This editorial was published in The Boston Globe section A19, Saturday October 7, 2000, accompanied by two names out of fifty-plus women who signed the document. The original, uncut version of the editorial with the full list of names appears here.

This document was prompted due to repeated statements by LDS Church leaders that Mormon women are happy and content in "their place" and "have no complaint." Many Mormon women as well as men are troubled by such an inaccurate claim.

You may view the BOSTON GLOBE version , Section A19, 10/7/2000, at

http:/www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/281/oped/Mormon_women_must_be_heard+.shtml

A Declaration

When recently asked, "Will there ever be women priests in the Mormon church?" LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley answered, "Insofar as I can see, no. The women have their place...they have a voice in determining policy and doing many things in the church. I haven't found any complaint among our women. I'm sure there are a few, a handful somewhere who may be disaffected for one reason or another, but I've never seen any evidence of it." ["The Spiritual Life," Boston Globe 9/2/2000]

With all due respect to our remarkable 90-year-old church leader, we find his words unfathomable in the face of reality. Many Mormon women have expressed profound dissatisfaction, for generations, loudly and clearly, in print and in person, alone and in numbers. Thus, we write to correct a misconception repeatedly set forth by LDS Church leaders in the media: We Mormon women are not content, we do have complaints.

In fact, so many women have expressed dissatisfaction, that numerous feminist efforts have come and gone, and women have been disciplined by the church--some so publicized that every LDS leader is likely aware of these difficulties. For example, in 1988, "hundreds" of women contacted LDS church headquarters asking why they couldn't participate in the priesthood blessing of their own babies. During the following years, women who tested this or other priesthood issues were censured or disciplined. Between 1993-96, some of these women were excommunicated.

Mormon women are in a bind. If we disagree we reap trouble; if we relent we lose our voice. These are our choices: to conform, or risk church discipline, or leave. When our leaders say they "hear no complaint" it is because they have intimidated women into compliance. Few women will risk excommunication. Still, if we say nothing, we support the false impression that we are content.

Leaving is not a solution. Mormonism is more than a religion, it is our cultural heritage. To leave Mormonism is to leave our culture, our ethnicity, our life, our family, our inheritance. We and our grandmothers have built this church--creating the community, bearing children, cooking, cleaning, caring for everyone, doing the daily labor necessary to make Mormonism work.

We carry the Mormon vision, while denied the right to conceive it; we bear great responsibility for the success of our community, without power to define our responsibility or ensure its success. This is disheartening at best, exhausting at worse.

Meanwhile, President Hinckley speaks of a hundred Mormon temples "looking heavenward."

Mormons have built temples for 160 years. Like the legendary fine china crushed into the stucco of the first Mormon temple making it sparkle, women have poured their lives and hearts into this church for seven generations. For a hundred years, our grandmothers exercised religious voice and authority--giving blessings, creating policy, leading women's programs and publishing women's views.

Yet in our Church today, all women's programs, leaders and texts, even the leading women's speeches --are designed or governed by men. All church doctrine, theology, and policy are created by men. While women may be included in discussion about issues and policy, the decisions are still made by men. This is a circular problem, because decision making is tied to priesthood.

Thus, whenever women disagree with male leaders, we are often ignored or dismissed, marginalized or ostracized--until our religion feels less like home, and more like another brick and mortar building.

This puts women in a position of having to choose between our conscience and our church, between our fulfillment and heritage. We live in contradiction and dissonance, our hearts breaking.

In the New Testament we find the premise upon which the Mormon Church was founded: James 1:5 promises that God will give wisdom "liberally" "to all." This scripture clearly tells us that women can receive god's wisdom, as well as can men.

Personal spirituality is the core of Mormonism. Yet men tread upon our religious freedom, intrude on our voices and inhibit our relationship with god. Only we ourselves can determine if god is working through us. Men may deny the existence of female theology, but it remains for us to decide.

We are not content to be denied our voice nor our decision-making role in Mormonism. Our intent is simple: to speak for ourselves and have our rightful place in church governance.

Meanwhile, church leaders continue insisting that women are happy in "their place." When President Hinckley repeated this misconception again in the Boston Globe, it struck a nerve. Boston conjures images of female suffrage and the American struggle for independence. If there were a way to discard the false claims about women into Boston harbor, we would do it.

Instead, we unitedly attest that men do not speak for Mormon women. We speak for ourselves, refusing to remain silent, or leave.

We sign our names, Mormon women from Boston to Salt Lake, England to China, each of us knowing that every woman on our list will be questioned by her church leaders, warning her to retreat. For this reason, some use a pseudonym. Still a Mormon woman stands behind each name. And for every name on our list, hundreds more feel the same.

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MORMON WOMEN

Courtney Black, Seattle, WA

Dawn Leavitt, Boston, MA

Rebecca McFerren, Bountiful UT

Marti Jones, Salt Lake City, UT

Sue Cannon, Corona, CA

Lynn Matthews Anderson, Massachusetts

Deana Holmes, Salt Lake City, UT

Nadine Hansen, Cedar City, UT

Karen Coates, Phoenix, Arizona.

Anne Thomas, Salt Lake City, UT

Elizabeth D., Iowa

Jenefer H. Curtis, San Jose, CA

Wendy Watts-Reynolds, Minneapolis, MN

Kristy Benton, Arizona

Hildi Mitchell, Brighton, England

Susan McMurray, Texas

Sarah Jones, Encinitas, CA

Patty Moorman, BYU, Provo, UT

D. Fish, Washington

Helen Back, Bejing, China

Valerie Hoyle, Salt Lake City, UT

Sascha Roland, Salt Lake City, UT

Susan Strickland, CA

Sarah D. Hatfield, Olympia, WA

Julie Vandivere, Lewisburg, PA

Arta Johnson, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

K. Okerlund, Washington D.C.

Cherie Woodworth, New Haven (Yale ), CT

Sonja Farnsworth, San Jose, CA

Amanda Washburn, Portland, Oregon

Mary Ellen Robertson, Alta Dena, CA

Marion Smith, Salt Lake City

Sophie Christensen, Los Angeles, CA

Amber Satterwhite, Nashville, TN

Alica Gregerson, Provo, UT

Marnie Leavitt, Ann Arbor, MI

Patti Hanks, Dexter, MI

Cindy Le Fevre, CA

Charlotte J. Rickett Wykoff, Tucson, AZ

Katrina Leavitt Ramsey, Portland, OR

Loralie Kay, CA

Terry Ann Harward, Spring Lake, UT

Niki Hagan, Eugene, OR

Robin Burrows, Santa Monica, CA

Charlotte Smith, Salt Lake City, UT

Wendy Smith, Slt Lake City, UT

Helen Call, Afton. WY

Joyce C. Cox, Afton, WY

Holly Welker, Iowa City, IA

Laurel Evans, Sunnyvale, CA

EXCOMMUNICATED

Maxine Hanks, Salt Lake City

Lavina Fielding Anderson, Salt Lake City

REQUESTED NAME REMOVED

Rita Bowles, Salt Lake City

Lori Watts, Boise, ID