My Sadness Level

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So recently there was a pretty major thing that happened within the Mormon Church community.  A Mormon feminist woman who had been rallying that women be ordained to the priesthood was excommunicated from the Church. 

This has really upset many women and men who were rallying for the same thing. 

So, as I’ve explained in my previous post, I’m called a feminist by many even though I’m pretty sure that the people who study feminism, if they read this, will conclude that I’m not a very good one because of my inability to be 100% true to feminist teachings and standards. 

I’ve had a life with some hardships.  I’ve had times during my childhood where I was afraid of the beatings that would come from my father and where I didn’t have a place that I ever felt like I was safe. 

I’ve had times where I didn’t know where I was going to be able to sleep at night, or if I was going to be able to eat that day. 

In my married adult life I’ve had times where money was scarce and the worries for my children’s future was very heavy and very real. 

I think that when you’ve struggled and experienced what it’s like to not have the basic safeties in life that most people take for granted, you are able to put things into perspective. 

The LDS church has helped me and my family so much.  It has provided for us in times of great need and if it weren’t for the church, I can honestly say that I don’t know where we would be.  I definitely would not be getting ready to graduate from college. 

Other than dealing with my father in my childhood, who had been silently struggling with post traumatic stress disorder, I have never had a bad experience with a man who held the priesthood.  I never had a bishop who did anything other then be kind and loving toward me and who didn’t go out of his way to understand my situation and try and make things easier for me. 

My husband joined the Mormon church after we were married and I was able to witness him get the priesthood and I have observed that with it he is actually a more humble, kind, gentle and Christ-like man. 

I’m sorry for all the sadness but I just can’t be sad with you.  I feel so overwhelmingly blessed.  When you’re hungry and scared the last thing in the world your thinking about is whether or not women will ever hold the offices of the priesthood.  And in the hunger and scaredness, when the men who do hold those offices offer you freely all of the things that you need to make life easier you just have a really hard time thinking badly of them. 

So I guess when I start to see the men who hold the priesthood in the church practice unrighteous dominion or trying to start wars or who are trying to withhold from the poor and needy so that they can lift themselves up, then I’ll get really sad.    But until then all I can do is just be really grateful for them and my many blessings. 

My two cents on the Mormon Female Priesthood Thing

Hello!  It's been a long time since I've written in my blog.  Is blogging even a thing anymore?

Anywho, so, I'm a feminist.  Or at least people tell me that I am because I have a tendency to do many of the things that a lot of feminists say that women should be able to do.

I've never really studied feminism though so if you are reading this, don't think of me as some sort of representation of feminism.

I'm also a Mormon.  The same way that I am not an expert on Feminist doctrine, I am also not an expert on Mormon doctrine so don't see me as a representation all Mormons. 

When it comes down to it though, I'm neither a Feminist or a Mormon.   I'm really just a Christian who is trying really hard to live a life that is driven by the will of God.  I look like a feminist because God's will has often put me in situations where, as a woman I've had to raise my voice in order to be heard and do things in this world that traditional women normally wouldn't do.  But it's perfectly right and okay for me because it's always been God's will and I really don't give a crap what anybody thinks. 

This whole women wanting to have the priesthood in the Mormon church has been really annoying and unsettling for me.

People have been very, very wrong to try and shut down the women who are asking to be Priesthood ordained in the Mormon Church.  Those women need to be heard rather than just immediately shut down and called wicked or contentious or whatever else people are calling them.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with what they are asking.  There is absolutely no scripture or any revelation that describes ordaining women as being some sort of evil or bad thing.   Leaders (including women leaders) of the church need to take it up to the Lord the same way that they took ordaining Blacks to the Lord.  

In the meantime, my dear Feminist sisters, be thinking about what having the priesthood would do for you.  What do you want it for?  If I'm not mistaken the priesthood was always and only supposed to be a thing that was meant for blessing the lives of God's children.  It was never meant to be a thing that people put around their necks to wear around as a badge of their station in the world.  When it is used like that then it is of no use.  It's powerless and as if it were never given to the person in the first place.

If this is the reason that you want it; so you have a badge around your neck as well; so that you can have equal lording with the other men who lord over you, then maybe reconsider.  

We are told in our church that we share the priesthood with our husbands.   That is our doctrine.  Husbands don't technically have the full priesthood without the woman and the woman doesn't have it without the husband.  So what would happen if women in the Church just started claiming their priesthood rights without even asking?  Why do we have to ask permission for something that we are told we already have?  What if we started being do-ers?   Rather than talking about it and having protests and marches?  What if we started just using the priesthood, and for what it was originally intended for at that?  What if we started just going around and blessing God's children?

I don't know, what can I say, I'm kind of a punk and have never liked just sitting around and waiting for someone to give me permission for something.  Especially if technically I already have the thing that they are saying that I don't.    Yes, it would be nice if it were made official.  It would be nice if we got to have the same ceremonies surrounding our priesthood that the men got.  But let's face it.  People are slow to change in this world and there is too much to be done.