You might have seen or heard of a new group on social media called Mormon Women Stand. Without hesitation I said yes when asked to be involved in the content of Mormon Women Stand. I have wanted to be involved with something like this for a long time, and I think it is a much needed voice in the cacophony of dissent that has had a lot of air time on the internet and news lately. From the feedback we’ve received in our first week of operation, there are many women out there that have wanted a group like this as well. Personally, I am so excited to share my faith and the things I believe in this way, and I am excited and grateful that Mormon Women Stand is a place where those who support the Church can gather online.
So what is Mormon Women Stand about, exactly?
Mormon Women Stand is a collaborative online effort to join like-minded female members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who share a desire to make a public stand as witnesses of Jesus Christ and in support of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. As we ‘Stand’ together, we believe it a reflection of the divine nature and power that LDS women are endowed with to influence others for good. We unequivocally sustain the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—commissioned by God and sustained as prophets, seers, and revelators and stand in support of how the Lord has delegated priesthood authority to organize and administer the gospel among all of His children.
Who are we?
The organizers of Mormon Women Stand consist of over a dozen LDS women from around the world, with varying ages, backgrounds, locations and professions who believe that women have a powerful opportunity to be a force for good both in the Church and online. Mormon Women Stand was established to invite all LDS women to stand together in a positive online community. It will be a safe haven and gathering place for women to join in doctrinally sound and uplifting gospel conversations in an atmosphere of loyalty to those who the Lord has authorized to lead His church. Mormon Women Stand will focus on positive relationships and conversations that bring women closer to Jesus Christ.
As this whirlwind of a week has passed since the group went live on Facebook, we have seen so much activity of faithful sisters and brothers joining us in standing for the Church, and our stated goals. In fact last night, we reached 3000 likes on our Facebook page. It has been overwhelmingly positive, and I am so thankful for that positive vibe. Not that we haven’t been without our detractors. We have had many good and honest questions about what we are trying to accomplish, as well as our fair share of mean remarks and comments. With any good endeavor, we should expect some push back. We’re not going to fight or debate or argue with people either, because that is not what Jesus Christ would do. We are here to STAND!
One thing I DO want to address and STRESS about Mormon Women Stand is that we are NOT against things or groups or people, but rather we are FOR the Restored Gospel and supporting each other in our faithful efforts to be Christians and Latter-day Saints. We want our supporters and even those that do not support us to know this; we are FOR standing as a witness of Jesus Christ at all times and in all places.
So, we are inviting women to STAND with us. We are still getting things going, so the content of some of our platforms is not up and running fully, but bear with us as we work out the kinks.
We can be found at:
Mormon Women Stand on Facebook
Mormon Women Stand on Pinterest
Mormon Women Stand on Instagram
Mormon Women Stand: the Website
We look forward to seeing you there!
PS, guys you’re totally welcome to come and STAND too!
New Post: Mormon Women Stand: You might have seen or heard of a new group on social media called … http://t.co/ydAmTTFzWI #LDS #Mormon
My wife and I immediately joined on Facebook.
TheMillennialStar: Mormon Women Stand http://t.co/tjjGv82ph2 #lds #mormon
I’m curious, if the group is “NOT against things or groups or people, but rather … {is} FOR the Restored Gospel and supporting each other in our faithful efforts to be Christians and Latter-day Saints. ” could a member of the church be active in both this group (Mormon Women Stand) and the Ordain Women group? Or at least could a member who is very sympathetic to the desire of some female church memebrs to be ordained to the Priesthood be a part of the Mormon Women Stand group?
Also just a word of advice from history, at the time of the ERA amendment “battles” some of the groups of women who came out in opposition to that amendment ended up looking very odd as their primary message seemed to be: “Yes, I’m happy to be exploited, don’t change anything which might give me any rights or opportunities to stop the exploitation.” I agree that the group as you describe it could be a positive force, but it could easily slip into reactionary silliness if some members get carried away.
Just my opinion.
Please note: The first paragraph is meant as an honest question, i.e., do you see an inherent conflict, or is there room for understanding and fellowship if the Ordain Women folks follow the Church’s most recent request to dial back the rhetoric a bit?
As of 12:30 EDT… Ordain Women 2169 likes, 1 year online…
Mormon Women Stand 3128 likes, 1 week online…
From the Deseret news quoting pew poll, among the highly religious, only 4% agree with the Ordain Women group. From the low-religious group 25% agree. I guess that means the less religious you are in Mormonism, the more likely you are to agree with the ordain women movement.
It’ll be interesting to see how many likes the MWS group gets in a year.
It’ll also be interesting to see if the LDS church follows to the next logical extension, and starts excommunicating the apostates of OW, and FMH.
John, thank you for your question, it totally came across as honest. Sidenote, don’t you wish the internet was better at emotions and intent?
Anyway, to answer your question: for me personally, and this is just me, I don’t see how a person would be comfortable in both groups. What OW is doing is rebellion at this point. They have asked their questions, they have had them answered, and the answer has been NO. But still they persist. One of the leaders, a woman named Deborah Jensen was quoted last fall in the SL Tribune that they would continue to agitate, even if the answer was NO. So far, that’s what they seem to be doing. (The SL Trib article is here, the statement is on page 2 of the article: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56963037-78/women-mormon-church-priesthood.html.csp)
Yesterday, after the letter from the church was released, as well, Kate Kelly did an interview with KSL, the local NBC affiliate in SLC. Sister Kelly was upset that OW had been asked to stay in the free speech zones outside of Temple Square. She said that they were not protesting the Church, but rather they are the Church. I heartily disagree with that statement. They are not the Church, and they do not represent the majority of LDS women. (The KSL story is here: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=29095463&nid=1016&fm=most_popular&s_cid=article-popular-3) So the real test will come on April 5th, will OW honor the request of the Church, or will they be disobedient? I think they will try and gate crash Priesthood Session, even though they have been asked to back down.
Finally, all of the women involved in Mormon Women Stand are unanimous in our commitment to stay positive and to be FOR things and not against. We’re not going to fight, argue, debate, or even try to convince people to follow the prophets and support the church, but we’re inviting people to STAND and do that with us.
Thanks for your courage and initiative. This is a great effort
John S.H.,
you’re really loading the dice there. There is no reason that support for traditional values and the Church has to be labeled as welcoming oppression and reactionary. That’s the propaganda line that needs to be rebutted.
Just as a final note that I didn’t put in my first comment, EVERYONE who is willing to abide by our group/page guidelines is welcome to join Mormon Women Stand … even if you are a supporter of OW.
“@ldsblogs: TheMillennialStar: Mormon Women Stand http://t.co/wX5aJSW0BK #lds #mormon” #YES #finallyaforumtogetbehind
RT @ldsblogs: TheMillennialStar: Mormon Women Stand http://t.co/tjjGv82ph2 #lds #mormon
RT @ldsblogs: TheMillennialStar: Mormon Women Stand http://t.co/tjjGv82ph2 #lds #mormon
Great work!
“Also just a word of advice from history, at the time of the ERA amendment “battles” some of the groups of women who came out in opposition to that amendment ended up looking very odd as their primary message seemed to be: “Yes, I’m happy to be exploited, don’t change anything which might give me any rights or opportunities to stop the exploitation.””
This is a distorted version of history. I am old enough to remember quite well the fight over the ERA. The media tried its best to portray women who opposed the ERA in this light, and indeed there were people, mostly liberal elites from the northeast, who saw Mormons this way. This simply shows their ignorance. Intelligent, well-spoken women from the Church spoke out again and again with passion and knowledge about how the ERA would be a blank slate leading to a myriad of problems, and of course they were correct. Claiming that the women were supporting their own “exploitation” shows an incredible amount of ignorance about the potential negative effects of the ERA and the fact that, gosh darn it, there are women who are capable of thinking for themselves without liberal elites telling them what they should think. John S. Harvey, do you think Mormon women are idiots who are incapable of complicated, original thoughts?
This is awesome! I’m so excited to be able to affiliate with like minded Mormon sisters. Too often, where I live, I have felt attacked as I have expressed opposition to the views of OW. Anyway, Love this new group “Mormon Women Stand” which I feel will give me daily encouragement and support in living the gospel.
I remember the days of the ERA fight.
There were some folks who simply showed up because they’d been told to, without previously having developed the internal philosophical structure to support their opposition to the ERA.
Then there were others, like my mother, who loaded her children in her car, decorated it with posterboards questioning the validity of the ERA, and drove around DC. I remember the one that asked, “What do you do with a pregnant draftee?” My mother lost a good friend over her personal committed opposition to ERA. Sad. They had the coolest fish pond in their back yard, and we’d been friends for years.
I remember I was pledging to become a thespian at High School, and the daughter of my mother’s friend was shocked. I’m pretty sure she thought I was pledging to become a lesbian… in the 1970s, that would have been rather shocking.
I think it would be brilliant for the ladies of Mormon Women Stand to organize some kind of awesome food-related social in the press area, with everyone having their iPad and watching either the live Priesthood session and/or the Women’s session from the previous week. It’s always been a bit of a grand tradition for ladies to do fun stuff that night.
President Uctdorf’s counsel from the April 2009 General Conference –
We are doing a great work, and cannot come down. We cannot afford to be distracted from things that matter most. There will always be alternate voices competing for our attention. To prioritize our focus on the most important things is not neglecting our duty.
My experience is that the men and women in the Lord’s service are already fully subscribed. It is often difficult to find volunteers for new projects simply because everyone with a will to the work is already full engaged in forwarding other causes. This is not a complaint, but the observation is certainly a good explanation for why the Church is reluctant to put more burdens on willing workers.
Meg, I love that your mom drove you guys around … in a station wagon. 🙂 I miss my mom’s station wagon, truly.
I barely remember the ERA fights, was just a very, very small child then. Now that I’m adult and I’m friends with my mom, and not just her goofy kid (well, I still am that, but…) she has opened up about what it was like to be a woman in the church in the late 60s and into the 70s. She has even admitted that she felt the pull to support the ERA, because she didn’t feel that the Church really supported or valued women as much. Now, she knows that it was mostly the politics of the time, and she does acknowledge that the Church has made great strides toward healing hurt feelings and including the sisters in more things. She has always said, she is thankful that my sister and I grew up in the time when we did.
Thank you, for doing such a great write-up for ‘Mormon Women Stand!’ And what a privilege it is, to gather with so many LDS women, online, who share a sincere desire to stand for Christ, and to sustain those whom He has called to lead and guide His Church, as they are inspired to do so.
Joyce: Thank you for your thoughtful response. I agree 100% that: “(So) the real test will come on April 5th, will OW honor the request of the Church, or will they be disobedient?”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, with respect to the Ordain Women participants, the general Church membership at large, and the Leadership of the Church.
h_nu: “It’ll also be interesting to see if the LDS church follows to the next logical extension, and starts excommunicating the apostates of OW, and FMH.”
I’m really glad you are not my stake president. 🙂
RE ERA History: I don’t think any particular view is distorted per se – I just think for those who were there and participating (on either side of the issue) that the actual events and ideas were experienced and perceived very differently. As a result I don’t think there will ever be any consensus about what was fairly or unfairly portrayed and what peoples’ motivations where. What I personally took away from being a participant in that process was that there were reasonable people on both sides of the issue, but they tended to get drowned out by the reactionary fringe members of their own movements. All I meant in bring up the example was that an important aspect of getting across the desired message is to avoid extreme emotions or rhetoric. Given the “heat” this issue has already generated I think it will be easy for some of the members of Mormon Women Stand group to start reacting much like the very people they are a contrast with (the Ordain Women group) if there is not a determined effort to remain in the “For” camp. I think Joyce above demonstrates exactly how one can *stay* in the “For” camp in both word and deed, but some of the other comments show how easy it is to slip into the “Against” camp. Just my observation.
Wonderful!
Congrats on a great start. I hope Mormon Women Stand will have many years of growth and success.
As for the Ordain Women group, I hope they humbly listen to the Church leaders and seek quiet and non-embarrassing/combative methods to be heard. I do not see most of them as anti-Mormon (as h_nu seems to do), but as people who are hurting. They are seeking methods to resolve that hurt. I also think they are misguided by their strong feminism.
My favorite feminist is Camille Paglia. A true feminist (and lesbian and atheist), unlike much of what one finds out there today, she rails against the faux-feminism that seeks to make everything equal, making men and women biologically the same, and turning politics upside down. She even insists that men and women are responsible for how they dress sexually, insisting we must be ever in a defensive/protective posture. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303997604579240022857012920
Anyway, I hope this organization grows by leaps and bounds. I hope peace and comfort and understanding for those lost souls in OW.
Camille Paglia: an honest feminist.
FTR, RAME, I did write “the apostates of…” rather than “everyone at…” There leaves some room of some misguided folks who can be saved rather than insisting everyone there is an apostate…
As of 9pm EDT, Ordain woman has 2243 “likes” whereas “Mormon Women Stand has” 4251 “likes”. As a reminder, OW has existed for a year, MWS a week. Which ground do you think comprises the church?
In a Downton Abbey world, if all the Mormon women stood, all the men would have to stand as well. And we’d never get to sit down.
I don’t think I could stand it! 🙂
As of 3:30 pm… Ordain women has 2279 followers, and Mormon Women Stand has [trumpet fanfare] 4754, at least double, in just a fraction of the time… I’ll stop the updates, now that it is empirically obvious that OW does not represent any significant faction of the church…