Blog Tag: #hearLDSwomen priesthood leader overreach
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#hearLDSwomen: My Face Drives Away the Spirit
Going through the temple the first time was overwhelming to say the very least. The fact that I had to veil my face to talk to Heavenly Father in prayer was a total knock to me as a woman. The men didn’t have to veil their faces. And the fact that I needed to hearken to my husband’s counsel but he was not required or asked to hearken to mine? The equally yoked bit flew right out the window at that point.
Where is my Mother in Heaven? Why isn’t she represented with God the Father at the altar or...
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#hearLDSwomen: My Bishop Disregarded My Answer from God
As a 23-year-old grad student, I asked a bishop about receiving my endowment. He laughed.
He apologized and explained that he was laughing because of the timing: the stake president had just told them that 23 was too young for single women not going on missions to receive their endowment.
It still stung.
The story actually gets worse. At that point I was just asking in a general sense. A year and a half later, at age 24.5, I prayed and got a clear answer that it was time. I'd wanted to receive my endowment since I was 18 and had regularly...
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#hearLDSwomen: Only Men’s Voices Are Valued in My Ward’s Sacrament Meeting
I was scheduled to speak first in Sacrament Meeting but realized right before the meeting started that I had left my talk on the kitchen table. I asked my husband to run get it and then told the bishop that I needed to be the second speaker in case my husband didn’t return in time. The bishop said that wasn’t okay because a priesthood holder had to have the final say in the meeting. He told me I could speak second, but he would need to add a few words at the end of my talk to ensure a...
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#hearLDSwomen: Penalized for My District Leader’s Mistake
A few months into my mission, my companion and I requested to visit a popular tourist site that missionaries sometimes visited on preparation day. It was outside our area but not very far geographically. We requested permission from our district leader and waited for a response. The night before P-day, we asked if we had gotten permission and he said yes. We had a nice cultural experience, but that evening after we got home we got a call from an upset district leader asking where we’d gone and saying we hadn’t received permission after all. I reminded him that...
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#hearLDSwomen: Lack of Autonomy in Callings Hurts Women and Children
I live in a ward that doesn’t have quite enough strong members to go around for all the callings. Serving in the Primary presidency, it became abundantly clear that women and children were at the bottom of the priorities heap.
We had a primary of 120 kids (including the nursery) and needed A LOT of teachers, yet we would be turned down for 80-90% of our calling requests. At one time, the president was desperate and submitted 10 names for one calling that we really needed to be filled and every one was rejected with no suggestions.
Meanwhile, the Young Women/Young...
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#hearLDSwomen: New Bishopric Revoked Permission
Last year about this time, I was working with a group of primary children on a special musical number for Thanksgiving. I had jumped through the hoops to get a "non-canon" song approved, and it was lovely. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, a new bishopric was called. One of the counselors had a daughter who was singing with us, so he had heard the song. They called me three days later to tell me that they had all individually received revelation that this song was not to be sung in church, that it was "not to be heard at this...
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#hearLDSwomen: Bishops Overstep Bounds When Counseling Women
My parents "adopted" my teen sister's baby just to get the Bishop/LDS Family Services/the baby's father off their back. The father was told he could go on a mission if he could convince my sister to have the baby adopted out. (My sister remained the baby's mother in all but name, and she adopted her back officially a few years later.)
- Anonymous
A bishop (who is still currently serving) told me I needed to be a better Mormon wife so my husband wouldn’t abuse me. Then he asked me sexually explicit questions about things I did as a teenager right...
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#hearLDSwomen: Not Allowed to Teach Again After My Lesson About Women...
Four years ago, I volunteered to teach Relief Society for a friend. Her husband left the church many years ago, and it would have been her second lesson in a couple months teaching about the priesthood. It has become a difficult topic for her.
Teacher training in the church indicates that a teacher should cater the lesson to the needs of the class. As I was teaching a class composed entirely of women, and the only mention of women in the lesson manual was “Brothers and sisters...,” referencing the audience to which a particular quote was directed, I decided to...
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#hearLDSwomen: Bishop and Stake President Blamed Me for Marriage Problems
At the end of my marriage, I was severely depressed and just trying to keep my head above water. I was the second counselor in the Relief Society presidency and viewed that calling as my own personal Time Out away from my husband, who was attempting to control everything I did both in and outside of our home. My husband had a porn problem that he blamed on me because if I were a better wife, he wouldn't have to look at porn (that's an actual quote).
One day, my husband dropped on me that we were going to go...
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#hearLDSwomen: Ostracised for Discussing the History of Relief Society, Shamed about...
I’ve gotten berated for stating the history of women having the priesthood in RS and kindly sharing my hope and opinion that this would again be the case, and I was called into the bishop’s office for it. He told me I wasn’t going to make any friends saying things like that. He didn’t even argue the point about women in the priesthood, and I doubt he even knew the history, but he chose to shame me and scare me socially instead by saying women were going to circle the wagons to protect the sanctity of the priesthood when...
What is Exponent II?
Exponent II provides Mormon feminist forums for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum to share their diverse life experiences in an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. Through these exchanges, we strive to create a community to better understand and support each other.
Exponent II was founded in 1974 by a group of Mormon women in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These women were inspired by the original periodical, “The Woman’s Exponent,” to create a forum “posed on the dual platforms of Mormonism and Feminism.”
For 50+ years, Exponent II has shared women’s voices in its quarterly magazine, and members of the community have convened at an annual retreat. Our reach has expanded as technology has advanced: the blog, founded in January 2006, has reached millions. As we look to the future, we are focused on growth and building a more inclusive community.
