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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Women Ordination

Okay, so this is a topic I have been thinking about for a while. I mean no harm to anyone else and their opinion on the manner, I just have a thought and I am so tired of being too scared to comment on someone else's blog post about this. All those who oppose my opinion please just hear me out, I have no problem with opposing views just as long as you are respectful toward mine.
So there is a movement going around called "The Ordination of Women", and they are upset about the fact that in the LDS Church men have the priesthood and women do not. Their argument; gender inequality, this apparently is unfair and has no business being in the church of God. To those of you women or men who feel this it the truth, do not believe that I have not considered your point of view and have waved it away before looking at it. I have in fact looked at views supporting OW and I do have to say that it is easy to find arguments to support those opinions.
Before I really get started I would like to share a list with you that I learned about in seminary. This list will teach you a little bit about what you feel might be personal revelation and how to determine if it really is what you think it is:
Does your idea....
1. Support current teachings in the scriptures and words of the prophets and apostles?
2. Is it given through the chain of command (People who have higher authority)?
3. Is the person influencing this idea worthy?
4. Visitations (This has to do with if it is given to you through angels, but most of the time this is not the case and this might not apply to our current topic) D&C 129.
5. Common consent (Is it something that has been sustained by the church)? D&C 28:13.
6. Does it honor agency? 2 Corinthians 3:17.
7. Is it selfish or unselfish?
Now some of you might say that the Ordination of women follows a few of these things, but if it does not follow everything on the list it is most likely not the kind of revelation you think it is (Sorry, it's just a thought I have come to know).
Now let me address the "issue" of gender inequality in our church. What gender inequality? It is just the fact that women do not hold the priesthood, that we can not hold offices that require a priesthood holder? What it is? For most of the part I have seen many women recognized in our church for all the wonderful work they do and for the most part men honor the duties of women. How many church leaders out there have not recognized that if it were not for the help and guidance of their spouses or other female influence they would not have been able to do the things they do? Women underestimate their importance in the church, they lower their own responsibilities in their eyes because it is not what the men get to do. Notice how I use the word "Get" not have to do, not need to do, "Get" to do, the duties we have as women are privileges, they are not obligations. For those of you who do not believe women are respected in our church just look at proverbs 31, it shows us that the responsibilities of women are so important that God had to have most of a chapter dedicated to it. (These versus are 10-31).
I liked to think of the responsibility in our church like the checks and balances of our government system. Don't know what checks and balances are? Well it pretty much means that jobs are distributed among the three branches of government so that one person does not hold the power, or in our case one gender group. Lets think of men as the executive branch, there are less of them in our church and they represent with the authority of the priesthood and the duties that fall with it. Women are like the legislative branch, there are more of us in the church and we are not always recognized individually because we are not the executive branch, but we have the power to make sure the men are in line and do their responsibility as the leader, we get to call them out when things go wrong and make them do their job right, we can also come up with ideas for the men to pass. God is like the judicial branch, he tells us what is what and when we have a question as to what works in the system his word is final. When one branch takes the duties of another branch to themselves they leave the other branch useless and they themselves have way too much power and the whole system falls. The same idea applies to women being ordained to the priesthood, I think it is safe to say that if women had the priesthood there would be no need for men because they would slack more in their duties as priesthood holders because they know the women will be there to clean up the mess. In a way women not having the priesthood gives men something that makes them special and gives them a purpose because they know they have to provide for what the women do not have and women do the same because men can not give themselves complete support and need help when they are falling. In the end everything is up to God and both sides can ask for him to help.
 Understanding that fact that women can not be ordained to the priesthood is an understanding that women have much bigger fish to fry, women have too much to do in the church already when you think about it, they are the organizers who keep the glue together, without them things would not work right. Priesthood is not an equal right to be ordained to, it has nothing to do with the fact that men in the church don't want women to have power, it has to do with the fact that priesthood is a divine right given to men, women have a divine right to be the glue of the church, we hold things together and do everything the men can not do.
Women don't have the ordination of the priesthood, but they have so much more. They have the blessings of the priesthood without even holding it. Why would you want to be in charge of priesthood duties, which leaves the men nothing, and be responsible for the duties you already have? I can not change your mind on the matter, and I accept that, you are entitled to your own thoughts, but in my opinion you can not change the divine right God has already given to you... And why would you want to?

2 comments:

  1. kashee! i know i blogged about this last night so i cannot help but feel your response was in part triggered by my post. i'd like to THANK YOU. you have such a mature and developed mind. i really admire that. what matters to me is that people are having this conversation and taking the time to ponder and question and importantly, to PRAY over this topic. enlightenment does come and very often it comes from heaven. thank you.

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  2. Thanks for your response, Kelli. Actually This post is targeted to many posts I have read in the past week, though I did read your blog about it I was no way directly targeting your opinion, my Facebook page has been filled with Ordain Women blog and news posts and I wanted to state my thoughts on the manner. Though we may not agree, I think you had some great points in your post, good job on that.

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