Response to the Ladies

Okay Kat, Tami, and Dynomitegirl, I've read your comments (very appreciated, by the way), and of course I've got more to say.

Don't I always? I'm such a word hog.

Tami: I have to concur with Kat's opinion. I don't think your two ideas (truthfulness of church & sexist God) are mutually exclusive. But I'll present a different rationale as to why.

Dynomitegirl suggested that our experience on Earth includes pain, joy, hurt, and ugliness (my paraphrasing). May I add inequality, injustice, and conflict to that list?

Certainly humans from all eras have experienced it. History books are full of examples of those who have conquered, ascended, dominated, or benefited at the expense of some other group of people. The struggle between The Haves and The Have Nots encompasses everything from water, food, education, land ownership, political power, wealth generation, health care, natural resources, and so on.

To be human is to live in a caste system. To be human means that someone else has access to something that is off limits to you, or that someone else has the power to keep you from getting what you need or want.

Isn't it interesting that so much of gospel living focuses on how we treat the poor?

What is so great about America is that the barriers separating one group from another are much more porous than they have ever been in the history of the world. So, admittedly, my lot as an an upper middle class, white, educated female in America isn't too bad, historically speaking. I get that.

But, the church doesn't exist independently of the world's caste system. One might think it should, because after all, it is God's church and therefore ought to be culturally pristine and ideal. Yet it's comprised of people who are well versed in the Have/Have Not philosophy.

So, is the church true? Nope.

But I'm settled on this: The gospel is true (with its laws and ordinances), and that gospel is executed/expressed/lived within an institution (the church) which has been culturally jacked up by imperfect people, myself included. The more I keep these two things separate in my mind, the better I do.

So, is God a sexist? I don't think so.

Since inequality, injustice, and conflict are apart of the human experience AND establishing equality, justice, and peace are apart of the religious experience, He allows us to struggle with the other caste members. It seems like He lets us grapple with our humanness in preparation for Godliness. Could it be that redemption, reconciliation, and restoration apply to groups of people as well as individuals?

Dynomitegirl: We must be sharing a brain vibe. After I wrote my last post but prior to reading your comment, I asked myself what I would do if I were to be called to be the Relief Society Enrichment person (Oh, please never let this happen. That would be worse than Scouts). It's one thing to yip about Relief Society, as I have done so well, but it's quite another to be in a position to do something about it. So, no apology needed, Sister Dynomite.

And as I thought about it, I was stumped. What would I do? What activities would I plan? I loved your idea about a lecture on LLC vs. S-Corp. I'd show up for that, but I had a hard time thinking up other ideas. I see your predicament regarding planning activities that have a broad appeal.

But I had this thought: What if hidden talent in the ward were mined so that women who have non-traditional or rarely celebrated talents or gifts could share what they know or do? Certainly there are some hidden gems in every ward.

Tami: Okay, now back to Tami's question: Where does she (or we) go from here? I had a really awesome thought on this today.

In my last post, I proposed the idea that the church doesn't know what to do with college educated women who end up in the suburbs. But I had the thought that this generation-- our generation-- is a transitional generation of women in the church, and as such, we are not to expect to be the beneficiaries of an improved culture but to the creators of it. True, we don't have many mentors in this endeavour. It's sort of uncharted ground, really. But what we do will set a precedent, will become apart of the local value system.

Kat: And this leads me to Kat's questions regarding my goals.This is kind of a hard one. You'd wouldn't think it would be with all the ranting I've done. I'm afraid I've given the false impression that I had it all figured out... had a whole list of things to accomplish.... just waiting until I could get the last kiddo in school..... and off I'd go on my projects.

And this is my schizo part. For all that yapping I've done, I lack some confidence in this. I'm a little freaked out about this next phase of life. I'm not sure what I'm capable of, or if I'll be good at it, or if I can really do it.

Gosh, I sound like such a wimpy turd. Would someone please smack me? Please.

So, here's the decision I want to make but am scared to make: I want to create an heirloom family library and distribute complete sets throughout the clan. I'd like to create full histories for the adults as well as books for the kids to keep in their rooms. Nothing like that exists now. No histories have been written. Photos are scattered here and there. There is nothing to pass down to my children or to my siblings' children. I guess I want to use all the stuff I know about research and writing to build something that will last and that will benefit my family.

And, I can hear Kat in my head now, "GO DO IT!" This is why I appreciate Kat. She tells me what I need to hear. (But will she smack me when needed?)

Update: I'm sorry I didn't get to address Sharon's comment in this post. She commented while I was writing and I didn't see her comment until this post was complete. It's now midnight and I'm too tired to rewrite!