The following is a copy of a paper Julie and I wrote as part of a religion class I am in this semester.

Introduction

In our day, Hollywood, as well as daytime television, has pushed upon western society a deceptive view of womanhood. We are constantly bombarded with depictions of women as the sexy, aggressive, nearly-naked supermodel. Even when the shows themselves are not offensive, the ads fill the airways with scantly-dressed woman using their sexuality to promote various products. The effects of these depictions are seen in the attitudes of both men and women. Richard G. Scott said,

Satan has unleashed a seductive campaign to undermine the sanctity of womanhood, to deceive the daughters of God and divert them from their divine destiny. He well knows women are the compassionate, self-sacrificing, loving power that binds together the human family. He would focus their interests solely on their physical attributes and rob them of their exalting roles as wives and mothers. He has convinced many of the lie that they are third-class citizens in the kingdom of God. That falsehood has led some to trade their divinely given femininity for male coarseness (2000).

In the words of another apostle, M. Russell Ballard,

The adversary is having a heyday distorting attitudes about gender and roles and about families and individual worth. He is the author of mass confusion about the value, the role, the contribution, and the unique nature of women. Today’s popular culture, which is preached by every form of media from the silver screen to the Internet, celebrates the sexy, saucy, socially aggressive woman (2002).

In this world of mass confusion about gender roles we desperately need to understand the Lord’s plan of salvation and the role of women in that plan.

Satan’s Great Lies

Through all of our history, but most visible in our day, are two great lies which Satan authored to destroy families and bring men and women into bondage. One being that the leader is the only important role, and the other that men and women are exactly the same.

First, the leader is the only important role. Not only is this lie embraced in historical literature, but the characteristics of courage, physical strength, and leadership are lauded as the ideals for every person to attain while other virtues such as patience, kindness, and gentleness are all but ignored even though these were the qualities Our Lord taught while on this earth. Everyone, men and women alike, are taught to aspire to climb the corporate ladder. There is little or no praise given to women who chose the calling of motherhood as their primary aspiration. Elder Maxwell remarks on the calling of motherhood by saying:

When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in congresses? When the surf of the centuries has made the great pyramids so much sand, the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial institution, formed outside telestial time (1978).

Since the leaders in the workplace are both seen and praised, both men and women have strived to fill that role. But would a company full of CEO’s accomplish anything without the laborers behind that work? The laborer is as essential to building a house as the architect. To refer to the body of Christ analogy found in 1 Corinthians 12, “And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?” Every role is important. Not just the visible ones praised by the world.

The second lie promoted by Satan is that, men and women are or should be exactly the same. Consider Laura Croft as she is depicted in the famous “Tomb Raider” movies and video games. She is typical of society’s feminine ideals: strong, violent, and sexually aggressive – all characteristics of men. It is becoming increasingly common to hear women using profanity and telling dirty jokes. The feminists call out for women to rise out of the bondage of the home and demand their right in the workplace. Satan would have us believe that men and women are the same, and have no unique characteristics or abilities to bring into a relationship (Dew, 2001).

It is obvious to many that men and women are different—physically and mentally, as well as emotionally. (Uchtdorf, 2008). These differences are meant to complement one another and help both men and women progress in the kingdom of God. Men and women are not able to reach exaltation without each other. “Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” (I Corinthians 11:11). God made man and woman different so that we could work together and rely on each other’s strengths (Dew, 2001). We must not let the confusion Satan spreads infect us, and lead us to doubt God’s great purpose in creating a duality of sexes.

The Creation

It was only after everything else was created, the waters, the land, the plants, and the animals did God create man and woman (Genesis 1:27). Some, like St. Augustine, argue that Eve’s creation was an afterthought, and she was therefore inferior to the man Adam. However, this implies God had not planned the creation thoroughly, or he forgot, or in other ways was not omniscient. Women were always part of the plan, and it is not in God’s character to diminish any of his children (Ballard, 2002). Each and every person’s gender is an essential characteristic inherent in our pre-mortal experience (Hinckley, 1995).

Men and women were created to complement each other. “One is incomplete without the other” (Hinckley, 2004). Though symbolic details of the creation of woman are given in Genesis 2, we find that woman was created with man on the sixth day (Genesis 1:27, Moses 2:27, Abraham 4:27). The image of Eve being created from Adam’s rib teaches us of our interdependence. Adam said, “This was bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” and man and woman shall together be “one flesh” (Abraham 5:17-18). The family, with a husband and wife, was the final creation of God before He declared “all things which I had made were very good” (Moses 2:31).

Woman’s Worth

The prophets, both ancient and modern, teach us of the great value of women in God’s plan. A righteous woman is worth more than any earthly treasure (Proverbs 31:10). When the Lord speaks of His love for His children, and pleads for them to repent, He declares “the worth of souls”, including both men and women, to be great in His sight (Doctrine & Covenants 18:10). Some men unwisely assert their priesthood responsibilities as evidence of their greater worth in the kingdom of God. In the words of Neal A. Maxwell:

We know so little about the reasons for the division of duties between womanhood and manhood as well as between motherhood and priesthood. These were divinely determined in another time and another place. We are accustomed to focusing on the men of God because theirs is the priesthood and leadership line. But paralleling that authority line is a stream of righteous influences reflecting the remarkable women of God who have existed in all ages and dispensations. Greatness is not measured by coverage in column inches, either in newspapers or in the scriptures. The story of the women of God, therefore, is, for now, an untold drama within a drama (Maxwell, 1978).

Even though the scriptures predominantly highlight men we do find examples of where the Lord gave preeminence to women. Even though Christ had ordained twelve apostles, and gave them the Priesthood, after His resurrection He appeared first unto a woman, Mary (Mark 16:9). This helps us understand that Priesthood doesn’t make men any more important than women. Also, the very first time Jesus acknowledged Himself to be the Christ, it was to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (John 4:26). Here a woman, who was not even of the House of Israel, received the testimony of the Divine Savior before any man of any rank in the Lord’s chosen people. And, though Joseph was given the privilege of raising the Savior as his son, Mary was called to be the actual mother of the Son of God. It was to her that the angel first appeared to announce the coming pregnancy. Women always have been, and always will be equally valued by the Lord.

The Divine Role of Women

We know from the scriptures that before this earth life we participated in a counsel in heaven, in which God, our Father, set before us the plan of salvation in which we learned our divine destiny. The proclamation to the world affirms that even in this pre-mortal state our gender was an essential characteristic of our divine being. As men and women we must have learned of our different roles and what would be required of us during this earth life. President Hinckley affirms that, “Women are such a necessary part of the plan of happiness which our Heavenly Father has outlined for us. That plan cannot operate without them” (2004). The priesthood cannot work out its destiny in the plan of happiness, nor can God’s purposes be fulfilled, without the help of women. (Faust, 1988). M. Russell Ballard said that along with faithful priesthood holders there were faithful women who “labored valiantly in the cause of truth and righteousness from before the foundations of this world” (2002). In a vision of the redemption of the dead, President Joseph F. Smith saw not only Father Adam and other prophets but “our glorious Mother Eve, with many of her faithful daughters who had lived through the ages and worshiped the true and living God” (D&C 138:39). This demonstrates that women play a vital role in laboring to build the kingdom of God.

As Elder Maxwell stated previously, women hold a calling that runs parallel to the priesthood: motherhood. This role given to women has always been part of the plan of happiness. The role of motherhood receives little praise from the world and is often belittled. Satan will do all he can to convince women to shirk motherhood because “motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind” (Faust, 1988).

Motherhood is a holy calling, a sacred dedication for carrying out the Lord’s work, a consecration and devotion to the rearing and fostering, the nurturing of body, mind, and spirit of those who kept their first estate and who came to this earth for their second estate to learn and be tested and to work toward godhood. The role of mother, then, is to help those children to keep their second estate, so that they might have glory added upon their heads forever and ever (Kimball, 1976).

There is nothing more destructive to the eternal happiness of God’s children, than Satan’s attack on the holy calling of motherhood.

Conclusion

Our Father has prepared a plan for all of His children to receive a fullness of happiness. The roles we play in that plan are not intended to bring us glory in this world, nor honor among society, but life everlasting in the Kingdom of Our Father. Men and women need to stand together to combat Satan’s deceptive lies about womanhood. We need to stand together to honor the role of motherhood, and love and respect the women in our lives.

Bibliography

• Ballard, M. R. (2002, Apr). Women of Righteousness. Ensign, pp. 66-73.
• Dew, S. L. (2001, Nov). It Is Not Good for Man or Woman to Be Alone. Ensign, pp.12-14.
• Faust, J. E. (1988, May). The Highest Place of Honor. Ensign, pp. 36.
• Hinckley, G.B., Faust, J. E., & Monson, T. S. (2005, Nov). The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Ensign, pp. 102.
• Hinckley, G. B. (2004, Nov). The Women in Our Lives. Ensign, pp. 82-85.
• Hinckley, G. B. (1996, Nov). Women of the Church. Ensign, pp. 67-70.
• Hinckley, G. B. (1988, Sep). Our Responsibility to Our Young Women. Ensign, pp.8.
• Kimball, S. W. (1979, Nov). The Role of Righteous Women.Ensign, pp. 102.
• Kimball, S. W. (1976, Mar). The Blessings and Responsibilities of Womanhood. Ensign, pp. 70-73.
• Maxwell, N. A. (1978, May). The Women of God.Ensign, pp. 10.
• Scott, R. G. (2000, May). The Sanctity of Womanhood. Ensign , pp. 36-38.