What do you do if you have been taught to avoid contention, but also to defend something in which you passionately believe? My beloved church, or more specifically its doctrine of male-only ordination, has come under fire.
This is nothing new. We have experienced everything from violent persecution to mild curiosity, since the beginning. But this time it's from within. Members ..... faithful members are "agitating" as they say, for change. They say it's time for women to be ordained.
I wrote about my feelings on the ordination of women in this post. Until recently, I had no idea other faithful members of my religion believed differently. I guess I was wrong.
For clarity, it helps to differentiate between policies or practices, and doctrine. Policies and practices can be and often are, influenced by societal customs and traditions. What we wear to church, who speaks or prays in our meetings, or how some church funds are spent, for example, are policies which sometimes shift and evolve over time. Circumstances change. Whereas, our belief in the Godhead, repentance, the Atonement, ordinances .... are all doctrine, and unchanging .... at least in this lifetime. And for reasons unknown, God organized his church with different roles for men and women. Men are ordained to the priesthood, and women are not.
The ordination of women would be a major change. It would be a first. There are hints in the scriptures and in our church history, that some women may have been given some priesthood responsibilities outside the temples in the past. But we believe in living prophets, and our current prophet supports his predecessors who all taught that men only are ordained. To change this would take much consideration, prayer, and an absolute confirmation from God. In other words, it would take revelation. As far as I know, that revelation has not happened.
So back to my original question ..... what do you do when you are in opposition with fellow Latter-day Saints who publicly campaign, organize, and recruit others to pray, ask, push, and pressure our church leaders to take it to the Lord? Do you stand up for your belief that they are out of line, and possibly cause hurt feelings, contention, resentment, and let the media feed on disunity in the Mormon Church? Or keep the peace and look the other way? Do you defend the doctrine and risk losing the person? Or keep quiet and remain friends?
The answer, of course, is to defend and explain with love and patience. But when the disagreement is online ..... it's tough. No matter how soft-spoken your words may be intended, you cannot control their perception.
So that's the dilemma. I believe that these people, who are actively and publicly pushing for female ordination, have over-stepped their bounds. That's my personal opinion. This is the Lord's church and a change of this magnitude must come from him. They have created a forum and an audience for people who are actively fighting against our church. Feelings are running high. We will lose members over this. We will lose families over this. And with those families, generations of God's precious children will be lost to gospel blessings. And in those homes ...... there will be no priesthood at all.
