This was initially posted on September 10, 2012. Moderator’s Observe: Whereas Mitt Romney is just not working for workplace at the moment, there are lots of politicians, of various religions, who’re and who should be questioned on this method.
Why has Mitt Romney’s Mormon religion largely been a non-question in his political life? John Kennedy was requested if he would obey the Pope or make his personal choices, Jimmy Carter was requested how his Baptist religion would have an effect on his Presidency, and Barack Obama was requested if he agreed with the sermons of his preacher. Why is the press afraid to ask Mitt Romney if he agrees with the patriarchal teachings of his church and in that case, if this impacts his views on the rights of girls?
Like different patriarchal establishments, the Mormon Church believes that girls’s place is within the house. Each Mormon man is a priest and a patriarch in his own residence. Mormon perception teaches that males are to make the ultimate choices within the household, that solely they are often leaders within the church, and that they’re the members of the Mormon neighborhood who ought to communicate and act within the public (non-home) dimensions of life. Conventional Mormons consider that “ [The] LDS [woman is] all the time [to] settle for counsel from her husband, and never as simply his opinion, however as God-inspired revelation.”
The Mormon Church differs from different religions within the diploma to which it “deifies” the patriarchal household. Marriages are sealed within the Temple for all eternity and households are to be reunited in immortal life. Mormons are taught that the household is an important a part of life. Present teachings on the household have fun the self-giving love of moms, instruct each companions in a wedding to place the opposite first, and discourage bodily disciplining of kids. This “sugar-coating,” which I known as “love patriarchalism” in a earlier weblog, leaves patriarchal dominance intact. Girls are inspired to have many youngsters and are discouraged from working exterior the house. Mormons are inspired to marry of their teenagers or early twenties and to start having households instantly. A girl’s schooling is considered as secondary to her main function as a mom. Mormon girls are ill-equipped for independence.
As Caroline Kline has mentioned on Feminism and Faith, Mormon girls have alternative ways of negotiating their lives inside this method of beliefs. If their mother and father agree, they’ll pursue increased schooling. If their husbands agree, they could have comparatively and even totally egalitarian marriages. If their husbands agree, Mormon girls can work exterior the house. There are Mormon feminists working inside Mormonism to rework it. Nevertheless, public excommunications of outstanding Mormon feminists similar to Sonia Johnson and Margaret Toscano by male authorities discouraged many Mormon feminists from talking up and drove others out the door.
As I mentioned in an earlier weblog, “when patriarchy trumps love, when push comes, shove typically follows.” Whereas wife-beating is just not authorised in Mormon household teachings, male dominance is. Which means that the place husband and spouse don’t agree, each companions might be endorsed to take heed to the opposite, but when they nonetheless don’t agree, the spouse might be endorsed to comply with the management of her husband. The place girls and the church don’t agree, the male leaders of the church have energy on their aspect.
As a Mormon male, Mitt Romney is ordained as a patriarch and a priest, and he has served as a bishop (presiding over a church) and a stake chief (presiding over a gaggle of church buildings). In different phrases, he isn’t just a member of a congregation who follows the lead of the clergymen, he’s himself a priest and he has taken on roles inside his church that make him a frontrunner amongst clergymen.
Wouldn’t it make sense to ask him a couple of questions? Listed here are some strategies. Do you agree with conventional Mormon educating that males must be the breadwinners and girls ought to keep within the house every time potential? If that’s the case, how does this have an effect on your dedication to upholding the precept of “equal pay for equal work”? Do you assist tax deductions for youngster care, maternity and paternity depart insurance policies, and authorities funding of kid care? Do you “take heed to girls” in your public life? Apart out of your spouse, what girls advise you? Are your views on abortion and homosexuality dictated by your church? If that’s the case, why do you consider that you’ve the suitable to impose these views on others? And at last, the large one: do you agree with conventional teachings of your church that patriarchy is divinely decreed, and that each effort to rework patriarchy in household and society is equal to going towards the need of God?
If faith and politics actually have been separate these questions can be irrelevant. A technique to make sure that faith and politics are separate is to ask the questions. All Mitt has to say is that he belives within the full equality of girls and doesn’t agree with conventional teachings of his church that males are divinely ordained to guide in household and society. Nevertheless, I doubt that that is how he would reply.
Warning: This Man Might Not Consider in Girls’s Equality!
