Intersectionality and Power in the Church
Something that’s often mentioned in Mormon feminist circles is that there’s no decision a woman in the Church can make that can’t be overruled by a man. It’s powerful because it’s true: no matter how high of a position a woman reaches in the Church hierarchy, even the Relief Society General Presidency, she will always be outranked by at least 15 men: The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
This is how we get “revelation” like The Family Proclamation, which then-First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency Chieko Okazaki said in an interview with Dialogue was pushed through without Relief Society input: “in 1995 when ‘The Family: A Proclamation to the World’ was written, the Relief Society presidency was asked to come to a meeting. We did, and they read this proclamation. It was all finished. The only question was whether they should present it at the priesthood meeting or at the Relief Society meeting. It didn’t matter to me where it was presented. What I wanted to know was, ‘How come we weren’t consulted?’”
When the interviewer, Greg Prince, asked, “You didn’t even know it was in the works?” She answered, “No. They just asked us which meeting to present it in, and we said, ‘Whatever President Hinckley decides is fine with us.’ He decided to do it at the Relief Society meeting. The apostle who was our liaison said, ‘Isn’t it wonderful that he made the choice to present it at the Relief Society meeting?’ Well, that was fine, but as I read it I thought that we could have made a few changes in it.”
This injustice rightfully grates on feminists, who argue correctly that the whole Church would be better if women had real authority, a means to contribute to shared decision-making that would be honored and respected by (and even apply to) men, a path to autonomy that didn’t require endless permission from men or begging to have their suggestions considered by men, and the list goes on.
At the same time, there are many similar intersectional injustices we cannot neglect. Right now there is no decision that any person of color or Indigenous person can make in the Church that couldn’t be overruled by a white man. There is no decision that any person outside of the United States can make in the Church that couldn’t be overruled by an American man. There is no decision that a person in a low-income household or a low-income country can make in the Church that couldn’t be overruled by a high-income individual in a high-income household in a high-income country. For over 10 years, a majority of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have lived outside the United States. But those members do not wield the same authority and do not have their interests, perspectives, and backgrounds as represented in leadership and decision-making as Americans do.
In some ways, these power differentials are easier to address: there aren’t the same doctrinal prohibitions on non-Americans or people of color or people in low-income households rising to even the highest levels of Church leadership that there are on women and gender minorities.
However, there are practical barriers which are obvious to even a casual observer even though there’s no transparent selection process for general authorities and officers of the Church. Reading the public bios of our leaders, it’s clear that they’re not a representative sample of the population. They tend to be wealthier, more educated, and more likely to be in single-family households with two married heterosexual parents and children than the average population.
You need to be financially stable enough to devote plenty of unpaid time to your callings and be recognized for increasingly higher positions of leadership. If you work multiple jobs or have a work schedule that conflicts with regular Church attendance, chances are you won’t be a Bishop, let alone an Area Seventy. Fluency in English is practically a requirement for the highest offices and at a certain point so is the ability to be based in Utah at Church headquarters. The Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders on the Church website also says General Authorities are fathers and husbands with “the responsibility to lead their own families and guide them to the celestial kingdom,” so it appears single and childless men may not be considered or at least at an institutionalized disadvantage.
If these men are truly selected to guide the Lord’s Church and to speak for God on the Earth today, what does it say about our religion that so much of the Church population isn’t represented in the highest levels of leadership? In Matthew 19:14, Jesus says of little children, “forbid them not, to come unto me” – and are we not all children of God? Just as women need to make decisions that can’t be overruled by men, marginalized groups need to make decisions that can’t be ignored or overruled by the dominant group. We’re told in 2 Nephi 26:33 that “he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him” and “all are alike unto God.” If we’re to follow Jesus’s example, then our membership and our leadership should reflect all of humanity and not just a select few.
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