Mormon women look for greater role in the life of the church

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.

"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."

Why I do not reveal my membership status? Because of practices like this:

From exmormon.org http://www.exmormon.org/boards/w-agora/download_thread.php?site=exmobb&bn=exmobb_recovery&thread=1203721738#N1203721738

I am a HPGL (High Priest Group Leader) masquerading as a TBM (True Believing Mormon) for now. The reasons why are part of a different discussion.

I was in PEC (Priesthood Executive Council) just recently and the question came up about those who have verbally requested to have their names removed from the records of the church. In every ward I have been in, there has always been at least a handful that I knew of who had made such a request but nothing ever happened.

I suggested that we should just make it easy for them, give them a form letter that they could just sign. Process the paperwork and be done with it.

The EQP (Elder’s Quorum President)got really upset about that. He called that a cop out and that we should not give up so easy on “them” perhaps SOME day they will see the light and wish to return. That we should just maintain contact and share our “love” with them.

I reacted strongly to his suggestion that I was just looking for the easy road. I told him rather that it was about respecting their free agency. That some of them had made this request several times and others have actually sent in their written requests, but it was never acted upon.

At that point the bishop interrupted and confirmed what I had said. He mentioned that when he took over as Bishop he found in his files about a dozen written requests that for some unknown reason were never acted upon. He just trashed them figuring they were all old and no longer relevant.

The discussion soon disintegrated into an arugment in PEC over respecting the free agency of those wishing to be left alone or having their names removed, and those saying we should never give up on them, we should not process their requests, that the “Lord” would never give up on them, and maintain a friendship with them, and continue to secretly home teach them.

At one point I asked if there were any active LDS who had actually ever maintained a true friendship with anyone who had made such a request. There was a deafning silence for a moment before the battle began again. I was amazed at how some people feel that others should not be allowed to leave the church. And they truly felt they were being benevolent and looking out for the welfar of their souls. And yet, they are so much quicker to condemn and excommunicate than to remove someone’s name.

When things calmed back down, the Bishop hit me with another surprise. I didn’t realize the process at the local level to have your name removed had changed. Perhaps many of you did, but I did not.

I thought the process was
1) Person writes letter to Bishop requesting name to be removed.
2) Bishopric sends a form letter informing them of “eternal consequences” and that they have 30 days to change their mind
3) at the end of the 30 days, the ward clerk processes request udner direction from Bishop and sends to Salt Lake to process.
4) Salt Lake processes request and removes name.

I know that there was a lot of added time and stalling, but that was basically the process or so I thought.

Well, apparently the new process is:

1) The persons still sends a letter officially requesting name to be removed from records of church
2) No form letter is returned. This time, the Bishop must meet with the individual in person. The meeting is documented and then the Bishop gets to decide if he approves that request.
3) The paperwork then is sent to the Stake President who reviews the information. The Stake President can also call in the person for an interview.
4) Then the Stake President signs his approval and has the stake clerk process the request and send to Salt Lake.
5)Salt Lake then processes request and removes name from records of the church.

WHAT A FARCE!

I was fuming when I came out of that meeting. What was actually rather nice to see, is that I had about half of the PEC on my side.

Glad to know I have some people who understand to whom I can vent.

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