Uncategorized

Priesthood lesson on Relief Society

Today’s priesthood lesson was on the Relief Society. As soon as I saw the title, I knew how the lesson would end.

Here it is summed up in six words:

Women are charitable; men are selfish.

I was right by the way.

Published by

Kim Siever

Queer Mormon poet with radical political views. I have been married 27 years, and we have 6 children. Sunday school president. Served in the Utah Provo Mission.

20 thoughts on “Priesthood lesson on Relief Society”

  1. That’s funny, because we’re a week behind and when I was reading our lesson for this week, I saw that we had a lesson on the RS next week and….

    I thought the same thing. I’ll let you know if that’s how it shakes down.

  4. Really there is so much more to this lesson than THAT. So next time read the lesson before hand, study it in it’s historical context. Look at the promises actually given to the sisters, look at the role of women at the time, look at what the role of women in the world was at that time and look at it has been since. What does it mean that the Relief Society is patterned after the priesthood. If it’s patterned after the priesthood how can it be that your lesson should have been a male slamming experience. Don’t miss the fact that we sisters ARE blessed in having the opportunity to work together in service much like priesthood quorums do and the opportunity to learn together. Relief Society is a great blessing to us Sisters. You missed the point of the lesson entirely. I know you are not alone, but there is so very much more here than what you took away.

  7. Kim,

    Historically women have endured much. Why do you begrudge them a day in the sun?

    We can celebrate women and the Relief Society but that doesn’t take anything from men. To praise women doesn’t necessarily mean you are putting men down.

  9. Why do you begrudge them a day in the sun?

    My grudge isn’t with giving women a day in the sun; it’s with doing so while casting men into the dungeon.

    To praise women doesn’t necessarily mean you are putting men down.

    Yet this is precisely what happened in our lesson yesterday and in ever other similar lesson I have attended.

    To quote above: women are charitable; men are selfish.

    To quote class members:

    ”My wife dragged me to church.” (Laughter ensures)

    “My wife is charitable to everyone. I am selfish.”

    “The ‘natural man’ doesn’t apply to women since Joseph Smith said they are by nature charitable and benevolent.”

    I can go on.

    I have no problem with giving women a day in the sun, but why can’t women and men stand side-by-side in the sun. After all, when Christ, whose love defines charity, said ”Come follow me”, he didn’t preface it by saying, ”Just men should come follow me because the women are already there”.

  10. I agree. I don’t see why men need to be cast down in order to build women up. I am pleased and honoured to be a daughter of God, but I do not think I am better or more worthy than a son of God. And by making women superior to men what sort of impression do we give our children? I don’t believe my daughters are better than my son. My children are all equally important to me. And since I believe this, I am certain that Heavenly Father feels so as well.

    Women should not be put down, nor should men.

  11. I guess my ward Relief Society is at a higher level of consciousness, because there wasnt’ one word of male bashing. At all. And if I understand this correctly, it was the priesthood lesson referred to in this post, therefore the men were bashing on themselves.

    Yes, I hear that all the time. Men love to put women on a pedestal while criticising themselves. You know, like joking about how they do their hometeaching on facebook while their wives never miss a month of visiting teaching.

    Since I have 8 sons, I don’t like male bashing, even when they do it to themselves, which they do constantly, as a joke. But then I like it even less when it’s done by women.

  12. Karen,

    Actually it wasn’t RS. Our RS lesson was great, no male bashing at all. The lesson focused on how we should better ourselves and be more like Christ. What Kim refers to is men putting themselves down in order to make women look better. So his Priesthood lesson was about that.

  13. My wife and I were discussing this very topic the other day. We are far too close to the time period when men treated women poorly for men to stand up and say feel like it is time for them to be treated better. Society makes us, men, believe that we deserve to be berated and cast down. Our sitcoms are a great example of this behaviour. If the men treated the women the way they are treated, or portrayed, on sitcoms it would not be humorous. In fact, I would guess, that there would be some sort of legal action to get the production shut down.

    I agree with many of the posters that we need to elevate each other. I see far too much comparing going on. Women are not better just because they are better than men, especially if the opinions of mainstream society are to be believed about the character of men. This is a damning behaviour that only reduces the ability for humankind to progress.

    Another consequence of this behaviour is that men start to believe the stigmatism and become what they are being characterised as. I am certain that in the search for equality among the sexes that the last thing that women want is a dependant, lazy, ignorant man. Unfortunately that is what men are becoming.

  14. Completely agree, Tyler.

    If we tell a child day in and day out over several years that he or she is stupid, they’re going to believe it. Why should adult men be any different.

    I haven’t been around for a very long time, but being able to serve as EQP twice at ten years apart allowed me to see a bit of this. There is a difference between the generation of men coming into elders quorum now, and the generation of men that was there when I was first called.

    The sad thing is that just like it took many years to get to this point, it’s going to take many years to stop and reverse it.

  15. Kim,

    You start off complaining men are perceived as being selfish in Mormon culture. Now you completely agree with Tyler that men are becoming dependant, lazy, ignorant?

  17. I think men use it as an excuse really. I think we all naturally want to be dependant, lazy and ignorant on some level. I am actually curious if some women were to really look at their motivations if they really want men to be this way? Any women out there willing to analyze their motivation?

    I want to preface this comment with the fact that I think women are exceptional but no less human than men. I would hope that men, as a whole, strive for the same excellency.

  18. We finally had the lesson this week. Yep. You were right, Kim.

  19. I taught the lesson yesterday. I originally prepared a week ago but then the last teacher went back and taught lesson 36. I got confused and prepared lesson 37 (Charity) on Saturday. When I got to class I they let me know they had the Charity lesson while I was gone and lesson 39 (RS) was indeed the right lesson. Anyways I muddled through and really focused on the charity aspect of RS, and how it was modeled after the Priesthood. I then emphasized the point that if we see any differences between how the priesthood and RS interacts charitably then that is manmade as opposed to being doctrinal. Then the discussion was more on what we should be doing as a priesthood body to be more charitable.

    So my lesson was muddled due to the last minute changes so I am not sure if I failed you point above or not. I never mentioned women are great, but I did focus on how we can improve as an EQ and men.

Comments are closed.