Repudiating Sexism?

So what happens when the Washington Post writes, “The LDS Stance on Women,” and contacts a BYU religion professor who explains that women are too spiritual to need the priesthood; women are highly valued in LDS theology because men can’t be exalted without them; women are actually blessed by not having to deal with the responsibility of holding the priesthood; he personally loves and honors his wife, so everything is clearly fine; even though women can’t hold the priesthood, look! they get their very own organization! (under the direction of the priesthood); a woman’s important role is to be a righteous influence on men; LDS theology is liberating for women because of the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother, even though we can’t talk about her because Heavenly Father is protecting her delicate sensibilities; and so forth? Will we get widespread cries of outrage, complaints about the condescension of such comments, a call for the professor in question to be disciplined, a statement from the dean clarifying that these comments do not reflect the teachings at BYU, and hurried responses from the LDS Newsroom?

16 comments

  1. At least most Mormons, even more conservative ones, seemed at least a little embarrassed about the racial stuff. We’re a ways away from feeling the same about gender :/

  2. The speed in which the Church responded does not mean the response was “hurried”.

  3. Yeah, it amazes me to no end that this didn’t come up more in the conversation. Once at a friend’s ward a black man came and talked about what it was like to get the priesthood in 1978 when he was in his twenties and he said “None of you understand how it feels to not have the priesthood for no fault of your own” I turned to my friend and audibly said, “Yes, we do.” Except that he did get it and I never will.

  4. That’s why I think it’s so important for us to have the wonderful online community where we can talk about this stuff, but until more people are reading and participating and until reporters know to ask more than one source, we’ll just have to be extra-loud voices.

  5. “None of you understand how it feels to not have the priesthood for no fault of your own” I turned to my friend and audibly said, “Yes, we do.”

    This is probably a separate issue, but this kind of language really frustrates me. How could this man ignore half of the people sitting there listening to him speak.

  6. Lynette, that was my first thought when I started reading those series of articles/posts! Glad I wasn’t the only one. 🙂 I do wonder what the Church would do if that happened. Stay silent, or point to a bunch of past talks where women are repeatedly declared special because we can given birth (and that’s it). (more or less) If this did happen, would it be a helpful, turning moment or a painful dividing one? I would guess the latter.

  7. What I find frustrating is that people can’t see the inherent hypocrisy of extending something, like the priesthood, to one group of people – for political expediency – and still denying it from a much larger group of people!

    Naturally, racism is awful and racist practices should be done away with; yet why can’t we do both? Tackle racism and sexism? Like in the political spectrum, women tend to get things last and the fight seems to be much harder, especially because other women fight against the change.

  8. For those unfamiliar with blogging etiquette, just a reminder that it’s generally considered bad form to show up on a blog solely for the purpose of posting links to one’s own blog (especially if this is taking place on multiple threads). Comments that sound too much like spam are being moderated.

  9. “Will we get widespread cries of outrage, complaints about the condescension of such comments, a call for the professor in question to be disciplined, a statement from the dean clarifying that these comments do not reflect the teachings at BYU, and hurried responses from the LDS Newsroom?”

    Yes, about 30 years after women are given the priesthood.

  10. This reminds me of how Muslims say it is for the woman’s benefit to cover themselves. They are freed from the responsibility of vanity and the pressures of fashion.
    Mormon women are “freed” from the responsibility of the priesthood.
    The problem is, in both situations, women are not giving the choice as to what responsibilty they want.

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