The Lord explained in the Preface to the Doctrine and Covenants that the “power to lay the foundation of this church, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness” would be given to “his servants” and that it would be a process of trial and error and faith. He said,

Behold, I am God and have spoken it; these commandments are of me, and were given unto my servants in their weakness, after the manner of their language, that they might come to understanding. And inasmuch as they erred it might be made known; And inasmuch as they sought wisdom they might be instructed; … And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time.

God meets man where he is, in his weakness, in his current cultural understanding and language, and then seeks to teach him more. 

From the beginning of the Restoration, one of the most significant doctrines and truths that God has strived to unravel from false traditions and uninspired interpretations of the Bible is a correct understanding of women and their role in “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth.” Since the Fall, bias against women has become humanity’s oldest prejudice.

Understanding women’s role in the gospel and God’s kingdom was of great interest and concern to President Boyd K. Packer. It was a point of deep personal study and reflection for him. He believed that women and the Relief Society were akin to a rising sun. He said, “the light and the power that emanates [from them] will increase, not decrease.” It became clear from his teachings that one of the ways the Church would come out of obscurity was as the women came out of obscurity.

President Kimball’s similar prophecy is more commonly known: “Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because … women of the Church are seen as distinct and different” [italics added]. When this prophecy was given in 1979, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook were unimaginable. President Kimball never would have guessed the scope of reach or the nuanced technology that would facilitate the prophesied visibility of women in the Church. 

The Washington Post recently went so far as to dub “2024 the Year of the Mormon Women.” LDS Women are, as prophesied, coming out of obscurity. While the image of LDS women portrayed in pop culture and social media is varied and sometimes controversial, they are definitely more seen, and their influence is undeniable.

Interestingly, 2024 was also significant for issues surrounding women’s visibility in the Church itself. The year opened with news articles relating the growing debate about whether women ecclesiastical leaders of wards and stakes should sit on the stand at church meetings. In the Bay Area, for instance, the practice of having a president from either the Relief Society, Young Women, or Primary rotate each Sunday and sit next to the bishopric on the stand was suddenly stopped by a newly called Area Presidency.

An article reporting the story was published in the Salt Lake Tribune in November 2023, followed by an op-ed in February 2024 written by the Bay Area Stake YW’s president. These articles made the situation public and sparked much debate on social media platforms and podcasts. It brought to light that a handful of congregations scattered throughout the U.S. and Europe currently have women leaders sitting on the stand. The literal increase of women’s visibility through sitting on the stand has once again brought the question of women and their role in the Church to the forefront. 

Elder Dallin H. Oaks once said, 

We live in a day when there are many political, legal, and social pressures for changes that confuse gender and homogenize the differences between men and women. … We do not oppose all changes in the treatment of men and women, since some changes in laws or customs simply correct old wrongs that were never grounded in eternal principles. 

But how do we rightly discern which social pressures correct old wrongs and which ones confuse eternal principles? Sister Eliza R. Snow captured the essence of such debates: 

The status of women is one of the questions of the day. Socially and politically, it forces itself upon the attention of the world. Some … refuse to concede that a woman is entitled to the enjoyment of any rights other than those which the whims, fancies, or justice, as the case may be, of men may choose to grant her. … Others, again, not only recognize that a woman’s status should be improved but are so radical in their extreme theories that they would set her in antagonism to man, assuming for her a separate and opposing existence…. These are two extremes, and between them is the ‘golden mean.’

Finding that ‘golden mean’ is still the challenge of our day. Just as the Lord gave his servants power to bring His Church out of obscurity and darkness, He likewise gave them power to bring women out of obscurity. President George Albert Smith described the moment the Prophet Joseph turned the key for women in 1842 as “the emancipation of womankind … for all the world, and from generation to generation the number of women who can enjoy the blessings of religious liberty and civil liberty has been increasing.” But bringing women out of obscurity is both a literal and figurative process. Understanding the significant role of women in the Church and the power God has given them has come in conjunction with them becoming more visible. However, if women are seen but not comprehended, the result may be increased competition rather than greater cooperation, as evidenced in other spheres. 

Therefore, it’s paramount to understand what has been revealed. Women were always meant to have a place in the Church, working side by side with their brothers to save souls. Sister Eliza R. Snow related that Joseph Smith taught the women that the Relief Society was an integral part of the Restoration and is, therefore, more than just an organization led by women. It is a society equal in weight and significance to a quorum, for covenant women patterned after the order of the priesthood. Sister Snow declared, “Although the name may be of modern date, the institution is of ancient origin. We were told by our martyred prophet that the same organization existed in the church anciently.” In the ancient church, women journeyed with Jesus and the Twelve Apostles. Christ invited Mary and Martha to become His disciples, and they actively participated in his ministry along with other women like Johanna, Susanna, Tabitha, and Phebe. Following Christ’s resurrection, “women continued to be faithful disciples (and) met and prayed together with the Apostles.”

Recent modern revelations have restored more light and understanding regarding women in the Church. In the past 10 years, much has been revealed to expand our understanding of priesthood keys, power, and authority regarding women. Since President Oak’s watershed talk in 2014, where he expanded the scope of priesthood in relation to women, there have been numerous talks from prophets and apostles expanding the practice of priesthood and priesthood duties to include women. Such examples include allowing women to be witnesses to ordinances, lowering the age at which women can serve missions and when they can be endowed, realigning Melchizedek priesthood duties to be carried out by Elders Quorum and Relief Society presidencies on a ward level, including young women in ministering, and more.

Likewise, President Russell M. Nelson has pleaded with women to come out of obscurity and play a more active role in leadership in the Church and the home. 

My dear sisters, … we need your impressions, your insights, and your inspiration. We need you to speak up and speak out in ward and stake councils. We need each married sister to speak as ‘a contributing and full partner’ as you unite with your husband in governing your family. 

Furthermore, the recent changes President Nelson has made to the temple ordinances have helped increase the visibility of women figuratively and literally and have helped make a woman’s direct covenantal relationship with God brilliantly clear. 

President Nelson further expanded the scope of priesthood doctrinally by inviting women to consider how scriptures that traditionally were thought to pertain only to holders of the priesthood also pertain to covenant-keeping women (i.e., Sections 84 and 107). Women were even invited in general conference to memorize the oath and covenant of the priesthood, something only previously assumed to concern men.  

Certainly, in the past decade, we have become more accustomed to speaking in terms of women having priesthood power, authority, and responsibilities. This has led to an increased understanding of women of God and their potential to lead and contribute.  However, I am unsure if we have found the ‘golden mean’ yet because, culturally, our values are based on the world’s measuring stick rather than God’s. 

God’s Value System

Culturally, we have been led to adopt the value system of the world, which is based on competition and scarcity. As a result, we have been persuaded to believe that those people with the most visibility or recognition must be valued more. Like the world, we think in terms of exclusivity as best. We set ourselves apart by emphasizing those unique things that make us different from each other rather than those that make us similar. The value system of a telestial world asserts that “if everyone is special, then no one is special.” 

However, God works under a very different value system, one President Nelson has tried to help us understand. When he ranked the most important identifiers he values in order, he said: 

First, I am a child of God—a son of God—then a son of the covenant, then a disciple of Jesus Christ and a devoted member of His restored Church. Next would come my honored titles as a husband and father.

Notice how he ranks his most valued label with the most shared, universal label of us all—a child of God. His labels then become gradually more exclusive. 

Most of us do the opposite. We rank our labels, usually beginning with those that are the most exclusive or distinct—those that set us apart as different and unique from others around us. Perhaps this is one of Satan’s most subtle strategies of dividing us. If we view titles, church callings, or labels of most exclusivity as best, we relate to one another from a space of scarcity and singularity. But if we rank our best labels in terms of those most inclusive and encompassing, we begin from a space of abundance and equality. There is a remarkable and profound difference in where each will lead. Scarcity leads to competition, which leads to winners and losers, fear and pride, the haves and the have-nots. On the other hand, abundance leads to cooperation, celebrating unique talents and interests, and seeing what each can give to the whole. Beginning at this point of inclusion, as children of God, may not appear very significant at first, but when we look at where it leads, we see the outcome is the difference between heaven and hell.

In our current church culture, we are still wrestling with overcoming the damning mindset of competition and scarcity, especially in terms of church callings and supposed positions of power and leadership. We apply the world’s value system when we attach greater importance to those who hold Church callings of the most visibility or prominence. Callings have become a way of validating one’s worthiness, spirituality, or importance, but Christ never taught this.

Christ was revolutionary in his day precisely because he didn’t value what the world around him valued. Instead of seeking power and recognition, he quietly “went about doing good.” He raised those who were most overlooked, despised, and forgotten. He wasn’t concerned about visibility, position, or power; in fact, he never had an office or even “a place to lay his head.” His sole concern was others, especially those most ignored or undervalued by the world. He tried to teach his disciples, who were wrestling, as we are today, with the question, “Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God?” when He said,

Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Who is great in the eyes of God? A minister. What is the most common calling in the Church? A minister. Do we see what Christ is trying to teach about his character and values? God gives his best to as many of his children as possible. His economy is completely opposite ours. The greatest is the least. The servant is the leader. Christ warned that those in His day could not accept or understand His doctrines because “they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.” If Church members choose to measure power and influence with the same value system the world uses, we will likewise be blind to all God wants us to see and understand. 

As we consider the increasing visibility of women in the Church and pop culture, we would do well to consider which value system we are using to measure success. The Washington Post ranked 2024 a breakout year for Mormon Women because, from a worldly value system, the number of “followers” is in the millions, and search inquiries with the words “Mormon women” on Google were more than ever recorded. Is this what President Kimball prophesied? Is this the “coming out of obscurity” that President Packer felt would be important to bringing the entire Church out of obscurity? Perhaps in part, but coming out of obscurity has more to do with both women and men finally learning to value what God values, love what Christ loves, and see as They see.

Christ strived to help all his disciples see that true power does not come from position but from godliness. Christ elevated women in his day, consequently bringing them out of obscurity because he recognized a divine kinship with women—that women do physically what Christ does spiritually. Women have been endowed with the power and gifts to be life-givers, nurturers, teachers, healers, comforters, and willing servants who wipe away tears, clothe spirit in flesh and flesh in swaddling linen, and feed the hungry before feeding themselves. If we could see with Godly eyes, we would see that women naturally have access to the most tremendous power in the universe. If we could see as Christ taught his disciples to see with Godly eyes—that the least is actually the greatest, and that sacrifice, not might, rends veils, and that donning an apron and washing feet is the work Christ did and wants us to do—the scales of darkness would fall. Women and their value would come out of obscurity.

When Joseph Smith organized the Relief Society, he told them their objective was “not only to relieve the poor but to save souls.” He further explained, “The turning of the key, the creation of the [Relief] society itself, opened to women their place and responsibility in the organization of the church.” As the Doctrine and Covenants preface relates, the Restoration would come through a process of trial and error and faith. The restoration of the doctrine of women and their relationship to God’s power and priesthood began to emerge from obscurity when Joseph Smith first turned his prophetic keys on their behalf and seems to have accelerated in the past decade through the prophetic keys of President Nelson and others.

Women were meant to have a place in the Church, working side by side with their brothers to save souls. Modern-day revelation declares that “Latter-day Saint women and men go forward with priesthood power and authority. This interdependency of men and women in accomplishing God’s work through His power is central to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

So, how do we obtain this “interdependency of men and women in accomplishing God’s work”? We must first recognize God’s immense trust and power in women and then seek to bring their voices and strengths out of obscurity—not so women can be more seen than men, but so their gifts and contributions can be more enjoyed and realized. This is not a time of women usurping men and their stewardships but taking their different but equal place alongside them. Getting men and women working and counseling better together, not just sitting together, will be key to bringing about Zion. 

When the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, he did so with men and women leaders and a key holder who guided them both. Micah 6:4 reads: “For I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servants; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” This trifecta is now reflected in the harmony and cooperative responsibilities of the Bishop, Elders Quorum, and Relief Society presidents. 

President Kimball prophesied about women’s significant role in the last days. President Eyring said that women have been given the “spiritual capacity to nurture others and … qualify them to live in a Zion society.” In many ways, our day resembles the days of Enoch. God is again working through his prophet to prepare a Zion people, and since women will play a key role in that preparation, we must include them more in the Work. As we do so, we will understand more completely how the blessings of the priesthood are liberal to all, that presiding and leadership have nothing to do with personal glory, but God’s glory, and that Jesus Christ continues to invite us to learn to love as He loves and value what He values. As men and women unite in following His supreme example as the servant leader, they will unlock the synergistic power God personifies and the Divine Oneness possible when men and women unite their gifts, not in competition but in cooperation, not in scarcity but abundance, not in opposition but in harmony, and at last arrive at the ‘golden mean’ and Zion, being of one heart and one mind.

 

 

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