Toni is basically the nicest husband ever. His support to me- especially these last four (!!!) months of pregnancy and sickness and fatigue - has been so wonderful. I love him.
He also said very nice things about me on Facebook after church yesterday and the talk I gave in Sacrament Meeting. Per Leslie and Steph's request - I've copied it all below. I wanted to talk about the importance of women in the church, and how much they've done for the organisation and its members. And I wanted to relate this to Christ's ministry which concentrated so much on women, and put up some arguments about how much we need to support and care for the oppressed of the earth. This is all sort of my testimony in it's rawest state, and I cried quite a bit towards the end - reading Christ's words to the Pharisees, and talking about Sister Yewinshet from Ethiopia. Phew! People were very kind after, and so many women (especially single, elderly, childless etc) told me they needed that talk - they needed to have someone talk about them in an "unconventional" way - remind us all how AMAZING early church women were in their leadership and strength, their outspokenness to guide the Gospel. (Not to say women are not amazing now, I just wish they were more visible :)
Ok, will stop there :) Here you go-
Astonishingly
enough, I’m actually happy to speak to you today - Brother Reeves asked if I’d
be willing to speak on one of the general Relief Society Presidents of the church,
as part of this month’s Sacrament theme of Prophets. I nearly teared up reading
his email, so happy to see such a welcome inclusion of women in the history of
the church. I chose Eliza R Snow as the subject of my talk, a woman who is
incredibly interesting and inspiring to me, and was also an intrinsic part of
the early church’s development. Given we get a whole year of lessons based on
her brother, the Prophet Lorenzo Snow, Eliza deserves at least a Sacrament talk
- if not much more! I hope that in my talk I am able to do justice to this woman,
and the powerful work of the early Relief Society. For me and my own testimony
of the Gospel, it’s very important to reclaim some of the more radical and
diverse elements of our history. In my professional life, both at home and
abroad, I have seen both impoverished communities and women especially crushed
under customs which demand their silence. It is hard to not see how poverty and
gender both continue to lead to the worst forms of oppression across the globe.
I love the Gospel because we follow Jesus Christ in all things, and it was He
who said ‘the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.’ I cannot wait
for the day when the humbled of the earth are given their true seat of dignity,
and what I love about Eliza Snow and the work of the Relief Society is the way
in which this organization, shaped so much by the leadership of President Snow,
does nothing so well as lift up the lowly and preach a Gospel of inclusivity.
For me, that is the core of what we are meant to do as disciples of Jesus
Christ, and in studying powerful examples of such inclusive leadership, I’m
inspired to do better - to not just wait for that eventual day when the last
shall be first, but try to work on that here and now.
Eliza Snow was a
unique woman from the very outset of her life. She broke restrictive customs
and was not afraid to assert her place and share her talents. Born to
progressive parents, she received all the educational opportunities given to
her brothers. Her father, a Justice of the Peace in the American state of Iowa,
hired Eliza in his office to act as a clerk. This position was incredibly
influential on Eliza’s later work in organising and administering the Relief
Society Organisation - she was able to develop skills at that time reserved for
men, and was also not shy about working within a “man’s world.”
Eliza’s conversion
to Mormonism itself is also striking in demonstrating her prioritisation of
personal growth and knowledge. She first met Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio in 1831,
but didn’t join the church until four years after. She was deliberate and
thoughtful about converting to the church, following a sincere method of
enquiry and introspection that I find again, very inspiring. Eliza didn’t do
anything lightly - she was not a follower, she pursued knowledge and truth in a
slow, questioning manner that only proved to create a firmer testimony in
herself later on. Describing her final decision to join the church, Eliza
explained that in a period of meditative reflection, “I saw a beautiful candle
with an unusually long, bright blaze directly over my feet. I sought to know
the interpretation and received the following: The lamp of intelligence shall
be lighted over your path, and I was satisfied.”
That phrase “the
lamp of intelligence” is so beautiful, and shows how Eliza privileged the
education she could receive in the church, of both temporal and spiritual
things. As her life and work moved forward, Eliza continued to not only improve
her own knowledge and learning, but inspired other women around her to do the
same. Eliza Snow is probably best known in the church for the beautiful hymns
she wrote - especially “O, My Father.” Eliza was an incredibly talented and
renown poet and writer, and was even asked to pen a national obituary at the
death of President Abraham Lincoln. While “O, My Father” is particularly
beautiful in its message about our Heavenly Mother, I want to read some lines
of another one of her less famed hymns, number 273 “Truth Reflects Upon Our
Senses.” I want to read the last two verses because again, they typify to me
the way in which Eliza preached this Gospel of inclusivity:
If I love my neighbor dearer, and his mote I
would erase,
the light should shine the clearer, for the eye’s a tender place.
Others I have oft reproved, for an object like a mote,
now I wish this beam removed, oh, that tears would wash it out.
Charity and love are healing; these will give
the clearest sight,
when I saw my brother’s failing, I was not exactly right.
Now I’ll take no further trouble; Jesus’ love is all my theme;
little motes are but a bubble when I think upon the beam.
While these words
completely and beautifully summarize our need to not judge others, I want to
point out that Eliza Snow herself would in many ways be considered an
“outsider” in the ways she defied customary expectations of Mormon women. While
she was married to Brigham Young, Eliza never had children. Brigham Young
called her a “Priestess, Prophetess, and Presidentess” of the church, and she
held numerous leadership positions in the church - not only as General Relief
Society President, but also president of Deseret Hospital in Salt Lake City,
prolific author and editor of the newspaper the Women’s Exponent, and president
of the Women’s Department of the Endowment House. Eliza traveled heavily - both
within the US and also to Egypt and Palestine. While never a mother or
housewife, Eliza did not see this as some personal failure, despite the
church’s heavy emphasis on home and family, especially for women. Eliza
believed fully in working to build up the Gospel of Christ, and encouraged all
residents of the expanding Salt Lake valley to do the same thing - no matter
their age, station or gender. Eliza did not judge, and she did not expect
everyone to be the same - she encouraged members of the church to use their
talents where they were best served, both in secular and spiritual callings.
One niece of
Brigham Young wrote to Eliza feeling dejected that a potential marriage suit
had fallen through. She asked the President, “Will I ever get married?” In
reply, Eliza wrote “while unmarried, one cannot be fulfilling the requisition of
maternity, but let me ask, is it not important that those already born should
be cultivated and reared as that others should be born?” In other words,
there’s plenty of work to be done to uplift and instruct each other -
motherhood aside. There’s much work we can all do at all stages of our life,
and there is not one way to work in the Gospel of Christ - we all have a
mission and a responsibility unique to our own talents. There’s no room for
judgment on what stage anyone is at in their own lives - we’re all striving to
be like Christ and follow His example, and in the end that’s all that matters.
Eliza continued to
champion women especially in their capacity to work and improve their lives and
those of others around them - to the Relief Society sisters, President Snow
said, “If any of the daughters and mothers in Israel are feeling in the least
limited in their present spheres, they will now find ample scope for every
power and capability for doing good with which they are most liberally
endowed.” The vehicle of this remarkable organization of women, the Relief
Society, would support and allow women to expand their spheres and do good
within their community. In the early church, one of the principle ways this was
manifest was the incredible number of women who were sent to medical schools
for training to become doctors and nurses. President Snow said to the Relief
Society sisters, “are there here, now, any sisters who have ambition enough,
and realize the necessity of it, to take up this study? There are some who are
naturally inclined, and such ones would do well to study Medicine… if they cannot
meet their own expenses, we have means of doing so.” With the number of
educated sisters at hand, the Relief Society established the Deseret Hospital
in 1882, residents of Salt Lake had access to quality medical care, and a whole
generation of women were educated that otherwise would not have been.
For me, this is
the pinnacle of that lamp of intelligence Eliza had seen while studying the
Gospel. She had said that the Relief Society was just as much a part of the
restoration of Christ’s church as the Priesthood or Temple. Indeed, she felt
profoundly the need to follow Christ’s example fully, especially in His
ministry to the needy and outcast members of society. When you study Christ’s
ministry in detail, it is obvious how often He was chastised for speaking with
and healing those members of society supposedly too far below Him - not worthy
of His attention. When the woman taken into adultery was brought to Christ by
an angry mob intent on stoning her, the clerics of the day were attempting to
trick Christ into defending such a sinful creature. Instead, He responded with
the beautiful line, “let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.” When the
woman came to wash Christ’s feet with expensive ointment and her tears, the
Pharisees again, chastised Him for allowing such a renown sinner to touch his
feet and enter His company - saying that if Christ was truly a Prophet, He
would know who that woman was and would not have allowed her near. In response,
Christ says, in Luke 7:44-48:
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, seest thou this
woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she
hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman hath since the time I came in
hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed
my feet with ointment.
Wherefore, I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven;
for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
Or another of my
favourite stories, of the woman at the well. When Christ approached the woman
for a drink, His Apostles had left Him, and the woman was astonished, asking
(in John 4:9):
How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a
woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
To me, Christ
reversed the social order, lifting up those that others had cast aside because
of their poverty or sins. It’s not a coincidence to me that so many of those He
ministered to in this way were women. With the theme, Charity Never Faileth,
the Relief Society is to me the most natural restoration of Christ’s mission.
Built up by remarkable foremothers like Eliza R Snow, I’m so happy to be a
member of that organisation which does nothing but lift and support our ward
and community members without judgment. I think about all the Relief Society
congregations I’ve been privileged to be a part of since I turned 18, and think
President Snow would be proud to see what the organisation she worked so hard
to build had become in these days. I want to end in telling you about the Relief
Society in my branch in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last year. With less than ten
members, it was a small group of women, but was led by President Yewinshet, an
amazing woman whose dedication and faith were truly inspiring to me. Like most
Mormons in Ethiopia, Yewinshet was the only member in her family. Inactivity in
the branch was exceptionally common - every week there was at least two
baptisms, but the number of people who continued to come to meetings remained
small. But Yewinshet never missed a Sunday. Born blind, Yewinshet ran a small
training school she had built for disabled people to learn essential jobs
skills so they wouldn’t have to rely on begging to survive. She worked with
hardly any budget, and gave all of herself - her time, her resources, her
talents - both to that important work, and to the sisters of the Relief
Society. Every week she bore a strong testimony of her faith in God, a faith
that to be honest, in her circumstances, and given the opposition I know she
faced at home, I doubt I would be strong enough to profess. Yewinshet was
dedicating her life to serving the downtrodden of society - she did so without
praise or acclaim, and to me, is the ultimate example of the love we as
disciples of Christ are meant to project.
I hope that we can
learn from the example of Eliza Snow, and so many around us, who use their
unique talents to follow Christ and build up His people. We’re all outsiders in
one way or another, but those external social markers mean little in comparison
to our heart’s desire to serve Christ’s people - like King Benjamin said, “we
are all beggars,” giving what little we have.
I say these things
in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
