An interesting discussion occurred on Facebook recently, in which a profound observation was made:

The moment you say motherhood makes up for the disparity [of women not holding the Priesthood], you put fatherhood on a lower pedestal.

I find this to be incredibly insightful. Let’s consider what this is saying.

We often hear in the Church about how much “better” women are than men, and that excuse is often used to explain why women don’t hold the Priesthood. Personally, I think that’s a load of crap, because it’s demeaning to men (“God made you to be inherently inferior to women”) and to women (“You should be living a wonderful Mormon life” and if you’re not then here are some antidepressants).

But that’s not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about are the implications of this statement.

It’s obvious from this statement that the corollary to motherhood is fatherhood. (The utter absence of fatherhood as a concept divorced from Priesthood in the Church is a topic for another day)

…neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.

To extend this into the familial sphere:

…neither is the father without the mother, neither the mother without the father, in the Lord.

The foil for the mother is the father. Mother and Father, together, are the ideal Parents.

And yet, men hold the Priesthood. So where is the complementing female aspect? It is not “motherhood”, as we are glibly taught at Church. Motherhood’s complement is Fatherhood. I believe the answer is simple:

It’s Priestesshood.