Did your grandmother make a quilt that featured a temple? Or did you ever make temple cross-stitch? For the upcoming temple issue of Exponent II, we are searching for the temple folk art of LDS women.  We want everything lovely, kitschy, horrible, and wonderful.  If you have ever made temple textiles or temple art, or you are in possession of a temple family heirloom, please email our Art Editor, Margaret Olsen Hemming at arteditorATexponentiiDOTorg.

Time is running out; please email us today!

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Last Sunday in Relief Society, I was privileged to witness a wonderfully brave and honest testimony. After a lesson on women and priesthood reaffirming the currently popular understanding — that women don’t hold the priesthood, but that they share in all of its blessings — this woman arose to bravely and honestly grapple with the issue of women and priesthood. She spoke of a moment that pierced her heart, a moment when her five year old granddaughter realized she would not be able to pass the sacrament like her little brother, and how that little girl turned to her grandmother and said, “But aren’t I special too?” She spoke of how women in the LDS church need to be women of supreme faith since there is no reason they should not hold priesthood. She spoke of a time when she was walking alone in the dark and knew a man was following her. Frightened, she turned, raised her hand, and said to him, “By the power of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood which I hold with my husband, I order you to leave me alone.” Which he did.

This woman in brave and raw honesty honored questions of women and priesthood, questions that are too often swept aside and dismissed. I left that Relief Society with my heart wanting to burst from my chest — it meant that much to me to see these questions honored and to witness this woman’s courage.  

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Dear Foremother:

As I hold this card and read your name, I think about your country, your century, your life you left long ago. Your existence in a world without antibiotics, with no choice but unmedicated child birth. Because I have this card, I know you have been baptized by proxy, released from a prison that held your spirit and welcomed into the fold of the faithful. You’ve been confirmed a member of the church, my church, a church you didn’t even know existed when you walked this earth, should you choose to accept this ordinance done for you in your name. You’ve been washed and anointed, a proxy body gently blessed with words that are specific, delicate, and surging with power.

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Differentiating between Priesthood and Priesthood Holders

While we sometimes refer to priesthood holders as ‘the priesthood,’ we must never forget that the priesthood is not owned by or embodied in those who hold it. It is held in a sacred trust to be used for the benefit of men, women, and children alike. 2 -Dallin H. Oaks

How is the priesthood different from priesthood holders? Why would it be important to differentiate between the priesthood and priesthood holders?

Many Latter-day Saints have never been married. Others are single because of the death of a spouse, abandonment, or divorce…They can enjoy the blessings, strength, and influence of the priesthood in their lives and homes through the ordinances they have received and the covenants they keep. (From the DIMK narrative)

Just as I was preparing to serve a full-time mission, my father left our family and the Church. Under these circumstances, it was difficult for me to leave home for two years, but I went. And while I served the Lord in a faraway land, I learned of my mother’s strength at home. She needed and appreciated the special attention she received from men who held the priesthood—her father and brothers, her home teachers, other men in the ward. However, her greatest strength came from the Lord Himself. She did not have to wait for a visit in order to have the blessings of the priesthood in her home, and when visitors left, those blessings did not leave with them. Because she was faithful to the covenants she had made in the waters of baptism and in the temple, she always had the blessings of the priesthood in her life. The Lord gave her inspiration and strength beyond her own capacity, and she raised children who now keep the same covenants that have sustained her. 28 -Author’s Name Withheld

How can we have the priesthood in our lives if we do not have a priesthood holder in our lives?

The priesthood is “without father, without mother, … having neither beginning of days, nor end of life” (Heb. 7:30), nor maleness nor femaleness. It is head to them both. Male and female alike come under it and must understand their true relationship to it, one to serve as priest within it, the other eventually as a priestess. Men here are given the priesthood power, but both man and woman must bring themselves into submission unto it, rather than she unto him as a person. The man must assume the same relationship of honor and obedience to priesthood truths and doctrines that the woman does. That is, it precedes them both. For the man to assume that because he “holds” the priesthood that it is his or that he is somehow exalted in importance is a serious distortion. – Gib Kocherhans Reference A

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We have had some interesting discussions about temple recommend questions here at the Exponent. How much disclosure does it take to be considered honest in your dealings? Is it appropriate for men to ask women about their undergarments? Should women and youths discuss their personal chastity alone with a man? Should someone who admits to lacking a testimony of any of the items in questions 1-3 be kept out of the temple even if they meet all of the behavioral requirements? Does that affiliate question make any sense at all?

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