 |
|
|
The scriptures teach that male and female are alike to God. It is difficult
to see how that teaching can be reconciled with excluding women from priesthood
offices, just as it was difficult to see how the pre-1978 black priesthood
ban could be reconciled with the teaching that black and white are alike
to God (2 Ne. 26:33). Claims that men and
women have "equal but complimentary" roles sound uncomfortably
like the "separate but equal" rhetoric that once justified racism.
Given that women serve priestly functions during temple ordinances, it
is not obvious why they could not do the same in other areas of church
service. During the 19th century, Mormon women also anointed and blessed
the sick.
Ordaining women and girls to priesthood office would require a new understanding
of gender among the Saints, and perhaps a new understanding of priesthood
itself. It remains to be seen whether the Saints may someday come into
new light on this issue. A first step might be to understand priesthood
not as authority bestowed on individuals but as a gift to the church as
a whole. The restoration of the priesthood commissioned the church collectively
to undertake God's work. All members, male and female, are empowered for
service through priesthood ordinances: baptism, confirmation, the endowment.
Priesthood offices are just some of the diverse capacities in which Latter-day
Saints are called to use their spiritual gifts to bless others' lives
(D&C 46:15-16).
Eliza R. Snow: Is it
necessary for sisters to be set apart to officiate in the sacred ordinances
of washing, anointing, and laying on of hands in administering to
the sick? . . . It certainly is not. Any and all sisters who honor
their holy endowments, not only have the right, but should feel it
a duty whenever called upon to administer to our sisters in these
ordinances, which God has graciously committed to His daughters as
well to His sons; and we testify that when administered and received
in faith and humility they are accompanied with all mighty power.
Inasmuch as God our Father has revealed these sacred ordinances and
committed them to His saints, it is not only our privilege but our
imperative duty to apply them for the relief of human suffering.
|
Woman's Exponent,
Sept. 15, 1884, 61; quoted in Linda King Newell, "A Gift Given,
A Gift Taken:
Washing, Anointing, and Blessing the Sick among Mormon
Women," The New Mormon History
(Salt Lake City: Signature
Books, 1992), 105 |
Bathsheba W. Smith:
I never like to hear a sermon without hearing something of the Prophet,
for he gave us everything, every order of the priesthood. He said
he had given the sisters instructions that they could administer
to the sick and he wanted to make us, as the women were in Paul's
day, "A kingdom of priestesses."
|
Pioneer Stake Relief Society
Minutes, June 9, 1905; quoted in D. Michael Quinn, "Mormon Women
Have
Had the Priesthood Since 1843," Women and Authority
(Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 369 |
John A. Widtsoe: Paul
the Apostle, speaking in an earlier day said that "neither
is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man,
in the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:11.) This notable statement implies
that woman . . . bears joint responsibility with the man in establishing
the Kingdom of God; and, that the work will fail unless both do
their duty. . . . There can be no question in the Church about man's
rights versus woman's rights. They have the same rights.
|
| Relief Society Magazine,
June-July 1943, 372 |
Eldred G. Smith: If
service is the work of God, and if we are to become as he is and
return to live with him in his kingdom, our work must be to serve
others. There are many ways to serve. Every activity of the Church
provides an opportunity to serve—priesthood, Relief Society,
genealogy, the paying of tithes; all of the auxiliary organizations
are mediums through which we may serve.
|
| Conference Report,
April 1967, 78 |
Ardeth Greene Kapp:
If we were to begin with the time a child is given a name and a
blessing and then continue on through baptism, confirmation, the
sacrament, callings and being set apart, patriarchal blessings,
administrations, the endowment, and finally celestial marriage,
we would quickly realize that all the saving blessings of the priesthood
are for everyone, male and female.
|
| My Neighbor, My Sister, My Friend (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1990), 75-76 |
Chieko N. Okazaki:
Priesthood isn't a matter of who's in charge and who gets to give
orders. It's a matter of serving others. Every officer and every
member, whether man or woman or child, needs that feeling of
being sustained, both by members who hold the priesthood and by
those who do not, so that all the members, men and women,
can be strengthened.
|
| Disciples (Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book, 1998), 65 |
|
|
|
