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Showing posts from December, 2011

Women and the Priesthood

Some time ago one of my students asked me for my views on why women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not hold the priesthood. The Church  has already addressed that issue at mormon.org  with a quote from the late President Gordon B. Hinckley, but his answer is largely circular, saying, in essence, that "women do not hold the priesthood because God has said that women should not hold the priesthood." While President Hinckley's explanation may be true, it hardly addresses my student's desire for understanding as to  why  God has directed Church leaders not to ordain women to the priesthood. Of course, having acknowledged the potentially frustrating circularity of this response, I should note that, according to the groundbreaking research of Robert Putnam and David Campbell in  American Grace , female members of the Church are  more satisfied with their relationship to the priesthood than women in any other American denomination . Putnam and Campb