Would you mind explaining that? Do you mean that that’s not a real leadership position, or the fact that any adult male can fold the priesthood and she can’t?
Mormon Leadership:
The First Presidency - 3 men
■ The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles - 12 men, 0 women
■ The Presidency of the Seventy -7 men, 0 women
■ The First Quorum of the Seventy -57 men, 0 women
■ The Second Quorum of the Seventy -20 men, 0 women
■ The Presiding Bishopric - 3 men, 0 women
The Presidency of the Seventy - 52 men, 0 women
All flavors of Christianity thrive under criticism; makes martyrs of the common man. It’s self-sustaining. The ever-present “Expect persecution for your beliefs” meme means they walk away feeling smug and validated rather than challenged.
Yeah, but can any of them make a truly flaky pie crust? I think not!
For that, you’ve got to go to the auxillaries:
◦Auxiliary Presidencies
■ The Relief Society - 3 women
■ The Young Women Presidency - 3 women
■ The Primary Presidency - 3 women
■ The Sunday School Presidency - 3 men
■ The Young Men Presidency - 3 men
As far as I can find out, auxillary presidencies are the top of the ladder for the women.
Just that I know the Relief Society and how it’s an all-woman organization within the church. To offer it as an example of women gaining leadership in the church is laughable. Add to that the fact that only men can hold priesthood and it makes it even more funny.
I agree that pointing out that the leadership in an all-female organization is female as a sign of equality in the church is laughable, I do wonder what regard this organization is held?
If this organization is on an equal level with others within the church, that might mean something in the name of progress. If they treat that organization like the kids table at Thanksgiving, then it’s even more damning.
It’s more of a service position than a leadership position.
On the local level, Relief Society president of a ward is a big deal. She is responsible for making sure that all women in the ward get visited each month in their homes by other women in the ward. The men visit all of the families (Home Teaching), and the women visit all the families with women (Visiting Teaching).
Mormons attend church in 3 1-hour meetings on Sunday. For one of those hours, the men meet with their quorums (elders and high priests) and the women attend Relief Society meeting. From 1998 until recently (maybe until present, I dunno) both sexes were taught from the same “Teachings of the Presidents of the Church” series of lesson manuals. There is also Homemaking Meeting (it got renamed a decade ago, but i forgot the new name) during the week where they get together and learn to knit doilies and make flaky pie crusts.
When someone in the ward is sick, the Relief Society president ensures that one of the women in the ward brings the family a bucket of KFC. (It used to be a casserole and a green-jello-and-carrots salad, but KFC was more common in my last few wards. When my wife was assigned to bring the meal, I usually made crawfish etouffee.) When my family moved to TX, the Relief Society president found volunteers to watch my kids while my wife was interviewing for jobs.
I can’t seem to find a place in the Mormon hierarchy where a woman is a leader over men-just women leading women…at least on the basic levels.
They do. As an example, we would have “Ward Conferences” annually, and as part there would be a leadership meeting in which the leaders of each priesthood and auxiliary group would give a report.
Everything in Mormonism has a known hierarchy, so there are three divisions within the Melchizedek or upper priesthood and three within the Aaronic or lower priesthood. The reports were given in reverse order of importance. So the Aaronic priesthood before Melchizedek, etc., and within the Aaronic priesthood, the Deacons’ Quorum (For 12 and 13 year-old boys) would go before the Teachers’ Quorum (14 and 15) and the Teachers before the Priests (17 and 18).
Of course, the organizations with less importance would be before the Aaronic priesthood. Yup. The president of the Relief Society, a grown woman, would give her report before me, the Deacons’ Quorum President and a twelve-year-old boy, because I had the priesthood; therefore I outranked her.
Any former Mormon could go on all day about this. We had various leadership groups in our Young Men and Young Women organization (for kids from 12 to 18), but they all had to be lead by a boy. Never a girl.
Someone upstream mentioned that women and not giving prayers at General Conference. Hell, through at least the better part of the 70s, they couldn’t even give them at the congregational level, and some exMormons complain that local bishops still place certain restrictions on women in some circumstances.
I think the really damning thing is the change from “white and delightsome” to “pure”. Other changes here.
The concept that the Lamanites were cursed with a dark skin because they were evil, and that the Lamanites were the direct ancestors of the Indians were never questioned until science proved it otherwise. As much as people want to try to spin, this was the belief of the Church. It could still very well be, as the church never officially retracts things.
This was taught by the prophets and apostles all the time I was growing up. Here is a quote from the apostle who became the prophet for most of my youth.
April makes a point that churches should improve. Which is true. But, as Erodsain says, the problem is that the teachings of the church is that it is being lead by living prophets apostles, and should know better. If this were a Rotary club or a member-lead study group, then sure no one would complain about them being thirty years behind the curve on social changes, but when the church continues to act in ways to repress women and minority groups in the name of God, then I think it’s fair to point out inconsistencies.
There were quite a number of changes, but these were some of the more interesting ones.
When Joseph Smith and his friends decided to write the BoM, they still had a pretty orthodox view of Christian theology, including the Godhood so the BoM reflected orthodox theology. It wasn’t afterward that Smith’s views radically evolved, which necessitated revisions in the BoM.
One of the quotes in the linked article
As Smith’s view of the Godhood had evolved into the belief that Jesus and God were completely separate gods, the following revision was necessary.
Why are we supposed to pretend that the LDS is not just another wacko cult like Scientology? “Delightsomeness”. Really? Magic underwear, secret handshakes, passwords to get into heaven - this is some seriously bizarre stuff. I can’t believe we were about to elect someone as President who not only belongs to the cult, but had a leadership position in it. Why worry about Obama being a secret Muslim when you have someone who openly embraces such nonsense?
“Mr President, we have a representative of the Cherokee Nation to meet with you”.
“Great, send in some bagels and lox, you know how those Jews love that stuff. Oh, I didn’t see you sitting there Mr. Running Bear, don’t you look delightsome today. I heard your daughter became a Moromon last year. Is she turning whiter?”.
Since this thread has gone very, very far from the original topic and the OP has obviously lost interest (and there is more Mormon-bashing than anything else going on here), I am closing this.