Women and the Priesthood

October 6, 2013,

This is not really a topic associated with my blog but it has been something that has been on my mind a great deal the past few months.

There has been an increase of talk about this movement surrounding the church concerning the rights of women and the priesthood. I appreciate the complexity of this query in a time when every right, belief, law, and expectation is being dismantled, disabled, and analyzed to find its worth and relevancy to the human individual.

So here's my opinion on the subject.

In a nutshell:

I believe that our understanding of motherhood has been compromised. Motherhood and the priesthood are two halves of the same whole. They work in harmony, unison, and are fueled by the same source: God's own power. Motherhood and the priesthood are equal in importance, power, and capability. Simply stated, they are the same thing.

Let me start at what I think is the beginning. It's kind of a long trajectory, but bear with me. (It also doesn't help that I'm rather long-winded.)

1. God's power, and therefore the power of the priesthood, is love in its purest form.

     God is all powerful; He is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. But what makes Him King of Kings and Lord of Lords is the fact that He is perfect. God is perfect because His motivation and use of His all-encompassing knowledge are perfect. That means that everything God does is for the right reason. Everything He does is done with a complete understanding of the consequences and without any ulterior motives.  Anything short of that would not be true perfection, and God would not be God, but merely an opportunist.
       There are many names and titles used to try to describe the magnitude and beauty of God's character; names such as Bread of Life, Living Water, Lamb of God, and Savior, just to name a few. Another name is one that becomes very relevant here. 1 John 4:8 states that God is Love. Moving along this theme is John 3:16, where the depth of God's love becomes clear in His willingness to sacrifice even the most precious of treasures to procure an environment where His children would be able to have a chance to grow and be happy. Our salvation rides on the love of God and our Elder Brother Jesus Christ. The Atonement is functional because Jesus Christ put His love for His brothers and sisters and for God ahead of every other feeling possible and fulfilled the Atonement. He went below all things, felt every pain, every sin, every horrible, frightening, disappointing, saddening or confusing thing ever felt by anyone and came through it all to provide us a means of escape and healing. That is love, and that is also power, because by doing so He becomes Judge, Juror, and Savior. He holds justice in one hand and mercy in the other, and there is nothing more powerful than that.

     A parent's love is the closest natural feeling to God's perfect love.  Love, sacrifice, dedication, judgement, and mercy, when used appropriately, become crucial proponents to the raising of children.


*1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16, Matthew 22:36-40, 2 Nephi 2.

2. God gave Adam and Eve two commandments in the Garden of Eden. Eve took of the fruit and Adam joined her to gain experience and to obey the first commandment: raise a family. 

     From "Our Glorious Mother Eve":

"If it were left up to Adam, Adam and Eve might still be in the Garden of Eden and we wouldn't be here at all. While Adam seemed content with the status quo, Eve was not.  She had been named, “the mother of all living”, long before she ever bore a child.  How long did she have to wait before fulfilling that responsibility?  Eve did not choose to leave the garden for trivial, selfish gratification.  She opened the way for the birth of the whole human family.  Eve had courage and wisdom to say "let's get this thing going".
    ...Because of their choice to partake of the fruit and leave the garden, Adam and Eve had to accept certain painful consequences.  But you don’t hear of their complaining, and Eve even expressed gladness at the opportunity their transgression made possible:  “Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient” (she considered herself one of the obedient)  (Moses 5:11)  
Fortunately for us as well, Adam concluded that God’s command to remain with his wife was more important than His command to abstain from the fruit.  Again, it wasn’t going to be good for man to be alone.  Paradise may have been great, but Adam and Eve were now sufficiently mature enough to move on to their “real job”. It was not like Milton’s a Paradise Lost, but a Paradise Outgrown..."


Parenthood is God's greatest glory. Moses 1:39

*Vivian McConkie Adams' "Our Glorious Mother Eve."


3. Families are central to the Creator's plan.

     "THE FIRST COMMANDMENT that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force..“Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations...THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity...Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners"
   
     I realize that some of the language sounds like women are expected to be stuck at home, cut off from the rest of the world and tucked away from social and career-oriented aspirations. This is soo far from the truth it hurts. We have been told that home should be and is a piece of heaven on earth. It is the only place besides the temple that is the contact point between heaven and earth. God is asking us to spend more time nearer to Him? That's not a punishment, it is a compliment!
      My patriarchal blessing lists some of my qualities and gifts, it urges me to gain education, and learn all I can possibly learn, and then comes the clincher. It says that I need to gain this information to accomplish my greatest mission; that of being a wife and mother. This is not a let down. This is an insight into the sheer importance of this role. It  literally blows me away. I am working on my Masters degree and plan to obtain a DMA before I am done. I have come to understand that I need the experiences associated with my degrees in order to be able to fully be prepared for marriage and a family, and you know what, I am okay with that. I am so okay with that, because I want to become like God and I want to raise my children knowing that I am becoming fully converted.

I'd like to use a personal experience to illustrate another point. My mother did not complete a college degree, she finished some of her generals, and then married my Dad and began raising me and my three fellow hooligans. My mother is one of the most intelligent, powerful, beautiful, mature, generous, and incredible human beings I have ever met. Anyone who knows her will tell you the same thing. She is a veritable goddess incarnate. She has never stopped progressing, learning, exploring or growing. She has become what she is because of her experiences in rearing her overly emotional children and establishing an equal partnership with my dad. To me, she is a true example of a mother and she rejoices in her motherhood. She is powerful and bold, she is a true revolutionary, and her strength comes from reliance on the Lord and her dedication to motherhood. This is what motherhood provides us. True progression, true experiences that bring us closer to godhood.  

*The Family: A Proclamation to the World

4. Exaltation only comes through eternal marriage, and man and woman are equal partners.

      I suggest the everyone read Vivian McConkie Adams' "Our Glorious Mother Eve." It really provides clarity on the events in the Garden of Eden. It's just too good not to quote, so here we go:

"In English, the word “helpmeet” sounds like the woman was supposed to be an assistant of lesser status.  Those who have studied the word in ancient languages tell us it means equal partner, a power equal to, worthy of, exactly corresponding to.  Obviously more than just a companion dog.  
It comes from a root word that also implies to be strong, to succor, to rescue, to save, to “deliver from death”.   Eve was in very deed, a Savior to man, choosing to give up her lifestyle and life, die a mortal death that mankind might be.  It was her job to save those spirits waiting to come through the veil by giving them bodies. This is Eve’s legacy for all women, not just within the bounds of marriage and child bearing.   All daughters of Eve have the obligation to be as a “mother to all living”, dedicated to saving their own little corner of the world.   ...“Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee” (Moses 4:22).  Some men will interpret this verse as God’s permission to disregard a woman’s wisdom and to force her desires to his. President Gordon B. Hinckley explained that Adam's "ruling over" Eve really means "to responsibly provide for, to protect, to strengthen and shield [his] wife." That sounds to me like more of a Christ-like role.  The greatest of all came to serve, not to be served.  (See Mark 10:44-45)
Like Adam, if men hearken carefully to the counsel of women, they may come to know, like Adam came to know, that women possess a certain kind of wisdom and power that men need.  President Harold B. Lee had said – “The purest form of revelation is the intuition of a righteous woman”. We can do more than provide the refreshments and pour the punch....
What can women learn from Eve?
They have inherited a divine intuition 
God trusts their judgment   
He has a great and marvelous plan for them   
They can do hard things   
Their righteous sacrifices are accepted   
They can seek truth, chose wisely, and accept the responsibility   
They can articulate spiritual truths   
They are born with the inherent right to be the saviors of human souls   
They are an absolute necessity to building up the kingdom of God on the earth today
It is my prayer that women will be able to move ahead boldly like Eve, to make wise and thoughtful choices, and know that they are precious daughters of God, of divine heritage and worthy and fit for His kingdom on earth and in heaven..."

The fact that exaltation is only possible through eternal marriage supports the fact that motherhood and the priesthood are equally important. We cannot be saved without each other. Marriage is not the last piece of the puzzle, but rather it is both the subject and the approach to the puzzle. Interdependence is a celestial law. Marriage is where this becomes most relevant. Spouses should be equally yoked, no one is more important. Priesthood responsibilities are meant to support and uplift the responsibilities of motherhood and vice versa. Becoming one, becoming unified is essential to becoming like God. This is just one of the myriad reasons why families and eternal marriage facilitate exaltation.

*D&C 131-132, Vivian McConkie Adams' "Our Glorious Mother Eve."
   

5. The qualities of a good priesthood holder are exactly the same as those of a good mother.
   
     Comparing a list of qualities is really when I started to realize the connection between motherhood and the priesthood. Look at Doctrine and Covenants 121: 41-45:

Persuasion              Pure knowledge                                                                          
Long-suffering        Without hypocrisy (real conversion)                                            
Gentleness              Without guile (pure motivation)                                                    
Meekness               Reproving betimes with sharpness when inspired, followed by    
Love unfeigned       Increased love (loving the sinner without loving the sin)
Kindness                Charity
Faith                        Virtue
Increased confidence through progression.
     The power of the priesthood is accessed through the same qualities that a mother develops through her nurturing. This tells me that the end results for both parties is the same. We are all working toward the same end goal, and in order to get there, we need the same qualities. We are all working to become like God, which means we need to emulate His attributes and understand how to use the power He will bestow upon us. A power that is only available to us as we pursue these characteristics.

6. There is a micro and a macro application to every principal of the gospel.

     Just like the earth was created spiritually before it was physically created, the truths of the gospel are infused into every atom of existence, which means that there will be recognizable patterns and cycles in all areas of life, temporal, spiritual, mental, emotional or otherwise, and there will be an distinct, though perhaps subtle parallel between the spiritual reality and the physical reality. This also means that principals, truths, and scriptures can be used to explain what needs to be done on the personal level as well as on a worldwide scale. This is why you can read the same verse of scripture over and over, and depending on your current circumstances, you will learn something different every single time. One example from the scriptures is the concept of Zion. Zion has two accepted definitions: Zion the physical place and Zion the state of heart. Both are required in order for the kingdom of the Lord to be prepared,  and for us to be in a place where we can really become like God. The physical location of Zion is a group of people who already have Zion in their hearts, so the state of heart needs to be acquired before the physical Zion can really be completed. You really can not have one without the other. Elder Christofferson states "Zion is Zion because of the character, attributes, and faithfulness of her citizens."

     Motherhood and the priesthood work in tandem to pursue both aspects of Zion. The only difference is that the priesthood deals more with big picture logistics while motherhood has the opportunity to influence the longer trajectory; that is, the environment of the first and most formative years of a person's life. It's like the priesthood is the typical branches of the FBI, while motherhood is a deep cover op. One is not more important than the other, and both are utterly crucial. One begins on the micro and the other ends on the macro.

*Mosiah 18:21, Colossians 2:2, "Come to Zion"  D. Todd Christofferson,

From what I understand, the priesthood and motherhood operate under the same power, and are in

essence the same thing. They are two sides of the same coin, mirror reflections, equal power contingencies, two halves of the same Oreo. No matter how you choose to eat your Oreos, or interpret truth, it is still an Oreo.

One thing that I want to make really clear. Based on these conclusions it is also important to state that motherhood is a calling, not an event! We have responsibilities and blessing available to us whether or not we are currently or ever will be raising children.

Maybe women will hold priesthood offices at some point. Cool, I'm happy with the possibility. That works for me. I honestly don't care either way. I think it is much more important to focus on the call and responsibilities we have been given now. I feel that there is more we can do, more we can understand, more we can trust in the Lord to raise His children in righteousness and rejoice in the power we have been given. That is power and responsibility enough. I don't think we are accessing the true power associated with the office of motherhood, and until we do that, until I do that personally, I am not worried about having a priesthood office, because I already have one. I'm going to be a mother.


I think it's important that we ask these questions; we would be naive to think we are going to make it through the years ahead without coming to our own grips on these topics. What I do not think is helpful is approaching sensitive and complicated questions like these as if they were faults in the constitution of a government. The church is not a system to be corrected, manipulated or cajoled into something that seems more fair, relevant, or discerning. It operates under the reality of absolute truth. Absolute truth, truth that exists above and despite what the current understanding or intelligence level of human beings happens to be at the moment. This usually means if there is changing to be done, it is on our part. Hard, yes, but what is our goal? A sense of immediate satisfaction or the real deal? Granted, the church is run by imperfect people, but God will not let human mistake compromise the progression of the Kingdom. We can trust that there is a means to the apparent madness, even if it includes mistakes. So I say go to the source. Go to God, ask Him what is truth, ask Him to give you understanding. He will answer for He is good. I know that more than I know anything else and it makes me glad.


~Gabbi



This is a great article. Women and the Priesthood