The False Parable of Priesthood Keys and Priesthood Locks
Men and women do not have the same experiences reading the scriptures and church materials like the Come Follow Me curriculum. I was reminded of this recently when I went to write the lesson plan for the week that covers the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood. The lesson quotes from The Melchizedek Priesthood written by Elder Dale G. Renlund and his wife, Ruth.
“The term priesthood keys is used in two different ways. The first refers to a specific right or privilege conferred upon all who receive the Aaronic or Melchizedek Priesthood. … For instance, Aaronic Priesthood holders receive the keys of the ministering of angels and the keys of the preparatory gospel of repentance and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins (see Doctrine and Covenants 13:1; 84:26–27). Melchizedek Priesthood holders receive the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, the key of the knowledge of God, and the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the Church (see Doctrine and Covenants 84:19; 107:18). …
“The second way the term priesthood keys is used refers to leadership. Priesthood leaders receive additional priesthood keys, the right to preside over an organizational division of the Church or a quorum. In this regard, priesthood keys are the authority and power to direct, lead, and govern in the Church” (The Melchizedek Priesthood: Understanding the Doctrine, Living the Principles [2018], 26).
When church leaders talk about priesthood, they tend to talk about three things: authority, power, and keys. We’ve started to hear about women using priesthood authority and priesthood power (Using Section 84 to Emphasize the Priesthood Power of Women has a pretty good list of talks), but as far as I can tell, priesthood keys are still taught as a male-only thing.
All this emphasis on keys got me thinking about locks. Locks are a natural counterpart to keys, and keys don’t have much of a purpose without locks. Current discourse teaches that women have the priesthood, but they don’t have priesthood keys. Do women have priesthood locks? A priesthood key could be used with a priesthood lock to let somebody through. The ethical way to use a priesthood key is “only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned”. This doesn’t just mean during the initial sustaining vote. This means with every encounter with every priesthood lock the key interacts with (and the priesthood keys of a man in a leadership position may interact with a lot of priesthood locks as well as other priesthood keys).
Do I want to have a priesthood lock? It means being stuck in one place. The lock’s strength and integrity have to be monitored. A priesthood lock is assumed to passively protect the possessions of the man who holds the key. A lock has a responsibility to constrain the actions of men who try to use their keys to go where they don’t have a right to go.
This metaphor is so close to what girls and women have learned about chastity at church that I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. And just in case it’s not clear: although I love my female body, I’m not interested in having a “priesthood lock” for men to pick, tamper with, devise ways to bypass, or break. I’m also not interested in being the first line of defense to protect male controlled spaces. This parable is false because, unlike a lock, women have agency to determine where they go and what they do in life. By denying women priesthood keys, the church circumscribes women’s agency in its sphere of influence. Church is the place where many women feel their agency is most restricted.
Going back to Elder Renlund’s quote (and the priesthood duties enumerated in Doctrine and Covenants 84), women already do or are capable of doing all of that stuff. “The errand of angels is given to women” who minister to others, sister missionaries teach the gospel of repentance, and the only reason women don’t perform baptisms is due to church policy, not physical inability. Women are spiritual. Women have insight about God and the mysteries of Their realm. Women are able to receive and give spiritual blessings. Within the current church leadership structure, women are presidents who don’t preside over their organizational divisions. But they certainly could if the men would let them.
If we have to go with a key and lock metaphor, I’d rather have a multifactor authentication system where every person has a piece of the secret combinations presumably required to enter the kingdom of God. We’d all have to work together to get to where we’re going. Hmmm, working together with one heart and one mind, that sounds like…Zion.
