I’m a lifelong active member of the church. I love the Church and how it blesses my life, and I feel like we would be very blessed as a people if women were allowed to hold the priesthood.
One of the reasons that I came to this conclusion was growing up when I would be at a friend’s house and the father (priesthood holder) would not be home, the oldest son had to call on someone to bless the food. I remember feeling that something was off about that. And that might not be the way that most LDS families operate, but I also think that traditions like that do not appear out of nowhere.
It is very important to me (a husband and father of a beautiful little girl) that my daughter grow up to view herself as being equal to those around her (and I know that equal does not necessarily mean the same). And as I have thought about this I have wondered about what role the priesthood plays in gender. I have often heard the justification that men are blessed to hold the priesthood and women are blessed to be given the power to bring life into the world. The two roles are both important. But something about that has never sat right with me. I feel like the analog to motherhood for men is not priesthood: it is fatherhood.
Women are blessed to be able to create and raise their children as mothers, men are also blessed to be a part of that process as fathers. So where does that leave the priesthood? What is the equal role that women have to this? I feel like the church has such rich potential to explore this topic through the doctrine of Heavenly Mother, but sadly we know nothing about her. It saddens me that my daughter will not grow up learning anything more about her Heavenly Mother other than she may exist.
I simply feel like women have many wonderful gifts and I feel like our church would be blessed if they were able to exercise them in different capacities. Why is it that women can’t be the ward clerk? Why is it that a women who is called as the president of the Relief Society in her ward is never given any keys to that calling as the presidents are all given to male leadership.
It seems strange to me that the wonderful blessings of the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood are given to my son when he turns 12, but my daughter can’t have access to them except through marriage (which she will never find someone good enough to marry in my book!). I feel if women were given the priesthood it would affect how men see their role as fathers. It bothers me that, as a father, there is not a changing station in the men’s bathroom in my ward building but there is one in the women’s bathroom. It is sad that there is not a quiet room with audio from sacrament meeting that I, as a man, can take my crying baby to during sacrament to rock until she calms down or falls to sleep. I believe that this is a living church and that things can change, so I do not see myself as being a heretic for advocating for change. I feel like asking questions is the most quintessential aspect of the Gospel.