{"id":121,"date":"2010-12-20T11:14:48","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T11:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/12\/why-do-mormon-men-want-women-to-have-the-priesthood-more-than-women-want-it-for-themselves.html"},"modified":"2010-12-20T11:14:48","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T11:14:48","slug":"why-do-mormon-men-want-women-to-have-the-priesthood-more-than-women-want-it-for-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flunkingsainthood\/2010\/12\/why-do-mormon-men-want-women-to-have-the-priesthood-more-than-women-want-it-for-themselves.html","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Mormon Men Want Women to Have the Priesthood More Than Women Want It for Themselves?"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\"GrantHardy-150x150.jpg\"<\/span>By Grant Hardy<\/a> <\/p>\n

Here’s your chance to be a sociologist. The next time you meet an LDS male over the age of 18, ask him this: “Do you think Mormon women should hold the priesthood and share equally in the administrative leadership of wards and stakes”? According to American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us<\/a><\/i>, the answer may surprise you. And if you’re a Mormon woman, you’re likely in for a “what the heck?” moment.<\/p>\n

Authors Robert Putnam<\/a> and David Campbell<\/a> asked a wide variety of Americans their opinion about women leading churches. They report that “by 2006 majorities of every religious tradition except Mormons had come to favor women clergy,” including 93% of both Mainline Protestants and Jews, and 75% percent of “Anglo” Catholics (p. 243). Even 66% of Evangelicals agreed, as compared with 30% of Latter-day Saints. In fact, only 10% of Mormon women favor female clergy in their church, which in an LDS context means giving women the priesthood. As Putnam and Campbell note, “Mormons, and especially Mormon women, appear to be the only holdouts against the growing and substantial consensus across the religious spectrum in favor of women playing a fuller role in church leadership.”<\/p>\n

Yet the most remarkable finding is that within Mormonism itself, there is a significant split by gender on this question.<\/b> The number that looks the most extraordinary to outsiders–that only 10% of Mormon women want the priesthood–seems pretty predictable to those inside the faith. But the finding  that 48% of Mormon men say they favor female LDS clergy is truly startling.<\/p>\n


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Nearly half of Mormon men would be okay with women holding the priesthood? Really? Who knew? And how did the LDS Newsroom miss this in their not one<\/a> but two blogposts <\/a>highlighting findings from American Grace<\/i>? Could it be that a substantial number of LDS men, who for years have told women to be content without the priesthood, don’t really believe it themselves? This is the largest gender difference in the entire book, and it concerns one of the most fundamental principles of the Mormon faith.<\/p>\n

Why would Mormon women, who are increasingly educated, working, and professional, so overwhelmingly want to be excluded from positions of ecclesiastical authority in their own congregations? And why are LDS men apparently less committed to the current ecclesiastical order? <\/p>\n

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Part of the explanation lies in the nature of Mormon clergy. Priesthood leadership positions, which rotate regularly, are filled by assignment; they are part-time, unpaid, sometimes time-consuming tasks added on top of work and family responsibilities. Women have some assignments–generally with regard to other women or children–but they are always supervised by male priesthood leaders. Mormons thus have a non-professional, lay clergy which is restricted to men, and all males over the age of twelve are given some priesthood authority. Yet Mormon women tell pollsters they like it this way. Any feminist sensibilities<\/a> they may have are generally not evidenced in aspirations to the priesthood; indeed, fears of radical Mormon feminists rocking the foundations of the church appear to have been greatly exaggerated, although excellent blogs like Feminist Mormon Housewives<\/a> continue to raise important questions. <\/p>\n

I hesitate to speak for Mormon women, but with some coaching from my wife, I came up with a few possible explanations:<\/p>\n