Of the 35,000 choices we make in a day, only a fraction have the potential to create distance between us and our Heavenly Parents.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, women are not ordained to priesthood offices. The established pattern is assumed to be from God, and thus, must be overturned by God — if at all.However, there is no explicit divine direction to deny priesthood offices on the basis of gender, and the temple endowment currently grants priesthood power to all genders. Here, I explore ten common explanations for women’s exclusion from priesthood offices, and argue that none of them adequately justify current gendered divisions.1. Modern leaders have stated that there has been revelation that women aren’t eligible for ordination […]
The church often finds itself at odds with the LGBTQIA+, or queer, community, due to the doctrine that marriage is between a man and a woman. Too often, members debate if and how they should support their queer siblings. Many people turn to attitudes expressed by the phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner.” After all, it’s an easy answer, isn’t it? It lets us separate who people are from what they do, and lets us befriend “sinners.” This is a shortcoming. If we see being queer as something people do, we are reducing a sacred experience of sexuality and gender. […]
One Heart and One Mind: Establishing Zion One Community at a TimeIn the fall of 2018, my husband and I headed to North Carolina to begin serving as Church Education System missionaries teaching Institute. The young adults in our classes were smart and engaged and we worked hard to keep up with them. We were pleased when one of our students wanted to bring a friend to class. Like many math and science majors at North Carolina State, this friend was skeptical of religion, so we decided to focus on the idea of Zion, described in Moses 7:18: “And the […]
Human agency is a core tenet of faith for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Indeed, the concept of agency reigns as the supreme theological actor in the Latter-day Saint story, from the reconceived creation narrative through the understanding of the human condition, theodicy, and eschatology. Yet the Latter-day Saint conception of agency is often confused and confusing, wandering between claims to perfect free will, unlimited choice, and ultimate human responsibility for action and consequence. I suggest that the conflation of symbols and meanings associated with agency have muddied the Latter-day Saint waters. In particular, the oft-heard […]
“Be in the world, but not of it.” *The human body shares many similarities with the earth it inhabits. For example, water comprises more than half of both the human body and the earth’s surface. This lifeblood of the earth flows through vein-like rivers and streams. But the body shares more than mere similarity with the earth. The air we breathe into our lungs comes from the exhalation of trees. The food in our bellies comes from seeds in the dirt. We are more than sustained by the earth’s bounty — we are entirely made up of it. It is impossible to […]
Easter is one of my favorite holidays. It is a time we get to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After Jesus died on the cross, His body and spirit were separated and were not reunited again until His resurrection three days later. Latter-day Saints testify of Jesus’ resurrection that He lives today with a perfect body of flesh and bone. Not only that, Jesus paved the way for a universal resurrection.1 Resurrection is not a blessing reserved exclusively for Jesus, but for each and every one of us. We are promised that all people will be resurrected.2 Christ has […]
Exponent II provides 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.
