Something Troubling in Sunday School

[_consiglieri]

This discussion about my suggested equation of slavery with denying women the priesthood is a bit troubling.

It seems Buffalo is correct that this is a difference in degree, not in kind.

Denying freedom to a certain group because of their ancestry (and the color of their skin) is not a completely different "kind" of act than denying the rights of the priesthood to a certain group because of their gender.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_consiglieri]

"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard." ~ From Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Great quote, MJ!

Mr. Huxley was quite the student of human behavior.

All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_consiglieri]

There is this pedestal effect or cult of motherhood that can happen with sexism.

It is always helpful to me to hear the perspective from a member of the group being discriminated against, JM. All I can do is guess.

But I sometimes wonder if the church leaders who put Eve above Adam in the Eden drama realize what they are laying the groundwork for?

I think the source of man's dominance over women in Christian history can be traced back to this story, and I think Paul argued for it on this basis, as well.

What happens when we change this primordial drama to put Eve in the superior position?

*tick* *tick* *tick*


All the Best!

--Consiglieri

[_just me]

There is this pedestal effect or cult of motherhood that can happen with sexism.

It is always helpful to me to hear the perspective from a member of the group being discriminated against, JM. All I can do is guess.

But I sometimes wonder if the church leaders who put Eve above Adam in the Eden drama realize what they are laying the groundwork for?

I think the source of man's dominance over women in Christian history can be traced back to this story, and I think Paul argued for it on this basis, as well.

What happens when we change this primordial drama to put Eve in the superior position?

*tick* *tick* *tick*


All the Best!

--Consiglieri

Well, what is funny is that since it is a pedestal it doesn't change much at all.. What it really is is a way to soothe away the hurt of inequality by laying on false praise.

Aggrandizing motherhood has been happening for decades and more. Also, telling women that they are too pure, too fair, too glorious to worry their pretty little heads about the man's world (or sphere). Leave the horrible, nasty voting to men. Leave the ugly politics to men. Leave the big, bad world to men. Stay home and raise those babies! They are the rising generation and you will shape them! Thand that rocks the cradle...all that jazz.

This is still men deciding what women are and where they belong and what they should do or worry about.

Being put on a pedestal or being told that you are the "hero" of the story does not change the reality of the roles being forced upon women.

Being told that women are better than men and still denied the same rights as men is screwed up. It is illogical and ridiculous.

But the truth is women are not better than men. Hopefully everyone knows that. They are no better nor worse. Women deserve equal rights because we are your sisters. We are all part of the human family.

[_consiglieri]

Women deserve equal rights because we are your sisters. We are all part of the human family.

And everyone said, "AMEN!!!"

[_DarkHelmet]

So if you can't have the priesthood because you get to be a mother instead, what happens when you can't have kids, or nobody marries you? Do they just pat you on the head and say you are a sweet spirit who will get to be mother in the next life? Probably not because that just sounds stupid.

[_just me]

So if you can't have the priesthood because you get to be a mother instead, what happens when you can't have kids, or nobody marries you? Do they just pat you on the head and say you are a sweet spirit who will get to be mother in the next life? Probably not because that just sounds stupid.

*snap*

[_Pollypinks]

We seem to forget that in Joseph Smith time, women routinely gave blessings, annointings, and spoke in tongues. While Christ was ministering, he had women traveling to other towns to share the good news, as well as other duties. So I'm always flummoxed when people nowadays think Mormon women need to be cut off at the knees. If one wants to take it further biblically, a little greek interpretation goes a long way in explaining Paul's nasty admonitions to women, the very first time they met in a public meeting in Galatia.

[_harmony]

So if you can't have the priesthood because you get to be a mother instead, what happens when you can't have kids, or nobody marries you? Do they just pat you on the head and say you are a sweet spirit who will get to be mother in the next life? Probably not because that just sounds stupid.

Or like something that comes across the pulpit in GC.

What are the odds we'll hear something similiar, if not exactly the same, at GC in a few weeks?

[_ajax18]

So, a lot of members act like the priesthood is nothing but a burden and horrible responsibility.

Well what else is it if not that? Ok, so a few select men get to live well as church officials. The vast majority of men don't. Similar to the fact that most men don't get to have plural wives. It becomes pretty apparent to any priesthood holder that you can't act in any way God would not act. So in my view, I really don't see any power to it at all. The only claim Mormonism has in my mind is that the priesthood is an authority. I had hard time making sense of the phrase, "power and authority." Authority maybe. Power? What power do you have that is not given to anyone who says a prayer?

What good would it do at this point if women were conferred the priesthood? I still hear as many or more complaints about when blacks couldn't have the priesthood as I'm sure ever existed when the ban was in practice. So if you don't believe in the priesthood, why on earth do you care that you can't have the authority to run the show? Even if you had the priesthood not every woman in the Church would get to be the boss. And as soon as it is conferred on you, you'd realize real quick that you gained no magical powers that you still might have the perogative of using for any personal desire. You'd have the right to do another job and bear another burden and that is it. Making it onto the payroll as a GA would never happen for the overwhelming majority. And whose to say you wouldn't find yourself in the same shoes as Hillary Clinton, forever craving power and authority with a minority victim mentality only to have been supplanted by another minority before you ever got started.