Women giving blessings

[Green Monstah]

Son, whatever.

I guess that's a good sign my joke missed the mark....

[UtahDan]

The church actually has a really rich history of a broader role for women that it could mine if it chose to. When the question of an increased role for women comes up the question usually turns quite quickly to "they just want the priesthood." But I was listening to a recent Mormon Matters podcast where the question was asked whether there was not something short of that which would involve women more.

For example, is there any reason a woman cannot be a Sunday School President (she can teach gospel doctrine). A woman can be the CFO of a Fortune 500 company but not a clerk at church. Why not? Women don't sit in council in the executive committees at either the ward or stake level though the young men's leaders do. Why? What about some kinds of counseling for other women or girls? Might not this solve the concern that a male leader might not be the ideal person to be discussing chastity with a 12 year old girl?

[Goatnapper'96]

I read faster than I can listen. This is the article related to Molière's link.

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/115-6-30-43.pdf

I understand that Brigham Young's approach to gender differences was very Victorian. I understand that one of the reasons, perhaps the primary reason, BY was so committed to women physicians, nurses and mid-wifes was so that they could perform all needed medical procedures on other women while the male physicians and Gaylord Faulker's took care of the menfolk. I would think that part of his motivation for the push for women to give blessings spurns from his personal conviction that men and women should not mix in certain environments and frequently it is within those environments that blessings are offered.

[pellegrino]

This seems like it would be pertinent to this discussion.

http://agitatingfaithfully.org/about-us

Has this website been discussed on this site?

Yes, I can't remember the thread, I think it's the problems for the future of the LDS church one.

I'd encourage anyone who thinks that women should or could have the priesthood to sign their name to the website. Read the statement by GB Hinckley that acts as the foundation for the site. If members didn't persistently ask why blacks couldn't have the priesthood then the question wouldn't have come up in the Q12. Until a larger group of faithful, mainstream members recognize the longstanding tradition discussed in the gift given article and then "agitate" for a discussion on women and the priesthood, nothing will ever happen.

UD makes a good point in that there are many things that the church could do to promote equality without giving the priesthood, female SS presidents would be a start.

[Green Monstah]

Yes, I can't remember the thread, I think it's the problems for the future of the LDS church one.

I'd encourage anyone who thinks that women should or could have the priesthood to sign their name to the website. Read the statement by GB Hinckley that acts as the foundation for the site. If members didn't persistently ask why blacks couldn't have the priesthood then the question wouldn't have come up in the Q12. Until a larger group of faithful, mainstream members recognize the longstanding tradition discussed in the gift given article and then "agitate" for a discussion on women and the priesthood, nothing will ever happen.

UD makes a good point in that there are many things that the church could do to promote equality without giving the priesthood, female SS presidents would be a start.

I think the day that women receive the priesthood will be the day immediately prior to the first gay sealing in an LDS temple. I came post-78 however, and maybe I would have had a similar attitude towards black priesthood holders.

[Sullyute]

I wouldn't have much faith in a blessing given to me by a woman.

I tying to figure out a way to not take this statement as misogynistic.

Are you saying that you are so accustomed to men (with the priesthood) giving blessings that if you received a blessing from a women that your lack of faith would not allow the blessing to take effect? Or are you saying that women cannot call down the blessings of heaven for those they love simply because they lack the priesthood?

Or are you trolling again and I just took the bait...?

[falafel]

Or are you trolling again and I just took the bait...?

Bingo.

[Portland Ute]

I think the day that women receive the priesthood will be the day immediately prior to the first gay sealing in an LDS temple. I came post-78 however, and maybe I would have had a similar attitude towards black priesthood holders.

I don't think the LDS church has "painted itself into a corner" as much with the women/leadership/priesthood issue as with gay temple marriage.

But that's just me.

[Sullyute]

I was reading In Sacred Lonliness last night and came across a journal entry of Patty Session in which she and her sister-wife,Harriet Wixom, annoint and bless their joint husband, David Parry, and he is healed.

December 8,1866 - "Mr Parry was very sick last night in the night he sent for me thought he would not live [into] morning. I went he wished me to lay hands on him I annointed him Harriet and I laid hands on him He was healed instantly"

I think it is great to read and hear about women healing people and using consecrated oil to boot.

[MarkGrace]

December 8,1966 - "Mr Parry was very sick last night in the night he sent for me thought he would not live [into] morning. I went he wished me to lay hands on him I annointed him Harriet and I laid hands on him He was healed instantly"

Somebody didn't get notice of the manifesto.

[Sullyute]

I read faster than I can listen. This is the article related to Molière's link.

https://www.sunstonemagazine.com/pdf/115-6-30-43.pdf

I just read this and it was fascinating. There were two quotes that I really enjoyed. The first quote almost brings tears to my eyes:

Perhaps women can gain some mearsure of comfort from Elder James E Talmage, who wrote: "When the frailties and imperfections of mortality are left behind, in the glorified state of the blessed hereafter, husband and wife will administer in their respective stations, seeing and understanding alike, co-operating to the full in the government of their family kingdom. Then shall women be recompensed in rich measure for all the injustice womanhood has endured in mortality....Mortal eye cannot see nor mind comprehend the beauty, glory, and majesty of a righteous woman made perfect in the celestial kingdom of God."

Here is the second:

Ruth Fox recorded a discussionwith the same gently redoubtable Zina Young. "When asked if women held the priesthood in connection with their husbans, [she said] that we should be thankful for the many blessings we enjoyed and say nothing about it. If you plant a grain of wheat and keep poling at it to see if it was growing you would spoil the root. The answer was very satisfying to me." But always someone was eager to poke, and each time the spiritual roots of the women were imperiled.

It looks like women were as much to blame for the lost of this great privilege becuase they kept asking the priesthood authority for permission and clarification. I guess Moliere hit the nail on the head below...

I learned early on in life to never ask someone in authority in the church if something is okay because it usually is....unless you ask first.