Posted on 02/22/2008 7:11:29 AM PST by Alex Murphy
SALT LAKE CITY ---- Last fall, the head of the Mormon church's Relief Society delivered a treatise on motherhood that equated nurturing with keeping a tidy house. Women in poor countries who dress their daughters in clean, ironed dresses, the speaker said, honor a sacred covenant.
Julie B. Beck's exhortation at the church's General Conference that Mormon women strive to be "the best homemakers in the world" did not go unanswered. More than 250 women signed an online rebuttal.
The exchange illustrates that while the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is years removed from open hostilities over feminism, passions still run high over the role of women in a patriarchal church.
No one can profess to know how women's issues will be handled by the successor to church president Gordon B. Hinckley, who died Sunday at 97.
But few expect major changes along the lines of opening the Mormon priesthood -- an office granted only to Mormon men ---- to women.
But women could still emerge as stronger voices of the church.
"My feeling is that things are not going to change much, that the church is going to keep its very conservative positions on women's roles," said Margaret Toscano, a self-described feminist activist who was excommunicated in 2000 and teaches language and literature at the University of Utah.
Although the church did not reveal why Toscano was excommunicated, she argued a historical precedence for women in the priesthood. She also promoted the concept of a "Mother God," a deity who was described in an early Mormon poem as a consort to God in heaven.
Today, Mormon feminism thrives in a different form. A blog called Feminist Mormon Housewives, for instance, calls itself as "a safe place to be feminist and faithful" and offers the protection of anonymity.
Toscano said Beck's 1950s vision of motherhood astonished many Mormon women who believed the church, while not encouraging career women, had at least acknowledged women could work and still be good mothers.
Beck was not available for interviews, church officials said. Other LDS women came to Beck's defense, and pointed out that her talk also made clear that wives are "in equal partnership" with their husbands.
The agency which Beck heads, the Relief Society, is one of three Mormon offices open to women. Billed as one of the world's largest women's groups, with 5.5 million members, it provides spiritual instruction to women and aids needy families, among other things.
Mormon women are increasingly visible in worship, often called upon to give the major talk during sacramental meetings, said Jan Shipps, an emeritus professor at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
"Women can't be bishops, they can't be pastors, but they're much more visible and much more a part of leadership of local congregations than they were 30 years ago," said Shipps, a non-Mormon scholar of the faith.
Kim Farah, an LDS spokeswoman, said in a statement that women play an integral role in the church, from preaching to teaching to "sitting in council" with male priesthood leaders about running congregations.
"However, we believe that great happiness comes from our work in the home and that, regardless of individual circumstances, women have perhaps the greatest influence for good when it comes to the family," Farah said. "Personally, this gives me great peace, joy and self-esteem."
In a 1996 interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," Hinckley said, "In this church the man neither walks ahead of his wife nor behind his wife but at her side. They are coequals in this life in a great enterprise."
Hinckley's likely successor, Thomas S. Monson, said in a speech last year that women should seek secular education ---- not to pursue careers, but because their husbands might fall ill or die.
"You may find yourself in the role of financial provider," Monson said. "Some of you already occupy that role. I urge you to pursue your education ---- if you are not already doing so or have not done so -- that you might be prepared to provide if circumstances necessitate such."
Claudia Bushman, a Mormon author who has studied women's issues, said there has been little progress giving Mormon women new opportunities in the church, although she envisions greater roles in representing the church in civic settings and working with other faith traditions.
"The church does repress women, but it really doesn't repress women as much as bring men forward," Bushman said. "From the time Mormons are children, boys get a lot more encouragement than girls because they are needed for leadership roles. Men need more encouragement, I think."
This whole article is just such balderdash. Nothing has changed. Women have been giving major addresses in church since I was a little girl, and I’m 60. We have always been urged to get an education.
Julie Beck’s talk was the subject of our lesson in Relief Society last Sunday, with total approval. I have a job which has been rewarding and challenging in every way that a job can be rewarding and challenging. But the older I get, the more I realize that nothing I have done at the office or in a courtroom will ever be more important than the work I did raising my children. Being a competent homemaker — in the sense of actually making a home that is a place of learning and refuge and development — is the most important thing a woman can do.
There have always been a few “feminists” who bitch a little bit. But they either outgrow it or leave the Church.
And, no, I wasn't alive then. I'm just a student of western history and know women on the frontier were much better treated than those in so-called civilized society because everyone had to earn respect, not just demand it.
My theory as to why Mormons are such a reliable conservative voting demographic is because they are closer to the frontier mentality than most others.
I think you’re right about that. I also think that, even in the old polygamy days, the church encouraged women to develop themselves. I remember reading about a very bright young polygamous wife who was sent to medical school. The system worked out pretty well for her. Some of the “sister wives” took care of her children while she traveled back east to medical school.
Also, Minerva Teichert was a promising artist who needed training she couldn’t get in Utah in the early 1900’s. So the Church organized a group of young women to train in the various arts in Chicago, so they wouldn’t have to go alone.
I have never felt “put down” because I’m a woman. Quite the opposite.
As to why we are conservative, I think it’s because we are taught regularly to be responsible and self-sufficient. We are also appalled by the moral decline in this country.
In the late 1970’s, about the time the mormons decided to comply with the 1964 Civil rights Laws and allow black men to have a mionr role in their organization, some women asked to have a role also...
The mormons kicked the women out...and smear their good names..
These were not “feminists” who worshiped a “mother god” but “homemakers” who felt, and rightly, that women should have some say among the mormons just as women in Christian churches did...
It still hasnt changed ...women are still second class citizens in the mormon organization...
this is one for the Sisters.
All I can say to you is: Fully segregated baptist churches.
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You mean that’s woman’s work and I shouldn’t be doing it?
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would you point me to some of this information?
thanks
Those who think women are somehow short-changed by being denied priesthood leadership offices just don't understand the nature of those offices. There is no benefit, blessing or honor which attends a men-only priesthood office that is denied to women in this Church. Those offices are voluntary, unpaid and constrained by the commandments of God, regardless of who holds them. Every benefit of the Gospel is available to each and every man and woman who gives his/her heart and soul to the Lord's work.
Those who complain about the lack of women in priesthood offices are really calling for an alteration of the doctrines or operation of the Church which they blame on the men who serve in those offices. It reveals a fundamental lack of belief and/or understanding in the organization and leadership of the Church. If there were a female president of the Church, and she were to serve honorably, she would do exactly what a male president would do, which is to follow the guidance of the Lord through the Holy Spirit in the operation of His Church.
One wonders how these critics would answer this question: What do you think would be different in the Church if women held priesthood offices?
The honest answer to that question would be closer to the real issue. These critics don't like some of the doctrines or policies of the Church, and they'd like to change them.
Every sentence of your post is false. Where on earth do you get your stuff?
The 1964 Civil Rights law doesn’t have any application to churches. It had nothing to do with giving the priesthood to black men. All men can now be ordained to any priesthood office, not “minor roles.” There are black bishops and general authorities.
There was a handful of women who started agitating for the priesthood, which is reserved to males, and which is fine with all but a miniscule number.
The majority of Mormon women were appalled at their behavior. After all, it makes no sense. If you believe that the Mormon church is led by a prophet, which we do, you know that agitating and demonstrating makes no sense. If you believe that the prophet is wrong about who should get the priesthood, then you don’t believe he is a prophet, and you should probably find another church.
Furthermore, these women didn’t stop at simply asking for the priesthood. Some of them launched a frontal assault on church doctrine. One I remember was Sonja Johnson, who painted herself as a martyr, then later announced that she was a practicing lesbian. Some were excommunicated, and rightly so.
We women are not and never have been second class citizens. My church has given me leadership opportunities from the time I was a young girl. Through scholarships, it paid my way as an undergraduate and a law student. I am as important to my husband’s salvation as he is to mine. I have never been treated with anything but respect by male church leaders. A faithful Mormon man is an incredibly good husband. In fact, when I consider the fact all the men who have been close to me in my life, by marriage or blood, have been good men in every sense of the word — moral, honest, faithful, hardworking, devoted to family — I realize that I have been incredibly lucky, compared to most of the women in the world.
Just because we believe that men and women are different, does not mean we believe that they are unequal or that women are “second class.”
A blog called Feminist Mormon Housewives,
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While you are there, Freep thie poll
Poll: Supernal Parenting
By: fMhLisa - February 19, 2008
If you are not Mormon, chances are you won’t “get” this poll.
You’re welcome to answer it anyway.
As a mother . . .
I would prefer a close relationship with my children (consequently enduring some disrespect).
I would prefer that my children never speak to me and rarely even think about me (consequently protecting me from their disrespect).
> View Results
PollDaddy.com
As a father . . .
I would prefer a close relationship with my children (consequently enduring some disrespect).
I would prefer that my children never speak to me and rarely even think about me (consequently protecting me from their disrespect).
> View Results
PollDaddy.com
http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/
I am as important to my husband’s salvation as he is to mine.
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What does that mean ???????
I actually should have said “exaltation.” “Salvation” in the sense of resurrection is available to all, but it involves a lot of explanation. In order to gain all the blessings which are available in the Celestial Kingdom, we must have been married in the temple. We will be judged on how we treat our spouses. We expect to be together after this life.
I actually should have said “exaltation.”
_________________________________________
What does that mean ????
Briefly, it means being an heir to Christ, being in the Celestial Kingdom with Him.
In order to gain all the blessings which are available in the Celestial Kingdom, we must have been married in the temple. We will be judged on how we treat our spouses. We expect to be together after this life.
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You have Scripture on that ?????
Bible Scripture that is
I’ve never looked at that website before. I kind of reminds me of Exponent II, which struck me as being run by a bunch of whiners who thought they were smarter than all the rest of us.
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