A Proper Wife

I think one of the major changes in my faith over the last few years has been centered basically in the question of how correct the prophets are. Are prophets correct when my heart, testimony, and conception of God are in conflict with them? Are prophets correct when history shows their actions to be based in prejudice, bias, and other incorrect motivations? My husband’s favorite joke about Mormonism is that the Catholics teach that their Pope is infallible, but none of them believe it and Mormons teach that their prophets are fallible, but none of us believe it. A member of our Presidency recently said in General Conference that LDS leaders have made mistakes and in the same session, another person quoted the, “the leaders of the church will never lead you astray” quote. So there is undeniable ambiguity. The recent essays that have come out of Joseph Smith’s polygamous wives, and race and the Priesthood test this tension. Were prophets right when they took priesthood away fro...

We are soon moving away from Zion, so we thought it might be our last chance to check out Restoration Movement offshoots such as Community of Christ. I’m always a fan of interfaith experiences and this was one I didn't think I’d be able to get outside of Utah. Obviously, it's also a group that is fascinating to me because of my beliefs on feminist and gender issues in the church. So I thought I’d share my impressions about my experience of worshipping with the Community of Christ. We attended Sunday school first, which was a loosely-led group discussion on the idea of “Shalom,” which is the concept of true peace, the peace that only Christ gives. Shalom comes from living according to a person’s highest standard of integrity to oneself and the truth that they have. It also comes from being at peace with God, community and having positive relationships. It’s intricately bound up with the idea of building Zion. Comments focused on the evils of war and poverty and how we can’t...

This is a bit late. I've been busy. This most recent session of General Conference was so inspiring and beautiful to me. Was it perfect? No. Where there awkward moments when the feminist within me squirmed and protested? Absolutely. But the Spirit was also undeniably strong and the Sunday morning session in particular was pleasantly Christ-focused. Oh, President Uchtdorf. What would we do without you? Thank you so much for reminding us all of what it means to be a Christian. Regarding hypocrisy, a thought occurred to me: Usually when we talk about Pharisee-ism and hypocrisy, we envision the most pious, the most observant, those who follow the strictest interpretation of every letter of the law scorning those who don’t sin the way they do. And that is definitely an issue in the church. But I think among the more Spirit-of-the-law centered folks, we can have our own brand of hypocrisy. Now this thought was centered on myself, so I’m not seeking to condemn anyone, but my th...