There is currently an aggressive push towards setting up what would appear to be a board of directors over women’s councils. At the head of the board is one woman who, through excessive written and verbal conversation, has implied her right to question any and every women’s council being held, including the ones she does not participate in. She claims the right to the entirety of information regarding how each individual women’s council was or is being held. Not being invited to participate in these women’s councils is also of consequence for her – thus implying her presence holding more weight than the other women.

This “board of directors” believe that men among the body who have committed heinous crimes should be able to integrate back among us since (as far as to their knowledge) those crimes were not committed “among us.” If those crimes were committed among us, then they believe it is ultimately their decision whether these men are found “guilty.” Such a structure is incredibly dangerous to the community and exemplifies the unsound minds among us.

Now whether a specific fellowship chooses to welcome child predators among their daughters and granddaughters is up to them. However, these women have no right to require such of other fellowships to prove their charity. These women also have no right to require all women’s councils to report back to them and demand they freely answer all their questions.

Structuring all women’s councils to go through one woman or one small group of women instills uncertainty and fear among the women. It ultimately poses the question in each woman’s mind participating in a council, “What if what I think God wants me to do contradicts what this board of directors thinks is right?” If we’ve reached that point already, then a system has already been set up that is incredibly flawed and hierarchal. Each individual answers to God and the idea of self-governance really shouldn’t be as radical as it seems at this point.

What we are seeing is a small group of women pursing organization as seen in the LDS church. In their minds, the clean lines of Relief Society groups and presidencies within those groups seem to be what our group needs. All the while, they ignore learning to truly integrate and fellowship among us using other means than what the religious organizations they’re familiar with use. And in their ignorance, they’ve created an issue regarding women’s councils that does not exist among us. But they don’t realize it because they do not know us. They judge from afar and create discord and havoc in their wake.

When one seeks power and craves the strongwoman’s chair, this concept of women’s councils, that is part of preserving the restoration, is lost. And yet in their minds, they are right because they fight for the underdog – all the while putting the rest of the community at risk, spiritually and physically. In an attempt to set themselves apart, to make their mark in the community, and prove their capability, the spirit of the Lord is forgotten. That is not humility, but pride. It will wear down the other women, thus centralizing all women’s councils at some point in the future. This is not wisdom, but foolishness. Don’t be foolish.

You shall not show mercy to the disobedient when to do so results in injustice to the people who seek to become one. You shall not forgive the adulterer and welcome him into the community when he has been forgiven and returns again to his sin. You shall not place the community at peril by embracing the willful and unrepentant among you, to leave your little ones at peril of injury, harm, and destruction (T&C 179:11).

“You shall not show mercy to the disobedient when to do so results in injustice to the people who seek to become one.” You don’t fight for the underdog at the expense of the peaceful followers of Christ seeking to unify.

“You shall not forgive the adulterer and welcome him back into the community where he has been forgiven and returns again to his sin.” Forgiveness and reintegration into the community are separate actions. A mother with young children should not be forced to fellowship with a pedophile who has not been proven to pose no danger. And why should her family be the testing grounds for his repentance?

What are you requiring of this community and these little children that we, including the men, are commanded to protect when you set yourself up as a chief judge among all these women’s councils?

Perhaps wisdom and common sense coincide more often than we think.