Gospel Doctrine Lesson 25: Priesthood, The Power of Godliness

I told my husband recently that even though being the sole Gospel Doctrine teacher can be a pain and can be tricky with my current Church issues, for the first time ever, the 2nd hour of church is interesting to me.  Maybe everyone else is bored, but since it's my show, I have to be on for the whole hour.  As a pretty solid introvert, it's definitely never boring for me.  Exhausting, yes.  Boring, no.

That said, I warned him that this week's lesson would probably be pretty boring.  I took a very standard approach with this lesson, even utilizing the manual for some bits (shocker!).  I blame the fact that we were out late Saturday night.

First, I put the timeline of the restoration of the Priesthood and the offices of the Priesthood from the manual on the Board, then went through it quickly with the class.  One thing I've noticed more and more is how true the "line upon line, precept on precept" concept is (And now you have that Saturday's Warrior song in your head.  You're welcome.)  Really, though, with this Priesthood restoration timeline, or the Word of Wisdom implementation and enforcement timeline, it seems that there really is an order to things and that God's expectations of us are gradual and measured.

(The cynical side of me whispers, "It's just more bureaucracy and an effort to more fully control the members!".  Or "They're just trying to cover their tracks when they realize something doesn't work/want to exert more control!"

At this moment in time, I prefer to be optimistic, so I'm going with the line upon line explanation.)

Next, we talked about the differences between the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods, and the responsibilities of each (D&C 107:1-6, 8, 13-14, 18-20).  I then broke the class into groups of 2 or 3 and had them read scriptures and then teach the rest of the class about the responsibilities of the offices of the Priesthood, from Deacon to Prophet.  The manual suggested we do this for the First Presidency, Quorum of the 12, and the Seventies, but I thought it would be good to discuss for all of the offices.  As a non-Priesthood holder, I realized that I'm not really aware of the duties of the various offices.  I figured that my class of mainly recent converts probably wasn't either.

After that, we read and briefly discussed the oath and covenant of the Priesthood (D&C 84:33-44), and then the lovely verses in Section 121:34-46 about the responsibilities of the Priesthood (ie, serve others, no unrighteous dominion).

So that was it.  Pretty plain vanilla.  At the end I bore my testimony of Priesthood holders who really do magnify their Priesthood.  I talked about how in our ward especially I have had so many opportunities to observe men who take the responsibilities of the Priesthood and truly serve others and do their best to act on behalf of God.  I talked about the examples that they are to me.  ITNOJC Amen.

I feel that as a middle-class white woman from a traditional nuclear family it has really been a learning experience serving in my ward, mostly made up of people below the poverty line, immigrants in various stages of legality, and many single-mom households.  At times it has been exhausting, but I know there are many men in the ward (my bishop for one) who give everything they can to help others, and I believe those men really do see their Priesthood as a call to serve. 

Of course, the women in the ward also do the same.  I guess that's just because we women are angels already and don't need to Priesthood to inspire us, right?

I found myself thinking about the feminist issues as I prepared for this lesson.  Someone in one of the alterno-Mormon Facebook groups I belong to challenged those of us who had this lesson this week to counter any Motherhood/Priesthood comparison with the question, "But what about Fatherhood?"  Since I'm the teacher, initially the thought of doing this made me feel queasy.  I'm vocal about my confusion and doubts to a very select few people, and I felt like saying something like that would cross a line into an uncomfortable place that I'm not quite sure I want to go to yet.

Also, my father-in-law (from Utah!) was visiting...

I thought about it a lot during the week, and finally decided that I would be comfortable saying essentially the following if the comparison came up: "That comparison doesn't sit well with me, because it leaves out the role of fatherhood. We have a Heavenly Father, not a Heavenly Priesthood-holder. I think that fatherhood is just as important as motherhood. Also, it's problematic because not every worthy woman has the opportunity to be a mother, but every worthy man can be ordained to the Priesthood as young as age 12. Some women never have children because they either don't have the opportunity to get married, or due to issues of infertility, or myriad other reasons. Ultimately, I think the answer to the question of 'why don't women have the Priesthood' is, we don't know. The Church has been set up in this fashion for now, and that's the system we operate under."

I also thought about throwing in examples of women giving healing blessings in the early church, or mentioning that in the temple women do use the Priesthood, but wasn't sure I felt comfortable with that.

In the end, the issue never came up.  Of course, as the teacher, I could have steered it that way, but I really wanted to verge on controversy only if it came up organically.  My ward is pretty apolitical and most of the political issues involving the church aren't even on most members' radars.  I should have figured it wouldn't matter, but I'm proud of myself that I came to a point personally where I would have been comfortable saying something a little rebellious, something slightly scandalous.