When I read the letter to the editor titled “Mormon Feminism,” I was saddened to hear of the author’s family’s loss of three good women and the pain those losses caused him. Sorrow is often something that causes us to reflect on who we are and how we came to be that way.
I was similarly saddened to read about his association between women facing illness and working outside the home and the decisions his siblings made with their agency. Freedom to make our own decisions is a fundamental principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by Jacob in 2 Nephi 10:23 and in numerous places in the scriptures. You are indeed “free to act for yourselves.”
I don’t wish to diminish the importance and role of mothers in the home and their influence on their children. My own sweet mother always devoted her maximum potential to our family, as I assume the writer’s mother did with her limited capabilities. The influence of righteous women he missed growing up has the potential to do much good in the Church.
The feminist movement seeks to increase in church this nourishing influence that could have more completely blessed his family. The movement isn’t trying to take women out of the home, tell them to stay there or cause them to neglect the responsibilities to their families. Unified men and women together, not solely women alone, are the chief cornerstones of families as together they lead and minister in the Lord’s church.
I’m genuinely sorry not everyone can be as blessed by the influence of righteous women as I have been. But whether or not you agree with their methods, the purpose of Mormon feminism is to expand that influence of righteous women that he so desperately wanted for his family.
Sam Bernhisel
McMinnville, Ore.
