If people could
seek jobs at church as their careers, it would be more limiting for women to
not be allowed certain positions.
I do not like the idea that motherhood is
a punishment for Eve eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Yes, motherhood is hard and childbirth is
painful, but I don’t view Heavenly Father as a jerk. I think you would have to view Heavenly
Father as a jerk to really believe this.
It is offensive if anyone really thinks this is true.
I don’t know if there is a Heavenly
Mother. The idea makes sense, but why
don’t we hear about her? Why don’t we
talk about her? I think the commonly
passed around idea that we don’t talk about her in order to be respectful is
offensive. As a mother, if my kids never
talked to me or about me or acknowledged me in any way, I wouldn’t feel
loved. I would feel unloved and
unappreciated. Ben, as my husband, would
know this and would not encourage behavior that made me feel this way. So why would Heavenly Father? I don’t think Heavenly Father has encouraged
this. I think church leaders, men, have
not sought revelation regarding this issue, at least not that’s been made
public. I think we can seek our own
revelation for our own sake.
I don’t spend my time feeling like less of
a person in my church because of my gender because I believe what I have been
taught-my role is different but equally important. It is sad to me, though, that I have had to
work to see my role as equally important, which is something men have never had
to do. I think there are more concerns for raising a daughter in this church
than a son. I think there is a lot of untrue and inappropriate
propaganda at church that is presented as fact and truth. I definitely don’t like to hear stupid people
say stupid stuff that makes no sense and shows no sign of actual thinking.
Much more to come!
