Women's rights

My last post said that feminists were one of the greatest threats to the mormon church. Let me explain that a little.

When Utah became a state, it was one of the first to allow women (or push for women to have) the right to vote. However, many factors would go against the idea that the church believes in equal rights.

First of all, the church practiced polygamy for the first years of its life (from roughly 1833-1910). Polygamy is a blatantly, horrifically sexist thing to do. Men can have more than one wife (see Brigham Young on how he thinks no more of taking a wife than buying a cow), but women cannot have more than one husband. The polygamy practiced by modern fundamentalist groups closely resembles the structure of the early church.

There are also little things. Women are never allowed to be in a position of authority over any man. Any 12 year old boy with the aaronic priesthood has more power than a woman. The highest echelons of the church are filled with men, women being an afterthought. The prophet is a man, his 14 counselors are men. The quorums of the 70s (are there 7 now? or just 4?) are all men, predominately white Americans. Next you have the Stake Presidents and Mission Presidents, all men. At a local level, everything goes through the bishop (pastor) and his two male counselors. The ward clerk is always a male.

As evidenced by the recent talk by Julie Beck, women are still seen as wives and mothers and very little more.

My own father and mother came to one of the classes I taught at university, where gender studies and critical thinking are central. After class, they asked me, "but you are not REALLY a feminist, right?" I affirmed that I was, in fact. Their response was, "but you're not really REALLY one, right?"

I am floored.