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Good morning, Just so you know, my mother died when I was ten. I think I was about 9 when I ran home from elementary school and told my Mom that my teacher had shown us a picture of the internals organs of a human being. I was ecstatic!
My Mom quickly retorted, “did they show you the uterus, do you know where the uterus is?” They hadn’t told me about the uterus. Mom told me that that was one of the MOST important parts of the body because it was the organ that carries babies. Wow, just think about it, the uterus is the cradle of life for all those born.
Ok, by the time I was 23, I was made Team Leader of an OB-GYN clinic. Later in life, I worked for Utah State Department of Health doing laboratory testing as part of a Federal Grant for Woman’s Reproductive Health. I’m so glad that my own mother provided me with such a good education before she died (she was actually a child psychologist – Master’s Degree)
I am so glad that my mother was comfortable with discussing human sexuality. Over the years, I have counseled pregnant teens and women with sexually transmitted diseases – I have always felt completely comfortable.
Lastly, I have recently begun to assist young people with various problems. As all of you know, methamphetamine use by an expectant mother can and does interfere with androgen imprinting (the fetal developmental process that gives us gender orientation). Some young survivors of fetal methamphetamine suffer from attention deficit disorder, behavioral disorders, neurological damage and even homosexuality. Even one dose of methamphetamine prenatally can have devastating effects on an unborn child.
Well, I’m rambling on, but I have started to counsel young survivors of fetal methamphetamine exposure. Many have been raised in foster care. One young man said he had had four foster parents before he was age 11 and was struggling with same sex attraction and behavior disorders. He as homeless, having been kicked out of his parents home for being gay. Understanding human sexuality has really helped me to understand how the human mind works. I see kids who have been victims of incest who don’t know how to relate to others in non-sexual ways. I actually feel as comfortable helping these kids as my mother felt when she was speaking to me. Being open and honest about human sexuality was one of the greatest blessing my mother ever gave to me and I hope to give that compassion and understanding to others.
I have always loved women such as Joan of Arch who was burned at the stake, claiming as she did that she heard the voice of God. There is just something about the spirit of women who have died in flames, a spirit liberated completely from mortality. The first women executed in the U.S., Mary Dryer, died fighting for religious freedom. They tried to cover her face with a veil as she hung, but she refused. Those that saw her die said that she had a faint smile on her face as her delicate neck snapped. Minutes later, a gentle wind blew her skirt as she hung. Her skirt, blowing in the wind, became the first flag of freedom in the New World and that is why a flag blowing in the wind is associated with freedom.
The gentle wind has always been a sign of the Spirit for me. It testifies to me.
Lastly, I know that my Lord and Savior died for me, but I do like to remember the many women who died for me as well. There were the women who fought along side their husbands in the Revolutionary war. One sister, slight of frame jumped off of her horse and hid in a hollow log until night. Realizing that her horse had been stolen, she crept in to the enemy camp and stole her horse back. This young girl had been an orphan in England and had been sold as an indentured servant to the U.S.
The Spirit of the Lord has been with women since the dawn of time. The BOM tell of our “Mariner Mothers” who sailed across the ocean. Very few women had the courage and strength to sail in the ancient days. There were no luxury liners or cruise ships. Living at sea was the most challenging and difficult life any women could know, yet these ancient women populated the isles of the sea.
To jmb275, Dear jmb,
I did agree with your post and I want you to know that. As I posted under the subject, “Obedience”, the Pharaoh of Egypt ordered two of his chief midwives to deliver each and every Israelite baby and KILL all the infants that were male.
This, of course, is severe discrimination against male infants and it also happened under the evil King Harod. Historically, there have been many infanticides and genocides that have been specifically directed towards males, especially young males. Men seem to suffer disproportionately during wartime. Just think of the Vietnam Era Soldiers of which 58,000 were killed and tens of thousands were wounded – mostly males.
Truth is, any gender can be the subject of discrimination. Righteous Latter-day Saints should be willing to fight social injustice and bigotry wherever we find it.
One little historical note that I have often found interesting is the inclusion of women in the First Presidency of the Reorganized LDS Church, now known as the “Community of Chirst”. Please see the bio of this member of the First Presidency:
http://www.cofchrist.org/bio/current/Savage-Becky.asp Now, I am NOT suggesting that women should or ever will be ordained into the First Presidency, what I am intrigued by is the feminine prospective that this church has.
They claim to have been restored by JS in 1830 and use the exact same scriptures that we do, BOM, D & C and the Bible, yet they emphasize peace and social justice as the dominant themes of these scriptures.
Correct me if I am wrong and call me crazy, but men tend to emphasize the “heroics of battle” and “victories of the sword”. Women can read the exact same scriptures and feel more moved by the stories of peace and reconciliation.
D&C 98: 5 (5-7). 5 And that a law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.
D&C 101: 77 (77, 80).
77 According to the laws and a constitution of the people, which I have suffered to be established, and should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles;
The Official Scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Notice how the D&C uses the term, “all flesh” rather than “man”, “mankind” or “woman”. Very few verses are that gender neutral. This verses may suggest protection for the unborn such as fetuses and for intersex children for whom clear gender has not been established. It is very, very inclusive.
I might add that some of you resigned your membership over California Proposition 8. I stopped attending church immediately upon realizing that the Church was involved. For me, it wasn’t the spiritual way this was handled it was the political. I work in an Endocrinology Laboratory where many patients have been diagnosed with disorders of sexual development and differentiation known as “sexual variance”. Some of these patients suffer from inherited genetic disorders, others had mothers with thyroid disease, the list goes on and on.
I realized that these patients had finally achieved equality – they were being treated exactly equal to the laboratory rats in our studies.
I decided that rather than resign from the Church, I would resign from the ridiculous political power struggles that brought us California Proposition 8 and go back to the Doctrine and Covenants teachings on the Constitution – that ANYTHING MORE or less than this cometh of evil. The Constitution is exactly was the D&C defines it to be and is divinely ordained.
I believe that all Churches in the modernized world will have to modify their stance on so-called “same sex” attraction. With the advent of new, accurate molecular biology, biochemistry, clinical endocrinology, physicians will be able to accurately diagnose many variants of sexual development and differentiation before the child is even born.
5 alpha reductase deficiency – little boys that are born looking like baby girls because they can’t convert the male steroid hormone, testosterone into the biologically active form, dihydrotestosterone. Can now perform amniocentesis – will be able to diagnose disorder in the womb.
Androgen insensitivity Syndrome – little biological boys who are born looking like girls because they lack testosterone receptors. Can be diagnosed in the womb.
Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia -little, baby girls born looking like boys because the adrenal glands are huge, pouring out androgen (male hormones).
The list will just keep getting bigger and bigger.
|Yep, molecular biology just keeps marching right along and these ultra sensitive tests will challenge our current perception of gender. We will have to confront disorders of sexual development and differentiation.
Right now, up to 75% of children who are diagnosed with sexual identity issues such as Klinefelter’s syndrome (XXY) are aborted BEFORE they are born. Our society has a very strong bias against intersex children. Discrimination begins in the womb and is often life long.
My goal is to kneel down every day at least once and pray that all churches will start to adopt and help implement more humane and just treatment of children born with disorders of sexual development and differentiation. We have to stop judging people and start living the gospel. We have to return to our Constitution, both Federal and State, and embrace the concept that “all men are created equal” and are entitled to equal protection under the law. We have to start loving our children the way that God created them.
Dear Katzpur, I’m 52 and divorced. I finally decided to just set a huge goal and go for it. I have two divorced families that have gone inactive. Between the two of them we will have 5 children under 6. We have an 11 month old, 14 month old, 2 year old, 4 year old and an almost 6. The goal is to divide and conquer by each taking two children – except for my grandson who counts as 2 because he is so active.
We will all get our exercise for the week and be strengthened physically. As I see it, the core gospel is being taught in Primary, especially nursery. No offense, but the Priesthood brothers can’t sing like the Primary can. I think God is aware of that and now he attends Primary.
I also agree that woman are anointed only in the Temple. Men received their Priesthood in Holy Settings, but do not have to be in the Temple. Women receive their anointing prior to serving a mission, marriage or taking out an endowment. It could be just because the Lord treats women with a more Holy respect as part of their anointing is to become mothers. Dear Herber13, You are absolutely right. Universal Truth is CONSTANT, but our understanding of it grows and changes. The gospel truths do not change because they are eternal.
I would like to post my favorite chapter of Proverbs. Praise of a Good Woman
10 Who can find a virtuous woman?
For her price is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her,
so that he shall have no need of spoil.
12 She will do him good and not evil
all the days of her life.
13 She seeketh wool, and flax,
and worketh willingly with her hands.
14 She is like the merchants’ ships;
she bringeth her food from afar.
15 She riseth also while it is yet night,
and giveth meat to her household,
and a portion to her maidens.
16 She considereth a field, and buyeth it:
with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
17 She girdeth her loins with strength,
and strengtheneth her arms.
18 She perceiveth that her merchandise is good:
her candle goeth not out by night.
19 She layeth her hands to the spindle,
and her hands hold the distaff.
20 She stretcheth our her hand to the poor;
yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of the snow for her household:
for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry;
her clothing is silk and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates,
when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
24 She maketh fine linen, and selleth it;
and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
25 Strength and honor are her clothing;
and she shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She openeth her mouth with wisdom;
and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She looketh well to the ways of her household,
and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praiseth her.
29 Many daughters have done virtuously,
but thou excellest them all.
30 Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain:
but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands;
and let her own works praise her in the gates.
Published by The American Bible Society
I love the verse 26 because it suggests woman’s role in justice, “in her tongue is the law of kindness”. To me, this means that women have a special divine gift from God within them. It is the law of kindness, the law of mercy the social justice that proceeds out of the mouth of a virtuous women.
But, she comes to me in my dreams, She is beautiful. She wears the robes of justice. Her feet and legs and completely covered, unlike male angels, she does not uncover her feet. They must never touch the earth, not even the hem of her garment for she must remain pure and untarnished from the earth.
This “Lady of Justice” has no sword, for her words are her sword. She is the angelic representation of woman’s role in justice, both temporal and eternal.
Harriet Beecher Stowe penned the book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. President Abraham Lincoln read it and sat down to write the “Emancipation Proclamation” . He attributed her words as being mightier than the swords and guns of the Civil War.
Luke Chapter 18 – she uses only her words.
I, for one, love the story of the Egyptian Midwives who frustrated Pharaoh’s sinister plan to have every single Israelite, male infant killed. The Pharaoh of Egypt called in his two chief midwives and ordered them to deliver the infants of the Israelite mothers. They were in examine each newborn and determine if the infant was a male or female. If the infant was male – they were to KILL him. (these master midwives actually supervised a team of about 500 midwives and they were to oversee the destruction of these precious newborns).
Well SH##!!! That’s just plan murder!!! Not only was it murder, it was SEXISM and RACISM. Pharaoh was a homicidal, sexist pig, to put it nicely. The midwives refused to obey him and I love it!
Please see this link:
http://www.msawomen.org/uploadedFiles/Resources/Lectures/Women,%20Justice%20and%20the%20Bible.pdf No, the Lord does not expect us to obey rules that are based on Racism, Sexism, Political Power Struggles or homicidal maniac impulses. We are to devise ways to foil the plan.
Think about it really.
Isn’t killing every male child sexist?
Isn’t killing every Israelite male child racist?
Isn’t asking women to kill newborn babies in front of their own mothers misogynistic?
isn’t ordering someone to kill an innocent human being evil?
So what is the Lord telling us? Hey, I don’t do sexism, I don’t do racism, I don’t do misogynistic stuff and I don’t do evil – even if someone in authority orders me to.
Dear Poppyseed, I loved your post. I truly believe the scripture that we should “prove all things” and “hold fast that which is good”.
We each have many things to learn, but UNLEARNING things is also part of the process. We have to be willing to “unlearn”, forget, let go of, or abandon false notions, errors and bad habits that inevitably enter our world. I was a science major and false “facts” can even be found in science textbooks. Knowledge must be sorted, shifted, discarded, saved, refined and perfected – constantly.
Galileo Galilei was excommunicated by the Catholic Church for teaching that the earth revolved around the sun. His science “crossed the line” and his writings appeared to insult the intelligence of the Pope. As we gain more knowledge, we will constantly be confronted with new truth. Some of our old truth will be proved false and will have to be discarded. This is part of proving and testing knowledge.
The glory of God is intelligence and this is how we acquire it.
