Doctrine and Covenants Section 25 is one of the first insights into the role of woman in the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. In order to appreciate this fully, though, we have to understand a bit of background. But, before that, I want to share a quotation that we read in Priesthood Quorum today. This is from The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith manual:
It is the duty of a husband to love, cherish, and nourish his wife, and cleave unto her and none else; he ought to regard her feelings with tenderness, for she is his flesh… It is the place of the and, to stand at the head of his family, … not to rule over his wife as a tyrant, neither as one who is fearful or jealous that his wife will get out of her place, and prevent him from exercising his authority. (Page 482)
To us today, this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Of course a husband should treat his wife with respect, and he shouldn’t rule over his house as a tyrant. However, if we understand the historical context of this revelation we see just how important it is. In 1800’s America, the woman was to be subject to her husband in everything. She was not to get out of her place, or prevent her husband from exercising authority over her and her house. He did not need to treat her has his own flesh, but as something less. Women would live in subjection their entire lives, first to their father, and then after they were married, to their husbands. So, we see that this revelation was a radical teaching. And this teaching first is alluded to in Section 25.
First, the Lord addresses Emma directly in the revelation as my daughter. This puts her on equal ground with her husband Joseph, whom the Lord addresses as my son in many revelations and visions. The Lord calls her an elect lady, and tells her that there is a work for her to do. She is also told that she is appointed to expound scripture to the church. This was unheard of in that time. There was no such thing as a lady pastor in Emma’s time. Women only taught other women and children, never men. Women were also never called upon to do anything of importance. However, Emma was called upon to organize a hymnal for the church.
Again, today we might think “oh, a songbook, that’s a woman’s thing.” However, in Emma’s day it was not. The men were the ones writing all the hymns, like W. W. Phelps, so why wasn’t Brother Phelps called to organize the hymnal? Also, we might look lightly upon Emma’s work, because it was “just the hymnal” instead of the Book of Mormon or some other scripture. But isn’t the hymnal scripture? Isn’t everything therein the official doctrine of the church? Also, another interesting point that was brought up in our class… There may be a week that we don’t read a single verse from the old testament in church. We might not read a single verse from the new testament. Or maybe it’s the Book of Mormon, or Doctrine and Covenants… But do we ever have a single week go by that we don’t sing a hymn? Never! Every week we sing at least 3 hymns from the hymnal during sacrament meeting, and maybe more than that in other classes. So can we really look so lightly upon this work?
Another interesting point on the subject of Hymns: Today in sacrament meeting, one of the counselors in our bishopric, Brother Haglund, made a really interesting observation. In sacrament meeting, we sing a hymn before each prayer. He suggested that this might be to bring our hearts in unison before we pray unto the Lord. I think that’s very true. As taught in D&C 25:12, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto the Lord.
I know that was kind of all over the place, but here’s the point: women are elevated to the level of actors in the restoration, not just people to be acted upon. Women have played an important role in the restored church since the early days in Nauvoo, and continue to do so today.
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