“We want our homes to be blessed with sister scriptorians—whether you are single or married, young or old, widowed or living in a family. … Become scholars of the scriptures—not to put others down, but to lift them up!” (Spencer W. Kimball, “The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 102.)
Pretty good, right? It gets better...
Marvin J. Ashton of the Quorum of the Twelve explained that “a woman should feel free to go into the marketplace and into community service on a paid or volunteer basis if she so desires when her home and family circumstances allow her to do so without impairment to them” (Ashton, p. 93). (Belle Spafford said something very similar, but I can't find the reference!)
Nice! And, finally:
"You are…more blessed than any other women in all the world. You were the first women to have the franchise; the first women to have a voice in the work of a church. It was God that gave it to you and it came as a result of revelation to a Prophet of the Lord. Since that time, think what benefits the women of this world have enjoyed. Not only you belonging to the Church have enjoyed the blessing of equality, but when the Prophet Joseph Smith turned the key for the emancipation of womankind, it was turned for all the world, and from generation to generation the number of women who can enjoy the blessings of religious liberty and civil liberty has been increasing.” (President George Albert Smith, Relief Society Magazine, Dec. 1945)
So how stinking awesome is THAT quote from 1945??
I mean, I always believed these things. I imagined that I wasn't "out there" in thinking them (even though Church culture is a whole different animal...). But I'd never bothered to find General Authority-type folks that said them! Until now.
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5 comments:
Validated!
:-D I'm so glad! That's what I was going for...
This might shock you, but I love these quotes as well--I agree with them fully. Great work! And you didn't even need Elder Cook's "LDS Women are Incredible!" talk.
Women are wonderful, and they should have plenty of continued opportunities. And they do.
I'm just concerned about the dramatic decline in opportunities for men--wages, employment status, college graduation rates, collegiate athletic participation, etc., have all declined significantly for men over the past 30 years.
Interesting, both Dr. Laura and William J. Bennet have recently discussed these challenges, as I discuss in my most recent post:
http://goodstrongmen.blogspot.com/2011/11/dr-laura-and-dr-strong-man.html
Where are the quotes about "LDS Men are Incredible?"
I despise Elder Cook's "LDS Women are Incredible" talk, because he's talking about women who don't actually exist....the "imaginary ideal" of LDS womanhood.
Being held up to that standard causes a lot of pain for a lot of LDS women.
I prefer quotes from people who actually want women to DO something, for themselves.
We don't need quotes about how LDS men are incredible, because they grow up in a society that implicitly values men over women (by making them leaders and allowing them to engage in progressive ordination throughout their lives, not just up until the point that they get married; by employing official discourse full of powerful, positive, SCRIPTURAL male role models; by consistently letting men lead and women follow). As evidenced by the fact that a large portion of the "best and brightest" LDS women are depressed or profoundly dissatisfied with the Church, despite "an earnest desire to believe." As evidenced by the fact that there is no similar phenomenon among LDS men.
I only read enough of that post to notice the title - where I laughed out loud when you linked yourself up with someone who has ACTUAL TRAINING to talk about the things you pretend to be an expert in.v
Ha, although on second thought maybe it's just an ironic coincidence.
I've never followed Dr. Laura because I find her approach distasteful.
Turns out she doesn't have any credentials for relationship advice either - she's not an MD or psychiatrist, she's a PhD. In physiology.
I guess if I really turned my mind to it, I could set my self up as a "relationship specialist" even though my PhD has NOTHING TO DO with it.
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