Woman

A woman, as the judgments of God are loosed upon men, stands in the breach between the innocent and hell, defying the devil, with her life, from spreading his filth upon them. A woman who is not their mother, but in who's breast is aroused the purest instinct and noblest role; that of mother to those, with her life, she claims as her own. Those innocent ones who were left to another. (December 15, 2012 after Sandy Hook Elementary Massacre.)

"When the Lord commences to work upon the earth he always does it by revealing his will to some man on the earth, and he to others. The church is built up by revelation, given from day to day according to the requirements of the people. The Lord will not cease to give revelations to the people, unless, the people trample on his laws and forsake and reject him....

"This church has been led by revelation, and unless we forsake the Lord entirely, so that the priesthood is taken from us, it will be led by revelation all the time. The question arises with some who has the right to revelation? I will not ascend any higher than a priest, and ask the priest what is your right? You have the right to receive the administration of angels. If an angel was to come to you and tell you what the Lord was going to do in this day, you would say you had a revelation. The president of the priests has a right to the Urim and Thummim, which gives revelation. He has the right of receiving visits from angels. Every priest then in the church has the right of receiving revelations. Every member has the right of receiving revelations for themselves, both male and female. It is the very life of the church of the living God, in all ages of the world." (Joseph Smith, HC 7:23)

Regarding women healing the sick

"...some little thing was circulating in the Society, that some persons...were not going right in laying hands on the sick etc., Said if he had common sympathies, would rejoice that the sick could be healed...President Smith continued the subject by adverting to the commission given to the ancient apostles “Go ye into all the world” etc.— no matter who believeth; these signs, such as healing the sick, casting out devils etc. should  follow all that believe whether male or female. He asked  the Society if they could not see by this sweeping stroke, that wherein they are ordained, it is the privilege of those set apart to administer in that authority which is confered on them— and if  the sisters should have faith to heal the sick, let all hold their tongues, and let every thing roll on.... he  further remarked, there could be no devils in it if God gave  his sanction by healing— that there could be no more sin in any female laying hands on the sick than in wetting the face with water— that it is no sin for any body to do it that has faith, or if the sick has faith to be healed by the administration." (Joseph Smith, Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, also TPJS Section 4, HC v. 4, ch. 35)

Prophetess

"And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." (Exodus 15:20)

"And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time." (Judges 4:4)

"My God, think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works, and on the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, that would have put me in fear." (Nehemiah 6:14")

"And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz." (Isaiah 8:3)

"And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem." (Luke 2:36-38)

"And Hilkiah, and they that the king had appointed, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe; (now she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college:) and they spake to her to that effect.

"And she answered them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Tell ye the man that sent you to me,  Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah: Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be poured out upon this place, and shall not be quenched.  And as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, so shall ye say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me; I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.  Behold, I will gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered to thy grave in peace, neither shall thine eyes see all the evil that I will bring upon this place, and upon the inhabitants of the same." (2 Chronicles 34:22, 2 Kings 22:14-20)

Amanda Smith heals her son's hip

"The entire hip joint of my wounded boy had been shot away. Flesh, hip bone, joint and all had been ploughed out from the muzzle of the gun, which the ruffian placed to the child's hip through the logs of the shop and deliberately fired. We laid little Alma on a bed in our tent and I examined the wound. It was a ghastly sight. I knew not what to do. It was night now. There were none left from that terrible scene, throughout that long, dark night, but about half a dozen bereaved and lamenting women, and the children. Eighteen or nineteen, all grown men excepting my murdered boy and another about the same age, were dead or dying; several more of the men were wounded, hiding away, whose groans through the night too well disclosed their hiding places, while the rest of the men had fled, at the moment of the massacre, to save their lives. The women were sobbing, in the greatest anguish of spirit; the children were crying loudly with fear and grief at the loss of fathers and brothers; the dogs howled over their dead masters and the cattle were terrified with the scent of the blood of the murdered. Yet was I there, all that long, dreadful night, with my dead and my wounded, and none but God as our physician and help. ‘Oh my Heavenly Father,’ I cried, ‘what shall I do? Thou seest my poor wounded boy and knowest my inexperience. Oh, Heavenly Father, direct me what to do!’

"And then I was directed as by a voice speaking to me. The ashes of our fire was still smouldering. We had been burning the bark of the shag-bark hickory. I was directed to take those ashes and make a lye and put a cloth saturated with it right into the wound. It hurt, but little Alma was too near dead to heed it much. Again and again I saturated the cloth and put it into the hole from which the hip joint had been ploughed, and each time mashed flesh and splinters of bone came away with the cloth; and the wound became as white as chicken's flesh.

"Having done as directed I again prayed to the Lord and was again instructed as distinctly as though a physician had been standing by speaking to me. Near by was a slippery-elm tree. From this I was told to make a slippery-elm poultice and fill the wound with it. My eldest boy was sent to get the slippery-elm from the roots, the poultice was made, and the wound, which took fully a quarter of a yard of linen to cover, so large was it, was properly dressed. It was then I found vent to my feelings in tears, and resigned myself to the anguish of the hour. And all that night we, a few poor, stricken women, were thus left there with our dead and wounded....

"The crawling of my boys under the bellows in the blacksmith's shop where the tragedy occurred, is an incident familiar to all our people. Alma's hip was shot away while thus hiding, Sardius was discovered after the massacre by the monsters who came in to dispoil the bodies. The eldest, Willard, was not discovered....

"But to return to Alma, and how the Lord helped me to save his life. I removed the wounded boy to a house, some distance off, the next day, and dressed his hip; the Lord directing me as before. I was reminded that in my husband's trunk there was a bottle of balsam. This I poured into the wound, greatly soothing Alma's pain. ‘Alma, my child,’ I said, ‘you believe that the Lord made your hip?’ ‘Yes, mother.’ ‘Well, the Lord can make something there in the place of your hip, don't you believe he can, Alma?’ ‘Do you think that the Lord can, mother?’ inquired the child, in his simplicity. ‘Yes, my son,’ I replied, ‘he has showed it all to me in a vision.’

"Then I laid him comfortably on his face and said: ‘Now you lay like that, and don't move, and the Lord will make you another hip.’ So Alma laid on his face for five weeks, until he was entirely recovered—a flexible gristle having grown in place of the missing joint and socket, which remains to this day a marvel to physicians. On the day that he walked again I was out of the house fetching a bucket of water, when I heard screams from the children. Running back, in affright, I entered, and there was Alma on the floor, dancing around, and the children screaming in astonishment and joy. It is now nearly forty years ago, but Alma has never been the least crippled during his life, and he has traveled quite a long period of the time as a missionary of the gospel and a living miracle of the power of God. (Amanda Smith, LDS Biographical Encyclopedia, Andrew Jenson, Vol. 2, p.792-796)

"And the next day we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Cæsarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven; and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.

"And as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judæa a certain prophet, named Agabus. And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

"And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done." (Paul, Acts 21:8-14)

Agabus' prophecy was fulfilled.

Joseph stated that in the last days only latter-day saint women would be willing to bear children. Truman Madsen said "bear" may mean both the delivery and care of children, or "bearing with" them which I believe.

I wonder though, if this prophecy was not necessarily intended to characterize the women who hold membership in the church, but as a way to identify those women who could truly be called "latter-day saint" whether in or out of the church.

"Feminists call these societies patriarchies and believe that males and females are treated and valued unequally under such systems, which is correct. However, they believe that females are being oppressed and valued less in these societies, while the opposite is actually true. Females are not oppressed by males in patriarchal societies; they are being protected by them, and they are not valued less than males, they are valued more. If not, it would not make any sense to protect them. If males were seen as more important than females, females would sacrifice themselves for males, not the other way around.

"From nature’s perspective, males and females are equals. But from society’s perspective, females are more valuable than males, and the majority of males have always been of less worth in successful societies, sometimes even completely disposable. This does not necessarily mean that females have been treated better, however, and it does not mean that the tiny minority at the top of the social pyramid have been females, or that the few male leaders at the top also were disposable. But at the end of the day, when human survival was at stake, females have been rescued first from sinking ships, while males were expected to accept sure death; females never had the obligation of going to war to defend their societies, while males always have; and neither is a female expected to rescue a male in distress, while a male is always expected to risk his life to protect a female. This is why both nations and boats are referred to as females by the way, as males have always felt more at ease with the thought of dying for a female rather than an abstract idea, like a nation, or for a replaceable object, like a boat.

"The societies that have prospered until today were inevitably the ones that aligned their social structures with this unequal valuation of males and females, because it is more important that females survive than males do for the sake of a society that wants to survive and expand. One male and a hundred females can in theory re-populate a region a hundred times as fast as a hundred males and one female ever could, and in practice much faster than that since one female cannot bear a hundred children in her lifetime. As far as society is concerned, males are the disposable sex, almost worthless, while females are far more valuable. This is the basis for every social difference between males and females you can think of, not only for high-level formalities like females not being obligated to defend their nation in wartime, but including low-level informalities like boys being expected to pay for a girl’s ice cream on their date. These differences only make sense if females are to be treated as more vulnerable but also as more valuable than males." (W. Anton)

"Some of you read my blog and saw a post I put up about a talk given by Elder Oaks in the last General Conference. It's important to talk about because of the dynamic on public display. 

"When Joseph Smith established the Relief Society, he established an independently functioning women's organization the women controlled and ran. They were an auxiliary to the church to be sure, but it was a women's organization. Today, we like to say that it's the longest lived, oldest women's organization on the earth. That was true at one point, but it is no longer true. Through the process of correlation, the Relief Society, which once had its own budget, its own checkbook, its own control, its own magazine, its own lessons, and it was a women's run organization, no longer exists. Through correlation, the women's organization was brought under the authority of the general and local priesthood which now runs everything. As a result, the women lost their budget, their magazine, and control over the curriculum. In short, the women lost the Relief Society. It became an appendage to the correlated priestly control. As a result of it becoming an appendage to the correlated priesthood control, it was just a matter of time before some woman, as a Relief Society President, knowing what needs to be done, will want to do what it is necessary. Then some priesthood local authority, Bishop or Stake President, is going to say “no.” He will say “no” for not a very good reason. Before long, there will be an accumulation of incident after incident, problem after problem, disappointment and frustration after disappointment and frustration, to the point where, in the natural chain of events, there will be women who say, “We've got a problem.” The solution to the problem in the correlated church consists in obtaining possession of the right to be the one who asserts control. The women will want to be the one with the thumb and not the one under the thumb. 

"Since they are not allowed to govern themselves, the solution to the women?s problem is to get control over the government. Relief Society is now a man's organization, populated by women. So what do the women say? They want control back. The way to get control back, since it's a correlated organization, and that means priesthood, is to get for themselves the priesthood. This is the only way women can get control back in the correlated church. The oblivious correlators do not recognize the problem is correlation itself. Elder Oaks? talk is the proposed solution. The solution to the problem, proposed in our last general conference doubles down on correlation. It is now the position of the church that key holders can take out a key, touch the disgruntled little lady and say, "There you go little lady, now you have the authority from the key holder!” Voilà, Elder Oaks? talk has brilliantly solved the problem! It preserves the correlated church while removing any need to ordain women.

"The brilliance of this position, it is supposed, is that the women agitating for ordination are now empowered by the authority of the priesthood and can do all kinds of priestly things. That is what Elder Oak's talk was about: giving the women of the LDS Church the authority of the Priesthood, with which they can go out and perform a function as if they were a priesthood holder. But it misses the point. It went right over their heads. I would say it gave Elder Oaks a haircut, but he's like my friend Jon here, follically challenged. So there?s no hair to cut.

"But the problem went right over the heads of those who do not recognize the real underlying issue. The problem is correlation itself. The LDS Church can now allow women to exercise the authority of priesthood, but that's not what they want. They would like to get back their organization. And I don't blame them. Looking at the problem from the women?s perspective, the only cure is to have women bishops, women stake presidents and omen apostles. Elder Oaks? talk would allow that, so long as there remained a “key holder” above them to delegate to them. But since President Thomas Monson is regarded as the fully equipped key holder, I suppose he wears a belt full of them and can use them to touch the little ladies of the LDS Church and give them authority indeed." (Denver Snuffer, 40 Years in Mormonism, Zion)

Daymon Smith: Ordain me…I want your magic, invisible power

I don't understand why women would want the church to ordain them to the priesthood and have the same positions in the church as men. Why would men? I know many men aspire for callings and see them as validation from God when they receive them, or rejection when they don't. Despite the rhetoric that we should be as happy being a janitor as a president, human nature wants position and titles and the honors of men.

Do men and women think they're entitled to further light and knowledge as they ascend higher in the church?

To know God, to receive blessings directly under his hand, to have Him unfold the mysteries of the Gospel to us, this is what we should strive for. Leave the rest to administrators.

If what they're seeking is leadership authority over others, I really don't think its worth it, who wants that but self-important fools? If what your seeking is spiritual priesthood power I think they're seeking it from the wrong place. I still haven't heard a clear distinction between the power of priesthood and the power of faith to which all women are entitled, and without which priesthood is powerless.

Genesis (JST) equates Melchizedek Priesthood with the sealing power, and this is not obtained by passing from one person to another, but by the voice and calling of God.

Would you rather have the calm and eternal assurance of your worth, spiritual gifts and powers, knowledge like the Brother of Jared, or just some guy decide to let you hold an office which has nothing to do with eternity?