by Cynthia Winward
We posted this snarky bingo card on social media but I had a few more things to say about women and priesthood.
Way back on Episode 97, Christ Chose Women, we talked about David Bednar’s 2022 comments at the National Press Club Luncheon. (Watch his body language as he answers the questions….nervous much?) When asked about whether we would ever have a woman prophet he said:
“We follow the pattern of the ancient church. … The pattern anciently was that the apostles were men.”
We had plenty to say about his response on the episode, but let’s just accept for now that it is true, that at the highest levels of governance Jesus wants only men to be apostles in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Fine. But why can’t we be bishops? If the reporter had asked him that question instead, what scripture—or “pattern”—from Jesus’s life and ministry would Bednar quote to support the Church’s ban on women clergy at the local level? What do you think? Because I can find nothing. Nada.
Cynthia Winward
When it comes down to it was Paul who devised the church, not Jesus. Paul set the specific qualifications for bishops in the New Testament including that he be the husband of one wife.
Paul also wrote about the apostle Junia, who he gave high praise. A consensus of biblical scholars are in agreement that Junia was a woman.
All of Jesus' apostles were also Jews, even though there were plenty of gentiles around (lots of them were baptized too). The LDS Church has never had a Jewish apostle. So how is it following the "ancient pattern"? You can find a Bible verse to justify anything. Like slavery, for instance.