In this second discussion we are asked to to know the history. What follows reads like a graduate level analysis of historical points. I would argue they don’t sufficiently know the background behind the history they cite, but there are many good points here.

I would note that I’m the one of all of us women here that actually has talked about giving blessings by my faith in Christ. These blessings that I’ve voiced have been few, like seriously few. I almost always ask someone who holds the priesthood to voice blessings. But I know I can bless, and have done so.

There are four components to this discussion:

1) The Relief Society Minutes, where a) Emma is given the right to preside (a surprise to younger Mormons); b) Joseph talks of making the Society a kingdom of priests as in Enoch’s day, as in Paul’s day; and c) Joseph explicitly talks about women giving healing blessings and casting out devils.

2) A paper by Linda King Newell in the Silver Edition of Sunstone tracing the history of the migration from Joseph’s teachings regarding blessings and today’s practices where folks presume it is forbidden due to Joseph Fielding Smith’s memo to Belle Spafford in 1946, where he says the authorities have ruled washing and anointing the sick by women is permissible, but they think it is better to send for the Elders.

3) Greg Prince’s delightful interview of Chieko Okasaki published in 2012 (Dialogue).

4) A 15-minute video about women and the priesthood that speaks to various things, including how the once-independent assets of the Relief Society were absorbed by the Church.

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I’ve been interested in reviewing the discussions those critical of the Church’s treatment of women promised to post. My experience is that you really had to dig to find this stuff.

Looking at the first discussion, “See the Symptoms,” I find I agree with much of what they are saying. Basically, the lesson talks about what it is like living in a culture where one portion of the participants are not treated equitably. I have experienced inequitable treatment as a woman in a male-dominated profession and as a mixed-race child engendered at a time and place where my parents’ marriage was consider void and prohibited. I get the importance of equitable treatment. However their conclusion that disparities between the males and females in congregations would evaporate if only women were permitted priesthood ordination seems simplistic and flawed.

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[This post is part of a series on Joseph Smith’s Polygamy. To read from the beginning or link to previously published posts, go to A Faithful Joseph.]

William Clayton, Joseph’s Scribe

Despite all that had happened through the end of June 1843, Joseph had never written down the revelation regarding plural marriage. Nor had Joseph spoken publicly about the doctrine involving possible plural marriage.

That was about to change.

Emma had demanded something of Joseph in June 1843. In response, Joseph had packed up Emma and the children and traveled some 200 miles northwest to the home of Emma’s sister, Elizabeth Hale Wasson. The pressures of Church leadership and the women Joseph had covenanted with were left behind in Nauvoo.

We’ll never know how long Joseph intended to remain with the Wassons. Sheriff Reynolds of Jackson County, Missouri, and Constable Wilson, of Carthage, Illinois, came to arrest Joseph, pistol-whipping him and tearing him away from Emma in a scene reminiscent of the horror at Far West, when Joseph was dragged to prison and his family was thrust from him by the sword.

By the beginning of July, Joseph was back in Nauvoo, protected by the strong city charter Dr. Bennett had crafted. Emma’s relief was short-lived. She was once back in Nauvoo, with all the stresses and individuals that had caused her grief the month before. She had made a demand of Joseph, which God had commanded Joseph to grant her. She planned to campaign until her promised relief was granted. Continue reading →

Other working titles:
1. Flooding the Earth with the Book of Mormon Musical
2. And Now a Word from Someone Else’s Sponsors

When I was a missionary 35 years ago, we were excited that President Kimball could announce reaching 30,000 missionaries.  We were also excited to be baptizing 250,000 or more people a year. In fact, we had a couple years that reached 300,000 new converts.

Now in 2014, we are excited to say we now have over 85,000 missionaries – almost 3 times when I was a missionary!  Not only that but we are now baptizing an astonishing….250,000 new converts per year? Continue reading →