The Male Blessing...and other issues of concern

So, I'm in the initial stage of making friends here in Salt Lake City, my new home of less than a week. Last evening was spent dining and conversing with Maija; she's a good friend to one of my cousins, who had at one point spent time in this area. I really enjoyed getting to know Maija, and I'm hoping we'll be able to spend more time together in the future.

Though during the course of our conversation Maija mentioned that she was Mormon, which I had in fact already figured out. It had been a fairly simple deduction, for Maija had mentioned in the course of a phone call (which she had taken in my presence) that she was in need of a "blessing". The term "blessing" in the context she was referring to is a distinctly Mormon practice. To cinch my assumption, Maija had been asking for this "blessing" from a male friend of her's, for only Priesthood Males are able to confer "blessings" within the Mormon Church.

Now that I have given the subject a vague context I would like to sound off on this issue of the "Mormon Male Blessing". For how unfortunate is it that women within the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Church are dependent upon men as they seek their own relationship with God.

Right now if you're Mormon and reading this journal, you're thinking not true, she's writing lies. You'd be wanting to tell me how you believe that each man and woman is able to have a personal relationship with the Heavenly Father. And my response to you is this, yes you do believe that, but only on the surface. For their are multiple practices within the LDS Church that speak contrary to your stated beliefs that men and women have equal standing before God.

The "Blessing" for instance is a right that only Melchizedek Priests within the LDS Church are able to confer, and since women are not entitled to the Priesthood they are unable to issue "blessings" to others within the Church. For a woman, who was created to become a helpmate to man, this oppression of dependency is severely limiting to God's call for their lives.

All of this is not to draw away from the fact that we should be at work helping one another and lifting each other up in Christ. It is more to the point of focusing on the one-sidedness that exists in the LDS Church structure. For in the LDS Church system a woman is unable to truly obtain a full relationship with Christ without the presence of man lifting her up.

Another example to support of this claim is the Mormon belief that women are called through to heaven by the power of a male relative (i.e. husband, father, brother, cousin). This calling is done by the use of a secret name, which is given to the woman when she first enters the Temple. A male relative might be privy to this name, but usually it is given to her husband on their wedding day at the Temple. Interestingly enough, men are also given secret names, which they don't have to share with their wives.

When both the wife and the husband have passed over in death, it is the husband's responsibility to call his wife by her secret name so that she might find Heaven herself, and be his wife for all eternity. In a truly sad story, one ex-Mormon woman related that she lived in constant fear that her all to forgetful husband would never be able to remember her secret name, and she wouldn't be able to reach Heaven because of him.

The fear this woman lived in is all too much of a reality for millions of Mormon women, who live in the subtle oppression of religious beliefs. These women who seek God daily through their husbands and male relatives; yet, are unable to find an intimate, personal, whole relationship with God. Let us as Christ's believers be in prayer for these women, that they might one day see the Truth of Christ's Blessing, that ALL who believe and follow Him will receive Eternal Life. Amen.