In my intro bio to T&S I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In truth a substantial part of my heart is in Relief Society\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnot for what it is now but for what I feel it can and must yet become.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I have been asked both on and off line to elaborate. It has taken me awhile to distill ideas that I have written and especially spoken about at some length to something that might be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153blog length\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (and that I actually have time to do right now.) I am especially interested in three happenings of the somewhat recent past that seem like harbingers of better days to come.<\/p>\n
So here are the nubs of three big ideas about Relief Society.<\/p>\n
1\u00e2\u20ac\u201dThe Relief Society is not really an auxiliary, although at the present time it seems to be nothing more than an auxiliary among auxiliaries. However, in the most recent General Women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Meeting in September, Pres. Hinckley said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153(Relief Society) is a God-given creation. Joseph Smith spoke and acted as a prophet when he organized the Relief Society in 1842. At that time he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcThe organization of the Church of Christ was never perfect until the women were organized.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (See Nov. 2006 Ensign, p. 115.) I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think such a thing could be said about the Sunday School, scouts, or even my beloved Primary. While this quote is a well-known piece of Relief Society history (for those who know anything at all about Relief Society history) to the best of my knowledge this is the first time a Church President has used this quote in about a century. <\/p>\n
2\u00e2\u20ac\u201dThe Relief Society members in Nauvoo apparently considered themselves a quorum. (There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a word to make some shudder!) However, Pres. Packer in the Dec. 2006 Visiting Teaching message, (December 2006 Ensign p. 58) appears to be equating the Relief Society and priesthood quorums in function. It appears to me that ordained priesthood, which some men have been given can function independently of quorums. (Most of the prophets in the scriptures do not seem to be part of anything like a quorum.) Unordained female power, which it appears virtually all women come to earth with, has almost always been without the support of something like a quorum, only family and friends. And I will also allow that most women have no idea that they have power, let alone the nature of the power\u00e2\u20ac\u201dsort of like Dorothy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s red shoes in the Wizard of Oz. <\/p>\n
Quorums, whether priesthood or Relief Society, are ways to organize power. They bring us together for more effective action and service. Imagine trying to get something as supposedly simple as Home or Visiting teaching done without quorum structure\u00e2\u20ac\u201dits hard enough trying to get it done with quorum structure. Also, Charity Never Faileth could as easily be the motto of priesthood quorums as Relief Society. (D&C 121:41-46)<\/p>\n
My husband is a temple ordinance worker. Recently he told me about a conversation he and some other (guy) temple workers had as they speculated on how women could have authority to officiate in the temple as ordinance workers. They decided the women were functioning under their husband\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s priesthood. I was appalled at this conclusion, and especially that my guy, who has had a resident feminist in his life for most of his life, still bought this idea. I asked him about several single sister ordinance workers we both know, and a couple of them are even supervisors. How did they get to do the things they do? All temple workers are set apart, but only the guys need a specific earthly ordination to function in priestly ways. As I have listened carefully, especially in the temple, I have come to appreciate the concept of ordained and unordained priesthood (or power.) <\/p>\n
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think priesthood quorums or the Relief Society do much with the idea of power (with a capital P) at the present, but they are organized in such a way that they could almost seamlessly do so. <\/p>\n
3\u00e2\u20ac\u201dThe start of the most quoted and misquoted quote in all of Relief Society history, appears in the original Relief Society minute-book (which I have seen with my own two eyes) as, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I now turn a key TO you. . . .\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (emphasis added) not \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in your behalf\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as it has almost always been quoted in the 20th century. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in behalf of\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are polar opposites, like the old story of giving a man a fish or teaching him how to fish. <\/p>\n
A short history lesson. Starting in the 19th century and continuing to 1940 both versions of the key quote resided more or less side by side. From January 1940 to March 1992 without any exceptions of which I am aware in any official Church source, this quote was simply wrong. One very significant gift of the Relief Society sesquicentennial was that in the First Presidency Message in the Ensign in March 1992, written by President Hinckley, the quote appears correctly for the first time in over fifty years. We are now in a time similar to the years before 1940 when both versions reside side by side (and most people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even seem to think there is a difference.) But many who do know are using this quote correctly. Now that you know, I would encourage all of you to use this quote correctly and explain the difference if need be. <\/p>\n
If I had the time to go on for pages, I would remind you in some detail about women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history and her position throughout time. (Basically little better legally than the family livestock.) I would tell you about Abigail Adams, a brilliant, articulate woman with the best network possible, who was unable to move women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights forward as the American nation was being formed. I would then talk about the Abolition Movement and how the international conference in London became a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153consciousness raising experience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for the American women attending. They realized that their own privileged lives were only made possible by the generosity and goodwill of their husbands and that legally they had no more standing than the Negro slaves. How eight years later some of these women met in Seneca Falls, New York and basically wrote a parody of the Declaration of Independence, which is now credited as the effective start of the women’s rights movement. They succeeded where Abigail Adams had not. <\/p>\n
I have been \u00e2\u20ac\u02dctromping around the landscape\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for about 20 years now saying that the thing that made the difference for women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights between Abigail Adams and Seneca Falls was that a prophet of God had turned a key to women making it possible to do things which had been impossible before. <\/p>\n
I really like this quote from President George Albert Smith given in the Relief Society Conference October 4, 1945. (Note how he sidesteps the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in behalf of\u00e2\u20ac\u009d issue.) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When the Prophet Joseph Smith turned the key for the emancipation of womankind, it was turned for all the world, and from generation to generation the number of women who can enjoy the blessings of religious liberty and civil liberty has been increasing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Relief Society Magazine Dec. 1945, p.717). We have all been and continue to be witnesses to this process. <\/p>\n
As recorded in the original Relief Society minutes from Nauvoo, on the very day the Relief Society was orgainized, Emma Smith said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are going to do something EXTRAORDINARY\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (emphasis in the original). I believe this to be so. Many wonderful things have happened worldwide because of the Relief Society, but I think they are only a shadow of things to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my intro bio to T&S I said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In truth a substantial part of my heart is in Relief Society\u00e2\u20ac\u201dnot for what it is now but for what I feel it can and must yet become.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corn"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}