Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

KiwiMormon

Home
About

Home
Latter-day Saint
Cheating LDS Young Women – Again

Cheating LDS Young Women – Again

Last updated on: December 22, 2017 at 6:48 am by Gina Colvin

Cheating LDS Young Women – Again 2017-12-22T06:48:24+13:00 Gina Colvin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Conformity from EthicsAlarms.com

When I was a Laurels’ class president I was invited to a conversation with the General Young Women Presidency who were touring New Zealand. I was free to come with my questions.

So I said to them: “The boys have priesthood ordination, missions, home-teaching, and access to the temple. Young Women have Personal Progress. What do we really have to look forward to in the church except for marriage? And what if we don’t want to get married or we want to do other things with our lives before marriage? There are no milestones in the church for us. We just get to watch the boys get special treatment.”

To their credit, they didn’t try and fudge things. Nor did they explain gender inequality in the church with some trite aphorism. They went quiet and listened attentively.

Eventually, Sister Kapp replied, “This is a great question. You make a fair point. We are going to take this back to Salt Lake City and have a conversation with the Brethren about it.”

I optimistically thought that everything would change in the time it would take for her to get back to Utah and call a meeting.

That was over 30 years ago and I’m still waiting.

Yesterday it was announced, with expectations of ‘rejoicing’, that Young Women would now be permitted to participate in the administrative activities of the Temple Baptistry, while 16-17-year-old Young Men will be allowed to perform proxy baptisms.

I imagined myself as a young woman again.

I felt the resentment boiling over as from the sidelines I see myself holding towels while my male peers ‘officiate.’ Being baptized by a 16-year-old ‘priest’ who gets to hold me under water, rub up against my body, and see the shape of my body under clinging wet clothing is another horror I imagined. But I feel that familiar sensation of indignity as one by one those boys drop their wet towels behind them in a gush of dripping triumph while I stoop to pick them off the floor. I am pretty confident that I would have been furious at this injustice posturing as gender equality.

But in truth, isn’t this yet another church context in which females are asked to be an appreciative and supportive audience to Mormon masculinity and patriarchy?

Of course, Young Women aren’t taught to see this inequality as a slight on their gender. Mormon girls and women are taught that they are equal but different. Much like Jesus’s supposed subordination to the Father on the cross, God’s plan is for female subordination to the male priesthood. We are told this is a good thing.

“Women are off the hook,”we are told.

“All you have to be is obedient to the men and if they get it wrong then that’s on them!” We are reassured.

“You get it good because you won’t be subject to the same levels of divine disapproval that the menfolk are!” We are instructed.

“Women can have babies and that is as good as the priesthood!!”

“Women are more spiritual, compassionate, nurturing, etc. and they don’t need the priesthood as much as males who by nature are lazy, incompetent dumbasses. If women had the priesthood their goodness and ability would overshadow the men and the men would all leave the church because there’d be nothing for them to do!”

Of course, this is all sexist hogwash and bunkum. The ‘equal but different’ argument is Christianity’s dirty not so secret, secret and betrays the way in which the Jesus movement was and continues to be interpreted through a hermeneutics of patriarchy and empire. It reminds us of the Jim Crow laws of the American South that imposed segregation. The adage, ‘equal but separate’ is a social poison that has produced no good thing – anywhere.

I sniffed out something off in the nature of gender things in Mormonism when I was 17. The LDS church is fecund with sexism and this new policy has caused me to wonder how I would have felt about this alteration in temple roles if I was a young woman again. What would I have said to myself to make it OK for me to be put on towel dispensing duty while the Young Men got to do the work of ordinance officiation?

And that has aroused so many questions in me.

I’ve been a Young Women’s President at least five times that I can remember, and I can’t for the life of me figure out how on Earth I would look a young Laurel Gina in the eye and tell her she doesn’t have the right to the same religious opportunities as the boys. What would I have to be thinking to make that right for her? It strikes me that I’d really have to believe that God never intended for females to be expressive of any spiritual yearning outside of male desire.

And if that’s the case, why would I ask her to worship that God?

Mormon priesthood IS masculinity and patriarchy posturing as God.

And that God, as it turns out, is a poor metaphor for the Divine.

Mormon feminist politics

Mormons feminism

New Zealand Mormon Feminist Thought

Ordain Women

Previous Post

November 20, 2017

Not Enough

Next Post

January 1, 2018 Out-of-the-Box in 2018

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Thoughtful Faith Adultery Apostasy Brigham Young BYU Church Culture Church Leadership Clergy Sex Abuse Community of Christ Divorce Excommunication faith crisis Faith Development Heavenly mother Heresy Indigenous Mormon James Fowler Jesus Christ John Dehlin Joseph Smith Kate Kelly LDS Church Politics LDS doctrine LDS Essays LGTB Maori Mormon marriage and family Mitt Romney Mormon church discourse Mormon church history Mormon Conservatism Mormon corporate culture Mormon Cultural Identity Mormon feminist politics Mormon finances mormon matters podcast Mormon Political Economy Mormons feminism New Zealand and US Mormonism New Zealand Mormon Culture New Zealand Mormon Feminist Thought New Zealand temple Official Declaration Two Ordain Women Pastoral Theology for Mormons phillip barlow Polygamy Practical Theology Prayer Protect LDS Children Racism in the LDS church Sexual Abuse temple recommend temple recommend interview Temples tyranny of certainty Uncategorized why mormons leave

Select a Month April 2020 December 2019 March 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 June 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 March 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 August 2016 May 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 March 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What destroyed Pharaoh's army as they pursued the Israelites?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Fire from heaven Plague of locusts The sea Earthquake