Exponent II's Blog, page 156

Being Black and Catholic: A Reflection

Reclaiming The Great Apostasy

The Church takes a very dim view of the period between 100 A.D. and 1820.  Preach My Gospel, the manual for missionaries, uses the following words and phrases to describe 1700 years of humans worshipping God and Christ:

Doctrine was corrupted
False Ideas
Distorted
Spiritual Darkness




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Hildegard of Bingen receiving a revelation and dictating to her scribe

The Church unequivocally rejects most of the history of Christianity, preferring to seemingly jump directly from apostles to apostles, dismissing a millenia and a half of righteous striving as “spiritual darkness.”  As a historian, I’ve always found this to be upsetting, to say the least.  It betrays a real lack of knowledge and lack of respect for the people who kept Christianity alive. The Church likes to claim credit for Restoring what was lost, but if it had been truly lost, if nobody had heard anything about Jesus since100 A.D., I think Joseph Smith would have had a much steeper uphill climb in proclaiming the Restoration.

I understand the rationale behind setting up a straw man of the Dark Ages.  Light seems to shine brighter in contrast to a dark abyss.  Truth has more meaning if you can point to lies.  You can’t restore something unless you are sure it is hopelessly broken to begin with.  It is psychologically very appealing to set up everyone else as corrupt, deceived, distorted and dark so that one’s own knowledge seems perfect and unblemished.

I imagine we have all sat through lessons in which we were asked to enumerate what was restored by Joseph Smith (and thus, by implication, what was lost in the Apostasy.)  I’m not going to rehash that.  Instead, I want to explore what the “Apostasy” gave us, and what we lose when we dismiss it as darkness.  I honestly don’t think I can do it justice in one post, so I’m thinking I’ll return to it when it is my posting spot again as my own personal series.

The New Testament.  We would not have the Gospels if they had not been painstakingly recopied by scribes.  Were there errors in recopying? Sure. But we wouldn’t have them at all without those apostate monks.  The same folk also gave us literacy by keeping the study of books alive in an era with very low education rates.  Joseph Smith would never have read James 1:5 if centuries of monks hadn’t recopied it and kept the knowledge of reading in existence.
The religious festivals we celebrate and use to center our lives on Christ did not exist in 100 A.D.  Palm Sunday, Easter, Advent, Christmas – none of these sacred festivals existed in the times of the first Apostles.  So perhaps the First Presidency should rethink that Christmas Devotional as really it is an homage to false traditions? 
Art and Architecture – our Temples and art owe much to the Western artistic tradition which was developed in ignorance and darkness by deceived people who barely managed to scrape a testimony.  Likewise our hymns, our musical instruments, and music generally is honestly just the pagan bleating of distorted doctrines.  We should return to the music traditions of 100 A.D., whatever those might be.
The Ancient World shows little evidence of widespread charitable effort.  Christians, wallowing in darkness, tried to apply the story of the Good Samaritan by creating hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, homeless shelters and many other institutions that simply did not exist at concepts or institutions before.  I don’t know about you, but I’m really really grateful that hospitals exist.  It’s too bad they were founded and developed by confused wanderers who had no idea what Christianity really was.

These are merely broad strokes of the contributions of Christianity that we dismiss so easily.  But we lose much more.  By denying that medieval Christians understood truth, we cannot study their examples or stories for inspiration. We refuse to accept the validity of visions or revelations received by anyone between 100-1820.  This is particularly damaging to women, because beyond the patriarchy of the New Testament and the Doctrine and Covenants there are millions of Christian women who have lived and died by their faith.  There were saints who saw Christ in vision and lived by faith.  There were martyrs who died far more horrible deaths for still less cause than Joseph Smith. There were pilgrims who travelled longer in harder terrains to seek sanctified land than our modern pioneers.  There were leaders who created and led institutions that carried the flame of Christianity and helped build lives of piety, charity and Christlike living.

The Church needs the Apostasy to support the narrative of the Restoration.  But you don’t need the Apostasy.  You don’t have to dismiss 1500 years of testimonies and faith just because their hierarchy or form of worship was somewhat different from yours.  After all, the Church of 1800 bears scant resemblance to the scattered congregations of 100.  And the Church of 2020 has changed significantly since the days of the pioneers. What was once required in the Temple is now dismissed.  Patterns of organization, instruction and leadership are very different from Nauvoo. If we can accept truth despite alterations now, then go ahead and look for truth in the “Dark Ages.”  I think you’ll find rather more to build your faith and your love of Christ than you’d expect from a bottomless chasm of spiritual darkness.

Guest Post: A Call for Victim Advocacy in the Church

[image error]by Sisyphus

I have attempted several times to write this post—a story about me opposing a man called into a bishopric, the stake president (SP) believing me but not acting on the information, that man sexually harassing several women in the ward, and the SP reluctantly releasing the man after many victims came forward—but each time, I would end my attempt discouraged. I’ve read enough to know that my story is not unique. Ecclesiastical abuse in the form of protecting serial sexual harassers (or worse) at the expense of victims is sadly not a rare occurrence in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The conditions that permit such abuse are a part of the self-perpetuating system of all-male authority, and Mormon feminists have been calling for change for decades to no avail.

Writing this story is a Sisyphean task. After cheating death twice, Greek legend has it that Sisyphus was sent to Hades by Zeus himself. Sisyphus was to push a boulder uphill, only for it to fall back down before cresting the summit, requiring him to start over again and again for eternity. Why bother telling yet another story of ecclesiastical abuse? The boulder will still fall down the hill.

Call me Sisyphus, then, both because I tell my story anyway, and because Brother Davis* has a known history of seeking retribution against his accusers and I don’t want to put his victims at further risk.

For me, it started a year and half ago with an email announcing a special meeting to sustain a new bishopric. I had an odd thought: “Brother Davis is going to be called into the bishopric and you need to oppose.” The thought returned several times that week until the meeting came. I’d never opposed a calling before, but the prompting was persistent and clear.

When the new bishopric was announced and Brother Davis was indeed called, I raised my hand and opposed. Immediately following the meeting, I went to the SP to make my opposition known. The SP invited me to his office. I told him about my repeated prompting and the information I knew about Brother Davis’s character and behavior that would preclude him from such a calling. Brother Davis was actively engaged in behavior that I believed made him a potential threat to the women and teen girls in the ward, particularly in private interviews.

The SP listened intently. He told me he believed me and that he was very concerned about what I had shared. He assured me he would look into this situation. He shook my hand, led me out his office, and walked down the hall to set apart the bishopric as announced.

What followed was a master class in the hard limits of women’s voices in an institution that systematically cuts women and other marginalized groups and individuals out of decisions that impact their lives and the safety of their congregations.

It took a month, but the SP finally called me with an update. He told me he spoke to Brother Davis and was concerned with how the interview went. In short, he thought Brother Davis was lying and making odd excuses. He thanked me again for bringing the “very concerning” information to his attention.

I heard nothing more from the SP, and months went by with Brother Davis still in the bishopric. I wrote the SP a letter to follow up: I included screenshots and emphasized that I believe this man to be a threat to the ward. I heard nothing in reply.

Months later, a work change led my family out of state. Life got busy, but after several months, Brother Davis came to mind. I texted a friend to ask if he was still serving in the bishopric. The friend responded that Brother Davis had been released for sexually harassing several women in the ward. My stomach dropped. When the nausea passed, I got angry.

As the stories of the victims are not mine to tell, I can only share that Brother Davis allegedly had a long history of sexually harassing women prior to his calling and that he continued to use his position of authority in the bishopric to harass women. The SP dismissed the first two victims, claiming he needed more witnesses to act. It took seven victims coming forward together before Brother Davis was released from his calling , though it was with a vote of thanks and no additional disciplinary action. Brother Davis and his wife launched a campaign of retribution against his accusers and used his lack of Church discipline as evidence of his good character.

I called the SP and asked why he hadn’t acted on my opposing vote. The SP was defensive. He argued that they do not just “undo what was done” when new information comes forward after a calling is extended. He said that he had to consider the spiritual welfare of Brother Davis and his family and needed to minister to him. He asked me what the Savior would do. I said that that the Savior would remove the threat to the congregation, protect the flock, and then minister with loving compassion.

I wrote the Area Authority Seventy about the situation. He responded that abuse is not tolerated in the Church and he would look into the situation. I followed up with him and learned that he considered Brother Davis’s early release from the bishopric to be a form of discipline, “though more action may need to be taken at this point.” He confirmed what I knew from the General Handbook—the victims of Brother Davis would have no say in whether or not a disciplinary council would be held, and not a single woman would be included in determining the outcome of such a council. In this case, the room of all-male judges would include several close friends of Brother Davis.

We need victim advocacy in the Church, and it needs to include women as decision makers in the process. It is possible for the Church to sponsor a system that would truly advocate for victims rather than protecting Church leaders? This is a problem, but one worth tackling. The Church already sponsors a hotline for Church leaders to call to help protect the leaders and mitigate the Church’s liability in instances when crimes or abuse are confessed to a leader. Perhaps there could be a hotline that connects victims of abuse with appropriate services, including local law enforcement when abuse constitutes a crime, and that can trigger oversight and intervention in instances of ecclesiastical abuse.

The problems inherent in ecclesiastical abuse are systemic, not individual. It is the very structure, policies, and procedures of the Church that enables this abuse to take place. If a member in good standing opposes a calling, and the bishop or SP refuses to act, what recourse is there? When a leader abuses a member in some way, where can the member go except to the person who likely called the abuser to the position? No system sponsored by the Church would be perfect, but we are still falling far short of both gender parity and victim advocacy in 2020, we need to start somewhere.

Lavinia Fielding Anderson wrote about ecclesiastical abuse in the Church. She was excommunicated in 1993. Sam Young gathered thousands of stories of sexual and/or ecclesiastical abuse and led a campaign for change to protect LDS children. He was excommunicated in 2019. It certainly seems that the Church is more invested in excommunicating people who speak out publicly against abuse than they are in protecting victims.

As I said, writing this story is a Sisyphean task. So why bother? Because pushing this bolder up the hill will make my back stronger. It’s unlikely that current Church leadership will make the necessary structural changes to give women a real voice and protect victims. Leaders are not ignorant of these problems. But a new generation of leaders is rising, and perhaps, surrounded by witnesses with strong backs and loud voices, we can stop pushing the boulder up the hill and move the damn mountain instead.

Guest Post: An Open Letter to My Baby Brother

[image error]by Bryn Brody

You were about 9 when a boy older than you but younger than me bullied you at the bus stop. He made fun of you in the way that mean kids do. You were sweet back then. You came home in tears, terrified, asking for someone to wait with you until the bus came. Our parents were too busy but I understood about being 9, and scared, and alone, so I took your hand and walked you back to the bus stop. I put my body between yours and his. I don’t remember what I said, and I’m sure the adult-me would be horrified, but he left you alone after that.

When you told me, years ago, that I should “get over” sexual abuse and attempted rape by your father, I chalked it up to your youth. Because you’re my brother, I ignored the sting at knowing you expected the survivor to appease the pedophile. After all, your daughter was a new born, and you didn’t know everything you didn’t know.

Yesterday, I told you that the person you voted for has implemented policies that are likely to prevent my oldest child from accessing medical care, housing, employment and schooling. I told you of the pain I felt watching men in MAGA hats call my baby names, spout hateful, violent threats, and laugh as bodies like my baby’s genderqueer body are tortured, abused, and killed. And you told me that you don’t believe me. That you don’t believe those policies do what I’ve seen them do. That a few bad apples don’t make the politics wrong.

You called me broken, and hateful, and closed-minded.

I remember hearing those words before, sitting on a stranger’s couch where I had sought refuge after escaping the rape attempt. The police stood between your father and my 13-year-old body. And your father, always the salesman, shook his head in the way that patriarchs do. “She’s broken. She lies all the time. She’s full of hate.”

For the first time, I saw the adult you had become. You have a nice veneer, and you have a sweet way of saying things, but you’re no longer that scared little boy who needed an older sister to protect him from the bully. You have, in fact, become the bully.

I mourn the loss of you. I mourn the damage you will inflict as you move through the world, confident that what your leaders tell you is more real than what people you claim to love experience.

I will stand between my child and you, between all the wounded children and you, because that’s what family does. Family protects, and mamas, even when we’re broken, stand between bullies and children. And if, when your own baby girl grows up to be other than you think she is, or want her to be, and you call her broken, and hateful, and closed-minded, I will stand between you and her until she finds peace with those of us who believe her.

Bryn is working toward a Masters degree in Social Justice while moderating for Mormons Building Bridges and homeschooling during the pandemic.

LDS woman, Mehrsa Baradaran named to US President-elect Biden’s Treasury Dept. transition team

https://buildbackbetter.com/the-transition/agency-review-teams/?fbclid=IwAR1nyNKPZMohdaZw2KzD_TfMNwVEGdGb2ZZl79enBnb04g70gSYjW2-CqwA

Guest Post: Fear No Quarrel — We Must Name Racism Where we Find It

[image error]by Katie Rich

On Tuesday, October 27, President Oaks gave a devotional at Brigham Young University where, as the title of his talk suggests, he addressed “Racism and Other Challenges.” Members of the Church and the broader BYU community erupted on Twitter, many sharing with glee that he said the words, “Of course Black Lives Matter! That is an eternal truth all reasonable people should support.” However, in the next sentence, he shifted to argue that the banner of Black Lives Matter “was sometimes used or understood to stand for other things that do not command universal support.” While he made or quoted several statements about the need to abandon prejudice and repent individually of racism, he seems to denounce all recent forms of advocacy intended to address structural racism.

My concern is that in the framework Oaks lays out for not “quarrelling” with historical or scriptural racism, he discourages his primarily white audience from meaningful engagement with racial history that they can use to understand and respond to the current moment. As a white woman, I make no attempt to say how Black members of the Church should feel about or respond to Oaks’ words. My concern, however, is that white American members will use his words to excuse their need to act in solidarity with their Black brothers and sisters.

Ironically, Oaks takes a quote from a 1940 Winston Churchill speech intended to call for acting in unity and applies it to excusing racist actions and policies of past government and religious figures. Churchill, who has his own complicated history of racism and human rights violations, was tasked as the British Prime Minister in leading a coalition government in the war against Nazi Germany. When Churchill said, “If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find we have lost the future,” he was not discussing the role of studying and learning from history. Rather, he was talking about recent ideological differences with political opponents who were still in his government and with whom he needed to be able to act in unity in order to fight the war.

Oaks is unwilling to identify racism in the Bible as racism out of fear of “opening a quarrel.” Oaks offers a brief overview of several instances of racism in the Bible and says, “we can be troubled and misled by Bible-recorded scriptural directions or traditions that may be viewed as racist or discriminatory by modern definitions.” He dismisses this interpretation. Instead of aiding us in identifying and learning from racism in the scriptures, he declares that “God, who is the loving Father of all nations, tribes, and ethnicities, cannot be branded as racist for His dealings with His children.” This is an insufficient exegesis in part because it sets up a false binary that either God is racist or God is not racist, and because God is not racist we cannot evaluate these scriptures as demonstrating racism.

There is, fortunately, another option: people in the scriptures held racist ideas and enacted racist policies. Even covenant people of God made decisions that hurt their fellow children of God based on racial prejudice.

Perhaps concerned that identifying and denouncing racism in the scriptures will lead to more members identifying and denouncing the long history of racist attitudes and policies in the Church, Oaks doubles down on Churchill’s quote. He says, “Those who cannot accept the prophetic decisions and practices of the past should consider Winston Churchill’s wise counsel quoted earlier: ‘If we open a quarrel between the past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.’” The Church is not facing the existential threat of WWII. By identifying racism in the Church’s history and present, we have the ability to root out racism and attempt to heal the wounds. Rather than lose the future, we can enter it with greater unity.

It’s possible that Oaks’ fear of clearly identifying and analyzing racism in the Bible and in the practices of past Church prophets is rooted in the fear of losing the practical belief of prophetic infallibility. Infallibility is not an official doctrine of the Church, but the oft repeated claim that “the Lord will never permit the prophet to lead the church astray” creates a functional belief in infallibility. When we cling to ideas of infallibility, studying honest history becomes dangerous. In history, we can see times when Church leaders acted in ways or instituted policies that hurt people. We can see when these men acted outside of our understanding of God’s nature.

If the prophet established a policy in the Church that was racist, but we believe that God is not racist, what does that mean about the prophet’s role as a spokesman for God? It becomes very tenuous, but only if we cling to the idea of prophetic infallibility tighter than we cling to Jesus Christ. We cannot allow fear to stop us individually and collectively, in our homes and in our institutions, from repenting from our racist ideas and policies.

If we want to apply Churchill’s quote to today, perhaps Oaks can call upon members to set aside their political divisions and unite in following our Black brothers and sisters in the actions necessary to make Black Lives Matter a legal, social, and religious reality. Individual feelings of love are important, but insufficient. Racism is not merely personal, it is structural. It will require united action to change laws, policies, and practices that create or exacerbate racial inequality. It will not be comfortable for white members who benefit from the racist inequalities in America today. It needs to be done anyway.

I’m glad that Church leaders are beginning to speak about racial inequality more frequently and directly. I agree with President Oaks that we must “unite in love for each other and of our Savior Jesus Christ.” However, actually achieving racial equality will require us to be willing to look at scripture and history and use terms that fit what we find. We must then abandon racism in our own hearts and minds and in our institutional policies and practices that lead to racial inequity.

Katie Rich has a BA in history and a MA in English literature, both from BYU. She is a mom of four kids and lives in Utah County. After several years as a stay at home mom, she is dipping her toes back into academia and enjoys researching topics related to Mormon women’s history.

Modern Latter-day Saint Scholars Dispel False Assumptions about Our Mormon Suffragist Foremothers

In the first issue of the Woman’s Exponent, the suffrage movement-era feminist journal for which Exponent II is named, Lula Greene Richards wrote:

Who are so well able to speak for the women of Utah as the women of Utah themselves? ‘It is better to represent ourselves than to be misrepresented by others!’ -Lula Greene Richards, June 1872

As I have studied the suffrage movement (I’m the author of Ask a Suffragist: Stories and Wisdom from America’s First Feminists), I have found that the best way to learn about women of my faith is from other Latter-day Saints. When I began studying suffrage, I was puzzled by how modern historians and authors would talk about Mormon pioneer suffragists. Mormon-dominated Utah territory gave women the right to vote 50 years ahead of the Nineteenth Amendment, and yet, many mainstream sources about the suffrage movement demonstrate an extreme lack of intellectual curiosity about why this was the case. If authors mention Utah women at all, they tend to do so as a disclaimer or footnote, and their comments betray false assumptions like these:

Mormon women were gifted the right to vote by Mormon men, almost as a surprise, without any advocacy by women
Women’s suffrage in Utah was just a ploy to protect polygamy, not a woman’s rights measure
Votes for women in Utah territory was an anomaly that had little relationship to the the wider suffrage movement

When I read books and journal articles by Latter-day Saint scholars, I learn a different story. Of course Mormon women advocated for themselves! However, their behind-the-scenes efforts to build support were often so effective that it seemed effortless to those who were not paying attention. Polygamy was a unique circumstance affecting women’s rights in Utah, but it didn’t magically provide Mormon women with voting rights, which was an intersecting but separate issue. Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and these Mormon pioneers were both influenced by and influential to suffragists working nationwide.

[image error]A great place to start learning about Mormon suffragists from the perspective of Latter-day Saint scholars is a new special issue of BYU Studies Quarterly: Celebrating Women’s Suffrage. I was delighted to find articles contributed by some of the most respected and knowledgeable experts in Mormon women’s history, such as:

Carol Cornwall Madsen, the biographer of suffragist and Woman’s Exponent editor Emmeline B. Wells
Founding mothers of the modern Exponent II organization, Claudia Bushman and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Katherine Kitterman and Rebekah Clark, leaders of Better Days 2020, an organization working to popularize women’s history as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of voting rights in Utah, the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and the 55th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.

Several of the authors featured within Celebrating Woman’s Suffrage have published books featuring the roles of Latter-day Saint women in the suffrage movement. Here are some examples that you might consider for further reading:

From Katherine Kitterman (with co-author Naomi Watkins and Illustrator Brooke Smart):

Champions of Change: 25 Women Who Made History

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From Katherine Kitterman and Rebekah Clark:

Thinking Women: A Timeline of Suffrage in Utah

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From Carol Cornwall Madsen:

Emmeline B. Wells: An Intimate History

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An Advocate for Women: The Public Life of Emmeline B Wells, 1870-1920

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From Jill Mulvay Derr:

Eliza: The Life and Faith of Eliza R. Snow

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From Laurel Thatcher Ulrich:

A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870

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How the Oakland Stake Center now has Gender-Neutral Bathrooms

If you’ve ever been to the Oakland, California temple, you may recall there being two large buildings: one is the visitor’s center, and the other is a large, misshapen building that looks and is a basically a bunch of rooms aggregated upon many winding hallways. It’s a multi-stake center. It contains 2 chapels, a large assembly room, 2 gyms and stages, multiple stake and ward offices, and a big auditorium where stake conferences or cultural events take place. There is almost no rhyme or reason to the layout. You’ll notice oddities like, “Where are the coat hooks?” There are no coat hooks. And some years ago, I noticed that near one of the nurseries on the bottom floor were labelled “Men” and “Women,” but once inside, they were large family-style bathrooms with a single toilet, sink, and counter.

[image error]Photo of the women’s single-user bathroom, January 2020.

Labeling these large bathrooms with gendered signs seemed really silly and it bugged me. Having family-style bathrooms are not only more inclusive for transgender people, but better for everyone. Imagine a young Mormon dad with a stroller and 2 toddlers that he needs to assist in the bathroom, or a person needing the assistance of an opposite-sex family member in the bathroom due to age or disability. Additionally, I know of at least 3 trans girls in our stake’s youth program and primary.

This past January, I was talking with some other local Mormon feminists and this came up and one of them, from the South Bay, mentioned that their church building has similar single-user bathrooms, but labels those with gender-neutral signage. This is what I wanted! So I looked into it.

In 2017, the state of California started requiring that single-user bathroom facilities be labeled with gender-neutral signage, however, like accessibility accommodations, churches are not required to follow that rule, unless… they rent out their facilities to be used by the public.

So with that knowledge in hand, I emailed our stake president asking if he had the contact information for the person in charge of the facilities so we could get new signage. His first response was the token argument that the church probably doesn’t need to abide by the law because it’s a church, but I pointed out that every year, the United States Open Music Competition takes place at the stake center and that might make the Church responsible in updating the signs. The stake president did respond that he and the stake presidency agreed the sign would be updated and that they would ask Facilities to update it.

That was in January/February. COVID happened and as the temple building and stake center closed, I wasn’t sure if this would be very high on the priority list. Also, how would I know? I’m not going to the church as it’s closed!

But then I did go to the church building last month. I participate in the Temple Hill Symphony Orchestra and I needed to go up there to borrow the timpani to make recordings of a few pieces for a remote version of Handel’s Messiah for the Christmas season. I had the building all to myself, except for a cleaning person and her 4 year old. So I walked over to the bathroom and snapped a photo of the new signage. It was there!

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There are still gendered bathrooms at the stake center and these gender-neutral ones are hard to find in the winding halls of the multi-stake center, but they are there! It is such a small, easy fix to make the restrooms at the church building better for everyone.

From Conception to the Grave: WHO Year of the Nurse and the Midwife

Guest Post By Karen Ady

 

Karen lives in the Central Valley of California with her husband. When she is not writing or catching babies you can find her singing at the piano, schlepping through thrift stores, or planning Grandma Camp for her 15 grandchildren.  

 

At first I didn’t know I wasn’t alive. I still went to work, I smiled at my clients 24/7. But when work was over I couldn’t smile. My joy was dead. My heart was broken. I could count my blessings and the feeling that I should be happy overpowered any actual joy I felt.

 

I killed myself with work. I martyred myself for the cause of the mothers and babies in my practice. My love of giving outweighed my love of self and I no longer listened to my body and my spirit went to sleep.

 

It was my heart that took me to midwifery. My youngest baby was born with an undiagnosed birth defect and the grief of her passing turned my whole world upside down. The angels were close during those early days of loss and the Spirit whispered that I would help other women. But how could I help? I didn’t have any training to prepare me for a helping career. When the heavens opened and the beam of light fell on me God had called me to be a midwife.

 

The road to becoming a nurse-midwife was filled with miracles and academic honors. Nonetheless, post-graduation I found that securing a good job as a midwife was hard. As I looked for work in my rural Utah town I was told by a male physician, “It’s not that I don’t like midwives, I’ve worked too hard to have to compete with a woman.” I was frustrated by this antiquated and selfish comment. But I knew God had called me to be with women, and did not let this stop me.

 

[image error]Unable to find a position near home, I took a mentorship and moved out of state. Next I took a job teaching nursing students. Twice more I moved out of state for a midwife job. The work was rewarding and interesting. However the working conditions in a female dominated industry were rife with problems. One employer hired me at a fair salary but demanded 80-90 hour work weeks. Sexism, undervalued work, fragile job security and a wage gap caused a hardship for me and for other midwives.

 

Finally I was gifted a beautiful, busy midwife practice and settled into my calling. My life was a blur of measuring bellies and attending beautiful births. As my practice grew I was unable to bring a midwife partner on to share the workload. After four years of being available around the clock, in clinic all week and on call every day including on the weekends I wasn’t myself anymore. The eighty pounds I gained weighed on my heart and my limbs. I couldn’t sleep, had anxiety and missed my family and friends.

 

To lend birthing women my stamina during a long labor is a grueling job. It is physically, emotionally and psychologically demanding to be with women at all hours of the day and night, to hold them through a loss, and rejoice with them when the baby takes its first breath.

 

Nearly every day someone would tell me they could see that I love my job. It’s true – I did, but those comments injured me. I was completely exhausted, broken and unseen. The day came when I cried out to God that I couldn’t live this life anymore and I needed Him to save me. He heard my prayer and blessed me with a new job and midwife partners to share the work and give me some days off.

 

Over the years I have discovered that midwifery isn’t only about pregnancy and childbirth. It is about life– from conception to the grave. About making everyone’s lives as best as possible, including mine. And it’s about love, self respect, hope and God. I am honored that God has trusted me to do this hallowed work. I will be forever grateful to God for entrusting me in such a sacred way.

 

I still love the work, but now I put myself first. In order to hold up the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees I need strong arms and legs myself. I hired a trainer, and lift weights and pound the medicine ball. I went to Mexico so a surgeon could remove half of my stomach. He took out the part that makes you love food and feel hungry. I drank insipid protein shakes and chicken broth until one day I couldn’t do it anymore. I bought a watermelon. Pressing the sweet goodness to my lips made me feel human again.

 

Before starting my new job I went to my mother’s farm in Oregon where I could connect with my ancestors. They and the land brought me back to life. And I sipped on tiny pieces of watermelon to extend compassion to myself. I go for walks . And I pray that I can hang onto self love long enough to show the world my ruthless gratitude to still be alive.  

Come Follow Me: Moroni 1-6 “To Keep Them in the Right Way”

The Sacred Practice of Remembering
Leaving a written legacy
Ida B. Wells’ Legacy

When civil rights activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett was in her later years, a younger woman approached her with an awkward question:

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Ida B. Wells-Barnett, 1930

A young woman recently asked me to tell her of my connection with the lynching agitation which was started in 1892. She said she was at a YWCA vesper service when the subject for discussion was Joan of Arc, and each person was asked to tell of someone they knew who had traits of character resembling this French heroine and martyr. She was the only colored girl present, and not wishing to lag behind the others, she named me. She was then asked to tell why she thought I deserved such mention.

She said, “Mrs. Barnett, I couldn’t tell why I thought so. I have heard you mentioned so often by that name, so I gave it. I was dreadfully embarrassed. Won’t you please tell me what it was you did, so the next time I am asked such a question I can give an intelligent answer?”

When she told me she was twenty-five years old, I realized that one reason she did not know was because the happenings about which she inquired took place before she was born. Another was that there was no record from which she could inform herself.

This conversation led Wells-Barnett to realize that she needed to write her personal history.

It is therefore for the young people who have so little of our race’s history recorded that I am for the first time in my life writing about myself. I am all the more constrained to do this because there is such a lack of authentic race history of Reconstruction times written by the Negro himself.

…The gallant fight and marvelous bravery of the black men of the South fighting and dying to exercise and maintain their newborn rights as free men and citizens, with little protection from the government which gave them these rights and with no previous training in citizenship or politics, is a story which would fire the race pride of all our young people if it had only been written down. It is a heritage of which they would be proud—to know how their fathers and grandfathers handled their brief day of power during the Reconstruction period.

…The history of this entire period which reflected glory on the race should be known. Yet most of it is buried in oblivion and only the southern white man’s misrepresentations are in the public libraries and college textbooks of the land. The black men who made the history of that day were too modest to write of it, or did not realize the importance of the written word to their posterity. And so, because our youth are entitled to the facts of race history which only the participants can give, I am thus led to set forth the facts contained in this volume which I dedicate to them.

-Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Crusade for Justice. University of Chicago Press.)

Ida B. Wells spent her final years working on her autobiography while concurrently continuing her activism.  The final chapter, which begins, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” ends abruptly in the middle of a word she was unable to finish writing before her death. Although unfinished, it was published and “has held a special position in African American culture as a protest against oppression” and “as an historical record from the African American point of view.” (Akiko Ochiai, Ida B. Wells and her Crusade for Justice: An African American Woman’s Testimonial Autobiography, Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 75(2))

Why did Ida B. Wells-Barnett feel compelled to write her story?
Who was she writing for? How did she believe it would benefit them?

Moroni’s Legacy

As the final author of the Book of Mormon, Moroni had a unique role in finishing and preserving the record. Share the video “Moroni Invites All to Come unto Christ” which is based on excerpts of Moroni’s writings from the Book of Moroni, Mormon 8-9, and the Title Page of the Book of Mormon.

What stood out to you from the video?
How was Moroni’s mission unique and challenging?
What compelled him to complete his mission? How might he have found strength and motivation to do what he did?

Read the Title Page of the Book of Mormon, which is attributed to Moroni. (See More Light On Who Wrote The Title Page by Clyde J. Williams, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies.)

THE BOOK OF MORMON

AN ACCOUNT WRITTEN BY THE HAND OF MORMON

UPON PLATES TAKEN FROM THE PLATES OF NEPHI

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Moroni in the Cave by Jorge Cocco

Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites—Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile—Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation—Written and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed—To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof—Sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by way of the Gentile—The interpretation thereof by the gift of God.

An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven—Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations—And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.

According to the title page, why was the Book of Mormon written?
Who were the authors writing for? How did they believe it would benefit them?

In Mormon chapter 8, Moroni writes that his father, Mormon, who compiled the Book of Mormon, has died in battle with the Lamanites. Moroni writes that he intends to add only “a few things” because he has no writing materials and it seems likely that he will also be killed. But to his surprise, Moroni survives battle. At some point, he obtains writing supplies and adds more chapters to the Book of Mormon “that perhaps they may be of worth unto my brethren, the Lamanites, in some future day, according to the will of the Lord.” (Moroni 1:4). Today, these additional chapters are known as the Book of Moroni.

Why does Moroni call the Lamanites, “my brethren” after they have killed all of his people?
Why does he hope his writings will be “of worth” to them?

Review the ten chapter headings within the Book of Moroni.

How does Moroni choose to use this additional opportunity to write more chapters?
Why would he choose these topics?
How have these writings been “of worth” to us as modern church members?

Remembering as We Partake of the Sacrament

It is through Moroni that we obtained the prayers and procedure we use for the Sacrament. Invite class members to read the (short) chapters 4 and 5 of Moroni  and look for the words “remember” and “remembrance.”

The manner of their elders and priests administering the flesh and blood of Christ unto the church; and they administered it according to the commandments of Christ; wherefore we know the manner to be true; and the elder or priest did minister it—

And they did kneel down with the church, and pray to the Father in the name of Christ, saying:

O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.

The manner of administering the wine—Behold, they took the cup, and said:

O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this wine to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them. Amen.

Moroni 4:1-3; Moroni 5:1-2

Where did you see the word remember?  What are we instructed to remember?
How can we better focus on remembering Christ during the Sacrament?

Share the video, “Always Remember Him” or this excerpt from the talk it is based on:  “This Do in Remembrance of Me” by Jeffrey R. Holland, October 1995.

This particular ordinance with all its symbolism and imagery comes to us more readily and more repeatedly than any other in our life. …In the simple and beautiful language of the sacramental prayers those young priests offer, the principal word we hear seems to be remember. …What is stressed in both prayers is that all of this is done in remembrance of Christ. In so participating we witness that we will always remember him, that we may always have his Spirit to be with us.

-Jeffrey R. Holland, “This Do in Remembrance of Me”

 

 

What are the advantages of partaking of the Sacrament often? What are the challenges?
How can we make Sacrament time feel special and sacred, in spite of its familiarity and frequency?
During the current pandemic, many people have been unable to partake of the Sacrament due to quarantines.  How can we remember Him if circumstances prevent partaking of the Sacrament?
How can we remember Him during times of our lives that make focusing on the Sacrament difficult, such as while nursing infants or parenting young children?  How can support others who are in such phases of life?

Moroni taught that church members of his time also met together often for the ordinance of the Sacrament. As they read Moroni 6:4-6, invite the class to again look for the word “remember.”

And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith.

And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.

And they did meet together oft to partake of bread and wine, in remembrance of the Lord Jesus.

Moroni 6:4-6

Where did you see the word remember?  What are we instructed to remember?
How do we remember and nourish each other?