[This is a guest post from Deborah Rowley, a Latter-day Saint woman sharing her perspective on the subject of women and the priesthood. These comments are Deborah’s alone, and do not necessarily reflect the official position of FairMormon or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints..]
I am a woman. I am also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am aware of the events surrounding Kate Kelly, her excommunication, and the Ordain Woman movement. Many people both inside and outside the Church have been asking questions like, “What are the leaders of the church thinking?” or “What is Kate Kelly’s bishop thinking?” Those on the other side of the controversy are asking, “What is Kate Kelly thinking?” or “What are the members of Ordain Women thinking?” While these are good questions, I think they’re the wrong ones. No one in the swirling social media frenzy surrounding this situation is asking the right question.
Here is the right question, “What is God thinking?” I know how that must sound. Just stay with me for a second. Let’s just assume that the priesthood leaders at the head of the Church are telling the truth. They have said that only God makes this decision about who holds the priesthood. And they have told us that God said, “Not women.” That answer may change in the future but for now, the answer is no. You may not believe that those men are speaking for God and that is your right. But I do. My faith depends on it. Otherwise the leaders of my church are lying. If they are lying, why would I want to be part of their organization or hold the priesthood anyway? Let’s just assume for the sake of argument that they are telling the truth and that God said no. That is where my question comes in.
The right question is, “What is God thinking?” Einstein famously said that he wanted to know God’s thoughts. I am no Einstein but I think I know my Heavenly Father well enough to know what he is not thinking. He is not thinking that his daughters are undeserving or unworthy. He is not thinking that his daughters couldn’t do the job as well as his sons. He is not thinking that he loves his daughters less than his sons or that he values their growth and development less than that of his sons. He is not thinking that he wants to drive women away from his church or hold them down or keep them subservient. I am confident that God is not thinking those things.
So what could be God thinking? I don’t want to be struck by lightning for the presumption of thinking like God or for God, but I really like that question. As I’ve pondered that question sincerely, I’ve come up with several answers that make sense to me. They may not make sense to you, but below are three possible reasons that I came up with. (God is not in the habit of letting me read his mind so feel free to take this with a grain of salt if you want.)
I started my thought process by acknowledging that God thinks in the big picture. He looks at the long term and can see perfectly how thumping that one domino will set in motion a stream of events that we cannot even begin to see. God knows the consequences down the road that are hidden to us with our limited perspective. Can he see that what seems like one positive to us right now would result in even bigger negatives in the long run? What could those negatives be?
First, perhaps God is saying no because he is protecting his youngest and most innocent children and wants to safeguard a mother’s very limited time in the home. Second, perhaps God is saying no because he is concerned about the growing distortion in our understanding of men and women’s unique roles. Perhaps giving the priesthood to women would further blur the distinction between men and women and jeopardize our Father’s plan for all his children. Third, perhaps God is saying no because he is aware of negative consequences to his sons.
Many boys are struggling in a world of violence, pornography and fatherless families. Perhaps this decision would further marginalize boys which in turn would negatively impact their wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters. You may agree or disagree with my three points and that is just fine. I am not trying to argue my points as definitive answers because I don’t know what God thinks. But I think it is very probable that he has different purposes and reasons that I wouldn’t even understand if he were to try to verbalize them to me. Nevertheless, it has helped me to think of some reasons that make sense to me. You could do the same. Why do you think God would be saying no?
Whatever the reason, I trust God. I trust that he has my best interests at heart, that he loves me and is thinking continually of my needs. He knows what those needs are and how to fulfill them far better than I do. He knows how to fulfill them better than a group of women activists or a group of priesthood leaders. I do believe that God is behind this decision and I trust him. I believe that conscientious leaders have prayed to him to know if now is the time and God said no. I don’t speak for God, but his prophets do. You don’t get too far in reading the Bible before realizing that the prophets’ words are never popular. Why should that change in our modern day?
The unpopularity of their teachings should confirm rather than discount their validity. I do not see denying women the priesthood as hurtful to women. I do not see this decision as holding women back. Why would a loving God purposefully hurt his daughters? From where I sit, I see women in the church thriving and continuing to grow and progress without the priesthood. I see powerful women who lead with strength and purpose, who express their views openly and honestly. I have never been asked to shut up or sit down. Quite the contrary. I have been asked time and time again to step up and speak up. I feel nothing but respect from my priesthood leaders and I admire and respect them in return.
I will continue to give my all to the religion that I believe in. I love being a woman in the Church. I believe it is the place where I can reach my fullest and highest potential and where I can most fully develop a relationship with God and with his Son Jesus Christ. One day I will know God’s thoughts and I will see how this decision fits into his eternal plan. For now, I will not tell God what to think or what to do. I will trust him and exercise my faith.
Mickey says
I have read this blog post “What is God Thinking?” and have enjoyed Sister Rowley’s comments.
At the beginning of the first class of each semester I quote John Godfrey Saxe’s poem, “The Blind Men and the Elephant” to illustrate several doctrinal concepts. Not the least of these concepts is that God does not know just certain parts of the eternity, just the “end from the beginning” or several of the individual parts of eternity, but God knows the end from the beginning and everything in between. There are no surprises or coincidences in life. God has planned for, and put in place, everything that will insure that His plan for His children – to bring to pass our immortality and eternal lives – shall come to pass. This knowledge, of course, has nothing to do with denying any individual child of their agency.
All things being present to God, He took into consideration all of the choices that billions of individuals have made, are making, or will make and planned accordingly. Again, there are no coincidences in life.
In discussing this, Elder Neal A. Maxwell, in a remarkable talk given in the October 1985 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said:
For each of us, there are choices to be made, incessant and difficult chores to be done, ironies and adversities to be experienced, time to be well spent, talents and gifts to be well employed. Just because we were chosen “there and then,” surely does not mean we can be indifferent “here and now.” Whether foreordination for men, or foredesignation for women, those called and prepared must also prove “chosen, and faithful.” (See Rev. 17:14; D&C 121:34-36.)
In fact, adequacy in the first estate may merely have ensured a stern, second estate with more duties and no immunities! Additional tutoring and suffering appears to be the pattern for the Lord’s most apt pupils. (See Mosiah 3:19; 1 Pet. 4:19.) Our existence, therefore, is a continuum matched by God’s stretching curriculum. (“Premortality, a Glorious Reality”)
In the above quote there are many generative statements. It is not my intent to discuss them all, but one statement in particular stood out to me when I heard this talk given nearly 29 years ago: “Whether foreordination for men, or fordesignation for women, those called and prepared must also prove ‘chosen, and faithful.” I have spent much time during the last 29 years studying that one statement by searching the scriptures, praying and fasting, attending the temple, and pondering. On occasion, when my heart has been right, I have felt, like Nephi, to have been “…caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot.” I believe I know why men are foreordained and women are foredesignated.
In my quest for understanding the difference in foreordination for men and foredesignation for women, I have learned much and felt much. It is in this difference that the answer to the question “What is God Thinking?” is found.
I am reminded of another quote that is quite thought provoking:
[Referring to Abraham 3: 15-19] I believe that this means more than that God is more intelligent than any other one of the intelligences. It means that he is more intelligent than all of the other intelligences combined. His intelligence is greater than that of the mass, and has led me to say in the second Year Book of the Seventies: — “It is this fact doubtless which makes this One, ‘more intelligent than them all,’ God.” He is the All-Wise One! The All-Powered One! What he tells other Intelligences to do must be precisely the wisest, fittest thing that they could anywhere or anyhow learn – the thing which it will always behoove them, with right loyal thankfulness, and nothing doubting, to do. There goes with this, too, the thought that this All-Wise One will be the Unselfish One, the All-loving One, the One who desires that which is highest, and best; not for Himself alone, but for all: and that will be best for him too. His glory, His power, His joy will be enhanced by the uplifting of all, by enlarging them; by increasing their joy, power, and glory. And because this All-Intelligent One is all this, and does all this, the other Intelligences worship Him, submit their judgments and their will to His judgment and His will. He knows, and can do that which is best; and this submission of the mind to the Most Intelligent, Wisest – wiser than all – is worship. This is the whole meaning of the doctrine and life of the Christ expressed in – “Father, not my will but Thy will be done.” B. H. Roberts, cited in TPJS, p. 353
Until I have the mind of God, I will content myself to worship Him; knowing full well that this worship will bring me to God where I will have His mind and all that He has will be given to me. I have learned that when I try to force my will upon God, I place myself in a position to be deceived.
Saxe’s last stanza needs not be discussed in this response, but it is relevant:
So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
As a closing comment: After Lehi had taken his family into the wilderness (1 Nephi 2) at the Lord’s command, Nephi had great desires to know the mysteries of God as taught by his father, Lehi. Nephi says that he did “…cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me, and did soften my heart that I did believe all the words which has been spoke by my father; wherefore, I did not rebel against him like unto my brothers [or sisters, I might add].” This is good; however, we often miss one of the great lessons that comes in the next verse. Nephi spoke to his brother, Sam and made “…known … the things which the Lord had manifested unto me by his Holy Spirit. And it came to pass that he [Sam] believed in my words.” (changes are mine)
I have learned that until I am like Nephi, I must first be like Sam and that to be like Sam until I become like Nephi is okay. I will wait on the Lord. I know He answers my prayers and my seekings and my ponderings. And He answers when I am ready to receive.
TheodoreB says
Deborah,
I appreciated your approach and your thoughts on what God may be thinking by withholding the Priesthood from them in mortality. In response to your question as to what I think that God may be thinking please consider the following:
We know that in the Celestial Kingdom women will hold the priesthood. In the House of the Lord they are anointed (foreordained) to become queens and priestesses. These are obviously offices of the Melchizedek priesthood as are the offices of kings and priests (Psalm 110:4, Temple Ordinances). There is an inherent risk in entering into the covenant of the Melchizedek Priesthood in that, “whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come” (D&C 84:41). There is an additional rare but potential eternal risk of becoming a son of Perdition and being cast into outer darkness. One cannot become a son of Perdition unless they hold the Melchizedek Priesthood and “have been partakers of His power” (see D&C 76:25-38). Notice that there is no such thing as a daughter of Perdition. Withholding the Melchizedek Priesthood from women protects them from the risk of ever becoming a daughter of Perdition. I think that God wants to protect all of his daughters from this fate, no matter how far some of them may fall.
Mike Johnson says
Deborah, thank you for your comments. I appreciate your approach.
I wanted to ask about these two comments:
“I do not see denying women the priesthood as hurtful to women.”
“I see women in the church thriving and continuing to grow and progress without the priesthood.”
Of course, you mean “not ordaining” to the priesthood. At least, I think that is what you mean in each. I certainly believe women in the church thrive and grow and progress–at least that is how I have seen in every ward or branch I have lived in throughout five decades in the Church. The priesthood certainly blesses all of us regardless of whether we have been ordained to an office of the priesthood. The priesthood, in its most general sense that of being blessed by, has not been denied–it is the ordination that is denied.
I am not trying to minimize the issue and I know many people feel strongly one way or another.
Mike Johnson says
Last October, I mentioned to my wife that I was fully prepared to sustain the prophet the instant he announces a revelation authorizing the ordination of women. Women would do a great job, I said. She responded that she, and every female member she knew, would turn down an offer to be ordained. In her opinion, adding work is not what sisters need. And besides, men would likely just fade in the background.
Men are ordained to offices of the priesthood (which are appendages to the priesthood, D&C 84:29). Women are members of relief society, which is also an appendage to the priesthood. A priesthood quorum is three things: (1) a class for instruction, (2) a service organization, and (3) a brotherhood. A relief society is similarly (1) a class for instruction, (2) a service organization, and (3) a sisterhood. Members of both act with the power and under the authority of the priesthood. Joseph Smith said that the Relief Society was established after the pattern of the priesthood.
FairEllen says
Thank you so much for your well-articulated post.
Nate says
Far be it from me to decide who will or who will not become a son of perdition, but as far as I am aware, though the scriptures only use the word son, women too can be sent to perdition.
Brigham Young explained, “Who are his [the devil’s] angels? No man nor woman, unless they receive the Gospel of salvation, and then deny it, and altogether turn away from it, sacrificing to themselves the Son of God afresh. They are the only ones who will suffer the wrath of God to all eternity.
“How much does it take to prepare a man, or woman, or any being, to become angels to the devil, to suffer with him to all eternity? Just as much as it does to prepare a man to go into the celestial kingdom, into the presence of the Father and the Son, and to be made an heir to His kingdom, and all His glory, and be crowned with crowns of glory, immortality, and eternal lives.” (JD 3:93)
Arguing that God wants to protect his daughters from perdition (but not his sons) is similar to the argument that God withheld the priesthood from blacks because he wanted to protect them (but not whites, or Latinos, or Polynesians) from that same fate. I don’t think either argument is correct.
We don’t know why the blacks were denied the priesthood and we don’t know why women aren’t ordained. That’s not to say, however, that women will be ordained; despite the priesthood ban blacks were always promised that they would receive the priesthood. I am not aware of any similar promises extended to women regarding ordination.
But the scriptures are clear that women can be, with their husbands, “gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them” (D&C 132:20). And the scriptures are equally clear that men cannot attain that status without a wife sealed to him by the Holy Spirit of promise (see D&C 131 and 132; 1 Corinthians 11:11).
(It is interesting that a woman enters into an order of the priesthood when she receives the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, but does not require ordination to the priesthood to do so. There is, no doubt, much yet to learn about all of the implications of such an arrangement, and no doubt the Lord will reveal through his prophets all that we are ready to receive in his own due time.)
Paul says
Thanks for your thoughts on how heavenly father views his daughters.
It seems to me that in our modern world, with our determination for equality between the sexes we have equated equality to mean sameness. Of course obviously men and women will never be the same, we are not meant to be. So if we are not the same then surely we should accept and even rejoice in our differences. I agree that heavenly father wants the best for both his sons and daughters and we need to have trust and faith in his guiding hand. You asked. what does Heavenly Father think? I would add what does Heavenly Mother think? I suppose She gained Her exaltation by walking the same path that her daughters are also walking today.
Lets not let modern worldly philosophies cloud our vision of Gods eternal plan for his sons and daughters.