Elder Ballard from the European Sister's Meeting tonight: "The blessing I would ask our Heavenly Father to grant unto you individually and collectively would be that you will never ever take lightly what you know to be true, that you will be pioneer, as the first pioneers, women of great strength, power and courage. That you will let your voices be heard, we cannot, we cannot meet our destiny as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in preparing this world for the 2nd coming of the Savior of the world without the support and the faith and the strength of the women of this church. We need you. We need your voices. They need to be heard. They need to be heard in your community, in your neighborhoods, they need to be heard within the ward council or the branch council. Now don't talk too much in those council meetings, just straighten the brethren out quickly and move the work on. We are building the kingdom of God.
The council meetings I went to didn't have that problem. It was the men who were doing all the gossiping. It wouldn't have went well for the women if they'd quickly straightened the brethren out. What a stupid and insulting thing to say.
we have the opportunity to peer into the festering, twisted minds of the brethren who do the thinking for all Mormon members.
This is one of those moments and I appreciate the OP sharing it with us.
In one sentence we now understand the following:
The men need to be straightened out and the priesthood leadership can only do so much. More must be done; they need help.
They already used these Mormon women as Virgin Rewards to force the men to go on missions and complete their missions, suggesting that if they did not, no decent woman would marry them.
Now they know they can count on their women to continue to carrot the men while they apply the stick.
Of course, this only works while the women have power over the men, which is clearly best preserved by the women continuing to remain attractive by shutting the fuck up and not showing up the men in meetings.
It's so good to have something definite from the Brethren rather than the mealy, worn generalities that characterize their usual blitherings.
Honestly, if you did not condition the woman to depend on a "Church Worthy" man and to believe their whole self esteem and eternal salvation/damnation pivoted on marrying a good LDS member, there would be a huge decline in Temple marriages.
I suspect that is beginning, because women are now starting to question more than ever the power LDS leadership has over their lives.
In my 20's I was always baffled why these GORGEOUS, SMART, WELL-EDUCATED women settled for these wimpy, Chihuahua type men! Oh yeah, I did the same thing. Why? Because essentially a child-bearing woman is going to choose a mate that is "the best" in her eyes and for the safety of her own future children.
I saw one such young woman who after her Temple marriage was incredibly depressed. The rules changed for her life as her husband took over her very essence and killed off the lovely person she was to serve HIS purpose alone. My heart ached for her and she ended the marriage just a mere 5 months later.
I was brainwashed into believing I needed that.
I do not want a Chihuahua anymore...I am looking for a GUARD DOG!
Indeed. Thank you, cludgie. I find the f word to be just perfect when used sparingly by someone who has the dignified elderly lady look. The shock value (esp from my children) is priceless.
My fav thing to do lately is to answer the street religionists with my one-liner, "If the Bible is literally true, then God is a monster."
It seems to take the wind out of their we-are-all-sinners-who-need-saving sails.
Having been out of the church for over ten years now I am still shocked when I witness the self righteous , misogynist, paternalistic way the women in the church are treated and they just seem to take it without saying a word or speaking up.
I know, I'm so confused. Straighten the brethren out or don't talk too much? Which is it?
Perhaps he could clarify exactly how many words = "too much." I get to speak 10 words before it's too much? 20 words? What's the limit there?
Actually, I think this is a perfect metaphor for mormon doctrine: Be obedient. "To what?" Whatever we tell you TODAY. We're not going to explain the rules; that way, we can move the goalposts at will and you will NEVER succeed. Ever. See what we did there?
This Ballard fella has left the door open to shut down any woman who tries to straighten the brethren out. All they have to do is claim she's talking "too much" and BOOM. Nobody will hear a word she says from then on.
Translation: Listen to OUR leadership and what WE tell you that you CAN say. BRAG to the world how about ChurchInc.
BUT, never, EVER question our authority or interrupt OUR work. Got that darling? Now run along and make me dinner. I want to eat at 6pm and I am feeling "Pot-roasty", thanks Angel.
I have been to hundreds of ward councils in the last 40 years, in all aspects of leadership. I was always impressed with how the women handled themselves in these meetings, i.e. intelligent, organized, relative, poised, and productive. It was in the PEC that I continually had a knot in my stomack at the gossip, ridicule of ward members, competition, droning, and stupidity. In my opinion, women made the better leaders in that paradigm.
Anybody else remember the Leadership Training Meeting when they first introduced the new Church Handbooks? I remember video after video outlining how a ward council is supposed to work. They made it a point then that women weren't supposed to sit back and let the men speak, that every member of the council is important.
I went to LDS.org to search for those videos and can't find any.
With this talk by Ballard, it looks like LDS inc. has changed their minds on the value of women.
I found a couple links to the videos I remember, though they appear to be nothing more than transcripts (the first link has a video that wouldn't play for me):
Sadly, Elder Ballard was preaching to the choir. Those faithful women are already editing and dumbing down their comments. When I taught RS, there were intelligent women in my class who made brilliant comments. When I taught Gospel Doctrine, the same women were mute, because the priesthood was present.
Mormon women are groomed from childhood to be responsible for the morals of the men in their lives, but to do it in a way that bolsters the ego of said men.
I'm saving this. This is exactly how the Mormons treat women. They say all those flattering and pandering, yet condescending, things in the beginning, then slap women with a gag order!
This works both ways. Had a teacher in a class that asked a question. I raised my hand, she called on me. She went on with the lesson and asked another question. Nobody raised their hand, so I did. Then she told me I had a turn, she wanted to hear from someone else. I got up and left the class!
Would so enjoy hearing commentary on this, and as a poster brought up, I wonder just how many words is permissable a woman can utter in ward council.
I wonder how many of the 15 LD$ Goofballs would vote on the mormon women adopting Burka's and being confined to the home now that a lot of said women are getting too uppity to wear britches and speak too many words in ward council meetings???
Wouldn't it be nice to hear said Goofballs talk about how we can better help our fellow humans on this earth? Why, they could even do a survey to get opinions, or heaven forbid, go out and talk with members door to door.
What a waste of their positions.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2014 10:47PM by presleynfactsrock.
Maybe the rule is 140 character tweet? Anymore is too much. I noticed the church treats women like second-class citizens but still wants 10% of their income if they work.
I used to be in a bishopric as a clerk and was encouraged to attend ward cuncil or whatever 2 hours of wasted time was scheduled before the regular meetings.
Anyways, I hear and saw the bishop talk bad about one or two members of the ward. He nick named one of the sisters. While laughing he would tell us how she would fight her husband.
Really there was no secrecy in that bishopric. I heard a lot of their personal matters and problems in those meeting. They would also mock some sisters for all sort of reasons specially the smartest ones.