(Mormonism) No other faith ordain every adult and adolescent male - extending authority everywhere
Jim Lehrer: Ask Mitt Romney if He Stands By Mormonism’s Views of Women
by Stacey Solie Oct 2, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
Why hasn’t Romney been asked if he agrees with his church’s treatment of women? Stacey Solie on the weird silence.
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At age 19, Mormon youths depart on two-year missions to spread the faith. “Every Young Man Should Serve a Mission,” states the church’s Aaronic Priesthood Manual. (At 12, boys are expected to join the Aaronic priesthood, as a transitory step on their way to joining the higher Melchizedek priesthood after turning 18.)
Women, however, are not expected to serve a mission and are encouraged to volunteer for one only if they reach the age of 21 and have no marriage opportunities. Even then, those who do go on a mission must address their (younger) male counterparts as “elders.” If a woman on a mission reaches someone who then wants to join the church, she must hand over the task of baptism to a (male) member of the priesthood.
At Sunday services, called sacrament meetings, women also play a lesser role. The bishop and his first and second counselors, all men, preside from an elevated stand at the front of the chapel. The sacrament of bread and water, blessed by 14-year-old male priests, is passed to the congregation on trays distributed by 12-year-old male deacons.
That dynamic, of course, should be familiar to Catholics; and Baptists, Muslims, Orthodox Jews, and even Zen Buddhists have also wrestled with ordaining women. But none of those faiths ordain every adult and adolescent male, so that the sacred authority extends so powerfully and thoroughly into the household.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/02/jim-lehrer-ask-mitt-romney-if-he-stands-by-mormonism-s-views-of-women.html
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