Here's Why She Was Excommunicated

Last night I saw the PBS 2-part documentary on Mormons and Margaret Toscano was one of the commenters. She had been excommunicated from the church for teaching theories and ideas that were not consistent with church teachings. I was curious, so I looked at one of her articles on the Internet and can see why she was seen as a source of trouble -- stirring up the feminism debate, which, in my personal experience, seems to encourage dissatisfaction in women, rather than allow them to just live the gospel, have faith and be happy.

I do not commonly read 'anti' stuff or even Sunstone, but I just wanted to see what others thought of her comments. I just cut and pasted a few paragraphs to give the main ideas, but the whole article (if you want a LONG read) is here: http://www.margarettoscano.com/?p=8

(Given at the Sunstone Symposium, Salt Lake City, August 11, 2006)

“Are boys more important than girls?” This question was asked by an 8-year old Mormon boy who had been left behind with his mother and sisters while his father and older brother attended the October 2004 priesthood session of general conference. When the boy’s mother answered that boys and girls are indeed equally important, this eight-year old contradicted her with bracing candor: “I think,” he said “that boys are more important because Jesus and Heavenly Father are boys, and boys get the priesthood and girls don’t.” The very next morning, President Hinckley addressed the value and importance of LDS women in a talk entitled “The Women in Our Lives,” where he stated that “women are such a necessary part of the plan of happiness which our Heavenly Father has outlined for us.” The boy’s mother felt that the LDS prophet’s remarks were an inspired answer to her son’s question and supported her defense of the equality of women in the Church. Subsequently, she related this incident as a faith-promoting story in sacrament meeting in my sister’s ward.

But is President Hinckley’s statement that “women are such a necessary part” of God’s plan really an assertion of gender equality? In this paper I will address the question “Are boys more important than girls?” by examining five related questions:

1. Does God’s justice demand gender equality; and, if so, is it possible to achieve gender equality and gender difference simultaneously?

2. Is gender equality in the Church to be measured objectively by outward criteria or subjectively by the feelings reported by LDS women?

3. Does the Church have the moral duty to promote gender equality within its organization?

4. If the Church is failing in such a duty, how can concerned members work for change when they also believe it is divinely guided by priesthood authority?

5. And perhaps most important of all, what would it take to make an 8-year-old conclude that LDS girls are just as important as LDS boys?

As the 8-year-old boy could see: Jesus and Heavenly Father are boys. If the Godhead is boys, then boys are in charge. Mormon theology, reinforced as recently as October 2004 by President Hinckley, does not accord to women the power to create or save worlds. The highest authority is vested in males. Women are not final decision-makers. The Relief Society, touted as the largest and possibly oldest women’s organization in the world, is subordinate to men in every way with no chain of command from General Relief Society Presidency to each stake and ward Relief Society Presidency. Rather, at each level, general, stake, ward, and branch, women are called by, released by, and supervised by men, to whom they must report and from whom they must seek and obtain permission and money to act. Church resources rest entirely in the hands of men. Although often used by women, Church funds are never to be used without male approval. Women cannot even schedule the use of a chapel without male permission. They cannot create or present a curriculum that has not been approved by males. The current Relief Society textbook is taken entirely from the writings and utterances of males.

Women confess their sins to males, never to other females; and certainly men never officially confess their sins to women. Men hold all the judicial offices of the Church, whether in a disciplinary council conducted by a bishop on the ward level or by a president on the stake level, or on the general appellate level. Women are therefore never tried by their peers. On the other hand, Church leaders do not need the approval of women for any of their actions, nor are they required to receive doctrine or ordinances from women. Men define doctrine, policy, and practice. They define normative behaviors. They create the moral context for all departments of Mormon life. They literally hold the keys of the kingdom on earth and in heaven.

I see two obstacles to an open examination of gender difference and equality: first, an ambiguity surrounding the desirability of power; and second, the belief that the present Church structure must, and therefore does, reflect the will of God. Most women who complain, or even express pain or doubt, about gender inequity in the Church are immediately accused of being power hungry and out of line with Church doctrine and authority. Lorie Winder Stromberg asks why we assume that wanting power is a bad thing:

I’ve spent too many years on the defensive . . . It’s time I owned the term. Perhaps I am power hungry. And my question is: Why aren’t we all? If by power hungry you mean I desire the ability not only to accept responsibilities in the institutional Church but also to be part of defining those responsibilities, then, yes, I’m power hungry . . . . If by power hungry you mean I believe women must have a voice in the Church, then, yes, I’m power hungry . . . . If by power hungry you mean I would welcome a heightened ability to bless the lives of others, then, yes, I’m power hungry . . . . if by power hungry you mean I want the ability to participate in a model of power based on partnership rather than patriarchy, based on empowerment rather than domination, then, yes, I’m power hungry.[iv]

The second reason current LDS gender roles are not equal is that they prevent women from developing all of their talents. If a woman must invariably nurture and is forbidden from exercising her other abilities, these other talents become meaningless to her and may in time be lost as well (a “hiding your light” analogy). There is currently no place for a woman to bless the Church with prophetic insight because this particular spiritual gift is connected solely with priesthood office, which is true of many other spiritual gifts as well.

The third reason that current gender roles in the Church are not equal is that they deny women full agency to participate in defining and authorizing doctrines and policies that shape cultural and personal identity and practice. Because most decisions about the management of the Church and the direction of spiritual affairs are made by priesthood councils, women do not have a full voice or “vote” in the Church. Thus, the Church’s current gender roles promote, at best, a gender-based policy of “separate but equal.”