Submission, Sustaining and Stumbling Blocks:
Sadly the supporters of the Ordain Women movement seem to lack understanding of these three essential elements, which in fact, lie at the core of Jesus' teachings of the importance of mercy, humility and grace. With regards to the doctrine of submission, whether it is a wife submitting to her righteous husband, a husband submitting to the righteous pleadings of his wife, or a righteous husband and wife submitting to their priesthood leader, it is human error to equate submission within the Gospel of Love, to the oppressive submission that the world so despises and rebels against.
Within the restored Gospel the concept of submission has nothing to do with power, and everything to do with love and respect, which is the submission in the manner and type of that exhibited by Jesus Christ to the Father. I have yet to hear any sincere student of the scriptures accuse God the Father of being a megalomaniac, or Jesus of being an oppressed son under his Father thumb! Jesus, constantly, humbly, and lovingly submitted in all things to the will of his Father. For some reason, most people seem to not be offended by the concept of submission as it relates to God and Christ. Perhaps it is because they know that God and Jesus are one, perfectly unified, perhaps it is because they know that Jesus and God have BOTH achieved the highest possible potential for humankind? Perhaps it is because they understand that love, pure love, is what motivates the bleeding, pleading Son, to say “nevertheless, not my will but thine be done” What powerful and instructive words. There is no power struggle there, no culture of envy, no under the thumb mentality, just pure humility and perfect love at work. In truth that is the pattern for submission within the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Contrarily we learn from scripture that from the beginning it was Satan and not Jesus who demanded equality with God, and protested against the concept of submission. That protest not only destroyed Lucifer, but many who bought into his arguments.
On par with the doctrine of submission, is that of sustaining. It is true that all humans are flawed. We are imperfect before God and struggling to know, do and implement his will. On occasions, the flesh may win the battle over the spirit, and human wisdom crowd out that of the spirit. In such cases the doctrine of sustaining applies, backed by the power of Grace. That doctrine teaches that when called and sustain leaders determine a course of action, that does not comply with our private thoughts, feelings or reason, we are duty bound to sustain them in those actions, with the promise that the Grace of Christ will make it all right in the end. Once the test of obedience and humility is won, the Lord will, as he did with Abraham, provide himself a ram. Obviously, actions that are immoral or illegal ought not to be sustained, but differences of opinion, or feelings of doubt, or thinking one has a better way to proceed, must give way under this doctrine, with reliance upon the Lord to know what is best and to fix things accordingly. That being the case, there would be no issue with the Ordain Women movement’s conducting private and sincere fasts, and prayer vigils, or offering humble petitions to God, that He will step in to correct all their perceived injustices, and bring His Church into lock step with their private views of equality. However, to aggressively and openly oppose, mock or challenge the very leaders they raised their hands to sustain, is to violate the law of sustaining, and may lead to great harm to others. That harm, like the words which are spoken and then cannot be recalled, comes in the form of stumbling blocks.
The Apostle Paul who truly understood that Love should be the basis for all we do, clearly instructed the Corinthian Saints, that even doing things they thought were right-- which might be interpreted as wrong, or cause a stumbling block for others-- ought to be avoided. The Church has long warned parents that their evil speaking of their file leaders, in family gatherings, might not in the end effect the speaker, for their faith and testimony may be sufficient to carry them through, however, such actions may cause grave and eternally damning harm to their children, who are not yet spiritually mature enough to grasp the concepts of human frailties. Similarly, for saints to take aggressive and radical positions openly, in forums or settings which might mislead or cause a stumbling block for new members, tender spirits, or investigators, violates the principle Paul taught. All things may be lawful, but not all things are expedient. Even if some among the movement actually are more than mere cultural Mormons, and really do possess a witness that this is the only true church on the face of the earth, and that it is in fact lead by a true and living prophet under God's direction, their actions demonstrating a lack of faith in that same leader may not hurt the radical, Ordain Woman, disciple who is picketing or protesting, but it very well may hurt the observer, whose faith is weak, or who sees things in a different way. Advocates of Ordain Women would do well to consider the impact of their mature decisions on their less mature children. I cannot imagine the grief of such parent, when at the final judgment the try to rationalize why their actions were faultless, while they are simultaneously being exposed to the inerasable truth of the harm their actions actually caused to one their children or to other children of God, who witnessed that conduct to their hurt.