What I Learned About Women and the Priesthood by Doing Family History, The Long Version, new and improved
In a moment of clarity I saw the Lord's hand indisputably guiding Family History. It arrived while I wrestled with the quandary of who Mary Lincoln's mother was. The answer revealed how profoundly clever and invested The Lord is with his programs. Likely the Lord behaves the same way in the Priesthood organihe does with Family History.
Some background: Mary Lincoln was a Puritan woman living in very early Massachusetts, and her scanty records leave four completely reasonable Mother candidates. I know this because a few Google searches lead me to the well-sourced work of multiple modern web-based geneologists. Plus Internet Archive and Google Book have scanned so many dusty books that the works of geneologists from the 19th and early 20th century are also at my fingertips. The modern geneologists cite them as source material and I'm like, "yeah, got that one already, came up in a Google search." Sometimes a source sites a different dusty, obscure 20th century geneology so I'm like, "Let's type the abbreviated title into the search bar and have a look see." It's always there. Google and Internet Achive have been at this scanning quest for a while.
So I'm pretty sure I have all the records and pivotal commentary. There is no possible way I can see to narrow the options down further than the four women.
Yes, her work is done. That's the answer to the only question I get from family members who have long been into geneology. Boy, oh, boy has her work been done - over and over in fact. End of story. It's with relief we are able to cull out which ancestors we needn't worry over. Some one in the family has already done the due diligence needed to find one mother, one father, one of each child. Do their work. Then don't look back.
I worry over her. Her entries in Family Tree, and there are many, are so profoundly jumbled I gape with morbid interest at the train wreck of multiple parallel universes. Then I recoil at the digital carnage. As a citizen of the internet if I am even vaguely curious about something I Google it, pretty much without thinking. In my first Google search I found what has turned out to be about 95% of what there was to know about Mary Lincoln, and the people actually known to be her family. As a citizen of the Internet I know everything found on the Internet has some amount of "That is absolutely not true". So it took me a while to comb through what I found and start zeroing in. Pretty soon I started to get a picture of what was wrong on Family Tree. As I citizen of the internet it is my duty to fix any error I see, or at least leave a several-sentence comment. I worry about her because I want what it says on the screen to be "right".
Argh, I thought, how can impossibly know which mother is actually Mary Lincoln's? There is no way! My answer, when it came, wasn't what I expected. But it was right. I felt such relief. I wanted to cry.
I don't have to pick one mother.
That's it. But it shifts generations (not exaggerating) of the one-mother quest.
The screen will be "right" when it has all three possibilities fully sourced, with linked URLs, screenshots, records, comments and a discussion. Her children will be digitally linked to three nearly identical mothers, one for each of the birth scenarios. And I will have lots of space to explain it. On pedigree charts there was one space for one mother. One. Family Tree has the entire right side of the screen, as much as you need for all the mother/father combinations. Family Tree, when it's done, will be a collection of what we know about family history. It's an encyclopedia of Family ties.
Realizing that was awesome. In this moment of clarity I stepped from one stage of Family History to another, and while doing so caught a glimpse of the Lord's hand. I felt like crying because I can't pick one mother. I have all the evidence before me. You say it's not my job? Oh what a relief. The saints before, who had to seal one person to another one person, likely only had one record, maybe two. We had very different jobs and access to very different tools. Me - all the evidence. Them - enough evidence. Me - find all the mothers. Them - find one mother. The Lord gave different people different jobs at different times.
From my perspective the purpose of all that temple work was to provide a significant backbone to the Family Tree database. Why else was everyone lead to so many different choices of "right". The Lord divided the job of finding all known records into tiny, seemingly independent micro-assignments. My family could not have conceived of a scenario where the Lord would guide anyone to a different conclusion than ours. Sometimes it's impossible to see what The Lord is up to. It was really concerning that all those darn cousins kept getting it wrong. The Lord doesn't seem to mind a little squabbling. The guiding principle that if the work is done then we don't worry relieved us from getting entangled in the controversy. It didn't matter who they sealed her to, she was already sealed to our choice of mother. There is great relief that comes when we escape the squabbles during the Lord's plan - more than it seems logical. The blessings of temple work that were evident at the time are still true. We get to attend the temple and we help the salvation of those who have gone before. And something about the earth having a curse. The Lord is often (usually? always?) doing several things at once - blessing the Latter Day Saint directly involved, blessing another, and laying the foundation for something awesome. If you look at the database all these people over all these decades have created, and then decide The Lord wanted it exactly like that, you can't help but think Is The Lord Crazy!? The way The Lord handles things seems strange.
Who saw my role coming? The Lord didn't tell anyone involved in temple work up to the advent of Family Tree his plans for an encyclopedia. The Lord's work is need to know. And yet most of my job has been done for me. In Family Tree all the possibilities are laid out, granted in a jumbled mess. I just need to Google which one(s). A few taps, and I know where to find the original records - and which burned in a 1838 fire (drat). Then attach everything. I look back in time with amazement and see just how many things have been laid into place to create an environment where I could help invent an encyclopedia. Technology, internet culture, data handling, Latter day Saints being lead at one time or another to every possible record, a tattered mess that would draw my attention. iPads. It's so much more fun on an iPad. It's like looking at a miracle to see the Lord's hand in so many parts of our culture leading to this encyclopedia. When we see how much The Lord does for his work it's mind boggling and awe inspiring.
We know the world needs the encyclopedia because The Lord has spent over a century laying the foundation for it, and we've been asked to hasten. I don't have any idea why the world needs this encyclopedia. But every effort leading up to this has built the foundation where I now stand. And I know we're going somewhere important. We may not know what is going on, but every once in a while we can sense that its something great.
The most profound realization for me was that when The Lord delegates responsibilities, he is at the same time clarifying what we don't need to do. In the past this has been an explanation for who holds the priesthood "we do it so you don't have to." It didn't convince those who needed it. But looking at how The Lord has conducted the sealing of families while laying the foundation for a global all-inclusive encyclopedia, I now wonder if that actually IS His logic. The ones before didn't need to know what was coming, didn't need to worry about what their darn cousins were doing, didn't need to do more than their job to find one name at a time. They did their foundation-building job so I don't have to. So I don't have to.
This is the Lord's church. It is the only organization on earth actually run by The Lord. So it makes sense that the way He has handled family history work would be found in the way He handles the government of His church. We would expect that different people have different jobs - a clear division of labor. We would expect to find independent duties with similar but divergent micro-assignments. We would expect them to seem uncoordinated, but we can now wonder to ourselves if they are laying the foundation for some bigger, future, yet to be know thing. Suppose The Lord is up to things we are not aware of.
If we are in the midst of a yet to be disclosed, seemingly uncoordinated work, we would expect to see squabbling over whether people are right. In other words, we would expect some people to have a sense that something is being done wrong. That would be when viewed from the limited perspective The Lord currently allows us. But there would need to be a few mental magic tricks available that help us escape the squabble. Probably ones that boil down to, "it just doesn't matter. End of story. Let's get back to work." Such things would be recognizable by their intense feeling of relief. The Lord often (usually? always?) does several things at once, so if it is His program we should see blessings and understanding given to the immediate Latterday Saint involved; while simultaneously providing service to others; while helping to build some awesome thing way down the road. We would have to take it on faith that there is an awesome thing, but if all the stuff leading up to this statement are true, it seems pretty likely. It would be very telling if every once in while some one catches a glimpse of things and thinks, "Is The Lord Crazy!" Or if the way The Lord is handling things seems strange.
If all this is going on, then The Lord has a plan, and that plan is need to know. Which is to say, nobody knows. But we can be sure that when we see how much The Lord has done for whatever it is that this situation is leading to, it's going to be mind boggling and awe inspiring. We may not know what is going on, but every once in a while we can sense that its something great.
So when The Brethren first said, about women in the Priesthood, we do it so you don't have to -- that's the best answer there is. Who knows better than The Lord what should be done when and by whom? Who knows better than The Lord what is coming? Who is really the head of this church? He wrote the mission statement, he created the branding, he guided the writing of the training manuals. He gives us the resources we need to fund it. He has the 5-year action plan, and decides the priorities. He also has the million-year action plan - and it's a good one.
What I glimpsed through family history is if its The Lord assigning something, then it's gonna be awesome. But if I'm being assigned something in The Church by some one else, well that something else entirely. You know, how closely tied to The Lord is he? Is he one rung down? Two rungs? Am I working with middle management? It probably will all work out. But I decided to draw The Church's org chart, just to see. And it's not what you think. An org chart describes who you report to, and who delegates to you. It describes who you go to with questions and problems (hint: The Savior). Who is going to come to you with questions (rule of thumb: the answer to any significant question that comes to me -- pray about it). The middle people mediate between up and down - sheild the up from the down, and sheild the down from the up. (The Savior, the great mediator). It says who is going to perform your annual review, and judge your merit in detail (the Savior, the only judge). It also says who isn't going to come to you with questions, or give you significant guidance, or change your job in any fundamental way -- the people on the same level as you -- or those connected to a different branch of chart as you.
Heavenly Father is at the top. Then one line down "The Savoir, Jesus Christ". Now we have a lot of people and we're not yet sure how they all fit together, so let's start with the people who have the ear of the Savior. They will likely be at the top of the chart. So who in The Church can ask The Lord questions directly and receive guidance? There is me, and you, and the missionaries, and the bishop, and president Monson, and everyone in the church. We all have the ear of the top guy. There is one name above us all, the only name, the great I Am. Mediator between us and the Father. The rest of us are all in a row on the next line. That's it, that's the org chart. Can I turn to the guy next to me and ask, will you change my job?
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