Two prominent Mormons are facing the possibility of excommunication.
I'm saddened, but not terribly surprised.
Kate Kelly, one of the members facing church discipline, is the founder of
Ordain Women. While I'd love to see women get ordained, either to the traditional patriarchal priesthood or to a separate matriarchal one, there's a huge problem with Ordain Women: it seeks female ordination regardless of God's will.
I'm happy advocating for the Prophet to seek answers on questions and for the Apostles to consider these issues, but at the end of the day, they lead the church. No matter how I feel about the issue personally, I cannot receive revelation for the entire church. Promoting a substantial change unconditionally, like ordaining women, is not respecting the authority of the Prophet to speak for God. We can suggest, discuss, and critique, but we must respect that authority, or else the entire premise of the church collapses.
The irony is that it's exactly this Priesthood authority that the Ordain Women movement seeks. I think the request is reasonable, and worth, say, a church-wide fast. It's a really important issue, and deserving of attention, but it cannot be demanded. We need to have faith in our leaders, not just in the religious sense, but also in a human sense. We need to hope that they're trying their best and want to guide us to the more perfect world we seek.
The biggest problem is that even the name of Ordain Women is a demand, or could be framed as such. The start of their
mission statement:
The fundamental tenets of Mormonism support gender equality: God is male and female, father and mother, and all of us can progress to be like them someday. Priesthood, we are taught, is essential to this process. Ordain Women believes women must be ordained in order for our faith to reflect the equity and expansiveness of these teachings.
Perhaps I am too docile, but I think a softer approach would be more impactful. I believe that the earthly ordination of women could be very good, but I do not believe it is the only way to work towards gender equality, nor do I believe that it is unquestionably God's will.
Having worked in the temple and performed priesthood ordinances (the only place where in our church women do), I can say that those experiences are certainly special. I can say that we need more female leadership and that there are some cultural practices that should be changed. But while I can say what I think and feel, I must acknowledge that in my limited scope of experience, I cannot say what is right for the whole church.
So, I'm not surprised that Kate Kelly is facing excommunication; even from my sympathetic perspective, I feel that the Ordain Women movement is too sure of its initiatives, as any movement needs to be. I'm saddened that the church didn't use this as an opportunity to discuss the issues, and took a more cowardly approach, but I hope that those involved on all sides can take the time to be introspective rather than defensive so that they can take advantage of the true purpose of church disciplinary counsels: to help us acknowledge our failings and become better people.
I've focused on Kate Kelly and Ordain Women, because I know less about John Dehlin and his Mormon Stories Podcasts. I'm imagining that the "cause for concern" in his case is LGBT rights, but I haven't researched it thoroughly.
I am hoping that this results in a fruitful exchange between the church and its more liberal members about how to express concerns and suggest ideas. Currently, our only recourse is to either limit ourselves to local impact or go incredibly public online. There needs to be a way to faithfully express concerns in a way that it doesn't get stuck either at a local level or in a traffic jam to the top.