Mormonism and gender issues/Women/Role in the Church/Priesthood/Did Joseph ordain women to the priesthood

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Did Joseph Smith ordain women to the priesthood?

Questions

Did Joseph Smith (or other early leaders) ordain or plan to ordain women to the priesthood?

To see citations to the critical sources for these claims, click here

Answer

Ordination of women to the priesthood is a matter of doctrine that is contrary to the Lord's revealed organization for His Church.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a letter responding to the Ordain Women movement's request for tickets to the April 2014 General Priesthood Session. (17 March 2014)

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It seems evident from the historical record that:

• Joseph Smith did not ordain women to the priesthood--particularly in the sense of ordaining them to offices in the priesthood.
• None of the other early leaders did either, or understood Joseph to have done so.

There has been some confusion over the language used of the first organization of the Relief Society—but it is not clear that we should understand this as a priesthood ordination.

In other vital senses, women are included in the priesthood:

• through the temple ordinances they receive and administer
• by the authority delegated to all those who serve under the direction of priesthood keys
• because all people—men and women—must be sealed in marriage to be exalted; single women therefore share in the priesthood of their eventual partner, just as the currently married do with their spouse.

Detailed Analysis

Did Joseph Smith ordain women to the Priesthood?

"It is crucial for us to understand that Heavenly Father has provided a way for all of His sons and His daughters to have access to the blessings of and be strengthened by the power of the priesthood."

—Elder M. Russell Ballard

Elder Ballard has noted that "The power of the priesthood is a sacred and essential gift of God. It is different from priesthood authority, which is the authorization to act in God’s name. The authorization or ordination is given by the laying on of hands. The power of the priesthood comes only when those who exercise it are worthy and acting in accordance with God’s will."}}

The basis for the suggestion that Joseph ordained women usually comes from the language used when he first organized the Relief Society. When the Relief Society was originally set up, it seems to have been intended to function in a way similar to the priesthood (but largely autonomous - it was not originally set up as an auxiliary to the priesthood in the sense that it exists today - that shift comes later). It had a similar organization (a presidency, councils, and so on).

The original minutes from the Relief Society's founding are available on-line as part of the Joseph Smith Papers project.

A look at these minutes illustrates the parallels in the type of language used. For example, on page 8:

If any Officers are wanted to carry out the designs of the Institution, let them be appointed and set apart, as Deacons, Teachers, etc., are among us."

Later on the same page:

Moved by President [Joseph] Smith, that Mrs. [Emma] Smith proceed to choose her Counselors, that they may be ordained to preside over this Society, in taking care of the poor."

And later again on the same page:

President Smith ... stated that she was ordained at the time,....

So, we have this language that mirrors the language of the priesthood, but it is likely just that: a mirror. This language describes an organization parallel to the priesthood, but it is not the priesthood. They are set apart, just like deacons and teachers are, but they are not set apart as deacons and teachers. We certainly have no record of women serving as deacons, teachers, priests, elders, etc. in Nauvoo or afterward.

Did Joseph intend to ordain women to the priesthood?

The language used at the Relief Society's founding meeting eventually caused some confusion in the church in the late 1800s. In particular, concerns were raised after members had been exposed to the full temple ordinances. And this brings us to the second issue-- did Joseph intend to ordain women to the priesthood?

In the temple, women administer ordinances and do other things that are suggestive of priesthood authority. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there was a push to make sure that temple ordinances were being performed the same way in all of the temples (this hadn't really been an issue until then, since there were only a couple of temples--but the number of temples began to grow quickly in this time frame).

So from this period one begins to see a series of comments from leaders of the church that relate to this subject.

Late nineteenth century

“When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is priesthood power. … Access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children.

— Elder Dallin H. Oaks

One of the earlier ones comes from President John Taylor in 1880, which was specifically in response to the question of Emma and the early Relief Society. He was well suited to answer, since it had been him that ordained Emma and her two counselors at the founding meeting of the Relief Society. He said:

"Some of the sisters have thought that these sisters mentioned were, in this ordination, ordained to the priesthood. And for the information of all interested in this subject I will say, it is not the calling of these sisters to hold the Priesthood, only in connection with their husbands, they being one with their husbands.

The idea of women holding the priesthood in connection with their husbands is repeated in 1888 by President Franklin D. Richards, but given some additional context:

I ask any and everybody present who have received their endowments, whether he be a brother Apostle, Bishop, High Priest, Elder, or whatever office he may hold in the Church, "What blessings did you receive, what ordinance, what power, intelligence, sanctification or grace did you receive that your wife did not partake of with you?

I will answer, that there was one thing that our wives were not made special partakers of, and that was the ordination to the various orders of the priesthood which were conferred upon us. Aside from that, our sisters share with us any and all of the ordinances of the holy anointing, endowments, sealings, sanctifications and blessings that we have been made partakers of. Now, I ask you: Is it possible that we have the holy priesthood and our wives have none of it? Do you not see, by what I have read, that Joseph desired to confer these keys of power upon them in connection with their husbands? I hold that a faithful wife has certain blessings, powers and rights, and is made partaker of certain gifts and blessings and promises with her husband, which she cannot be deprived of, except by transgression of the holy order of God. They shall enjoy what God said they should. And these signs shall follow them if they believe. Moses said, when some one told him that a certain man was prophesying in the camp, and the people thought he had no right to do so, Moses replied saying: "I would to God that all of the Lord's people were prophets.

So I say: I wish all the sisters were so faithful that they were healers of the sick, through the power of God."

This last line refers to ordinances of washing and anointing for healing that women performed in temples in the 19th and early 20th century. When asked about such matters and what they implied about women having priesthood ordination, Wilford Woodruff wrote to the Relief Society General President:

Wilford Woodruff: [Answer:] To begin with I desire to say that the ordinance of washing and anointing is one that should only be administered in Temples or other holy places which are dedicated for the purpose of giving endowments to the Saints. That ordinance might not be administered to any one whether she has received or has not received her endowments, in any other place or under any other circumstances.

But I imagine from your question that you refer to a practice that has grown up among the sisters of washing and anointing sisters who are approaching their confinement [i.e., preparing to give birth]. If so, this is not, strictly speaking, an ordinance, unless it be done under the direction of the priesthood and in connection with the ordinance of laying on of hands for the restoration of the sick.

There is no impropriety in sisters washing and anointing their sisters in this way, under the circumstances you describe; but it should be understood that they do this, not as members of the priesthood, but as members of the Church, exercising faith for, and asking the blessings of the Lord upon, their sisters, just as they, and every member of the Church, might do in behalf of the members of their families.

Then, in 1912, Elder James E. Talmage further expanded these ideas to include single sisters being endowed (a growing trend in that time period), when he suggested that a single woman being endowed shared the priesthood of her future husband:

"It is a precept of the Church that women of the Church share the authority of the Priesthood with their husbands, actual or prospective; and therefore women, whether taking the endowment for themselves or for the dead, are not ordained to specific rank in the Priesthood."

Present day

"We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be?"

—Elder Dallin H. Oaks

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve apostles expressed a similar idea:

When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which by definition is priesthood power. While the authority of the priesthood is directed through priesthood keys, and priesthood keys are held only by worthy men, access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children. ... Those who have entered the waters of baptism and subsequently received their endowment in the house of the Lord are eligible for rich and wonderful blessings. The endowment is literally a gift of power. All who enter the house of the Lord officiate in the ordinances of the priesthood. This applies to men and women alike."

These ideas were repeated again in April 2014 General Conference by Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

In his insightful talk at BYU Education Week last summer, Elder M. Russell Ballard gave these teachings:

“Our Church doctrine places women equal to and yet different from men. God does not regard either gender as better or more important than the other. …

“When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is priesthood power. … Access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children.”

Thus, all have access to the power of the priesthood, but not all are ordained to priesthood office. As Elder Oaks observed:

The Lord has directed that only men will be ordained to offices in the priesthood. But, as various Church leaders have emphasized, men are not “the priesthood.” [The footnote to this comment remarks: "We sometimes say that the Relief Society is a “partner with the priesthood.” It would be more accurate to say that in the work of the Lord the Relief Society and the women of the Church are “partners with the holders of the priesthood” (italics in original).

As Elder Oaks emphasized, it is not really proper to call men "the priesthood." This doctrine has been repeatedly taught.

Men are not "the priesthood"

"The priesthood is the power of God used to bless all of His children, male and female. Some of our abbreviated expressions, like “the women and the priesthood,” convey an erroneous idea. Men are not “the priesthood.” Priesthood meeting is a meeting of those who hold and exercise the priesthood. The blessings of the priesthood, such as baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, the temple endowment, and eternal marriage, are available to men and women alike. The authority of the priesthood functions in the family and in the Church, according to the principles the Lord has established."

— Elder Dallin H. Oaks

• "A righteous husband is the bearer of the priesthood, which priesthood is the governing authority of the home. But he is not the priesthood; he is the holder of the priesthood. His wife shares the blessings of the priesthood with him. He is not elevated in any way above the divine status of his wife."
• "The Lord has given to all of us, as holders of the priesthood, certain of his authority, but we can only tap the powers of heaven on the basis of our personal righteousness" (italics added).
• "In our Heavenly Father’s great priesthood-endowed plan, men have the unique responsibility to administer the priesthood, but they are not the priesthood."}}

Misunderstandings

Elder Oaks also observed than men and women can both misunderstand the nature of priesthood power and authority:

[When I was a boy] we had a neighbor who dominated and sometimes abused his wife. He roared like a lion, and she cowered like a lamb. When they walked to church, she always walked a few steps behind him. That made my mother mad. She was a strong woman who would not accept such domination, and she was angry to see another woman abused in that way. I think of her reaction whenever I see men misusing their authority to gratify their pride or exercise control or compulsion upon their wives in any degree of unrighteousness (see D&C 121꞉37). I have also seen some faithful women who misunderstand how priesthood authority functions. Mindful of their partnership relationship with their husband in the family, some wives have sought to extend that relationship to their husband’s priesthood calling, such as bishop or mission president. In contrast, some single women who have been abused by men (such as in a divorce) mistakenly confuse the priesthood with male abuse and become suspicious of any priesthood authority. A person who has had a bad experience with a particular electrical appliance should not forego using the power of electricity.

Notes

Further reading and additional sources responding to these claims