I want the Priesthood, too.

And shouldn't I?

Boys are raised in the Church to want it.  To aspire to it.  To expect it.  They are expected to live in such a way that they have it conferred upon them at the age of twelve so that they can begin to administer and serve.  That expectation, that aspiration is considered a wonderful thing, a great thing.  Not a sin, not a power grab, not an itching to rule the world or exercise rule over others.  In fact, I'm not aware of any time when that's an idea ever put out in the open.  And yet, adult women who want as much (or more) authority as a pubescent boy are cast as unfaithful villains instead of anxious workers in the cause of Christ.

What?

I was listening to a Mormon Stories episode on the way to the temple earlier today.  The interview featured the man who started Agitating Faithfully, Dane Laverty, a site that collects names of women and men who support the implementation of gender equality in the Church.  Dane said something that really struck me as he was describing the inspiration for the site name.  The context begins about 28:39 and he rambles for a bit, but then he says this:

[President Hinckley's] response wasn't, "We don't have revelation for that."  His response wasn't, "The doctrines prevent that from happening."  His response was just, "We don't hear anyone in the Church asking.  We don't hear any movement in the Church for women to be priests."  And so the way I read that is, "Yes, we'd be more than happy if we found the need for women to be priests, if we found that there was a desire out there for women to be priests, that's something that could happen; but we're not seeing that desire, so it's just not an issue that we're going to address right now."

And he's right, in a way.  Granted, President Hinckley was an extremely shrewd media personality, and the way he answers moves all responsibility for the inequality to the membership, rather than the leadership.  I will let my readers think of that what they will and move on.  There isn't agitation, or at least not very much.  There is anti-agitation, as with so much about the Church, the large and disapproving fraction of the population who insists on things the way they are and that they're perfect and wonderful and we shouldn't want one thing that the Lord doesn't hand down to us from the Throne of Heaven itself.

Doctrine and Covenants 58:26  For it is not meet that I should command in all things; for s/he who is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and an unwise servant; wherefore s/he receiveth no reward

 Hm.  Well, that's problematic.

 27 Verily I say, wo/men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

 28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as wo/men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

 29 But s/he that doeth not anything until s/he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.

So, if an Earth-rocking revelation were unveiled between 9:15 and 9:30 AM PDT by President Monson, unveiling the nature, power, and duties of Heavenly Mother, and commanding that women be ordained to the Priest(ess)hood, beginning immediately and would President Beck and her Counselors please come forward so they can be sustained and ordained... how many brethren, how many sisters would be prepared to sustain President Beck in her ordination?    How many would get up and leave, and never return to the Church?  It's a sobering thought.

But how many would cheer?  How many would offer their heads to have hands laid upon them?  How many are prepared to receive, when we put so much emphasis on it being wrong to even want the Priesthood because we are women?  I do believe it will happen, I believe it will happen in my lifetime, even if I have to live to the age of 100 to see it.  I believe it just as much and as surely as I believe we will learn more about Mother, but as a people, we must be prepared to receive, and I feel that we generally are not.  We have shot ourselves in the foot by insisting that we don't care about or want these things.  We are limiting the spirit of revelation in the name of conservation.

A quick sampling of things I've commonly heard about women not having Priesthood, generally from women...
It's so much more work!  Why would you/we want that?
--Why do the men want it?  Don't many hands make light work?  Is our only work really only supposed to be among our husbands and children?  I'm off the hook!  Awesome!  ...except that I want to serve. In the past several years, there have been numerous Conference talks praising the sisters for their hard work and encouraging them to greater heights of service.  I've heard many women groaning under the strain, though.  There's only so far people can be encouraged before there's nothing else they can do.  If the Priesthood gives power to do the work of the Gospel more effectively, it would be a mercy and a help to everyone to ordain women.

I hold the Priesthood when I hug/dance with my husband.
--You married the physical embodiment of the Power of God?!  Holy crap!  Oh, you meant that you married a person who has been ordained to the Priesthood.  Gotcha.  Wouldn't it be nice if your husband could say the same thing, though?  Also, once again, this is discriminatory.  I, as an unmarried woman with no children, don't have the option of hugging a husband.  Eventually, I won't have the option of hugging my father, either.  Please stop using such an exclusive platitude.  It gives no value or power at all to women like me.

Women don't miss out on any of the blessings of the Priesthood.
--This has always required considerable mental gymnastics for me, even years before I considered myself a feminist, but I went with it for a long time.  I mean, the absence of a worthy Priesthood holder can be circumvented if necessary; I've done it, but how many women (or children) know how to do it?  It isn't something you'll find in a lesson manual.  What if circumvention was unnecessary because women and girls received ordination and advancement just like men?
Even if we don't miss out on any blessings, saying so would come off in a much more genuine way if we also didn't miss out on the cultural benefits and respect that come with administration and authority that men enjoy while they're about the same Work women are.


I know that there are many women out there who genuinely don't want to be ordained and that's okay.  For most of my life, I didn't either.  It wasn't until I realized that ordination made sense to me that I said "Okay, I understand.  Yes, we should be ordained."  That wasn't even until after working in the temple.  I wish I had understood better during my time there that the day I was Endowed, I left with the same Priesthood potential as any man, short only the formality of laying on hands.  I held and exercised religious authority there to perform ordinances.  I wielded Priesthood, as do tens of thousands of women working in temples worldwide, and the Church hasn't collapsed; in fact, it relies on female Priesthood users to do proxy work for the dead.  The only difference is that it doesn't happen outside the temple in every day life to do the work of living.

Why?

I want to serve.  I want to work.  I want authority and power to be more effective in the Church and in living the Gospel and to be taken seriously.  This is my little agitation.  This is my Yea vote.  This is my siding with women and men to whom ordination for all worthy Saints makes sense.  I also want the Priesthood.

(Happy Mother Fast Day!)