Glynn from Dallas emailed us this guest post, along with a message to keep up the good work. We will, Glynn, and we hope more modern mormon men and modern mormon women out there follow your lead and send in guest posts.
So I have this concept that I apply to my marriage: radical equality.
In the April 2011 talk “LDS Women are Incredible!,” Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles made this clear statement:
"Our doctrine is clear: Women are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves them. Wives are equal to their husbands. Marriage requires a full partnership where wives and husbands work side by side to meet the needs of the family."
For our entire marriage both my wife and I have worked to support our family in an equal manner. We are both focused on doing the best we can and making our home a wonderful place for our children to grow. We also work together to try to instill a sense of equality in our boys.
We have a church couple that we interact with frequently and they are incredibly traditional in their approach to how their house is run. Their house is very patriarchal, where he is the head and what he says goes. It is odd to us to see something that she wants become secondary to his desires. Seeing the difference between them and us is striking at times. We view our marriage as an equal partnership or collaboration, whereas the traditional structure has an inherent hierarchy built in that minimizes the collaborative structure. In other words, for them their collaboration goes only as far as he agrees with it. I think men of the next generation should view spousal relationships in much more of a partnership or collaborative light - not a hierarchy. As the next generation of mormons grow into their relationships, we must remember that our wives are our partners in life and not someone to be told what to do.
Image via here.
