My name is Zoe. I love dogs, succulents, shirts with cute animals on them, Easter candy, serving others, and warm cups of tea (mostly herbal). I’m eighteen years old, and I attend Brigham Young University. I hope one day to teach special education, and have a family of my own.
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I’m so thankful to have grown up with the gospel in my home. I’m thankful for my testimony because it has kept me strong through tough times in my life, and it keeps me strong today while I struggle through things in the gospel that are difficult for me to understand. One of those things being the ordination of women to the priesthood.
I think women should be ordained because it just makes sense. If the priesthood is the power by which man can act for God on earth, then why can’t a woman hold this power as well? Why is your ability to act in God’s name defined by your gender? I’ve heard explanations like women having the ability to bear children, and that is basically their supplement for holding the priesthood. To that, I wonder what the church thinks the “priesthood-like” role is for those who cannot or will not bear children in this life?
Finally, I’ve heard that those who are married “share” the priesthood equally with their spouses. If that is the case, and they hold the priesthood together “equally”, then why can’t a wife of someone who holds the priesthood hold a high calling in the Church?
But even if women were to be granted ordination to the priesthood immediately, issues of gender equality would not be immediately solved. This is why I have pledged to do everything I can right now to promote the Church’s “baby steps” toward a more Christlike environment.
I hope that maybe someday I will have a daughter, and that she will be able to attend a church that teaches modesty in a way that makes her feel like a powerful and valued human being instead of being ashamed of her body and that it tempts the men around her. I hope that one day she will feel that she is more than just a machine to make babies for her future husband, and that she’ll be taught to aspire to marriage, but also to aspire to her own individual worth and path.
And that, at the core, is what I joined OW to fight for. I believe women should be ordained.