Religion

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Religion has being part of humanity since the begin-ning of time. Religious tendencies have been found from the drawings of prehistoric caves to modern times Neo-paganism. Without a doubt, Christianity has been the strongest, most wide-spread religion in history (Young 1). It is important to mention, though, that Christianity is not the oldest re-ligion in human history. Paganism has been around for thou-sands of years before Christianity even came into exis-tence. There are many similarities between the two, but one ideology they differ on is a woman’s place of leadership in the church.

I was raised Christian, Catholic to be precise. Ca-tholicism does not allow me, a woman, to be ordained as a church leader, nor offers me access to the same knowledge available to male church leaders. As I grew up, I wanted to know more, I wanted be a leader within a church. That’s when I discovered and was baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons. Come to find out, they do not allow women in leadership po-sitions either. When I had questions about the doctrine, I was told that “some answers are available only to the lead-ers of the church” (Wallentine), and that I had to take their word on Faith. “This is it”, I said to myself. I, a woman, must be allowed to be ordained as a Mormon church Prophet.

The Mormon Church is a Christian-based church with a living Prophet as the leader. The Prophet, as well as any other high-ranking church leader, is always a man. Accord-ing to the Mormon scriptures “The authority of the priest-hood is only given to the male members of the church…they also perform administrative functions in the church” (Doc-trine and Covenants 176). Christianity is based on events, and ...

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...ame to clarify, to shed new light on old, misunderstood scriptures and traditions. The New Testament names a number of women followers of Jesus, and perhaps even disciples. Christ sacrificed himself to give us all, including me, a woman, a path to God. That alone gives me the right to be a Prophet in the Mormon Church, a pope in the Catholic Church, a Pastor in a Protestant Church.

Christianity is based on the teachings of Christ, and

Christ treated men and women as equals, with the same re-

spect. The Mormon Church is denominated Christian; there-

fore, they should follow Christ’s example. The Bible says

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor

free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one

in Christ” (Galatians 3:28). If nothing else, this last

scripture alone establishes the equality of women and men.

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