Ordain Women?

 I feel like the Salt Lake Tribune article does a good job of explaining both sides of the issue.

What do I feel about this? I don't know.

I'm a feminist--I do believe in equal rights and responsibilities for genders--but I do feel like this may be overreaching. I hope to not sound like a bigot when I say this but at the same time not get too in-detail about my beliefs because some of them are too sacred to be shared on the internet. I do believe men and women are equal in the sights of God. Marriages are to be equal partnerships. Women ought to be able to obtain an education and career same as any man because gender ought not to matter in those settings. But I'd always believed that "equal" does not mean "the same." I believe women were foreordained to be women and mothers just as men were foreordained to be priests and fathers. Yes, men are called to have the priesthood. But women are called to womanhood, and that is no less than priesthood. Priesthood has to be obtained and can be lost, but womanhood is inherent and maybe--to an extent--can still be lost. Also, priesthood always and forever has been not a position of leadership--although it is required to be in certain positions--but a position of service. So I hope I'm making sense.

However, I do believe--and here's where I'm going to be vague because a blog is not the appropriate place to share all I believe on the subject--that when they are exalted, together and equally with their husbands, women will create worlds and universes. So does that mean that women will need the Power of God? Yes, it absolutely does. But I don't know if that power to create worlds is the same as the priesthood or even if women are meant--notice I'm not using the word "allow"--to hold that power in mortality.

Throughout this whole issue, two things should be remembered. First, that nobody is demanding "the right" for women to hold the priesthood. So far as I can tell, everybody has been saying "Let's pray about it and humbly accept the Lord's answer." So I don't think this is going to be a divisive issue. Second, that the calling and the power of the priesthood is secondary to the calling and power to love another person. Without love, the priesthood is meaningless. The priesthood may heal a person of physical infirmities, it may help a person to overcome trials, it may even bring a person back from the dead if the occasion required it. But only love has the power to change a person. And since changing and becoming who God wants us to be is much more important than being whole--emotionally or physically--or even being alive, I must conclude that while the priesthood is important and necessary, it does not equal Love. And I really sounded like a hippie right there, but I truly believe every word.

So this is what I'm going to do. Until the First Presidency makes an official stance--and even after that--I'm going to pray and ask God to guide the leaders of the church to make the right decision. Once they do, I'm going to ask God to help me accept their--and Their--answer.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56096212-78/women-priesthood-church-lds.html.csp

http://ordainwomen.org/