Recently, around the Conference Center, there was a protest against the Church policy that women can't hold the priesthood.
Today, as part of my
Young Women's church class, we discussed this. Why don't women hold the priesthood?
A couple of them brought up that women are more spiritual, or more intellectual than men, and that men need the priesthood to catch up.
I DISAGREE WITH THIS!!!!! I dislike generalities with a passion. I know plenty of girls who aren't spiritual, and boys who are very spiritual (and vice versa, of course :)). I know smart boys and girls, and not-so-smart boys and girls.
But if the priesthood isn't for boys to catch up, why do they have it?
When I researched this on lds.org, it brought up this exerpt from "The Basic LDS Manual for Women:
“Priesthood
is to be used for the benefit of the entire human family, for the
upbuilding of men, women, and children alike. There is indeed no
privileged class or sex within the true Church of Christ. … Men have
their work to do and their powers to exercise for the benefit of all the
members of the Church. …
“So
with woman: Her special gifts are to be exercised for the benefit and
uplift of the race” (quoted by John A. Widtsoe, comp., in Priesthood and Church Government, rev. ed. [1954], 92–93).
Men
and women have different but equally important responsibilities in the
home and the Church. Priesthood power can help each person perform those
responsibilities for the benefit of all
In order to fulfill these sacred obligations, they have different divine capabilities; the men bear the priesthood, and the women bear children.
You may think "What? That's not fair. Women have to go through pain to bear children. What do men have to do?"
Men have a big responsibity--they need to remain worthy of the priesthood.
Here are a couple of talks some of the leaders of the Church gave about worthiness in the priesthood:
I know that the priesthood is the power to act in God's name. I know that it is a man's responsibility to remain worthy of that calling, and a woman's responsibility to support him in that calling, and to pursue her own mission.
