- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
The following article in the New York Times is interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/us/a-growing-role-for-mormon-women.html?hp&_r=2 My favorite quotes:
Quote:The church will benefit as “men’s vision of the capacity of women becomes more complete”. (President Linda Burton, the Relief Society General President)
Quote:In addition to making her a better mother, more knowledgeable in Scripture and patient at serving others, missionary experience will “help me support my family; it’s going to help me find a job,” Ms. Ensign (a missionary) said.
The funniest quote is a sign in some sister missionaries’ apartment in South Korea:
Quote:“Don’t complain about the elders.” (with the article explaining that the male missionaries can seem like irritating little brothers.
Interesting article. The flood of sister missionaries will change the Church in many subtle ways. With previous generations, Molly Mormons take a back seat to their Peter Priesthood husbands in Sunday School. These sister missionaries will eventually assert themselves as authorities on Gospel topics. Sisters with foreign-language skills will be in high demand for many types of jobs, and many of them will take up those offers. The great open secret of the Church is going to be how spiritual the sisters are compared to the elders; Lord knows what that realization will lead to. Where’s the Burton quote from? I can’t find it anywhere else online. From the context, I assumed it was from an interview specifically for the article – not part of an address or talk of any kind. I can’t help to secretly think that this is how the church leadership is slowly preparing its members for women having a much more prominent role in the church. Priesthood or not, (I don’t know if they will ever have it or not) but I really believe that women will have SO much more influence in the next generations to come, because of the focus on sister missionaries. It’s exciting times! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
convert1992 wrote:Interesting article. The flood of sister missionaries will change the Church in many subtle ways. With previous generations, Molly Mormons take a back seat to their Peter Priesthood husbands in Sunday School. These sister missionaries will eventually assert themselves as authorities on Gospel topics. Sisters with foreign-language skills will be in high demand for many types of jobs, and many of them will take up those offers. The great open secret of the Church is going to be how spiritual the sisters are compared to the elders; Lord knows what that realization will lead to.
I had not thought about it but this may be the real benifit of lowering the mission age.Bear wrote:I can’t help to secretly think that this is how the church leadership is slowly preparing its members for women having a much more prominent role in the church. Priesthood or not, (I don’t know if they will ever have it or not) but I really believe that women will have SO much more influence in the next generations to come, because of the focus on sister missionaries.
There is a gender imbalance that is already evident. LDS congregations already have more attendance among women than men, and this disparity will only get worse over time. There are too many callings that are still restricted to priesthood. It is putting tremendous stress on a smaller pool of men who have the temporal qualities that the Church prefers for leadership positions. These problems will get worse over time as more young members drop out of the Church at the same time that the older generations pass on.
I don’t think the flood of sister missionaries will lead to priesthood for women. Remember, these are mostly conservative members who volunteering for these missions. If men didn’t have to serve a mission, the cross-section of elders would be even more traditional-minded than they already are. What I believe these sisters will become is sort of a third wave in the Church, roughly analogous to the libertarian movement that is becoming a political alternative to traditional left-vs-right. I have been in a liberal ward with many married sisters who served missions; and it always strikes me how they exhibit a certain liberal open-mindedness while at the same time being even more consciously committed to the official teachings of the Church than their sisters who did not serve.
What will happen is that the energy and enthusiasm in these returned sister missionaries will have to go somewhere. If they’re not given meaningful callings to direct this energy within the framework of the Church, it will eventually find expression in activities outside the Church. My prediction is that nothing the Church does to give them callings will stop them from taking their own initiative to start projects in their communities, rally people together, and assume leadership roles that they have created themselves. This is a process that has already happened in Catholicism and Protestantism; it is a powerful centrifugal tendency that I suspect the leaders of the Church greatly fear.
I’d predict Female Sunday school presidents soon. No reason it shouldn’t already. In wards where some/all the missionaries are sisters a ward mission leader could be female too. Or maybe a couple
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.