Women and Priesthood

Actually, I have been leading up to this one for a while.

I mention that partly because I will refer to earlier posts, but also because yesterday I saw a post going around on Facebook that a lot of people were liking, but I thought it was stupid and trivialized the whole issue. So, this post is not a response to that.

(However, I do have two things I want to cover and a post that will probably be titled "Stupid Mormon Tricks" and maybe I will add a third. However, I don't know if I will treat those in one post, or separately, or whether they will come before or after "Stupid Creationist Tricks".)

Like a lot of the points that we make, my concern is often that we are thinking about it in the wrong way.

That does not always lead to unhappiness. For example, I have heard many women say that they don't want to priesthood, saying it in a way that sounds like they feel it would be too much pressure.

I don't think we should view holding the priesthood as a burden. It's a responsibility, and a call to service, but we all have responsibilities, and calls to service, and often having the priesthood or not does not lead to a big change in how that service happens or feels.

I have also heard that women don't need the priesthood, because it is men who need the extra help. I suspect all of those things get said as a way of compensating for that feeling that women not getting the priesthood means they are somehow less. There is nothing in the Gospel that backs this up, but there are two things we need to look at.

First, remember the lack of hierarchy. You don't make money of your callings. There's not really prestige to them. A priesthood holder does not lay hands on himself. Section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants is great for this, but let me just quote verse 37:

"That they (the rights of the priesthood) may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man."

We should know that there is no inequality implied between men and women in the Gospel, but where we might lose sight of that is if you are dealing with everyday chauvinists. They are around.

I have heard much worse stories from more rural, backward places, where that would be the rule for the community at large, regardless of religious affiliation. I know that there are many who do believe men are superior to women, and they could easily take the priesthood issue as an endorsement.

That is frustrating, but church doctrine needs to be based on Gospel principles, not the fact that there are many idiots. I mean, the Gospel has a lot of accommodation of idiots built in, as it does for all of us sinners, but it can't change something that has a divine purpose to serve an infernal purpose.

Coming to terms with various Gospel principles is a very personal thing. You may have one understanding now, and it works for you, and later on you will find that you were missing something, and that's okay. That's why there has been the focus on remembering personal revelation, and that it is not always your turn, and all of those things.

That being said, I am going to suggest one reason that women do not have the priesthood is so that we need men.

The Gospel is all about coming together. We form families and form wards. We do family history to bind the generations together. No one person is supposed to be completely sufficient to themselves.

You can do a lot of speculation. Maybe because Eve took the initiative in partaking of the fruit (which we consider to have been a good and necessary thing), maybe that's why men have to lead now - because it comes too naturally to women. Maybe men are spiritually weaker and have the priesthood and have to do spiritual things, and women are physically weaker but they give birth and nurse and do physical things, because we are here to do things that are hard for us, so we grow. Maybe there are many small things that work well with it happening this way, and they combine into one pretty good reason.

I don't need to know all the nuances. Pondering them can lead to good insights, and so that can be valuable.

What is most important is keeping my heart right with God, which is my responsibility. The tools that I need to know that something is right, and to get guidance for how to work with it, and to feel peace, are all there.