What did Kate Kelly do between May 22 and June 8?

[_Res Ipsa]

Update -- In her written appeal, Kate confirms the SP told her to take down the website and disassociate herself from OW during the May 5 meeting. She describes this as an ultimatum. She also states that she told the SP on May 5 that she would not comply. http://ordainwomen.org/wp-content/uploa ... Appeal.pdf

[_Jesse Pinkman]

Update -- In her written appeal, Kate confirms the SP told her to take down the website and disassociate herself from OW during the May 5 meeting. She describes this as an ultimatum. She also states that she told the SP on May 5 that she would not comply. http://ordainwomen.org/wp-content/uploa ... Appeal.pdf

I wonder if this latest development has anything to do with a special Relief Society meeting that is being held in my ward. The priesthood are filling in for the Primary and YW workers so that we can attend 3rd hour RS this coming Sunday. The topic of the lesson will be given by a member of the Stake Presidency and it will be discussing this talk:

The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood

By Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Priesthood keys direct women as well as men, and priesthood ordinances and priesthood

authority pertain to women as well as men.

I.

At this conference we have seen the release of some faithful brothers, and we have sustained the callings of others. In this rotation—so

familiar in the Church—we do not “step down” when we are released, and we do not “step up” when we are called. There is no “up or

down” in the service of the Lord. There is only “forward or backward,” and that difference depends on how we accept and act upon

our releases and our callings. I once presided at the release of a young stake president who had given fine service for nine years and

was now rejoicing in his release and in the new calling he and his wife had just received. They were called to be the nursery leaders in

their ward. Only in this Church would that be seen as equally honorable!

II.

While addressing a women’s conference, Relief Society general president Linda K. Burton said, “We hope to instill within each of us

a greater desire to better understand the priesthood.”1 That need applies to all of us, and I will pursue it by speaking of the keys and

authority of the priesthood. Since these subjects are of equal concern to men and to women, I am pleased that these proceedings are

broadcast and published for all members of the Church. Priesthood power blesses all of us. Priesthood keys direct women as well as

men, and priesthood ordinances and priesthood authority pertain to women as well as men.

III.

President Joseph F. Smith described the priesthood as “the power of God delegated to man by which man can act in the earth for the

salvation of the human family.”2 Other leaders have taught us that the priesthood “is the consummate power on this earth. It is the

power by which the earth was created.”3 The scriptures teach that “this same Priesthood, which was in the beginning, shall be in the

end of the world also” (Moses 6:7). Thus, the priesthood is the power by which we will be resurrected and proceed to eternal life.

The understanding we seek begins with an understanding of the keys of the priesthood. “Priesthood keys are the authority God has

given to priesthood [holders] to direct, control, and govern the use of His priesthood on earth.”4 Every act or ordinance performed in

the Church is done under the direct or indirect authorization of one holding the keys for that function. As Elder M. Russell Ballard has

explained, “Those who have priesthood keys ... literally make it possible for all who serve faithfully under their direction to exercise

priesthood authority and have access to priesthood power.”5

In the controlling of the exercise of priesthood authority, the function of priesthood keys both enlarges and limits. It enlarges by

making it possible for priesthood authority and blessings to be available for all of God’s children. It limits by directing who will be

given the authority of the priesthood, who will hold its offices, and how its rights and powers will be conferred. For example, a person

who holds the priesthood is not able to confer his office or authority on another unless authorized by one who holds the keys. Without

that authorization, the ordination would be invalid. This explains why a priesthood holder—regardless of office—cannot ordain a

member of his family or administer the sacrament in his own home without authorization from the one who holds the appropriate

keys.

With the exception of the sacred work that sisters do in the temple under the keys held by the temple president, which I will describe

hereafter, only one who holds a priesthood office can officiate in a priesthood ordinance. And all authorized priesthood ordinances are

recorded on the records of the Church.

Ultimately, all keys of the priesthood are held by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose priesthood it is. He is the one who determines what

keys are delegated to mortals and how those keys will be used. We are accustomed to thinking that all keys of the priesthood were

conferred on Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple, but the scripture states that all that was conferred there were “the keys of this

dispensation” (D&C 110:16). At general conference many years ago, President Spencer W. Kimball reminded us that there are other

priesthood keys that have not been given to man on the earth, including the keys of creation and resurrection.6

The divine nature of the limitations put upon the exercise of priesthood keys explains an essential contrast between decisions on

matters of Church administration and decisions affecting the priesthood. The First Presidency and the Council of the First Presidency

and Quorum of the Twelve, who preside over the Church, are empowered to make many decisions affecting Church policies and

procedures—matters such as the location of Church buildings and the ages for missionary service. But even though these presiding

authorities hold and exercise all of the keys delegated to men in this dispensation, they are not free to alter the divinely decreed pattern

that only men will hold offices in the priesthood.

IV.

I come now to the subject of priesthood authority. I begin with the three principles just discussed: (1) priesthood is the power of God

delegated to man to act for the salvation of the human family, (2) priesthood authority is governed by priesthood holders who hold

priesthood keys, and (3) since the scriptures state that “all other authorities [and] offices in the church are appendages to this

[Melchizedek] priesthood” (D&C 107:5), all that is done under the direction of those priesthood keys is done with priesthood

authority.

How does this apply to women? In an address to the Relief Society, President Joseph Fielding Smith, then President of the Quorum of

the Twelve Apostles, said this: “While the sisters have not been given the Priesthood, it has not been conferred upon them, that does

not mean that the Lord has not given unto them authority. ... A person may have authority given to him, or a sister to her, to do certain

things in the Church that are binding and absolutely necessary for our salvation, such as the work that our sisters do in the House of

the Lord. They have authority given unto them to do some great and wonderful things, sacred unto the Lord, and binding just as

thoroughly as are the blessings that are given by the men who hold the Priesthood.”7

In that notable address, President Smith said again and again that women have been given authority. To the women he said, “You can

speak with authority, because the Lord has placed authority upon you.” He also said that the Relief Society “[has] been given power

and authority to do a great many things. The work which they do is done by divine authority.” And, of course, the Church work done

by women or men, whether in the temple or in the wards or branches, is done under the direction of those who hold priesthood keys.

Thus, speaking of the Relief Society, President Smith explained, “[The Lord] has given to them this great organization where they

have authority to serve under the directions of the bishops of the wards ... , looking after the interest of our people both spiritually and

temporally.”8

Thus, it is truly said that Relief Society is not just a class for women but something they belong to—a divinely established appendage

to the priesthood.9

We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority

can it be? When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority

to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church

organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from

one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.

Whoever exercises priesthood authority should forget about their rights and concentrate on their responsibilities. That is a principle

needed in society at large. The famous Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is quoted as saying, “It is time ... to defend not so much

human rights as human obligations.”10 Latter-day Saints surely recognize that qualifying for exaltation is not a matter of asserting

rights but a matter of fulfilling responsibilities.

V.

The Lord has directed that only men will be ordained to offices in the priesthood. But, as various Church leaders have emphasized,

men are not “the priesthood.”11 Men hold the priesthood, with a sacred duty to use it for the blessing of all of the children of God.

The greatest power God has given to His sons cannot be exercised without the companionship of one of His daughters, because only

to His daughters has God given the power “to be a creator of bodies ... so that God’s design and the Great Plan might meet fruition.”12

Those are the words of President J. Reuben Clark.

He continued: “This is the place of our wives and of our mothers in the Eternal Plan. They are not bearers of the Priesthood; they are

not charged with carrying out the duties and functions of the Priesthood; nor are they laden with its responsibilities; they are builders

and organizers under its power, and partakers of its blessings, possessing the complement of the Priesthood powers and possessing a

function as divinely called, as eternally important in its place as the Priesthood itself.”13

In those inspired words, President Clark was speaking of the family. As stated in the family proclamation, the father presides in the

family and he and the mother have separate responsibilities, but they are “obligated to help one another as equal partners.”14 Some

years before the family proclamation, President Spencer W. Kimball gave this inspired explanation: “When we speak of marriage as a

partnership, let us speak of marriage as a full partnership. We do not want our LDS women to be silent partners or limited partners in

that eternal assignment! Please be a contributing and full partner.”15

In the eyes of God, whether in the Church or in the family, women and men are equal, with different responsibilities.

I close with some truths about the blessings of the priesthood. Unlike priesthood keys and priesthood ordinations, the blessings of the

priesthood are available to women and to men on the same terms. The gift of the Holy Ghost and the blessings of the temple are

familiar illustrations of this truth.

In his insightful talk at BYU Education Week last summer, Elder M. Russell Ballard gave these teachings:

“Our Church doctrine places women equal to and yet different from men. God does not regard either gender as better or more

important than the other. ...

“When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is priesthood power. ... Access to the

power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children.”16

I testify of the power and blessings of the priesthood of God, available for His sons and daughters alike. I testify of the authority of the

priesthood, which functions throughout all of the offices and activities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I testify of

the divinely directed function of the keys of the priesthood, held and exercised in their fulness by our prophet/president, Thomas S.

Monson. Finally and most important, I testify of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose priesthood this is and whose servants we

are, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

[_kairos]

Knowing Wheatley from a previous ward my wife was in (me nevermo but knew wheatley fairly well), this guy is a timid wuss lawyer type with a wonderful molly Mormon wife- he blew off must callings as a ward member but after moving, i guess someone saw a "leader" who could be bent into whatever the higher ups wanted. clearly this guy could never have done or was capable of action without guidance-thus the 17 day interval to get the story straight and erase the phone records to SLC.
Wheatley is not an in your face kind of guy-the opposite - a milk toast timid introvert who has trouble with eye contact. peter principle in play here.
i can see scott saying yes sir, yes sir, 3 bags full ,saluting ballard or whomever and carrying out the execution order.

just sayin

k