The Thirteen Articles of Something Better

According to Wendy Nelson, “Words matter. Because words lodge in our cells and in our souls and even in the walls of our homes, think of how important it is to be exquisitely mindful of our words.” Wendy suggests that words form our souls and create our beliefs. If this is true, the words He, Him, His, and brethren have lodged in our cells and in our souls and in our homes until we have no more room for anything else. 

Therefore, it is not radical for women to feel excluded in a church written by men, about men, for men. Because words matter. It is not heretical for LDS women to feel a lack of power and authority when they are forgotten in their church’s foundational creeds and texts that define power and authority exclusively for men — because the words that we build religions on matter. 

Similarly, words that we build countries on matter. Seventy-two years after the Declaration of Independence was written, the Declaration of Sentiments was approved at the first Woman’s Rights Convention in 1848. The Declaration of Sentiments is a document modeled after the Declaration of Independence and drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The document proclaims, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.” This is proof that words matter: Women rewrote a foundational document to include women. 

The Declaration of Independence, a crucial document in the formation of the U.S. government, was written, inspired by, and signed exclusively by men; however, after many years of women’s voices, it is now common knowledge that women are excluded and amendments have been made. Similarly, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’ foundational documents and creeds were written by men for men; unfortunately, in the church, there are no amendments that include women.

The Articles of Faith, written by Joseph Smith in 1842, is one of these untouched foundational documents that excludes women. Like my foremothers who approved the Declaration of Sentiments, I recognize how a founding document that ignores half the population of affected members distorts practices, truths, and doctrine. Women are excluded from the founding of this church, and, like the women excluded from the founding of a country, LDS women today suffer because of the words the church is built with. 

I agree with Wendy; we need to be exquisitely mindful of the words we are asking women to build their worlds with. We need to consider the words lodging in the cells and souls of women – the words children are memorizing and building their faith and morals with. 

Furthermore, inspired by the Declaration of Sentiments, I will clumsily attempt to rewrite the Articles of Faith to be more inclusive. Because words matter — being included doesn’t just change the language, it changes everything. Here are The Thirteen Articles of Something Better:

Thirteen Articles of Something Better

We believe God is incomprehensible, that Their son, Jesus Christ, teaches us to love, and that everyone is given divine intuition.We believe that Eve’s choice was good, that agency is a gift, and that God’s love is freedom.We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all humankind is saved; and that the rhythms of life and death are patterns of that atonement.We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first; Love; second, repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the building of communities; fourth, Laying on of hands for connection and self-reflection.We believe that humans are divine and that God is no respecter of persons. We believe in prophecy, ritual, ordinances, and creation centered on people and their needs.We believe that the organization that existed in the primitive church needs to evolve and now includes all humans who desire to be apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, creators, protectors, and so forth.We believe in the gift of listening, the power of miracles, the practice of personal revelation, the sacredness of visions, and the human need for healing; we believe in facing our mistakes and sharing these gifts freely.We believe the Bible to be a history of the Israelites as far as it is read figuratively; we also believe the Book of Mormon started our religion, demonstrates what happens to civilizations that devalue women, and is painfully limited in feminine, racial, and historical perspectives; we also believe that all texts can be read as sacred.We believe all that God has revealed, all that They now reveal, and we believe that They will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the universe.We believe that it is our divine human responsibility to renew our earth and create a paradisiacal world instead of waiting for Christ to do it for us.We claim the privilege of worshiping our God according to the dictates of our own conscience and allow all beings the same privilege: let them worship how, where, or what they may.We believe in being activists and in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.We believe in being honest, gentle, industrious, powerful, and embracing the holiness of every natural, ordinary, sensual, dying moment; indeed, we may say that we follow the teaching of Sue – we believe that embracing holiness will free us to be in a sacred body, on a sacred planet, in a sacred communion with all of it.

See? It changes everything. It changes who God is, who “we” are, and, eventually, it changes our cells and our souls and the walls of our homes. Mary Daly acknowledged that “only women hearing each other can create a counter-world to the prevailing reality.” The prevailing reality is that men wrote this religion for men and the only way to create a counter-world where women hold power and authority is through rewriting it. When God is no longer exclusively male, “we” is no longer exclusively male, and pronouns are no longer exclusively male in the foundational documents of this church, this church will look drastically different. 

Daly, Mary. Qtd. in The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey From Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine.Kidd, Sue Monk. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey From Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine. 1st Harpercollins pbk. ed. New York, N.Y.: HarperOne, 2002.Nelson, Wendy. The Heavens are Open. Deseret Book Company, 2019.Photo by Ben White on UnsplashPhoto by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash