I won't touch on the question of "should women be ordained?" I want to say how I feel about the Ordain Women movement, specifically.
I think it's acceptable to correspond with the president of the church and request changes. I am not ok with disregarding his answers.
I'm ok with Ordain Women believing they should receive the priesthood. I'm not okay that they blatantly ignored the Church's direction (written by a female spokesperson, I might add) to stay in designated areas, and to not push for tickets into priesthood session.
What bothers me is that I don't know of any such protest that was ever organized for blacks and the priesthood.
The Church is not a democracy that can be pressured into a popular agenda. If the Church declared that women could be ordained, I would wholeheartedly support it. That's not the issue for me. The issue for me is respect for the Lord, respect for those divinely called to receive revelation on such matters, and respect for the revelations which they have received after fasting, pondering, consulting with others ordained unto that purpose, and praying.
It offends me that one of them on Facebook called it "trying too hard to be the middleman." No, the prophets are fulfilling their divinely appointed calling. Prophets don't come between you and God. They help you come closer to God. The Lord's whole purpose for the Restoration was to divinely choose men who could speak on His behalf to the entire world when otherwise the world would languish in ignorance. Think about the Restoration, then think about Ordain Women's audacious claims and demands.
Do they think that their revelation trumps that of the prophets? Don't forget, your ability to receive personal revelation was revealed by prophets.
In keeping with what I said before, it doesn't bother me that they want the priesthood. I would wholeheartedly support ordaining women if the apostles received revelation to do so. I think it would be totally appropriate to want to know why women can't be ordained. It's not appropriate to demand ordination.
Can you think of a time when the Lord was on the receiving end of an ultimatum and the Lord acquiesced? I sure can't. In the Book of Mormon, Jacob said, "seek not to counsel the Lord." Is Ordain Women seeking and listening for an answer? Or are they demanding to hear what they want to hear?
I hate Ordain Women's attitude of: "We won't stop until you ordain us!"
I might be more favorable to Ordain Women if their attitude was more like, "We would love to have the priesthood if we could, but we will sustain the prophets no matter what the Lord reveals to them." That would be in keeping with Jacob's instructions to "take counsel from his [the Lord's] hand." (Both quotes are from Jacob 4:10).
"What bothers me is that I don't know of any such protest that was ever organized for blacks and the priesthood."
ReplyDeleteIn 1976 the church excommunicated Douglas Wallace for ordaining a black man to the priesthood.
1977 the church excommunicated Bryan Merchant, a white man that had planned to organize a protest at the tabernacle during general conference about the church's policy on blacks. He disbanded the demonstration but cast the only dissenting vote at general conference and subsequently ex'd for open opposition to church authority.
Cite your source and I will research that.
DeleteNews article that mentions both http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19771015&id=oh1OAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QhMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6904,3033393
ReplyDeleteInteresting. You could say I stand corrected. But Marchant's actions are still different from Ordain Women in that he called off his planned protest (Ordain Women was asked to cancel their protest but did it anyway). Also, he apparently did not go on to rally a large group of followers.
DeleteNotice that Marchant was excommunicated for publicly refusing to sustain the prophet. Sustaining the prophet is at the heart of issues like these.
And what Wallace did is different from Ordain Women because, as far as I know, they haven't ordained any women.
There were dozens of protests against the church's ban on blacks from the early 60's to 1978. These were church members, civil rights organizations, and universities like Cal, UTEP, Stanford, UNM, Arizona, CSU, Wyoming protesting playing BYU. As for an organization like Ordain Women look no further than to The Genesis Group. inn 1971, three African-American Mormon men petitioned then–church president Joseph Fielding Smith. The result was the Genesis Group, which was dissolved after 1978 but restarted in the 90's as an official church organization.
ReplyDelete"The issue for me is respect for the Lord, respect for those divinely called to receive revelation on such matters, and respect for the revelations which they have received after fasting, pondering, consulting with others ordained unto that purpose, and praying." - It would be helpful if the brethren would actually give a revelation on the matter. As it stands there is no scripture or revelation saying women cannot hold the priesthood. Contrary to popular belief, everything that comes out of our prophets mouth is not scripture and can be disavowed (race and priesthood) as modern "revelation" develops. While I respect our leaders, I reserve my right to disagree with them on issues I see as discriminatory or hurting others.
ReplyDelete