Abby Maxwell Hansen

Does Jesus really want us to be fabulously wealthy, with beautiful stained glass windows in our temple, gorgeous artwork and enormous stockpiles of cash invested and growing as large as humanly possible? Or did Jesus teach those who follow his teachings to forsake our riches, give everything we have to the poor, and follow him? Which direction are we headed right now?

We have to be willing to walk right into poverty to pay our tithing to the church, yet they are somehow justified in holding massive amounts of wealth just for their own feelings of security? What if a member told their bishop they were no longer paying tithing because they were saving it for their own retirement, just like the church isn’t using much of its own money to bless the poor because it’s saving it for its own future use? The Jesus I know didn’t ask his followers to pay tithing to him in their poverty to enable him to invest in multi-billion dollar business ventures.

If we won't acknowledge the very real pain our missionaries cause other families as we proselytize to their doorsteps, we need to stop complaining about our own sadness when someone we love has a faith crisis and leaves the LDS church. It's either okay for people to change their beliefs to match their own circumstances and desires in life, or everyone needs to stick with the religious system they were born into. We can't have it both ways.

Back in January of 2022, I wandered into my local Deseret Book store with a Christmas gift card to spend. I hadn't been there...

Women theoretically don't get the priesthood because our all consuming role here on earth is to just be mothers. We can't be distracted in any way from nurturing and caring for our children, not even by being able to give them a blessing when they're sick because that would somehow be too big of a distraction from our real purpose - nurturing them. But the instant we leave this earth life and become exalted mothers in heaven, all nurturing will stop immediately. We will turn that role over to our husbands. He will listen to our children's prayers, send them comfort, and provide guidance. It's a good thing we didn't waste time practicing priesthood power on earth, because we needed all the practice nurturing we could get in order to... let our husbands take over that job too for the rest of eternity. Women are preparing for an eternity of doing absolutely nothing.

I thought to myself, “Why can’t I just ask my former young women these questions? Why are we friends on Facebook, liking each other’s posts and commenting on new babies and vacations, occasionally running into each other in person and enthusiastically greeting each other with big hugs, but always wondering just below the surface, “Were you okay with the temple? Were you uncomfortable with what happened to you there? Do you have questions that don’t have answers?” I never reach out and ask though, because I’m afraid of the answer. What if they reject me and I lose our relationship by asking them these questions?

Last week a new Episcopalian bishop was ordained here in Utah, with full news coverage from various media outlets such as church-owned KSL: The Episcopal...

I think that women (not just men) should be called as LDS bishops. In fact, I think women should be bishops more often than...