In other religions which used to have male only clergy, we now have women in that role -- ministers, rabbis, etc.
There has been discussion by some about changing the all male priesthood in the Catholic Church.
Are there any such women activists in the Mormon church?
I am not looking for any justifications for why it is the way it is, just facts at to whether anyone is challenging it.
Anonymous
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Did you honestly think they could from a church that had their founder "authorize" his bored wife to "select the official hymns" for the church hymnal?? That was the extent of her contribution. Because that's all she was ALLOWED. No, they get headed off by bishops, husbands, fathers, and even young sons before their voiced concerns ever leaves their ward.
"No, you cannot wear pants. Your body will distract the boys.... You're wearing a dress, young lady! Get out of that sandbox this instant!"
"He was extremely OLD, you know? He always was coming up behind me, rubbing my neck and shoulders without asking. I hated it."
"Relief Society, which was traditionally the women's domain, is now run by men for women. We used to make things for those less fortunate. We'd get into some pretty intense debates: politics, ecology, the war, as our fingers worked. Now we follow a set schedule of rules and appropriate things to discuss, handed down by said leadership. Makeup and styling your hair, modesty, the needs of children, how moms influence their young daughters, why sandals are inappropriate for service. Gaaaa!! Women now hate RS. Gone are those captivating meetings. Eventually I simply drifted away."
"In the mainstream of the church today, women continue to have a significant public role, mostly in non-ecclesiastical areas such as art and culture, running Sunday School programs for children and other women."
"Women who are viewed as publicly oppositional toward the church's patriarchal structure are often subject to ecclesiastical discipline, including excommunication for apostasy."
The first time a woman was ever allowed to speak in General Conference (LDS yearly group meeting) was 1984. Black people were given more respect and notice than women before this.
"The Mormon Women's Forum, established in SLC in 1988, can scarcely draw a crowd to its annual fall conference."
"Activist Sonia Johnson sparred with U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch over the ERA in Senate Committee hearings and exposed the LDS Church's behind-the-scenes opposition to the amendment. She was excommunicated in December 1979, and her case became a cautionary tale to Mormon feminists everywhere." --- Reason being why mormon feminists have been awfully quiet ever since.
"For a long time, women were forbidden to teach at LDS Institutes of Religion, but now they can be hired -- as long as they have no children under 18. Nor can women with children under 18 be temple workers to assist with rituals, but they [sure] can volunteer in the laundry."
“Feminism is such a potent word, it’s been [quietly] expunged from our vocabulary.”
"Many [mormon women] described their choices in a husband as resting more on church faithfulness than on falling in love..."
http://mormonwoman.org/2010/09/28/mormon-motherhood-poetry-folding-clothes/ --- One LDS woman's idea of "poetry". Hate to admit it, but I have this site listed as "bubblehead". As a mother, wife, person, Christian, I can relate to her words. But this is just empty-headed bad poetry. They revere her. I feel sorry for her narrow world.
All in all, the difference is in the severity. The argment is the same for burkhas and LDS women. Women get excommed for challenging anything with LDS leaders. Even their very existence.
@ Zubo, And if you believe that crap about an LDS leader claiming men "needed the priesthood to get to where women are", you're more dead above your shoulders than you could ever possibly imagine in all your born days and then some, if so. Somehow I don't think even you are THAT blank. God, I pray.
Colleen C
To your question about the LDS, I have never heard of any such challenge. Nor would I expect one.
You premise about other religions is questionable. There is no logical way for a woman be a "Rabbi" in Judaism. To do so would invalidate several of the 13 principles of Faith and would openly violate several explicit Torah Laws.
Catholicism would not be able to state on its tenets if women became "Priest", since to my limited understanding of that religion, the Priest is actually taking the role of the "founder" and is becoming a symbolic sacrifice , Agnus Dei. Which per Jewish law had to be a male.
Logical systems, must adhere to their tenets or they will dissolve into nothingness. I have not read the logical theological gymnastics that "christian" sects that accept women as ministers or homosexuals been able to get around the words of Paul. "Women should keep silent in matters of the church. And Paul was not very accepting of homosexual behavior.
I am not certain why you asked this question. .
David M
This teaching is not unique to Mormons, as you noted in your question. If there is a reference in the Book of Mormon about I am not aware of it, but I have not read a great deal of the Book of Mormon, although I am familiar with it and read enough to know that it claims to recount the prehistory of the Americas, mostly South America. The Mormons also use the Bible as a guide to doctrine and not just the Book of Mormon.
As far as the Bible is concerned Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2:12 I suffer not a woman to teach, nor usurp authority over a man.(See 1 Timothy 2:11 - 2:13 for context.) Even before the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, God created the woman to be a helper. It is also written in the Old Testament that when women rule it is a judgment upon a nation (Israel), because they were not following God they way they were supposed to do.
The word suffer in the epistle of Paul, above really means permit, and has the tone of strong advice or admonishment, but does not rise in my opinion to a command, but has the tone that if it is not heeded one does so at ones own peril.
Joseph
The only people who challenge the way the priesthood is currently established is those who forget it's purpose.
The reason that, the vast majority of our women do not challenge the idea of an all male priesthood, is because we are not their rulers, but servants. That is what God wants from those who hold His priesthood. Those who try to turn the priesthood into a tool for power and authority will stand condemned before the judgement bar of God.
In a talk that I heard President Thomas S. Monson give he told us the reason that men hold the priesthood and women do not is because men need the priesthood to be able to get on the same ground (spiritually speaking) as women. He is current prophet. At the time he was serving as the first councilor to then President Hinkley.
Since that time I have seen and heard some interesting statistics that show how much more spiritually stable women are than men. If you have a family whose parents are from different faiths, and the wife is the one who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then 9 times out of 10 her husbands faith (or lack there of) will have no effect on her faith and she will still be an active member of the Church.
But if it is the other way around and the Husband is the member, then 9 times out of 10 his wife's faith (or lack there of) will have an effect on his faith and he will stop attending the church and even loose his testimony.
If you are interested I am an active male member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
?
Not that I know of.
Most women just roll over and Take the male-dominated heirarchy. All have to be Married males, too.
It gets a little Fundamentalist, but it's an old-fashioned church.
I once protested the head of a Singles club being a married male--I said, there is Nothing a married person can Possibly add to this club Unless they were single a Long time, and married Very Recently.
I was told, that's just how the church goes, that's the rules.
EDIT: People, LDS isn't a religion, it's a Faith. The religion is Protestant.
And, Maybe, if a real liberal president gets elected, Perhaps. The one before this made a lot of changes in his long tenure.
EDIT:@ Smitty, it's a Faith. A Religion is Protestantism, Catholicism, etc. A Faith is a subsect of a religion.