My Thoughts on Women and Authority

When I was about to be endowed, I had to be interviewed by the stake president for a temple recommend. I was interviewed separately from my husband, asked all the regular questions about personal virtue, honesty, tithing, sustaining leadership, etc. Then my husband was brought in and we were interviewed together. This is when things got interesting. The SP promised he was going to reveal some information regarding the temple ordinances that I would not have the privelege or opportunity to learn any where else. After a few minutes of nervous chitchat, he turns to me, and tells me that this special information is directly pertaining to me as a woman. Then, with a giddy laugh and a twinkle in his eye, he gleefully tells me that women hold the priesthood authority in the temple, that is the only place on earth where women function as equals to men in blessing, anointing, and confirmation of divine priesthood ordinances, and that these women are especially chosen by the temple presidency to excercise these powers.

"Well, what do you think of that?" he asks. Well, as naive as it sounds, I was super impressed. Imagine! Women are equal to men inside the temple! Women can perform priesthood functions for other women within its sacred walls! What a joy and privelege to be chosen from all the female members to preside with priesthood authority and be able to act as representatives for Christ himself!

It was like being told that if I were worthy enough, valiant enough, and faithful enough, one day I could rise up to the level that these women were, and one day be able to work in the Washings and Anointings rooms, using holy priesthood authority in the one place that God permitted women to exercise that right.

Now, fast forward about 5 years. I'm out of the church for doctrinal and historical problems, anyway, but then I stumble across this essay written by D. Michael Quinn, a former LDS historian who had unlimited access to thousands of unseen documents, letters, diaries and previous editions of the Book of Mormon, Lectures on Faith, School of the Prophets, Joseph Smith's personal papers, and other fascinating but non-faith promoting, pieces of history hidden in the First Presidency vaults. Imagine my shock to learn that not only did women exercise priesthood authority with Joseph's knowledge and backing, but women also gain the same Melchesidek priesthood authority when they are endowed. They have always had it, equal to their husbands, even without having been married first. The only difference between then and now, is that they do not have permission to use it. That permission was taken away by proclamation of Brigham Young once the saints got settled in Utah. They have even gone through the trouble of suppressing the information throughout the years so that women aren't even aware that the Melchesidek priesthood authority is theirs in the first place.

They are consistently taught that they must be married to a worthy priesthood holder in order to share in the blessings associated with that authority. But, Joseph Smith and the early apostles of the church consistently taught that women hold that authority independent of their husbands through the process of being endowed. Women used to teach, bless, annoint, expound, exhort, and minister just as often, (if not more often) than the men of the home, because of the taboo of men's presence during childbirth or other "female situations" and because men were often away for long periods of time, leaving wives to manage the households for months or years at a time. Women could heal the sick, pray for health, bestow blessings upon children, teach and preach, and all of the other things that men are responsible today.

Why does the church maintain this position, even after allowing blacks to obtain the priesthood in 1978? They continue to let women believe that the priesthood was never given to them in the first place, when that is so obviously not the case. Why would they do this? The answer is often a very trite excuse: They have told women that their calling is to bring forth children, to nurture and rear them in the way that only a woman can do, and to balance out this special power given to women, men were provided with an 'equalizer', which is the priesthood authority. Now, through the work of Quinn, and other historians who dare to reveal 'all truth, even though it is not useful for promoting faith', we can now know that it is through suppression of facts that the LDS church has gotten away with keeping women dependent upon men for their salvation. This is domination of the female sex, plain and simple. And though it is not the reason I left, it is certainly one of the main reasons I will never go back.

To read Quinn's essay, Mormon Women have had the Priesthood since 1843, click here, or check out my 2 previous posts from yesterday.

Another fascinating read, " Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism", can be read here.


On a side note: Quinn was excommunicated from the church for his essay writing, in which he revealed too much controversy and chose to tell the whole story instead of the faith-promoting parts, and he was the subject of Boyd Packer's speech titled, "The Mantle is Far, Far Greater than the Intellect"

The editor of "Women and Authority", Maxine Hanks, was excommunicated for her failure to submit to authority within the church, and publishing the book against the direct commandment of her bishop. She was charged with apostacy for revealing history about women's previous exercise of priesthood authority.

In a 1997 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, this is what Gordon Hinckley had to say about women:

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Hinckley was asked to respond to women's concerns that the church is ``sexist.''

``Women have their place,'' he said. ``When all is said and done, there's no substitute for having a woman in the home. . . . If you ask our women, you'll find them happy with what they have. They're not out yelling and chanting.''

Apparently, to help keep Mormon women in "their place," a new proclamation for Mormon women appeared in September of 1999, known as the "Relief Society Declaration." However, not all Mormon women have been kept in their defined place. What happens to those who step out of their "place"? Excommunication.

Read the story of Janice Allred here

Read the story of Maxine Hanks here

Read the story of Lavina Fielding Anderson here

Read the story of Margaret Toscano here

Read the story of the 'September Six' here

I am unable to conform to the lifestyle required by the Mormon church. I will not submit to the authority of a man in charge of my household. I will not wait for a man to call me forth from the grave, pull me through the veil, and lead me into the celestial kingdom. I will not be called "First Wife". I will not be a goddess in the eternities, supplying spirits to inhabit mortal bodies on a world that my husband, a.k.a. 'God' will create for them. I will not content myself to abide silently while my husband takes on multiple wives for this purpose. I do not consider that to be heaven, or a just reward for 'knowing my place' while living my mortal existence on earth. I wouldn't lower myself to follow behind a man, or my sons, while they exercise priesthood authority that was given freely to both men AND women, and for no other reason than jealousy and fear, was taken away from women to keep them subjected to the whims of their husbands and dependent upon them for their very salvation.

If you Mormon women want that for yourselves and your daughters, you may as well pack your things and move to Iran. They've got the whole patriarchal authority lifestyle that you long for...