i have never been one who felt that ordination to the priesthood for men somehow relegates women to an inferior position.
recent movements have pushed this issue, and as i have read different perspectives and voices attempting to show why our current state need not be viewed as oppressive, i have been dissatisfied with the reasoning, although i obviously agree with the conclusion.
{this article is one of the closest i have found}
so i have set out to put my finger on what it is that makes it all make sense for me.
as an adoptive mother, i have come to see parenting through a different lens perhaps than most other parents. i have pondered considerably regarding the rights of parents, the reason{s} for being a parent, and what it means to even be a parent.
while at a workshop for adoptive parents i heard a birth parent volunteer comment that when a girl refuses to place her baby for adoption, thinking she can be both parents to her child, she is essentially telling her father that he was unnecessary.
mountains of research show that children need both parents. a single mother can be an amazing {albeit exhausted} mother. but she cannot be a father to her children. a single father, likewise, can be a wonderful father to his children. he simply cannot, however, be a mother to them.
mothers and fathers.
men and women.
equal? yes.
identical? no.
if we look at the priesthood as an apprenticeship for men to grow to become like their father in heaven then we can begin to see a reason why ordination to the priesthood would be for men. to act as the lord would act. some portion of whatever is the essence of man-ness seems to be in play here.
we know that women can exercise the priesthood. women can hold authority and perform certain ordinances. but somehow the line distinguishing maleness and femaleness, our gender identity which we also know is an essential part of our eternal identity and divine nature, also applies to the ordination to offices in the priesthood.
some argue that the counterpart to priesthood is motherhood. others disagree, on the basis that not all women can bear children in this life. again, as a woman who has never been pregnant after nearly twenty years of marriage, i hold to the notion that motherhood implies much more than giving birth and i think any of those additional dimensions of motherhood hold true in such assumptions regarding the divine nature and role of women.
in either case, i think about how elder jeffrey r. holland explained that the creative power is one of the most quintessential attributes of godhood, and when a man and a woman create life, they are partaking in a sacrament in which they come near to godhood and share that creative power with the lord.
the family unit we know will extend into eternity. just as cultural misinterpretations of gender roles have led to instances of unrighteous dominion on the part of men, i find it just as misinformed to suppose that a woman’s role within her family is less important than what she might accomplish or be involved with outside of her family.
{another recent article offers a much more in depth explanation of these seeds of thought}.
in truth, even as i began with a firm belief that my role as a woman and mother is in all ways equal in importance and value to any role filled by a man, through recent study i have found the inherent power in my divine nature to be even more amazing than i previously supposed.
