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In the mainstream of the Church today, women continue to have a significant public role, mostly in non-ecclesiastical areas such as art and culture. While the Church is firmly committed to patriarchy and gender roles, the majority of women in the Church have an extraordinary amount of goodwill toward their male leaders, and find this situation perfectly acceptable and even desirable in the context of the Church, even though the same women might be highly incredulous toward similar patriarchal structures in the workplace or in secular life.
Women also have retained a certain degree of limited authority in a few areas, including a number of "auxiliary" leadership positions, which include authority over children or other women, although these women leaders are subject to direct supervision and guidance by male priesthood-holders. Women are " endowed" with priesthood power, but are not ordained as clergy. Though not considered clergy, women play a significant part in the operation of local congregations. Women teach classes to adults, teenagers, and children. Women also organise social, educational, and humanitarian activities. Women may also serve as missionaries, and a select few may perform certain ordinances such as washing and anointing on behalf of women in Latter-day Saint temples. Unofficially, wives of male clergy also often play an indirect leadership role by influencing and counseling their husbands.
Outside the Church mainstream, there is a small minority of influential Latter-day Saint women who vocally contribute to church doctrine, and who attempt to influence Church policy; however, to the extent these women have been vocally and assertively critical of male church leaders, they are often excommunicated for apostasy, as are men who are similarly critical of Church leaders.
For its time, early Mormonism had a relatively liberating stance toward women. The religion owed some of its outlook toward women to the proto-feminism that accompanied the Second Great Awakening of 19th century New England. In that era, a number of notable women were given significant leadership roles in matters of religion. Joseph Smith, Jr.daguerreotype of Joseph Smith, Jr. taken by Lucian Foster (Library of Congress). Joseph Smith, Jr. December 23, 1805 June 27, 1844) was the charismatic founder and leader of the Latter Day Saint movement. Latter Day Saints revere him as a prophet and mart, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movementThe Latter Day Saint movement (also called the Mormonism movement or the Mormon movement is a religious movement beginning in the early 19th century that led to the set of doctrines, practices, and cultures called Mormonism and to the existence of numerou, lived in and abided by a male-centered world; most of the early founding events of Mormonism involved only men. However, a number of women had significant supporting roles; for example, Smith's wife Emma Hale SmithEmma Hale Smith (1804 1879) was the wife of Joseph Smith, Jr. and an early leader of the Latter Day Saint movement. She was also the first president of the Relief Society, one of the world's oldest and largest women's organizations. She was an amazing wom served as a scribe in the translation of the Book of MormonThe Book of Mormon is a sacred text of Mormonism first published in Palmyra, New York, USA, in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. The book's self-declared main purpose is to testify of Jesus Christ, through the writings of ancient American prophets. It asser, and later as head of the Relief SocietyThe Relief Society or Female Relief Society is a Latter-day Saint women's organization. Organized in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois by Joseph Smith, Jr. it is one of the oldest women's organizations still in existence. In its original form, the Relief Society w, originally a self-governing women's organization within the church.
In addition, early Mormon doctrine was comparatively woman-friendly. Notably, early Mormonism rejected the AugustinianAurelius Augustinus Augustine of Hippo ( 354 430) is a saint and the pre-eminent Doctor of the Church according to Roman Catholicism; he was the eldest son of Saint Monica. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, which does not accept all of his teachings, he is doctrine of original sinEssentially, Original sin is the doctrine, shared in one form or another by most Christian churches, that the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden changed or damaged human nature, such that all human beings since then are innately predisposed to sin,, which held that humanity inherits the sin Adam and EveThis article is about the biblical Adam and Eve. For other uses, see Adam (disambiguation) and Eve (disambiguation According to the Book of Genesis of the Bible and to the Quran, Adam "Dust; mankind", Standard Hebrew Adam Tiberian Hebrew m Arabic dam was in which they ate the forbidden fruit. This sin was historically blamed on Eve, and was thought to be the source of women's submissive and dependent state. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still rejects the doctrine of original sin.
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