EXHIBITS
The Women's Movement in Utah: Religion and Opposition
The Women's Movement and the LDS Church
Due to the high percentage of Utah's population that belongs to the LDS Church, its leaders contributed heavily to opinions and mentalities about the Women's Movement throughout the state. Because the LDS Church was against the ERA, much of the population was as well. Many LDS people believed that there would be more negative than positive repercussions if the amendment was ratified.[1] LDS Church leaders frequently spoke about the ERA, and they made the views of the LDS Church very clear: men and women were equal, but the ERA was not the solution to ensuring equality.[2] Many of the Church’s statements caused internal conflict for members who supported the ERA, as well as the Women's Movement in general.
Statements from LDS Church Leaders
“I recognize that the proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment may be well intentioned in their desire to improve the status of women. We need to be very alert as to what the amendment would do besides what is intended. It is so easy to set about to solve a problem and end up creating yet a greater one. Most of our problems, someone has said, came from solutions. Should the Equal Rights Amendment pass, it threatens to be chief among the problems which were intended to be solutions. Even with good intentions, so many adverse things can unwittingly be brought about."
Boyd K. Packer, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, speaking to members of the LDS Church in Pocatello, Idaho.[3]
“While the motives of its supporters may be praiseworthy, the ERA as a blanket attempt to help women could indeed bring them far more restraints and repressions. We fear it will even stifle many God-given feminine instincts. It would strike at the family, humankind’s basic institution. The ERA would bring ambiguity and possibly invite extensive litigation. Passage of the ERA, some legal authorities contend, could nullify many accumulated benefits to women in present statutes. We recognize men and women as equally important before the Lord, but with differences biologically, emotionally, and in other ways. The ERA, we believe, does not recognize these differences. There are better means for giving women, and men, the rights they deserve.”
Thomas S. Monson, who eventually became the head of the LDS Church, in response to the growth of Mormons for the ERA in Utah [4]
Mormons for the ERA
In preparation for the International Women's Year conference held in Houston later that year, the Utah women gathered in Salt Lake City in June 1977 to discuss issues and vote for delegates. Utah women were encouraged to attend in order to educate themselves on topics relevant to the national Women’s Movement. This conference, led by Alison Comish Thorne, revealed the immense power the Mormon women's auxiliary group, Relief Society, wielded in Utah. LDS women were overwhelmingly represented at the convention, overpowering the more liberal ideas and goals of other women.[5] The results of the conference varied; some people felt that the conference made great strides in increasing understanding among Utah women, while others felt that it caused more commotion than conversation. From the conference onward, there was increased hostility between LDS members who supported equal rights for women and the LDS leaders.
For women who left the 1977 conference dissatisfied, organizations such as Mormons for the ERA gave them an outlet to voice their discontent. Mormons for the ERA openly rallied in front of LDS buildings and temples in order to protest LDS Church policies.[6] The group was led by Sonia Johnson, who was under public scrutiny throughout her time as the spokesperson for Mormons for the ERA; she was eventually excommunicated from the LDS Church for her statements against its policies.[7] Alison Comish Thorne, Cheryl Dalton, Maida Withers, Hazel Davis Rigby, and Alice Pottmyer were a few of the front liners in Mormons for the ERA.[8] Members who openly attended pro-ERA rallies were punished. In most cases, members were barred from entering churches and temples, excluded from religious meetings and activities, or excommunicated.
Statements from Mormons for the ERA
When questioned about their relationship with the LDS Church, Mormons for the ERA released the following statement:
"Our church teaches that all people are equal in God’s eyes. As Mormons, we believe that we are individual agents who are expected to be "anxiously engaged in a good cause" or "bring to pass much righteousness." As Mormons for ERA, we believe that the Equal Rights Amendment is an appropriate and effective means to achieve equality for women; we see no other means as effective and no other major effort to clarify the principle of equality so vital to democratic principles. Thus it becomes, after all, a matter of personal conscience.
We Latter-day Saints who support the amendment recognize the high seriousness of our stance. When official statements over First Presidency signatures against the amendment were published, each of us in his/her own way faced the issue and found room, even in inspired religion, for conscientious dissent.
It is not unusual for people of the same faith to differ on political means. For instance, although the National Council of Catholic Women and the Catholic Daughters of America oppose the Equal Rights Amendment, eight other Catholic organizations support it. The same is true in other religions." [9]