A believing perspective on women moving forward

They have good points. The article prompted me to check out the first discussion. Yeah.

1) They mention that they believe that OW wasn’t the sole impetus behind all the recent changes we’ve seen. I agree that it wasn’t the only driving factor but I think it was probably the primary driving factor.

2) I felt the article was a little light in the suggestions on how to further the discussion department. It was essentially “be less confrontational.” If one side wields all the power it can be hard to get a dialogue going without being confrontational. Then there’s the perception angle, to some people any discussion at all on a taboo subject will be seen as confrontational regardless of the spirit in which it is delivered.

To borrow a bit from the show that supplied me with my avatar:

Fnog: No girl has the will of a warrior. You have the will of a housewife or, at best, the schoolmarm.

Leela: That’s it. I’ll take you on right now.

Fnog: Very well. But, you see, I have the will of the warrior. Therefore, the battle is already over. The winner? Me! [He laughs.] Rematch? You lose again! Had enough? I thought so!

That’s probably how some people in the OW movement feel. Go the prescribed route of bringing up your concerns up with the bishop, your concerns are dismissed, then what do you do?

Edit: And I see handily dismissing someone’s concerns, essentially cutting a dialogue short, to be a confrontational act. Both sides could use some practice at being non-confrontational.

Mom3, I don’t think McBaine wants to push any buttons – in one sense if Kelly and OW didn’t push buttons Kelly wouldn’t be where she is (facing discipline). I get your point (and frustration) that the current processes are slow and apparently not very productive and OW probably did speed things up by their tactics – but at what cost? If the cost is shutting down any dialogue out of fear or excessive dogmatism, then women are losing.

And I see handily dismissing someone’s concerns, essentially cutting a dialogue short, to be a confrontational act. Both sides could use some practice at being non-confrontational.

I agree.

I don’t agree with OW’s tactics, but I am so far convinced of Kate Kelly’s faith and sincerity. My conversation this last weekend with someone who called KK an attention whore really broke my heart. As did the front end of sacrament meeting when the bishop called up several kids. He essentially congratulated the girls on having a birthday and explained to all assembled that the boys had been interviewed, found worthy and needed the hand-raised sustaining of his congregation to move forward in his duties. I haven’t been like some of the (mostly way younger than I) fMh posters who seem a little overwrought about the poor girls who don’t get the priesthood and how it wounds them for life. But if someone like me, a middle-aged, mild-mannered follower is waking up and saying, “The status quo? It’s not right,” I think the church needs to think about picking up the pace of change. My two cents. How I would love to see some girls helping with the sacrament.

“Is there a reason for your “until now” addendum? Am I missing something?”

She hasn’t expressed anything resembling a faith crisis, but being character-assassinated by church leadership would certainly be grounds for cognitive dissonance, no?

Yes, definitely, and you and I both know people here who have experienced that. I just wasn’t sure if I had missed something else.

This article makes me sad. I feel KK has thrown herself on the spear for all of us. No, she did not let us have a vote, that is true. But I really don’t believe many of the changes we are seeing would have been so quick in coming without OW’s actions. It’s sad it had to get to this. When you study the history of RS, it has been stripped down and down over the years, to where it just does not compare to the earlier organization. I yearn for the RS lessons to be turned back over the RS General Presidency and board. Women used to teach each other how to live the gospel in real life in RS. For converts, that is vital. Now it’s all about men’s voices and no real relation to the challenges sisters are facing in real life, especially our new convert sisters.