Hi, I’m Gary,
I am a professional genealogist, an amateur student of philosophy, a distance runner, and enjoy being a grandfather of three boys and one girl. I enjoy outdoor projects. My marriage has been the most meaningful aspect of my life.
I have served a full-time mission to Norway, earned a Ph.D. from Brigham Young University in “Marriage, Family, and Human Development,” and spent many years serving as a Boy Scout and Cub Scout leader. I have been an active member with a strong testimony for most of my life but due to the immoral position I feel the church has taken towards gay people, I resigned my membership a few years ago after Proposition 8 in California (that is another story).
It was not until after studying personality psychology and being married for several years that I began to realize how narrow my own perspectives were. I began to appreciate the perspectives of others when they went beyond my own understanding.
As I have looked around the LDS community, I have wondered why programs for young women were not as well developed as for young men, why women’s organizations are not as significant as men’s priesthood organizations, and why scriptures and Mormon history focus primarily on stories of men with only few exceptions rather than giving a balanced representation of men and women.
As I have thought about this and about my own blind spots, it has become obvious to me that the reason women’s perspectives are lacking is that women are not involved on all levels of the church leadership. Of course men are most aware of the male perspective and will make sure there are programs that meet the needs of young men. Until women are represented on all levels of church leadership, their perspectives will be missing.
This is why I support women being ordained to the priesthood. Until women are represented with men, their perspectives will not be considered and blind spots of male leaders will not be corrected. The church needs a diversity of perspectives, including perspectives of women, on all levels of leadership so church programs are better balanced.
If there were better representation of missing perspectives, all members of the church would benefit and this would aid in overcoming fundamental blind spots. The church would thereby better achieve its goals and this would provide a valuable improvement. The ordination of women would be a great step towards creating a more Christ-like organization. I believe women should be ordained.