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hawkgrrrl wrote:
SamBee wrote:
hawkgrrrl wrote:
To put it in a simpler way, I don’t need a man to explain to me what it’s like to be a woman, and every time they try, they demonstrate their utter failure to comprehend what they are talking about.
It cuts both ways. I keep on being told what it’s like to be a man by women. Not a clue either.
Fair enough, but in the LDS church 99% of the speakers in GC are men, and men run the women’s organization. I’m not aware of any speaking or leadership platform in the church that puts men under women or gives women a microphone and tells them they should opine about the role of men.
And when a woman is allowed to speak on the microphone, they need the approval of a priesthood leader to validate what they say.
Quote:And when a woman is allowed to speak on the microphone, they need the approval of a priesthood leader to validate what they say.
To be fair, that is true of when men speak, as well.
I look at the subject from a historical and theological point of view. In the early church, which never existed as we understand Church today, women, as well as men, had leadership functions. They were deaconesses, leaders of a house churches, even apostles. Women’s offices existed until the 6th century, when the office of deaconess disappeared, and only men were allowed to become deacons.
If it was so in the early church, why is it impossible today?
Gerlinde wrote:
If it was so in the early church, why is it impossible today?
I also feel that in the temple ordinances and the blessing ordinances for expectant mothers that there were forms of priesthood practiced by women in the early days of the LDS church.I personally feel that Lucy Mack Smith saw herself as the church matriarch and in her later years would give “blessings” to her visitors.
Some of the things that we currently reserve for the priesthood actually do not require any priesthood at all (passing the sacrament and collecting fast offerings).
I do see some small changes in this area. I think this is to prepare the way for a future day when women might receive priesthood ordination more fully. Then church leaders can point back to the deaconesses of the early Christian church, to the temple ordinances, blessings for pregnant women, and Lucy Mack Smith’s Matriarchal blessings of the early LDS church, and more current things like the GC talk of DHO or the work of Barbara Morgan Gardner – Leaders will be able to point back at all those things as hints or breadcrumbs foretelling to that future day when men and women would be called to more fully work side by side in the cause of our HF.
For what it’s worth, the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite) Church has Deaconesses. Their roles include making sure the meeting house is in order, lead music and have other roles. I believe they have had Deaconesses way longer than the RLDS/Community of Christ and other groups. Yes, that is true. Pretty much from their founding, they have had deaconnesses who also administered sacrament to women who couldn’t come to church. They have had deaconnesses since the 1850s-60s and used the Bible to justify the practice. Historian Daniel Stone is a member of their church and discusses it: https://gospeltangents.com/2018/09/22/biblical-support-ordain-women/ Fascinating! There is so much about the various branches of Mormonism that I do not know. Thanks for sharing this. Roy wrote:
Fascinating! There is so much about the various branches of Mormonism that I do not know. Thanks for sharing this.
Agreed. And I think we’re sometimes programmed to think that outside RLDS/CoC they are extreme. Not the case at all.
SamBee wrote:
Roy wrote:
Fascinating! There is so much about the various branches of Mormonism that I do not know. Thanks for sharing this.
Agreed. And I think we’re sometimes programmed to think that outside RLDS/CoC they are extreme. Not the case at all.
I think most members even think the Community of Christ is extreme/radical, especially with their changes in recent years to be more mainstream Christian. Other than the denial of Joseph Smith’s polygamy, I find the teachings/beliefs of the CoC to often be more in line with my own. There is a congregation about 30 miles from where I live and I have considered visiting.
I visited a CoC congregation during my mini-vacations in other religions phase. It just so happened that the stars aligned and I ended up attending on the first Sunday of the month, which is when they pass the sacrament. That Sunday a woman gave the familiar sacrament prayer. It was surreal but a very spiritual moment for me.
DarkJedi wrote:
SamBee wrote:
Roy wrote:
Fascinating! There is so much about the various branches of Mormonism that I do not know. Thanks for sharing this.
Agreed. And I think we’re sometimes programmed to think that outside RLDS/CoC they are extreme. Not the case at all.
I think most members even think the Community of Christ is extreme/radical, especially with their changes in recent years to be more mainstream Christian. Other than the denial of Joseph Smith’s polygamy, I find the teachings/beliefs of the CoC to often be more in line with my own. There is a congregation about 30 miles from where I live and I have considered visiting.
We have no CoC here but when they are mentioned at all it is when they are said to have no authority or to be too liberal…
But they aren’t boogeymen like FLDS etc.
I would have to travel hundreds of miles to get to a congregation.
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