Episode 9: Women and the Church

good topic to discuss however Elizabeth’s “uhmmm’s and ahhh’s” made this one very hard to listen to….

Sorry I ruined the broadcast. I’m really embarassed by tge amount of stammering I did. I normally am not like that. I guess nerves got the best of me.

Maybe John will give me a chance to redeem myself, but I can’t really blame him if he doesn’t.

Thanks for the opportunity.

Don’t worry, I didn’t find it distracting at all Elizabeth. I really enjoyed the unique perspective you brought to this podcast.

By the way, my wife would not even listen to the one we were in because she didn’t want to hear herself talk.

Liz, I found you confident and well-spoken during the taping of the podcast. Your confidence helped put me at ease.

Thank you, John and Zilpha, for all the hard work you put into the podcasts.

Love the site, the topics, and the open dialogue! So I hate to be negative on this one….but that podcast was a little painful. It wasn’t entirely Elizabeth’s fault either. It really wasn’t a balanced discussion which I think (perhaps I’m wrong) is the intent of the site. It would have been nice to hear the panelists really describe what’s at the root of their frustrations with the Church as women – Why is it so painful to not be able to have the Priesthood? What would “real” female leadership mean to the Church? What could/would women do differently if they held Priesthood offices? What is so terrible about not having Priesthood “privileges” as discussed in the podcast? What are those privileges? Would women with the Priesthood actually add to the notion (discussed in the podcast) that women in the Church “have to be perfect” or they are failures?
I think it’s a very interesting topic but might need to be revisited.

I grew up in a bi-religion family where my mother was active in the Mormon church and my dad was inactive in the Methodist church. I attended the Mormon church growing up in Texas and my experience in the church was a little different then what has been described during the podcast. The discussion about women in the church was interesting in many ways to me. My mother, being raised in the church in Utah, does not remind of the typical Mormon woman described during the podcast. Since she was the only active churchgoer in our house she taught me about God. On top of this she went to college and became a teacher which she still does today. Because of her she had a provound impact on what a womans role is in a family and it doesn’t conform to the trational Christian role for women (and yes many, many other Christian denominations are just as behind on women rights as the Mormon church). My mother’s example led to me seeking a strong willed, professional wife who is truly my partner, not my servant. Now that I have two daughters of my own I plan to teach them the things I learned from my mother as well as my wife because if God feels the way about all of his daughters the way I feel about my daughters He would want everything I want for my girls. I think the only way things will change for women in society today is for little boys and girls to view each other as equals. That must be taught first in the home by both the father and the mother. If you don’t start in the home your kids will learn it from society and the cycle will continue. I know I will teach my kids.

I have to agree that the “umms” were distracting, but I think Elizabeth also brought up many good points. I really liked how she described how she protected her daughters from over zealous Bishops by speaking with them beforehand.

It would have been nice to have one more person on the panel that leaned a little more to the Church friendly side like Elizabeth. While I believe there is sexism in the Church I think that is just part of the society we live in. You don’t have to be part of any religion to see that women are treated as less than men. The cupcake lesson does more to describe sexism in our society as a whole than to reflect sexism in the Church specifically, even if the LDS culture doesn’t help it along. Go to any high school and you will find the same attitudes. Boys that sleep around are looked on as “studs”, but the girls they sleep with are degraded and called sluts, HuH?? How can that be? Our society teaches girls they are damaged goods if they are not morally pure, it’s not just a Mormon thing. Leaving the Church isn’t going to shield girls from sexism. Look around the world and sadly you’ll find other religions and cultures that are much more oppressive to their women than the Mormon Church.

I didn’t find the “umms” distracting, but I’ll admit I did find the conversation to be much more dominated by one person than usual.

I like the ones where people have given thought to the questions and can succinctly make a good point without getting side tracked in minutes and minutes of personal history. John, maybe a bit more moderating was in order this time?

That said, it was highly enjoyable as always. Keep them up!

I am chiming in here to John’s defense. This podcast was a little disorganized and rushed because we were getting ready to take our kids to Disney World. He actually posted this one while in Orlando. So, although it could have been better, it is what it is. And I’m sure this topic will be revisited in the future to do it more justice.

I’m sorry, but this podcast was very difficult for me to listen to. I have listened to all of the other podcasts, but I found Liz’s comments and domination to be very much a distraction. I was very tempted to fast forward to the next podcast, but somehow endured. I’m sure Liz did not intend to dominate the discussion, but it was very distracting in my point of view. I have enjoyed all of the other podcasts and ecourage you to continue the good work.