Caroline Barrow was raised in a typical Mormon household in Louisiana. While she was a faithful believer in the Church, she always had questions about certain teachings but was often encouraged to halt her critical thinking on these issues. She chose to attend BYU and serve a Mormon mission, but continued to be plagued by questions—particularly around polygamy and the treatment of women in the LDS faith. Caroline also found herself struggling with scrupulosity, perfectionism, and the many pressures placed on women in the Church.
Listen as she shares her story of how she confronted these questions and learned to trust herself and her instincts as an analytical woman within the Mormon faith.
2 Responses
Concerning “Adultery in Modern Times.” I am amazed and disturbed by what I have read here. The definition by the Mormon Church is full of inequality and contents that are belied by the history of the Church. The idea that women are primarily responsible for adultery is alarming and utterly untrue. The idea that “adultery” is mainly because of the choices and actions of women is absurd, biased, and at odds with the history of the Church of Latter-day Saints. That history is discriminatory, disgusting, and damaging to all women, especially women who still cling to the teachings of the Church. My Great-Grandfather had eight wives. I have a magnificent, beautifully bound book that details everything, down to the names of all the descendants, which now number in the hundreds. The book shows how very proud everyone is of him. They believe I should be delighted that I am the descendant of a man who was “an Apostle of Joseph Smith.” I should also accept that NOW, the church has decided that it is “women” who are the cause of infidelity. My Great-grandmother did nothing wrong; she did what your church told her to do. Something that the MEN in the church were all practicing at the time – including the founder of your church. You don’t get to deny all of that now and say women are responsible for adultery, that if only they had “submitted” to their husbands’ “Priesthood” and done exactly what he wanted, they would have no problems. SUBMIT, SURRENDER to their husbands who have all the “POWER OF THE PRIESTHOOD.” Become a second-class citizen with no voice, no meaning, only a satellite of their husband, which was the beginning of your church – AT THE TIME IT WAS FOUNDED, AND IN TRUTH TODAY . .. said he could have as many wives – as many women as he wanted. I disavow that idea with all my heart and all my mind.
I am no longer a practicing member of your church. I had seen too much when I was only fourteen and fifteen to choose that path and make myself a woman with no power – now accused of being the cause of the disillusionment of families and adultery. LDS women work harder and do more than any man ever imagined – but are denied the “power” of the Priesthood, which leaves them as satellites clinging to the “power” of their husbands, who are MUCH MORE LIKELY to be involved in extramarital affairs and other reasons for the breakup of a family than any woman, anywhere.