The post most likely incite an angry mob.

Remember how I said that I would sometimes use this blog to rant? This is one of those times.

So, apparently the Founder of "Ordain Women" is on church probation and has a disciplinary hearing scheduled which could result in a number of way including disfellowship or excommunication. The article mentions another guy who I've never heard of so I won't talk about him. Rather I'll stick with talking about Ordain Women. 

At the risk of sounding like a  behind-the-times misogynist he-man woman-hater and offending all three people who read this blog, can I just say that I agree with the Church's decision here?

"Men's trousers? On women? BALDERDASH!" source

Before you get all 'angry mob' on me let me explain my reasoning. If nothing else it'll give you time to sharpen you pitchforks, okay?

First off, I do not disagree with the motivations behind the OW movement. They see among Church members an unacceptable level of sexism that needs to be removed as soon as possible. On this point I agree. The Church is no place for the judging of other's capabilities based on gender. To do so is to deny the basic core of humankind's divine potential. That being said, I strongly disagree with how OW plans to fix this problem, that is, by ordaining women (No way! Is THAT how they got their name?). Plenty of digital ink has been spilled debating weather or not ordaining women would be an effective solution to the a fore mentioned sexism, so although that is one reason I disagree with OW I won't be getting into all that today. Instead I want to focus on what the priesthood is and why women shouldn't have it. (Wow, that sounded so sexist, please don't pitchfork me yet.)

So, what is the Priesthood? Standard primary answer: the authority to preform sacred ordinances in God's name. Yes, but who receives these ordinances? Loosely speaking they are meant for the believers, or those who have faith. Every priesthood office I can conceive of is intended to bless those who believe. 

"But wait!" cries my most argumentative reader (you know who you are), "What about the missionaries who are charged with taking the Gospel among the non-believers, and the Prophet who is to speak to the whole world? Those are both priesthood offices intended to bless the non-believers."

Not really. Missionaries generally don't waist time on people who have no faith to begin with, rather, they look for those who believe, even if it's the smallest mustard seed of belief and build on that. As for the Prophet, he can prophesy until he's blue in the face but if nobody believes what he's saying then he might as well keep quiet. In some cases the Prophet has even been told to keep quiet because there is so much unbelief. (Morm. 1:16-17, 19)

So, that is how I view the priesthood, as God mobilizing his followers to help one another. But that is at odds with a key element of who God is. God loves ALL his children and wants to bless all of them, regardless of weather they believe in him or not. So why would a loving God tell his followers to only look after each other and let the rest of humanity rot and suffer in unbelief?

This is where the Relief Society comes in. Whereas the Priesthood works on structuring the Church in order to distribute blessings and knowledge and covenants to the believers, the Relief Society, I believe, is intended to go out into the word and actively bless the lives of those outside the Church. 

Isn't that something? God, when looking at all the evil in the world, seeing Satan building armies of hate and fear and intolerance, seeing poisons to the soul like pornography and self-loathing thunder through families and rip them to shreds, seeing all this sorrow and misery His answer is one word; WOMEN. Lest you be confused, the Relief Society is NOT an arts and crafts club. It is an army. 

I mean that in a very real sense. The RS claims approximately 6,000,000 members world wide. To put that number into perspective, if the RS was listed as a military organization it would be the second largest in the world, right between the United States (at 2,291,910) and China (at 7,054,000). Imagine what could be accomplished in the world if that many women moved as one, like God intended them to. If those six million each in their own communities and countries and in their own way declared war on just one of the evils in the world today. Let's imagine that army six million strong chose to decry the dehumanizing and poisonous pornography industry. Say they start writing letters to the leaders of their countries, pleading with them to address the issue. World leader would take notice. Say they write blogs about their own experiences with families torn apart by pornography. The average person would be educated. Say they sought to unite the many other groups world wide that battle the objectifying of women. The army would be fortified. Perhaps they would not succeeded in dismantling that loathsome institution entirely, but those brave women would surely make the very gates of Hell quake with fear.

And Ordain Women is encouraging deserters.


We are at war and OW wants to abandon the front line. There is a word for that; Treason. 

That is something I cannot stand for.

That is why I believe the leader and instigator of the Ordain Women movement needs to be stopped. 
She is demanding that women should focus on only a small percentage of God's children and let the greater part suffer. That's akin to going to an all-you-can-eat buffet and getting upset that there's no spaghetti, or going to a five star restaurant and demanding a can of beans.

"Filet mignon? More like filet mi-YAWN, amiright?" 

Once again, I know that the motivations of the OW movement are not really all that bad. Yes, there are problems with how members of the church view women, but I think a more effective solution to that problem would be to encourage our women to fulfill their potential and bless the world. There are so many ways to do that.

Often I feel that members fall into the trap of viewing motherhood as the female equivalent of the priesthood. There are a number of reasons why this is not a healthy way of thinking. For starters, not all worthy women are mothers. Some simply haven't gotten married yet, for others physical problems prevent them. Still other women would, in all honesty, make terrible mothers. But all in all, motherhood is only one part of what makes women so powerful.

I don't mean to say that motherhood and giving birth are in anyways a lesser part. I mean, seriously, a woman crafts a tiny fully functioning human without using her hands, lets that tiny human live inside of her like some horror movie parasite until after nine months of wild hormonal shifts and bizarre cravings the tiny human bursts out of her abdomen in a screaming fit of bodily fluids, and she takes that screaming poop factory and raises it to be a decent full sized human? That's pretty hard core.

"I became a mother because my fight club wasn't metal enough."

What I'm saying is that there are so many different ways that the women of the Church can fulfill the role God has for them. Two examples: Lindsey Sterling and Al Fox.

Lindsey Sterling: aka 'the Hip-hop violinist'. She is a talented musician and performer who became a quarter-finalist in season five of America's Got Talent. Unlike other female 'performers' her age Miss Sterling presents a bold and ennobling role model for young girls to follow. Her music can and has uplifted so many and her example is just so inspiring. Just listen to this interview. Isn't that the sort of woman we need more of?

Al Fox: (Now Al Carraway) This woman, also known as 'The Tattooed Mormon' is, among many other things, a blogger. She has followers both in and out of the Church. With a very honest and fun style she tells them about her personal journeys in life and shares the lessons she's learned.She blesses other simply by sharing her real experiences of trying to live a Christ-like life.

These are just two of the hundreds upon thousands of examples of bold sisters blessing the world I could have used. If all six million Relief Society sisters worked to bless the world in these sorts of ways, What sort of new world would be born?

I'm sorry about the rant, but I think I needed to get this off my chest, if only t have one less thing to be shenpa'd about.

You may now resume your angry mob formation, I'll be waiting for you at the old wind mill. The one that's not up to fire code. You know the one.

Namaste, Y'all,
Micheal


P.S. Agree? Disagree? Completely neutral? Leave a comment! Have any other great examples of Mormon women blessing the world? Leave a comment! Want to stop lugging about a giant rock of space ice? Leave a comet! Want to separate parts of a sentence such as clauses and lists of three or more things? Leave a comma! Want to tell me to stop fishing for comments? Leave a comment!

My new Jedi Master

In the on campus Meditation Workshop here at BYU-I the instructor presented to us a quote in regards to Mormon Meditation.

"We pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. In our worship there are two elements: One is spiritual communion arising from our own meditation; the other, instruction from others, particularly from those who have authority to guide and instruct us. Of the two, the more profitable introspectively is the meditation. Meditation is the language of the soul. It is defined as “a form of private devotion, or spiritual exercise, consisting in deep, continued reflection on some religious theme.” Meditation is a form of prayer."

This quote struck me as fascinating not only because of its concise explanation of what meditation ought to be for Latter-day Saints but also because of the source. It came from President David O. McKay.

"This guy"

So now, in addition to showing everyone up with his spectacular fashion sense, McKay has also become a mediation Jedi Master.

"And then he made friends with a Koala, or a 'furry Yoda' as he called it" source 

But, dapper duds and marsupials aside, I'd like to talk a little about his quote. The quote is from a 1946 April Conference talk he gave (if you're interested that's about nine years before the koala picture) Now I find it interesting that he talks about two elements of our worship in the Church.

1. Spiritual communion arising from our own meditation.
2. Instruction from others.

On my mission in Georgia we missionaries occasionally would "go churching" or visit the worship services of other denominations. Usually it was part of a deal to get an investigator to come to church 'We visit your's, you visit ours'. But sometimes we did it just for fun. (Don't give me that look, they had some pretty rockin' music.) Now, in all the churches I went to I saw a ton of the second element. No mater were I went there was always a preacher or pastor or whatever they chose to call them, but almost none of them had that first element actually woven into the service. Oh, sure the preacher would tell the congregation to go home and think on these things, but often there was little time to just sit and think about it.

Services in the Church are specifically designed to let you sit and think about things. Isn't that fantastic?  What? you don't think so? You think it's just boring time? Well let's take a look at the alternative. The alternative is a service that does not want you to think about what you are hearing. Why wouldn't they want you to think? Because thinking is dangerous. Thinkers think thoughts, and thoughts tumble the towers of terrible tyrants (8 points for alliteration, beat that!) The fact that Church leaders like president McKay actually want us to think means that they are not tyrants, they intend to be teachers. They want us to think and act for ourselves. They trust that we can learn proper principles and govern ourselves.

And how do you treat that trust?
Do you ponder the prelude music?
Do you meditate on the Savior during His Sacrament?
Or do you think about other things?
Do you talk and visit?

Those quiet moments in the sacrament service are meant to be a time when you can talk with God. It is meant to be a burning bush, a sacred grove.
And how often have we degraded it to 'free time'?

I'm terrible at this, I'll admit. I don't focus. often my brain is a million miles away, I'm as guilty as anyone reading this. But even so, don't you think we could spend a little more time just meditating on the things of heaven?

Namaste y'all
Michael