What to do about my son?

[Anonymous]

I assume that he got baptized at the age of 8. Therefore, in the eyes of the church, he is seen as old enough to make religious choices.

Support his choices. Love him.

[Anonymous]

Holy Cow wrote:

It’s also absurd to me that there are women out there who truly desire the priesthood, and are looked at as trouble-makers because of it. Yet, we expect every 12 year old boy to get the priesthood without ever stopping to ask if he even wants it. 12 Year Old Boy = Automatic Priesthood; Adult Woman = No Priesthood for You!! The young boy is looked at as a problem if he doesn’t want the priesthood, and the adult woman is looked at as a problem if she wants the priesthood. But, I digress; this is my own issue and has nothing to do with my son’s reasoning.

This strikes me as well. During the OW movement I had some conversations with a few LDS women that I am close enough to have a real discussion. They usually said something to the effect of “I personally do not want the priesthood but I can respect that some women do.”

This response was interesting. Do we not believe that the priesthood is the power and authority of God to bless the lives of those around you? Why would you not want that? Isn’t it like saying, “I personally do not want a temple marriage but I can respect that some people do.”

How incongruent it would be for a man to say, “I personally do not want the priesthood but I can respect that some men do.”

What I believe these good women are really stating is that they are content in their role as a woman and they have no desire to usurp the role of man but that they can respect that some women are not content.

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

This response was interesting. Do we not believe that the priesthood is the power and authority of God to bless the lives of those around you? Why would you not want that? Isn’t it like saying, “I personally do not want a temple marriage but I can respect that some people do.”

I think the reason they say that is because they don’t want to have any problems from openly expressing they want the priesthood.

I saw this in a business case once. There was a manager that was unpopular. The interviewer asked one interviewee how he felt about the manager. And he replied “Some people feel he is harsh and demanding, but I don’t have a problem with him”.

He had to protect his own butt by saying he had no problem with the manager. But at the same time acknowledged the manager had a problem. He may also have found the person to be harsh and demanding, but wouldn’t admit it.

Same deal here, with some people, I’m sure.

[Anonymous]

Roy wrote:

This strikes me as well. During the OW movement I had some conversations with a few LDS women that I am close enough to have a real discussion. They usually said something to the effect of “I personally do not want the priesthood but I can respect that some women do.”

This response was interesting. Do we not believe that the priesthood is the power and authority of God to bless the lives of those around you? Why would you not want that? Isn’t it like saying, “I personally do not want a temple marriage but I can respect that some people do.”

How incongruent it would be for a man to say, “I personally do not want the priesthood but I can respect that some men do.”

What I believe these good women are really stating is that they are content in their role as a woman and they have no desire to usurp the role of man but that they can respect that some women are not content.

To me, this is a deep question with multiple parts.

1. Power from God to bless the lives of those around you – I honestly feel that I have the power I need as a mother to bless my children and that I have the power I need to sustain my husband in our family. Currently, I feel that whether the power comes from within me as a female, or from God channeled through me, the effect is the same. I might be unique in thinking this – but I had a mom who gave us blessings using her authority as our mother who specified that she was not calling on the priesthood for this.

2. Authority from God to bless the lives of those around you – Here is where it gets tricky. This “authority” question breaks down to 2 parts:

a) Authority from God directly to operate in specific means – Early church woman acted as if they possessed the authority and performed miracles. It is taught universally by leaders that women have unique abilities and powers that are apart of God’s plan (even if they default to motherhood as the primary example).

b) Authority from the organization to operate in specific means – Women have been given authority and assignments within the temple to officiate in ordinances and no one has blinked 2x about it. There is a disconnect between God and the church as to what callings females can be called to administrator to (we can teach children and R.S., and Sunday school), but leadership administrative opportunities are limited – we can be heads of Primary, YW, and RS – but not in Sunday School presidencies.

I can speak for myself when I say that I don’t want the priesthood. I value the distance that my husband has that is part of his ability to preside in our household.

I want the cultural acknowledgement that I can give blessings based on my innate power as a woman. Should the circumstance warrant it, I would not wait around for my husband or another priesthood holder. I want the cultural rite of passage of blessing another woman if she so desires before, or after delivering a baby – because I have been there and I have a form of empathy for that life experience. There might be other instances such as dealing with rape victims where a female would want another female to be authorized to administer a blessing of comfort.

I want the cultural shift so that consideration for callings is not exclusively gender-based, but rather needs based. I think that woman should have the opportunity to be considered for administrative callings such as Executive Secretary, Sunday School President, or Auditor. If woman are “counselors” in the home and joint partners, why can’t there be a female “counselor” to assist the leadership?

I don’t want to “take anything” away from men and their priesthood authority. I actually value my husband having the priesthood in our home – it augments the distance he has from our children and magnifies his ability to preside – to have a vision of top-level decisions that should be made. I just think that we lose a lot as a culture when we limit blessing others to priesthood use only, and shame/call as counterfeit other non-priesthood means.

[Anonymous]

AmyJ wrote:

b) Authority from the organization to operate in specific means – Women have been given authority and assignments within the temple to officiate in ordinances and no one has blinked 2x about it. There is a disconnect between God and the church as to what callings females can be called to administrator to (we can teach children and R.S., and Sunday school), but leadership administrative opportunities are limited – we can be heads of Primary, YW, and RS – but not in Sunday School presidencies.

I know I whittled this down quite a bit, but I did want to make this point about authority. Almost all callings are really acting under someone else’s authority. In the ward only the bishop and EQP have keys (besides AP presidents which I think is quite silly). There are very few callings that act under the authority of the EQP. Almost every calling in the ward acts under the authority of the bishop – RSP, SSP, PP, YWP, YMP, WML, all teachers, etc. And it doesn’t matter if you’re male or female – it’s the same authority. The same priesthood authority. It is likewise in the stake. The counselors in the SP, the HC, the stake RSP, PP, YWP, YMP, etc. all act under the authority o f the only one who holds keys – the SP. His priesthood authority. I think the tendency is to not look at it from that point of view. In reality the stake PP works under the same authority I do and in her assigned duties (which does include speaking in wards) she acts on behalf of the SP, just like I do.

To the bigger picture, I don’t personally recognize this authority as authority from God. I do sustain the president of the church as the one who holds all the keys, but I don’t think that amounts to a hill of beans – to me it just means that he has been given that administrative authority. Is there power in the priesthood separate from the authority? I really don’t know. I am open to the idea there might be, but I’m not sure it’s any more than the power of faith which I also doubt. Just my two cents worth.

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