Hi, I’m Melanie. I’m a musician, mother, wife and lover of laughter.
The world still says women are lesser than men. Yes, still. Even with all that we have taken back for ourselves, we are still considered lesser. What else could explain the fact that our reproductive parts are legislated? What else could explain the whole modesty rhetoric that permeates multiple cultures throughout the world and places how women dress as directly responsible for men treating them as objects? What else would explain the fact that even still, women are in the minority of political, business and religious leadership throughout the world?
So when people in the LDS church say that Ordain Women and other Mormon feminists seeking gender equality in the Church is of the world, I want to ask them if they’ve actually looked at the world–the whole world–to see how girls and women are still treated as objects, how girls and women are still treated as lesser.
Love. Inclusion. Equality. These are the teachings I latched on to growing up in the LDS church. These are the teachings I still hold on to. These are the foundations of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are simple. They are beautiful. How can seeking after these things be worldly if they are the very essence of the Gospel? Now it looks as though they have been forgotten amid the fears when it comes to women wanting more of a voice in the faith they love. Women wanting more chances to serve and lead in the faith they love. Women wanting equal footing with men in the faith they love because they see that when they do not have equal footing, the ones who have “authority” can abuse that authority, and do abuse that authority. The ones who often experience that abuse of authority are women.
I was born into the LDS church. I grew up in it. I spent most of my life in it. If the priesthood were as simple as it claims to be—the authority to act in God’s name—then maybe it wouldn’t be abused by some. However, it is inextricably linked with power, leadership, dominion and autonomy in the LDS church. When women have those same opportunities to serve and to lead by being ordained to the priesthood, the abuse of that authority towards them will naturally diminish. I believe that women should be ordained.