The Bishop's Wife
Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 5:47 pm
Last Saturday evening, we went over to the new bishop’s house for dinner and conversation. Turns out the bishop’s wife has been struggling for many years with her perception that women are treated as second class citizens in the Church, and wondered what I thought of it.
I told her she was right; it is a patriarchal organization in which men have all the power.
She asked about Heavenly Mother, and why we don’t talk more about her, relating the excuse she (and all of us, I imagine) have heard that she is “too sacred” to talk about.
Nonsense, I told her.
This is just the way the patriarchal church has of damning her with faint praise, which is really the same thing they do to all the women in the church—talking about how wonderful they are; even more wonderful and spiritual than the men—and yet making sure all the while they are kept in their place.
She wasn’t too sure about this part, so I asked her on what two occasions a missionary may call home. She didn’t know. Her husband, an RM from Japan, immediately jumped in with the correct answer—Christmas and Mother’s Day.
Not Father’s Day—Mother’s Day.
It has also become common for priesthood leaders to extol Eve’s actions in the Garden as being superior and more “in tune with the Spirit” than Adam.
And yet when it comes to leadership in the Church, women remain inferior to men.
And the same goes for Heavenly Mother—in spades.
She agreed, but followed up by asking why it was she was virtually never discussed. “Simple,” I responded, “This is a patriarchal organization and the male leaders are afraid of her.”
This seems to have made a lot of sense to her.
I finished off by telling her that the white patriarchal church finally figured out they were wrong in denying the priesthood to black men, and within the next fifty years, they will come to the same realization about women.
We discussed some other things, but I think the conversation was therapeutic to her in that she found out there are others who see things that she sees, and she is not in some sort of apostate time continuum.
All the Best!
--Consiglieri
I told her she was right; it is a patriarchal organization in which men have all the power.
She asked about Heavenly Mother, and why we don’t talk more about her, relating the excuse she (and all of us, I imagine) have heard that she is “too sacred” to talk about.
Nonsense, I told her.
This is just the way the patriarchal church has of damning her with faint praise, which is really the same thing they do to all the women in the church—talking about how wonderful they are; even more wonderful and spiritual than the men—and yet making sure all the while they are kept in their place.
She wasn’t too sure about this part, so I asked her on what two occasions a missionary may call home. She didn’t know. Her husband, an RM from Japan, immediately jumped in with the correct answer—Christmas and Mother’s Day.
Not Father’s Day—Mother’s Day.
It has also become common for priesthood leaders to extol Eve’s actions in the Garden as being superior and more “in tune with the Spirit” than Adam.
And yet when it comes to leadership in the Church, women remain inferior to men.
And the same goes for Heavenly Mother—in spades.
She agreed, but followed up by asking why it was she was virtually never discussed. “Simple,” I responded, “This is a patriarchal organization and the male leaders are afraid of her.”
This seems to have made a lot of sense to her.
I finished off by telling her that the white patriarchal church finally figured out they were wrong in denying the priesthood to black men, and within the next fifty years, they will come to the same realization about women.
We discussed some other things, but I think the conversation was therapeutic to her in that she found out there are others who see things that she sees, and she is not in some sort of apostate time continuum.
All the Best!
--Consiglieri
