The Kingdom of God is Within Me

By Jenny Richards

Photo by the blowup on Unsplash

On March 17, 2024, the following statement was made by a leader of the women’s organization in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “There is no religious organization in the world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.” Despite this pronouncement, the unprecedented response on the LDS Church’s official social media account indicated that the lived experience of thousands of women does not match this statement. Over 17,000 voices expressed with great pain and passion that the Church is not enabling them to “fill the measure of their creation.”

The liberating example of the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus leads to the question “who do you say that I am?” when considering the patriarchy exemplified by practices, policies, culture, and sanctioned traditions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The LDS Church proclaims the truth of equal partnership but the lived experiences of many LDS women illustrate a structural and systemic preference for patriarchy over any doctrine of equality.

“[LDS women] are subordinated ... to men (making the meals, while men make the important decisions),” the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can be a difficult place for many women to flourish. Women are led and presided over by men at every level, in both the Church and sadly, sometimes in the home. When women’s roles are limited and prescribed, they lack the opportunity to develop both a sense of self and the innate spiritual gifts to which they are inclined, some of which may fall outside the rigid gender roles imposed by patriarchy. Additionally, women must learn to ignore or shelve many real inequalities. It is discouraging for women to know that by merely naming the inconsistencies in practice or doctrine or pushing against cultural policies, they risk disfavor or even discipline, not to mention damage to their spiritual and mental health. This is one reason why the public outcry of this past March is so unusual in the LDS church; it represents thousands of faithful women who are willing to risk social ramifications and potential consequences within the Church by raising their voices against the tide of prescriptive cultural expectations and Church practices that limit growth and understanding.

The following graph breaks down the themes expressed by commenters in the post on social media (at the time of printing, there were 12, 578 comments):

This data is a stark indicator of the preponderance of inequality that many LDS women are feeling. Despite incremental improvements for all its females—handing out towels in the temple baptistry, women carrying a sacrament tray into the bathroom for nursing mothers, female missionaries in slacks if the weather is cold enough, and witnessing (along with children) the ordinance of baptism, the fact remains that “structure communicates values. What [women] learn about themselves and their value to an organization is not what the organization says to them or about them but what they experience while members of that organization.” Brigham Young University professor Meg Wheatley noted that while the LDS Church is “secure in stating that God created men and women as equals, structurally it communicates inequality. Women are cited as the backbone of the Church… yet the range of contributions, especially leadership, open to them is quite limited compared to that of men...” Wheatley continued, “again, we need to ask what messages are being communicated to women because of such differences in the opportunities made available to them in the Church. And we must wonder whether an organization which believes in the perfectibility of its members and teaches that we are all equal in the sight of God should feel content with a structure which communicates such disparate messages to men and women.”

Reflecting on the wider issue of the patriarchal oppression that is pervasive in many religious organizations, it is important to consider the underlying problem caused by a literal understanding and insistence upon the exclusive maleness of God. Statements made by scholars such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas have been interpreted as saying that “the male alone represents the fulness of the human potential, in himself and as head of the woman. He is the totality of the image of God, while woman in herself does not represent the image of God or possess the fullness of humanity.” This narrative, centered on the adult male, is known as androcentrism, and it contributes significantly to the “real and serious discrimination in the church community, not only at the ministerial level but also and above all at the theological level.” In this narrative, women are often in an existential struggle to see themselves as full citizens of the Kingdom put forth by Jesus. The LDS Church believes in the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother, but as of late, even the mention of her name has become discouraged and seen as too “speculative.”

What exactly is possible for women in the LDS Church and how can the Church live up to its own doctrine of Equal Partnership? Is it possible that women can and will be able to make decisions and have a voice someday as leaders in the Church without the constant oversight of men? Is it possible that we don’t have a full picture of the understanding of Jesus’s self-proclaimed mission to “bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free,” and that we have a lot more to learn? The concept of the Kingdom of God  was misunderstood by Jesus’s first followers, and we misunderstand too, which is why Jesus goes to such great lengths to tell us that the Kingdom is not a place, but a quality of life to be lived, not in the future, but now; not out there somewhere, but within and all around us. 

Jesus’s mission of justice and peace for all people, inclusive of women, signals that “the reign of God is diametrically opposed to any group setting itself up as exclusively privileged and relegating others to the periphery.” A re-encountering with the Jesus of the Gospels reveals three distinct elements that liberate women. 1- Women were prophetic messengers, disciples, witnesses and apostles, with Mary Magdalene as the “apostle to the apostles,”2- Jesus offered Living Water, which taught women that true power comes from within and does not need to be granted, and 3- Jesus modeled the “very opposite of male-dominating power” on the Cross.

1. Women were prophetic messengers, disciples, witnesses and apostles, with Mary Magdalene as the “apostle to the apostles.”

Th angel Gabriel spoke first toMary not Joseph about the miraculous conception of Jesus. Mary, who in her prophetic Magnificat, gave the world “the gospel before the gospel: a fierce, bright shout of triumph thirty weeks before Bethlehem, and thirty years before Calvary and Easter.”

Jesus called both men and women, in what John Dominic Crossan termed “radical egalitarianism: an absolute equality of people that denies the validity of any discrimination between them and negates the necessity of any hierarchy among them.”  Women formed part of Jesus’ company in Galilee and left all to follow Him. They taught, lead, bore witness, and acted without oversight, because Jesus trusted and empowered them.

The Risen Christ spoke first to Mary Magdalene—alone—entrusting her with the good news we call “the gospel.” Indeed, Mary Magdalene was, “therefore, not simply an apostle of the apostles; she was commissioned by the risen Jesus himself to bear and proclaim the message of messages to the disciples.” Mary’s encounter with the Risen Lord and the resulting commission lay in “the authority it gave one witness to proclaim the good news and to be an apostle.” Mary had the sentinel experience of both witnessing the Risen Christ, and being expressly commissioned to declare that witness to others. And yet, when she revealed this message to Jesus’s male disciples, the men did not believe. Perhaps instead of deferring to arguments based on what Jesus did not do with regard to women, the Church today should “listen with open ears and learn from what Jesus actually did when he sent a woman like Mary Magdalene to carry and proclaim the ... most significant message of his accomplished mission to the Christian community.”

2.  Jesus offered Living Water, which taught women that true power comes from within and does not need to be granted.

Jesus engaged in lengthy religious discussion with an outcast, adulterous Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well. This encounter was a stunning personification of his countercultural views on women. Jesus offered a bubbling spring of Living Water to this woman, transforming her countenance and generating a well of conversion, grace, and spiritual power within her. The Living Water that Jesus offered enabled her, and all women, to fully claim their innate spiritual autonomy and sovereignty. Interestingly, “two words for power are used in the gospels. One is exousia, which denotes power that has been granted, whereas dunamis, which is raw power, innate, spontaneous, and often fearful, is not granted but inborn.” Dunamis is what Jesus both claims and offers to women. Dunamis is ungendered, divine power that is found within.  

Thomas Merton expressed that a “true encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power we did not know we had... a resilience, an ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.” Once we come into contact with dunamis, we no longer need to seek “power over” others, because the dignity of “power within” is one that can be shared with all life. Clare and Francis of Assisi trusted this inner wisdom and power. Dunamis shaped both of their countercultural visions of what it looked like to follow Christ’s footsteps into lives of voluntary poverty and ministry to and with the “least of these.” Likewise, LDS women know they have inner spiritual power and authority, and they don’t need a religious institution to give it to them. Instead, what they are asking for is permission to use it.

3. Jesus modeled the very opposite of male-dominating power on the Cross.

Jesus poured out His power in an act of self-sacrificing love on the Cross. Elizabeth Johnson wisely observes the profound truth that “the cross is the kenosis of patriarchy.” This kenosis, or self-emptying, is a significant aspect of the Franciscan tradition, where there “is no real imitation of Christ without humility, poverty of spirit, austerity of life, and genuine charity.” In a complete surrender to the Trinitarian flow of effusive, self-giving Love, and in an act of complete, divine freedom, Christ gave up his life. 

The cosmic Christ is no threat to anything but separateness, domination, imperialism, and ego. Many people are more comfortable with a divine monarch at the top of a pyramidal, hierarchical reality; hence, the irony of Jesus’s naked self-emptying on the Cross as an embodiment of cosmic subversion of power is astonishing. Instead of “lording over [humankind] from a pinnacle of power,” Jesus “redrew the structure of relationship into one of kinship with others.” Kinship rather than domination. Circles rather than pyramids. Circles are much more threatening than pyramids to any patriarchal system, and yet, this is the way of Jesus. 

So, what can be done? Is there any hope for a greater understanding of the potential of women within the overwhelmingly patriarchal LDS Church? Can we favor partnership over patriarchy?

One pastoral solution to be considered is the importance of beginning now to separate priesthood functions from administrative activity; essentially, separating which parts of the Church come from God and which come from men. Meg Wheatley offered the notion that “a tremendous amount can be done to improve women’s positions within the Church. We need first to develop greater clarity around what priesthood is and where its power is appropriate; to sort out the spirit-centered needs from bureaucratic exigencies.” 

Perhaps it is finally time for incremental steps, focused on expanding opportunities for inclusion and decision-making to women and leaning into equal partnership. Men tell women that they have been given power and authority, but what they lack is permission to use it. It is surprising to witness how quickly people’s behavior becomes energetic and positive when their opportunities are even slightly increased.  The process of creating opportunities and granting permission for women to use their priesthood power and authority must be ongoing, but effects are immediate and dramatic even with small positive changes.  One of these desperately needed changes is that of acknowledging and elevating the rich, inviting doctrine of a Heavenly Mother that exists in our canon, thereby giving access to the feminine divine and the fullness of citizenship that this theology offers both women and men. 

Only as we work to make positive changes will we discover the causes of inequality and create more balance between the women and men who constitute the LDS Church. We must speak up and advocate. The time has come to recover and live out the understanding that we are baptized into a community that transcends race, nationality, and gender. We must never forget that women asking for equal partnership is a movement of the human spirit.

Through the life and example of Jesus, I am learning that spirituality and action are inseparably connected. I feel deep pain, even heartbreak, at the incongruities between the teachings and ministry of Jesus and my own religious institution that bears his name and claims to have the fullness of the truth. But I must not let my pain embitter me, nor cause me to become passive. My pain must teach me. Heartbreak can bring about a revolution of the heart. If I refuse to be willing to touch my own or others’ pain, I risk becoming indifferent to suffering in an attempt to self-soothe. Self-soothing as a hidden motive does nothing but inhibit the work of justice in the world and in the Church.  

I have imprinted upon my soul a relentless desire to lift up and live out the mission of Jesus to “bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free.” I cannot turn away from suffering. I want to believe that my hands can help lift the weight of the world. This is my charge as a disciple of Jesus Christ. The Kingdom of God is within me. 

Bibliography

Bingemer, Maria Clara Lucchetti.  “Masculinity, Femininity, and the Christ.” In The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women, edited by Elizabeth Johnson, 176-185. New York: Orbis Books, 2016. 

Crossan, John Dominic. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

Gates, Melinda.  The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. New York: Flatiron Books, 2019.

Hayes, Zachary. The Hidden Center: Spirituality and Speculative Christology in St. Bonaventure. Franciscan Institute, 2000.

Isherwood, Lisa. “Feminist Christologies.” In The Blackwell Companion to Jesus, edited by Delbert Royce Burkett, 427-442. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing LTD, 2011. https://doi-org.dtl.idm.oclc.org/10.1002/9781444327946.

Johnson, Elizabeth. Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology. USA: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1990.

Johnson, Elizabeth. Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril. New York: Orbis Books, 2018.

Merton, Thomas. “He is Risen.” From A True Encounter. Center for Action and Contemplation, April 12, 2024. https://cac.org/daily-meditations/a-true-encounter/.  

Okure, Teresa. “The Significance Today of Jesus’s Commission to Mary Magdalene.”  In The Strength of Her Witness: Jesus Christ in the Global Voices of Women, edited by Elizabeth Johnson, 17-31. New York: Orbis Books, 2016.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. “Worldwide Relief Society Devotional.” March 17, 2024, https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/event/worldwide-relief-society-devotional-2024

Wheatley, Meg. “An Expanded Definition of Priesthood?: Some Present and Future Consequences.” In Women and Authority: Re-emerging Mormon Feminism, edited by Maxine Hanks, 151-165. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992.  

Wright, N.T. Luke for Everyone. London: The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2001.  

Zelophehads Daughters blog. “Reading Comments on the Church’s Instagram Post.” April 4, 2024, https://zelophehadsdaughters.com/2024/04/04/reading-comments-on-the-churchs-instagram-post/