Voices for Equality: Ordain Women and Resurgent Mormon Feminism

Gordon Shepherd · Lavina Fielding Anderson · Gary Shepherd

Jul 2015 · Greg Kofford Books

About this ebook

The inexorable movement toward gender equality in the modern world has taken root in the consciousness of many Latter-day Saints and has publicly emerged as a major concern for the LDS Church. Spearheaded by a new generation of internet-savvy feminists, equality issues in Mormonism attained high public visibility in 2013 through online profiles posted by the Ordain Women organization and its plea to Church authorities to pray about an expanded role for LDS women. The June 2014 excommunication of OW co-founder Kate Kelly generated increased international media attention. This volume is the first book to provide a comprehensive examination of these issues and is based on chapters written by both scholars and activists. Its twenty-five authors explore in detail theological debates about gender and priesthood authority, the historical and cultural context of these debates, and the current role played by lay activists seeking to stimulate change in the Church.

Preface: Lavina Fielding Anderson - The Contemporary LDS Church at a Crossroads on Gender Issues in the Twenty-First Century

1. Lorie Winder Stromberg - The Birth of Ordain Women: The Personal Becomes Political

2. Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd - Conflict and Change in Closed and Open Systems: The Case of the LDS Church

3. Boyd Jay Petersen - “The Greatest Glory of True Womanhood”: Eve and the Construction of Mormon Gender Identity

4. Janice Allred - LDS Gender Theology: A Feminist Perspective

5. Kristy Money and Rolf Straubhaar - Egalitarian Marriage in a Patriarchal Church

6. J. Sumerau and Ryan Cragun - Trans-forming Mormonism: Transgender Perspectives on Priesthood Ordination and Gender

7. Margaret M. Toscano - Retrieving the Keys: Historical Milestones in LDS Women’s Quest for Priesthood Ordination

8. Mary Ellen Robertson - Ecclesiastical Equality: Women’s Progress in Contemporary Churches

9. Robin Kincaid Linkhart - Ordination of Women: The Community of Christ Story

10. Gregory A. Prince - Organizational and Doctrinal Change in a Prophetic Religious Tradition

11. Robert A. Rees - Disciplinary Councils: Excommunication and Community in the Modern Church

12. Nadine McCombs Hansen - Church Discipline and the Excommunication of Kate Kelly

13. Courtney L. Rabada and Kristine L. Haglund - The Great Lever: Women and Changing Mission Culture in Contemporary Mormonism

14. Brent D. Beal, Heather K. Olson Beal, and S. Matthew Stearmer - An Insider Account of the Mormon Gender Issues Survey: Why We Did It and Why a Vocal Minority Hated It

15. Ryan T. Cragun and Michael Nielsen - The Mormon Gender Issues Survey: A Quantitative Analysis of U.S. Respondents

16. Nancy Ross, Jessica Finnigan, Heather K. Olson Beal, Kristy Money, Amber Choruby Whiteley, and Caitlin Carroll - Finding the Middle Ground: Negotiating Mormonism and Gender

17. Jessica Finnigan and Nancy Ross - Mormon Feminists in Social Media: A Story of Community and Education

18. Gary Shepherd and Gordon Shepherd - What Ordain Women Profiles Tell Us about Mormon Women’s Hopes and Discontents

19. Debra Elaine Jenson - From the Kotel to the Square: The Rhetoric of Religious Feminism 

Epilogue: Gordon Shepherd and Gary Shepherd - Prospects for the Ordination of LDS Women 397

in the Twenty-first Century

Appendix: Pamela A. Shepherd, compiler - Bibliography of Media Stories January 1, 2013–December 31, 2014 on Mormon/LDS Women, Ordain Women, and Kate Kelly

About the author

Gordon Shepherd obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Utah and his PhD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is currently professor of sociology at the University of Central Arkansas. With Gary Shepherd, he is co-author of Mormon Passage: A Missionary Chronicle (University of Illinois Press, 1998), Talking with the Children of God: Prophecy and Reformation in a Radical Religious Group (University of Illinois Press, 2010), Binding Heaven and Earth: Patriarchal Blessings in the Prophetic Development of Early Mormonism (Penn State University Press, 2012), and A Kingdom Transformed: Early Mormonism and the Modern LDS Church (University of Utah Press, 2015).

Lavina Fielding Anderson, president of Editing, Inc., is copy editor of the Journal of Mormon History, and past copy editor of Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, and The Review of Higher Education. She is a trustee of the Mormon Alliance, former editor of the Journal of Mormon History, former associate editor of the Ensign, former associate editor and co-associate editor of Dialogue, and past president of the Association for Mormon Letters. An honorary life member of the Association for Mormon Letters and the Mormon History Association, she is currently researching Lucy Mack Smith and J. Golden Kimball.

Gary Shepherd obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of Utah and his PhD from Michigan State University. He is the former department chair of sociology and anthropology and professor emeritus at Oakland University. With Gordon Shepherd, he is co-author of Mormon Passage: A Missionary Chronicle (University of Illinois Press, 1998), Talking with the Children of God: Prophecy and Reformation in a Radical Religious Group (University of Illinois Press, 2010), Binding Heaven and Earth: Patriarchal Blessings in the Prophetic Development of Early Mormonism (Penn State University Press, 2012), and A Kingdom Transformed: Early Mormonism and the Modern LDS Church (University of Utah Press, 2015).