Prophets Aren't Perfect
There's hurt pounding in my heart today.
And it's LOUD.
Please. Please Ask.
And please...if you don't care about change and you don't have questions...stop crucifying those who do ask.
Remember, it was a young boy's questions who sparked your faith system in the first place.
And it's LOUD.
I remember the moment I first realized that "church leadership" didn't mean the same thing to everyone as it did to me. I was 8 years old. A friend of mine and I were being teased by some bratty kid in the halls of the church, and I loudly declared to him, "You better knock it off. HER dad is the BISHOP." The kid looked at me with his eyebrows high and said, "So what?"
It floored me. It had never occurred to me that a bishop's authority wasn't THE authority to everyone around me. The audacity of this kid to question what could happen if he treated the bishop's daughter with disrespect!
As I grew, that respect I had for bishops only grew. I revered them. I feared them. Stake Presidents? They may has well have been the presidents of countries. General Authorities? Well, they were pretty much Gods themselves!
As I grew up, I would defend those priesthood leaders with every ounce I had to fight. They would "never lead the church astray," and so you bet your boots I stood my ground when someone questioned them. As far as I was concerned, the prophet's words were being dictated by God himself and every word that came out of him was scripture.
Because that's how we were taught.
That was the norm in the Mormon world.
It floored me. It had never occurred to me that a bishop's authority wasn't THE authority to everyone around me. The audacity of this kid to question what could happen if he treated the bishop's daughter with disrespect!
As I grew, that respect I had for bishops only grew. I revered them. I feared them. Stake Presidents? They may has well have been the presidents of countries. General Authorities? Well, they were pretty much Gods themselves!
As I grew up, I would defend those priesthood leaders with every ounce I had to fight. They would "never lead the church astray," and so you bet your boots I stood my ground when someone questioned them. As far as I was concerned, the prophet's words were being dictated by God himself and every word that came out of him was scripture.
Because that's how we were taught.
That was the norm in the Mormon world.
Then Covid hit. The good ol' shit show of 2020, and there it was, plastered all over church headlines: "First Presidency Urges Latter-day Saints to Wear Masks, Be Vaccinated" and for the first time in my life it hit me...this urge didn't come from revelation.
Let me be clear: I think that Russell M. Nelson is a very well-educated man with good intentions. I mean, he's a world-renowned surgeon with decades of medical experience, so of course his recommendation to be vaccinated is one I trust a hell of a lot more than my google-research abilities. I also believe that he is, indeed, a prophet, so there's that too. But amongst the hullabaloo of right vs. wrong, ultimately I realized that President Nelson's recommendation, was simply that...a recommendation.
Not revelation. Opinion.
And I realized that it took almost 30 years for that little 8 year old girl to grow out of thinking that prophets were gods.
Being a prophet means you have a close relationship with God, and that God shares spiritual leadership instructions with you. It doesn't mean you no longer get to use agency. It doesn't mean you have to follow everything God says. And it certainly doesn't mean that you WILL.
Prophets are just like the rest of us. They make mistakes. And one BIG mistake our prophets continue to make are the roles of women in the church.
Someone told me today that the church has been restored to the order in which Christ organized it when He was on the earth, and that's why women don't have the priesthood. But when Christ was on the earth, women were basically sex slaves from the time they were young teenagers and they had literally no rights.
Another woman told me, "I don't have a problem with women not having the priesthood because I don't want the extra responsibilities." Can we just....I mean...what MAN do you know WANTS the responsibility of the priesthood? Equal rights for women in the church doesn't have anything to do with women being ordained. That thought never even crossed my mind. What I WANT...is to have a say in what happens to my daughters when they have to repent. What I WANT is for my voice to matter when it comes to church policies. What I want is for our church leaders to finally admit to the fact that polygamy wasn't about God's plan...it was about man's plan to have sex with multiple women. What I WANT is for my church to finally apologize for how racism was the reason black men weren't given the priesthood for so long.
What I WANT...is for a man to not be the person my daughters have to go to for repentance when they are struggling with the law of chastity.
Can we just stop for a second and be honest about the fact that THE CHURCH AND THE PROPHETS ARE NOT GOD???!!! I'm tired of these old, white men having opinions about young women, or the age a child should be rotated out of nursery.
It's time for change. And we have to ask for it. We have to stop blindly following. We have to stop assuming that our prophets are God.
Ask President Nelson if God allows him to have his own opinions. Ask President Nelson if he is perfect in in interpreting every piece of revelation or if he never makes mistakes.
And I realized that it took almost 30 years for that little 8 year old girl to grow out of thinking that prophets were gods.
Being a prophet means you have a close relationship with God, and that God shares spiritual leadership instructions with you. It doesn't mean you no longer get to use agency. It doesn't mean you have to follow everything God says. And it certainly doesn't mean that you WILL.
Prophets are just like the rest of us. They make mistakes. And one BIG mistake our prophets continue to make are the roles of women in the church.
Someone told me today that the church has been restored to the order in which Christ organized it when He was on the earth, and that's why women don't have the priesthood. But when Christ was on the earth, women were basically sex slaves from the time they were young teenagers and they had literally no rights.
Another woman told me, "I don't have a problem with women not having the priesthood because I don't want the extra responsibilities." Can we just....I mean...what MAN do you know WANTS the responsibility of the priesthood? Equal rights for women in the church doesn't have anything to do with women being ordained. That thought never even crossed my mind. What I WANT...is to have a say in what happens to my daughters when they have to repent. What I WANT is for my voice to matter when it comes to church policies. What I want is for our church leaders to finally admit to the fact that polygamy wasn't about God's plan...it was about man's plan to have sex with multiple women. What I WANT is for my church to finally apologize for how racism was the reason black men weren't given the priesthood for so long.
What I WANT...is for a man to not be the person my daughters have to go to for repentance when they are struggling with the law of chastity.
Can we just stop for a second and be honest about the fact that THE CHURCH AND THE PROPHETS ARE NOT GOD???!!! I'm tired of these old, white men having opinions about young women, or the age a child should be rotated out of nursery.
It's time for change. And we have to ask for it. We have to stop blindly following. We have to stop assuming that our prophets are God.
Ask President Nelson if God allows him to have his own opinions. Ask President Nelson if he is perfect in in interpreting every piece of revelation or if he never makes mistakes.
Please. Please Ask.
And please...if you don't care about change and you don't have questions...stop crucifying those who do ask.
Remember, it was a young boy's questions who sparked your faith system in the first place.
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