Episode 246: What Women Don't Get | Part Two
In a podcast season devoted to talking about change, it makes sense to revisit some previously covered topics to see whether there’s been any. In Episode 246, Cynthia and Susan take another look at a foundational ALSSI discussion: What Women Don’t Get In Our Church. What’s the official messaging for Latter-day Saint women now, and does it reflect movement? Are we going forward? Backward? Nowhere? And do current narratives around women and our relationship to priesthood reflect actual progress...or not?
Notes & Quotes:
ALSSI Eps. 91 and 168, What Women Don’t Get In Our Church
An Inconvenient Faith: Episode 6, Women and Authority
ALSSI Ep. 208, Patriarchy 101 | A Conversation with Amy McPhie Allebest
Joseph Smith Memorial Building now has a mini-temple of sorts so top LDS leaders can meet while iconic temple is closed, by Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 01/14/2021
General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 18. Performing Priesthood Ordinances and Blessings
Discipleship for a Priestly People in a Priestless Period, Full text of Sister Joan Chittister’s Address at the Women’s Ordination Worldwide conference in Dublin, 06/30/2001
LDS women no longer meet separately with a designated apostle ‘liaison’, by Peggy Fletcher Stack, The Salt Lake Tribune, 4/30/2024
Women and the Priesthood, by Sheri Dew
The Melchizedek Priesthood: Understanding the Doctrine, Living the Principles, by Dale G. Renlund and Ruth Lybbert Renlund
The Priesthood Power of Women: In the Temple, Church, and Family, by Barbara Morgan Gardner
New Series Focuses on Women and Leaders Sharing What Priesthood Power Means to Them, by Aubrey Eyre, Church News, 05/27/2020
Camille N. Johnson’s Facebook post, 11/13/2022
YSA Face to Face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard, 11/19/2017 (min. 19)
‘Jesus Christ is the way,’ President Oaks says in first interview as Church president, by Ryan Jensen, Church News, 10/16/2025
At Last She Said It: Honest Conversations About Faith, Church, and Everything In Between, by Susan Hinckley and Cynthia Winward
Benedictines Chittister and Forcades delve into women’s role in church, by Jesse Remedios, Global Sisters Report, 10/15/2019
“What do we do when a church proclaims the equality of women but builds itself on structures that assure their inequality.”—Sis. Joan Chittister
“Many spiritual and devoted individuals complied with laws that govern reception of God’s blessings, w/o having received any priesthood ordination. Christian reformers such as William Tyndale, Martin Luther, and John Calvin received God’s power as they translated the bible and participated in other inspired activities.
"Even after the Great Apostasy, God was not “snoozing” until the priesthood was conferred on Joseph Smith….Before and after the Reformation, God blessed men and women, Protestants, Catholics, and non-Christians by His priesthood power and authority as they prayed and lived according to the light and knowledge they received.
"Joseph Smith originally accessed God’s priesthood power and authority without priesthood keys and without conferred priesthood authority. God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith after his sincere prayer before priesthood keys had been restored to the earth. The Book of Mormon was translated in part by the gift and power of God before Joseph Smith received any priesthood ordination. What power, then, did Joseph Smith have access to? The only answer is God’s priesthood power and authority.” —Dale G. Renlund
“We have not always been wise in using the great qualifications and powers of the daughters of God.” —Pres. Dallin H. Oaks
“What’s difficult about their reactions is that we never would have heard these women utter these statements—that it felt like something was missing—prior to this change. How long had they thought something was missing? Years? Decades? Statements like Burton’s and Cordon’s only come after men decide to make a change.” —Cynthia Winward, (p. 36)
“The church outlines the destiny of the children of God, and that destiny culminates in an eternal family: a father in heaven, and also a mother in heaven, (though we haven’t been given very much information about her for reasons that God understands and we don’t understand), but the point is, the whole purpose of mortal life is to prepare us for a heavenly destiny in a family organization…” —Pres. Dallin H. Oaks
"If women can’t claim as much as a pronoun in this church, you’ll never claim the diaconate.” —Sis. Joan Chittister
“Men who do not take the woman’s issue seriously may be priests but they cannot possibly be disciples.” —Sis. Joan Chittister
“We have work left to do.” —Pres. Dallin H. Oaks
“And if this is only about keys, let’s open every calling that doesn’t require any to women as well as men. We could do that starting next Sunday!” —Susan Hinckley, (p. 24)