I think its time that various Bloggernacle tactics that I’ve seen used get called out and made public in hopes that such tactics will ceased to be used and be replaced with a more rational discussion.

Today’s tactic is to use the scripture about the shepherd leaving the 99 sheep to find the 1 lost sheep as a means of demanding change. The following statement I overheard online (I wish I could take credit!) explains this tactic very well:

Like most of the Savior’s injunctions, that was meant to be advice for the shepherd, not a lever for the straying sheep to demand change. Whenever someone tells you that you should not judge their behavior, that you should forgive them without their repentance, that you should leave the 99 to come after them, or that you should turn the other cheek to them, they are weaponizing and perverting the gospel.

Anyhow, the advice for the shepherd was that he bring the straying sheep back to the 99. The ones not playing their role in this parable are the… folks who flee the shepherds and refuse to be brought back.

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I wanted to highlight a great talk by Relief Society President Linda K. Burton that was published in the June Ensign “Priesthood Power: Available to All.” The talk was originally given on May 2 at the Women’s Conference at BYU.

Anybody who wants to understand the true nature of the priesthood should read this talk and and the April Conference talk by Elder Oaks.

It does not seem accidental to me that Church leaders are making clear for members and those who have ears to hear exactly what the priesthood is and is not.

Some key highlights from Sis. Burton’s talk:

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In this second discussion we are asked to to know the history. What follows reads like a graduate level analysis of historical points. I would argue they don’t sufficiently know the background behind the history they cite, but there are many good points here.

I would note that I’m the one of all of us women here that actually has talked about giving blessings by my faith in Christ. These blessings that I’ve voiced have been few, like seriously few. I almost always ask someone who holds the priesthood to voice blessings. But I know I can bless, and have done so.

There are four components to this discussion:

1) The Relief Society Minutes, where a) Emma is given the right to preside (a surprise to younger Mormons); b) Joseph talks of making the Society a kingdom of priests as in Enoch’s day, as in Paul’s day; and c) Joseph explicitly talks about women giving healing blessings and casting out devils.

2) A paper by Linda King Newell in the Silver Edition of Sunstone tracing the history of the migration from Joseph’s teachings regarding blessings and today’s practices where folks presume it is forbidden due to Joseph Fielding Smith’s memo to Belle Spafford in 1946, where he says the authorities have ruled washing and anointing the sick by women is permissible, but they think it is better to send for the Elders.

3) Greg Prince’s delightful interview of Chieko Okasaki published in 2012 (Dialogue).

4) A 15-minute video about women and the priesthood that speaks to various things, including how the once-independent assets of the Relief Society were absorbed by the Church.

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I’ve been interested in reviewing the discussions those critical of the Church’s treatment of women promised to post. My experience is that you really had to dig to find this stuff.

Looking at the first discussion, “See the Symptoms,” I find I agree with much of what they are saying. Basically, the lesson talks about what it is like living in a culture where one portion of the participants are not treated equitably. I have experienced inequitable treatment as a woman in a male-dominated profession and as a mixed-race child engendered at a time and place where my parents’ marriage was consider void and prohibited. I get the importance of equitable treatment. However their conclusion that disparities between the males and females in congregations would evaporate if only women were permitted priesthood ordination seems simplistic and flawed.

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