Speaking of activism, there's a new Salt Lake Tribune article on the Ordain Women movement. Nice details on the history of female power in LDS Mormonism, on the Ordain Women movement, and on LDS hierarchy.
I'm learning some things. I did know that a century ago, Mormon women were at the forefront of US feminism, but not this:
'... Susa Young Gates — first editor of The Relief Society Magazine who worked for women’s suffrage and rubbed shoulders with Susan B. Anthony — was sometimes known as the “13th apostle.”'
Apparently some of the recent symbolic leadership changes promoting women in decision-making have been offset by demoting women in other ways 🙄
No paywall link:
#OrdainWomen #ReligiousTrauma #feminism #LDS #Mormon #exmo #exmormon
I will forever ask, "Why?" Why couldn't I be ordained by my own church for service in hospice, hospital, a retreat center, the military, a women's prison, a battered women's shelter, a parish church?
“There is no other religious organization in the world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.” – J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, 2024
https://wasmormon.org/church-leaders-on-power-and-authority-broadly-given-to-women/
#mormon #lds #church #ldschurch #Priesthood #authority #religion #feminism #sexism #dallinhoaks #reliefsociety #nonsense #exmormonbecause #exmormon #exmo #iwasamormon #ordainwomen #womenempowerment #preside #control #boydkpacker #mormonism
During the Worldwide Relief Society Devotional and Testimony Meeting on March 17, 2024, President Russell M. Nelson and the Relieft Socirty General Presidency spoke to the members of the Relief Society and Young Women. The event was a 40-minute video production. The remarkable part is the claim J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society
Heavenly Father: So the women will have receptivity to the Spirit and an enhanced moral compass. They'll be the nurturing and compassionate ones.
Jesus: Cool, cool.
Heavenly Father: Men on the other hand will struggle to tell right from wrong and will have to work hard to receive spiritual revelation. That way we can really test their faith.
Jesus: Yep, yep.
Heavenly Father: And that's not even the best part...
Jesus: I'm listening.
HF: We'll put the men in charge of everyone.
Heavenly Mother: Uhm, hello! I'm STILL here!
Heavenly Father: Did you hear something?
Jesus: Ha ha ha! Good one, dad.
Great to see that the #OrdainWomen movement still has momentum, by the way. I'm to the chapter in my client's book wherein she is active early on in that movement early '10s, and I had worried it might have fizzled. But nope! Still making headlines. Still making the LDS church react.
More from the BS–I mean RS– Presidency:
'Dennis cited... President... Nelson, in which the current leader explained, “As a righteous, endowed Latter-day Saint woman, you speak and teach with power and authority from God.”
'If some women have not always appreciated this fact, it is because, Dennis said, “the adversary [SATAN!] wants to focus our attention on what we haven’t been given and blind us to all that we have been given.”'
Ah yes, DARVO. It's always the members' fault for misunderstanding. Even though I was told specifically and expressly and repeatedly that men were in charge and that I couldn't even talk about the honorary priesthood cookie I got in the temple.
I got an ordination by filling out a form online that I've used more often to invoke religious authority than I was ever allowed to use my honorary LDS priesthood.
You can get one, too, and you can make holy water or even officiate marriages:
I've never seen the phrase "that I know of" carry so much water:
'“There is no other religious organization in the world,” J. Anette Dennis, first counselor [LDS] Relief Society General Presidency, said, “that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.”'
And oh wow, they're just giving up temple secrets–I mean sacreds–to the news media now huh?
Anyway, apparently LDS women are supposed to be happy with the cookie they get but aren't allowed to eat, i.e. actually make real leadership decisions, without oversight from men, that affect anyone other than women and children.
(Yes, I got the "priesthood" in the temple but wasn't even allowed to talk about it, that's how much power it gave me.)
Keep trying, guys. Keep on trying right up until you give women real equal rights in that church.
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/03/17/lds-church-gives-more-power-women/
(lmk if the link is paywalled. It doesn't say that if is.)
Thomas Wystrach
Sheila DeBonis
Mark Lepper
Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸
wasmormon
