During the Worldwide Relief Society Devotional and Testimony Meeting on March 17, 2024, President Russell M. Nelson and the Relief Society General Presidency spoke to the members of the Relief Society and Young Women. The event was a 40-minute video production. The remarkable part is the claim J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency made and the volatile response it has received.
There is no other religious organization in the world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.
J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency
This honestly sounds like she needs to learn more about other churches and organizations. Does she really think that the Mormon church is the organization that has “broadly given power and authority to women”? Is this the single organization she is familiar with then?
There is no other religious organization in the world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.There are religions that ordain some women to positions such as priests and pastors, but very few relative to the number of women in their congregations receive that authority that their church gives them. By contrast, all women 18 years and older in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who choose a covenant relationship with God in the house of the Lord are endowed with priesthood power directly from God. And as we serve in whatever calling or assignment, including ministering assignments, we are given priesthood authority to carry out those responsibilities. My dear sisters, you belong to a Church which offers all its women priesthood power and authority from God!
Nevertheless, just as he tried to do with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the tree of life, the adversary wants to focus our attention on what we haven’t been given and blind us to all that we have been given.
J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, Accessing God’s Power through Covenants, 2024 Worldwide Relief Society Devotional, March 17, 2024
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/language-recording/2024/02/14dennis?lang=eng
She does stipulate that she is only considering religious organizations that she knows of. Does she know that there are other churches in the world? Apparently, if she does, she doesn’t know much about them. She does claim to know something as she even continues to state that “there are religions that ordain some women to positions such as priests and pastors!” However, she retorts that the amount of ordained women are “very few” in comparison to the women in the congregations. So ordaining women doesn’t count unless they all get ordained? But isn’t that how other churches work when ordaining men too? Not every 11 year old Christian boy is ordained to be a deacon, or priest. This is a Mormon mindset, and it shows.
The church liked her gaslighting message so much that they decided to publish it on the official social media accounts. Things got a bit dicey with comments. Especially when a supposed glitch deleted all the comments. It seemed like the church had removed all negative comments from the post. The church points to a system wide glitch, but Instagram itself started that there was no glitch. The post has received magnitudes more attention than the account posts normally receive. For instance, the posts usually garner under a hundred comments, but sometimes venturing into several hundred.
This social media post, after being only 4 days old, already had 15 thousand comments. That’s roughly 100 comments for every normal comment their posts receive. These comments have not been kind either. Here is a sampling:
@zelphontheshelf_ “This is 100% true… as long as you don’t know anything about other religions”
@mindygledhill “I was raised by this village. And there is so much to love about “my people,” but to make a statement like this about other religions who actually do offer women and all members the same power and position as men, is insensitive and disrespectful. The gaslighting, delusions of grandeur and elitism above other religions, are some of the top issues that encouraged me to finally leave my “village.” I think this statement is dishonest and dismissive to other religions.”
@sonja.l.cox “This marketing strategy is no longer working.”
@bdownpatriarchy “Women in the LDS church have the status of perpetual children. Some men are abusive, but most are very kind as they decide whether or not to implement our ideas, hear our concerns, and allow our participation. It was only when I went to graduate school at my first non-BYU university and then entered the professional world that I entered a space where men treat adult women as their peers, and when appropriate, as their leaders. It was a stunning difference and made me realize how accustomed I had been to being treated as a child.”
@latterdaystrugglespodcast “LDS Church…what a gift you’ve been given by this post! So much authentic feedback by amazing, competent, articulate women. When sitting in counsels and wondering why people [both men and women] disaffiliate, you might consider the data you’ve accidentally gathered on this thread. Women in 2024 find their LDS faith the only place where they are limited by their gender. Take this gift of knowledge and please be touched by it❤”
Glitch
Many negative comments on the Instagram post mysteriously disappeared once the total wave was in full. This was after the official church account thanks yard for the comments and promised to pass them up the chain of command.
The church claimed this was due to a system wide glitch and blamed Instagram. But Instagram denied this was a glitch, so it seems one of the multi-billion dollar companies isn’t telling the truth.
Anger had flared a couple days earlier when comments were deleted before being restored. In a comment on the post and in emails to The Times, the church blamed an Instagram glitch. A spokesman for Meta, which owns Instagram, said there was no issue that had affected comments.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/us/mormon-church-women-latter-day-saints.html
Following the Thread of Footnotes
Why does she think this way? Well, it’s not of her own right and authority, it’s because a man told her she could think this way. She references a talk from Apostle, Dallin H. Oaks that at first honestly states that “we are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood.”
In addition to the power we can be blessed with through keeping our priesthood covenants, when we are called and set apart or assigned to help with God’s work, we are also given priesthood authority—God’s authority to represent Him as we fulfill our callings and assignments. In 2014, when my husband and I were serving as mission leaders in Ecuador, President Dallin H. Oaks said this in general conference: “We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be?” I was so grateful to have this added understanding, and I’ve tried to teach this truth ever since to the women in my circles of influence.
J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, Accessing God’s Power through Covenants, 2024 Worldwide Relief Society Devotional, March 17, 2024
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/language-recording/2024/02/14dennis?lang=eng
This much is true, we are not as a Mormon people, accustomed to speaking of women having the authority or the priesthood. That is because women having the priesthood is forbidden by the church. It’s not just something our culture or customs have directed, it’s the church leaders that have forbidden any women to be ordained to the priesthood. Not even relatively “very few” women are ordained. They are twisting words and redefining words on the fly to make the church of today more palatable.
We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.
Dallin H. Oaks, The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood, April 2014, General Conference
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/04/the-keys-and-authority-of-the-priesthood?lang=eng
Oaks then teaches that women are given the authority of the priesthood to perform their callings in the church, and technically, he seems to state that this is the same thing as being ordained. But it is not. He states that anyone who functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys, exercises priesthood authority in performing these duties. There is a difference. One is making decisions and delegating, and the other is carrying out the orders. In one sense, yes, a footsoldier carries the authority of the general and even the country they represent, but they don’t have the same authority. This is like saying that anyone to whom the president delegates a task has the same power as the president. It’s a nonsense statement meant to conflate and confuse others.
Oaks’ talk references a talk from Boyd K. Packer, let’s look at the connection.
The Relief Society works under the direction of the Melchizedek Priesthood, for “all other authorities or offices in the church are appendages to this priesthood.” It was organized “after the pattern of the priesthood.”
Boyd K. Packer, The Relief Society, April 1985, General Conference
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1998/05/the-relief-society?lang=eng
Boyd Packer states clearly that “The Relief Society works under the direction of the Melchizedek Priesthood.” This is not the definition of authority, this is delegation. This is not broad authority given to women. This is not power given to women, this is power men used to create the afterthought appendage to their own powers and priesthood.
The Brethren know they belong to a quorum of the priesthood. Too many sisters, however, think that Relief Society is merely a class to attend. The same sense of belonging to the Relief Society rather than just attending a class must be fostered in the heart of every woman. Sisters, you must graduate from thinking that you only attend Relief Society to feeling that you belong to it! … You sisters who are called to serve in the Primary or the Young Women may miss the Relief Society class, but you do not really miss Relief Society; you belong to it.
Boyd K. Packer, The Relief Society, April 1985, General Conference
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1998/05/the-relief-society?lang=eng
Packer also makes the cult-ish proclamation that the sisters don’t just attend the Relief Society class, but they belong to the organization. Similarly, church members belong to the church.
In the Church there is a distinct line of authority. We serve where called by those who preside over us.
Boyd K. Packer, The Relief Society, April 1985, General Conference
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1998/05/the-relief-society?lang=eng
He also states clearly that the line of authority in the church must be followed. He explains that we serve where called by those who preside over us. This means that women serve only because the men who preside over them call them to do it. Who presides in the church? Always a man. At the local levels, the Bishops and Stake Presidents preside. They call sisters to the Relief Society leadership positions. The men call the women to serve, and as soon as the men feel differently, they call other women to serve. There is not a single calling in the church where a woman presides over a man. This is not done. Men always preside.
Broadly Given Power and Authority to Women?
There seems to be a sly technicality at work here. Sister Dennis is saying that anyone with a calling – a goal of the church is to extend callings to every capable member – is using the authority of the priesthood. Therefore, by this logic, the whole membership of the church holds the priesthood. This includes all adults (men and women) as well as the youth holding any calling. In this twisted logic, the relatively very few women who may be ordained in other churches is compared to the theoretical involvement of every single woman in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every person (including women) who has a calling, is using (or following) the priesthood authority, so that’s basically every single member.
This technical and twisted theoretical view could be argued, but in the real world, this is not true. This is not the experience of any honest woman in the church. For one of the top leaders of the Relief Society to state this is gaslighting every woman in every church. This is not how the priesthood is understood or taught about in the church. This is not how the doctrine is set up, the doctrine the church sets with correlated lessons and manuals.
The church even published a Gospel Topic Essay about the priesthood. They clarify that men alone held the priesthood. The essay confirms further that public preaching and leadership was reserved for men only, no women.
In 1830s America, the word priesthood was defined as “the office or character of a priest” and “the order of men set apart for sacred offices,” identifying priesthood with religious office and the men who held it. Early Latter-day Saints likewise thought of priesthood primarily in terms of ordination to ecclesiastical office and authority to preach and perform religious rites. As in most other Christian denominations during this era, Latter-day Saint men alone held priesthood offices, served formal proselytizing missions, and performed ordinances like baptism and blessing the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper…
Latter-day Saint women in the Church’s earliest years, like women elsewhere, participated actively in their new religious community. They ratified decisions by voting in conferences; they furnished the temple with their handiwork; they worshipped alongside men in meetings and choirs; they shared the gospel with relatives and neighbors; they hosted meetings in their homes; and they exercised spiritual gifts in private and in public. Early revelation authorized women to “expound scriptures, and to exhort the church.” Even so, like most other Christians in their day, Latter-day Saints in the early years of the Church reserved public preaching and leadership for men.
Wanting to provide charitable support to men working to build the temple, a group of Latter-day Saint women planned to form a benevolent society, mirroring a popular practice of the time. When they presented their plan to Joseph Smith, he felt inspired to move beyond such precedents. As Sarah Granger Kimball, a founding member of the Relief Society, later recalled, the Prophet told them he had “something better” for them and said he would organize the women “in the Order of the Priesthood after the pattern of the Church.”
The women named their new organization “Relief Society.” It was unlike other women’s societies of the day because it was established by a prophet who acted with priesthood authority to give women authority, sacred responsibilities, and official positions within the structure of the Church, not apart from it… Joseph Smith delegated priesthood authority to women in the Relief Society.
Gospel Topic Essay: Joseph Smith’s Teachings about Priesthood, Temple, and Women
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/joseph-smiths-teachings-about-priesthood-temple-and-women?lang=eng&id=p3#p3
The essay is sure to clarify that the Relief Society was created by Joseph Smith. As the women planned to form an organization, Joseph stopped them and told them he had “something better” in mind. He didn’t want them to organize their own organization and be in charge, he organized it for them. He placed the organization forever under the authority of the church and the priesthood leaders of the church. The essay presents this as a good thing, but he in fact strips the independence and true authority of women by placing it under the control of the men. All the authority they received, was from him. Sly man working to keep not just women, but everyone under his thumb.
We know Joseph loved women. He loved them when their husbands were away on missions, and when he could get a moment in a barn with them. He loved publicly claiming to have but one wife, but secretly being married to dozens of women (most of which his first wife wasn’t even aware of). He was celestially married to 22 women before even being sealed to his public wife Emma. Joseph had many wives, but not the most, which brings us to the champion of polygamy. Brigham Young, married to fifty-five different women had the gall to state that there is no other place that respects women more!
The gaslighting arrogance of this statement and even the phrasing is eerily similar to a statement from Brigham Young. He states, “with confidence, that there is no people on the face of this earth that pay more respect to females than do this people.” He even states, with a similar stipulation as Sister Dennis, that he “know[s] of no community where females enjoy the priveledges they do here.”
Media Coverage
The post was so volatile that it made not just church news but the Salt Lake Tribune as well. As expected the Deseret News article defended the statements and the SL Trib ripped it apart.
While there was plenty of positive response to this event, that remark from Sister Dennis was highlighted by a number of women online with concerns. Some felt their voices had been heard by male church leaders, while others felt “disempowered” by not holding priesthood office in the Church, even if they were being encouraged to more fully exercise priesthood authority and access priesthood power through covenant relationships, as was repeatedly emphasized this weekend again.
Without dismissing the perspectives of these women, I want to add my own experience to this important conversation.
Carolynn Clark: As a Latter-day Saint woman, I’ve been heard, valued and empowered for decades
Experiences like mine are not being heard and appreciated enough in the public discussion. But they need to be, because my experience is not unique, and is representative of so many of the millions of women in the faith.
https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/03/21/heard-and-valued-as-a-latter-day-saint-woman/
This statement would not have likely been so volatile if the official church account hadn’t posted the quote for anyone to comment on. It’s not a small number of women with concerns either. There are thousands of comments on this single post! She at least acknowledges the disempowerment other women feel in the church (and even puts the word in quotes). But then immediately dismissed their perspectives by saying “without dismissing the perspectives.” She’s saying, I don’t feel that way and I want my voice heard. It’s gaslighting all over again. Stating that many women don’t feel disempowered. She shares examples from her life about how she served in leadership positions and feels empowered by it. The trick is all these positions were extended to her by a man with the priesthood. This is not equality. Meanwhile, in the news that isn’t owned and run by the church:
Four days after a top female church leader called Latter-day Saint women the most widely empowered of any faith tradition, waves of comments were still flooding in.
By Thursday afternoon, more than 13,600 appeared below a post quoting the sermon on the official Instagram page of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Delivered by J. Anette Dennis, first counselor in the faith’s worldwide Relief Society presidency, the speech sought to expand on a relatively new way of conceptualizing the power known as the priesthood, defined as God’s authority and traditionally seen as the sole prerogative of worthy male members starting as young as age 11.
Men and boys, not women or girls, are ordained to priesthood offices.
Quoting church apostles, Dennis explained that Latter-day Saint women who have made covenants in one of the faith’s temples in a ceremony known as the endowment or been set apart to perform a volunteer assignment (known as a “calling”), “are endowed with priesthood power directly from God.”
Had that been all she said on the matter, it’s possible the next few days would have been quiet ones for the church’s public relations team. As it was, Dennis went further, stating, “There is no other religious organization in the world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.”
Tamarra Kemsley, What LDS women are saying about priesthood — and how they supposedly have it — after a controversial sermon. Social media is buzzing with intense discussion about gender and power in a global faith that doesn’t ordain women. March 22, 2024
https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/03/22/what-lds-women-are-saying-about/
Free Feedback
Hopefully, the church is introspective to see the guffaw they have made here and take a moment to learn from all the free feedback they have received. As a comment pointed out on the devotional announcement post:
@maddystutz_ “I’m coming here in earnest 🫶🏻 and I really hope ahead of general conference, you take the time to read through the comments that have been left on the church’s main account, you know the one. You and I both know that the church is hemorrhaging members, and people have come with love and kindness to tell you why. That is a gift from god’s children to His leaders, and it would be a shame not to listen. I am no longer a member but as others have said, I was raised by this flock, and there are many lovely things about it, but there is a sickness within the church that needs to be healed, and the LEADERS need to set that example. Bless 🧡”
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4BGHYnO_n9/c/18013593827213184/
What about you? Do you agree with Brigham Young? Do you feel that women are respected and privileged in the Mormon community? Is Sister J. Anette Dennis of the General Relief Society Presidency (called by a man) speaking truth when she says that “there is no other religious organization in the world that has so broadly given power and authority to women”? What is your experience, please jump to the official LDS social media posts and add your comments there, or add them to this post, or if you prefer to tell your whole faith story, consider adding your deconstruction and faith crisis story to the growing collection at wasmormon.org.
More reading:
- https://www.instagram.com/p/C4oZ-otMOVL/
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/j-anette-dennis?lang=eng
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/broadcasts/language-recording/2024/02/14dennis?lang=eng
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2014/04/the-keys-and-authority-of-the-priesthood?lang=eng
- https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/03/21/heard-and-valued-as-a-latter-day-saint-woman/
- https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/03/22/what-lds-women-are-saying-about/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/1bhegj8/oh_dear_im_sure_this_will_be_reposted_a_lot_here/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/us/mormon-church-women-latter-day-saints.html
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/s/pDtLhtcXmt