Monday, April 12, 2021

Matthew Cowley (1897-1953), "Women and the Priesthood"

 

 

Although women have equal rights and privileges with men in most matters pertaining to the Church, they do not hold the priesthood which is conferred only upon men. Other than having the right to sustain, or reject, by vote the members of the priesthood in their various offices and appointments, the women have no voice of authority in the Church outside of those organizations which have been specifically placed in their charge. The Relief Society, the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Association, and the Primary Association are organizations which are indispensable in the general program of the Church, and each of these organizations is under the direct supervision of the women. These organizations, together with the home responsibilities afford all women of the Church a wide field of useful activity. Indeed, there is no greater nor more sacred calling in the Church than that of the mother-teacher in the home.

 

In speaking of the priesthood in the home, Elder John A. Widtsoe has said: “Organization must prevail in the family, the ultimate unit of the Church. The husband, the priesthood bearer, presides over the family; the priesthood conferred upon him is intended for the blessing of the whole family. Every member shares in the gift bestowed, but under a proper organization. No man who understands the gospel believes he is greater than his wife, or more beloved of the Lord, because he holds the priesthood, but rather that he is under the responsibilities of speaking and acting for the family in official matters. It is a protection to the woman who, because of her motherhood, is under a large physical and spiritual obligation.

 

“Motherhood is an eternal part of priesthood. It is a wise provision that the man, who is the freer to move about both at home and abroad, should be called to the family presidency and be under the responsibility of holding the priesthood. This does not limit equality among men and women. Citizens in a free land are not unequal because some hold office and others do not.”

 

As in the home so in the Church the priesthood speaks and acts for the Church in all official matters. This supreme authority is not exercised by men because the priesthood holders are men, but because men hold the priesthood. This priesthood is a sacred trust for the blessing of all members in the Church, and the woman, if more righteous than the man, will receive more blessings under the hands of the priesthood than will the less worthy man though he holds the priesthood himself.

 

Because man holds the priesthood, which is God’s priesthood and not man’s, all inspiration pertaining to the functions of the priesthood must as a matter of course come through that man, or body of men, who holds the priesthood. Inspiration in all matters of the gospel will never at any time be given to the Church through women. Such a source through a gas line. Inspiration from God may be received by women as well as by men, but when that inspiration has to do with affairs of the Church or God’s kingdom upon the earth, then that inspiration must come through the medium appointed for that purpose, which medium is the priesthood.

 

Sustaining the priesthood is necessary to the free exercise and efficient functioning thereof. The prerogative of sustaining the priesthood is held by women as well as by men. There can be little inspiration and no progress, either in the home or in the Church organization, where the women do not sustain the priesthood. And where women, or men, interfere with the free exercise of the duly appointed priesthood, only disorder and a spirit of contention will prevail.

 

All offices in the Church and the auxiliary organizations, whether such offices are held by men or women, are subject at all times to the counsel, will, and direction of the priesthood. If the wife in the home, or the woman in the Church organization, meddles in matters that pertaining exclusively to the priesthood she does not have the spirit of the gospel, and she is a disturbing influence where only love and harmony should exist. Her sweet companionship as a wife and her counsel as a mother are sacred and vital, both to the well-being of the family unit and the Church as a whole, but this companionship and counsel must be in harmony with the priesthood and not contrary to its purposes. The work of the woman in her sphere of activity is just as essential to the salvation and progress of the human family as is the work of the man in his sphere which, by God’s conferment and not by man’s will, is the priesthood. For woman to intrude her will into the sphere of activity designed exclusively for the man is folly; and for man to intrude into the realm where woman is divinely appointed to reign supreme is foolish.

 

“The man is not without the woman in the Lord; neither is the woman without the man.” The man is not greater than the woman; neither is the woman greater than the man, but the priesthood is greater than both. (Matthew Cowley, “Women and the Priesthood,” July 1944, in Matthew Cowley Speaks: Discourses of Elder Matthew Cowley of the Quorum of the Twelve of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1954], 193-95, italics in original)

 

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