Ziff – Page 23 – Zelophehad's Daughters

Results of Poll on Feminist Concerns

Ziff5 February 200723 April 20082 Comments

A while back we put up a poll asking commenters to vote on their top feminist concerns with the Church. The table below shows a few results, based on responses from the 78 people who have voted as of today (although second and third concerns each received only 75 total responses). Note that the “weighted votes” column assigns votes for #1 concern a value of 3, #2 concern a value of 2, and #3 concern a value of 1. The “votes” column simply counts the number of times a concern was voted for without weighting.

The major result of this poll is that limited female participation in Church administration is by far the top concern of those who voted. Read More

In Abortion, Gender Issues, Legal Issues

On Outlawing Abortion: I Have a Question

Ziff2 February 200723 April 200830 Comments

The Utah state legislature is looking to pass a law that outlaws abortion. (Thanks to Matt Evans at T&S for the pointer.) In line with the Church’s position on abortion, it would allow for three exceptions. A woman could have an abortion if the pregnancy endangered her life (or her health, in a major and permanent way), or if it resulted from incest or rape.

If this law were passed, I wonder if this last exception might not be problematic. Read More

In Fun, Hymns, Music

Changing the Words to Hymns

Ziff13 December 20066 December 201640 Comments

When I put my boys to bed at night, I often sing them hymns. One of their favorites is “There Is a Green Hill Far Away,” probably because it’s one of the few that I know all the verses to and can sing in the dark. But part of this hymn has always struck me as odd. In the first verse, it says that the green hill is “where the dear Lord was crucified.” The dear Lord? That sounds so impersonal. So taking a page from “Upon the Cross of Calvary,” I always sing this line as “where our dear Lord was crucified.”

So are there any hymns that you sing nonstandard words to, or any for which you would like to see the wording changed?

In Gender Issues, Marriage

Solving the Mormon Man Shortage

Ziff8 December 200622 January 200848 Comments

There has been an interesting discussion at Feminist Mormon Housewives in response to a guest poster’s request for advice on how she, as a single Mormon woman, should deal with her strong sex drive. Tangentially, I was interested by a comment made by David on that thread:

Let me just state the obvious that no one seems to want to say:

There are more decent, inteligent, active, spiritual single women in the church than there are men.

I dont know how it all balances out in the end, but right now, thats just the way it is

Read More

In Gender Issues

Fun with Numbers: Is the Church Appealing to Women?

Ziff25 September 200622 January 200814 Comments

Commenting on Seraphine’s Healing the Breach post at Times and Seasons, bbell asked this question:

If as you claim the LDS church is so alienating for women then why does it seem from all I have ever read that there are more active women then men? It would seem to me that men are being more alienated.

This seems like a reasonable point. Read More

In Fun

The Joy of Settlers of Catan

Ziff26 August 200616 March 201531 Comments

My impression is that the average Mormon plays more board games than does the average non-Mormon. I suspect that, just as we use ice cream as a substitute for alcohol, we use board games as a substitute for drinking games.

One of my favorites is Settlers of Catan. Read More

In Family History

Why Family History?

Ziff7 July 200622 January 200820 Comments

When I was in Primary, many years ago, we sang a song titled “Genealogy- I Am Doing It.” The song has since been rewritten as “Family History- I am Doing It”. This change is just one of many indicators of a general shift in the Church in the past couple of decades from talking about genealogy to talking about family history. Read More

In Church Life

Asking for Change

Ziff25 June 200622 January 200820 Comments

I enjoyed Lynnette’s post on hoping for change, and the comments that followed. It got me to thinking about the next step after hoping, which might be asking for change. How can a member go about asking the Church to change?