Item Detail
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33134
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0
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0
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English
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Gender and Mental Health in Mormon Contexts
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Routledge Handbook of Mormonism and Gender
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London
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Routledge
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378-391
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“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a religious community that illustrates how gender can play a complicating role in accessing mental health support resources. The LDS Church essentializes gender roles, teaching that gender is an eternal and unchangeable aspect of individual identity and that men and women should play separate but equal roles in public and family life respectively (First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1995). Because of these gender roles, all church leaders who preside over LDS congregations, who have the authority to hear and absolve sin, and who have the power to grant access to church support resources, are male. The problems implicit in such limited representation in leadership are denied by a doctrinal ideology which claims that male leaders’ authorization to receive revelation for all congregants will ensure that the inspiration of the Holy Ghost will overcome any lack of experience or perspective embodied in individual male leaders. Additionally, the rhetoric of radical spiritual equality, in which church members are constructed as ‘brothers and sisters’ in Christ, all ‘children of God’ and inheritors of an equal celestial legacy often normalizes the strict male hierarchical power structure and erases the unique vulnerabilities LDS women experience. This stark division of power coupled with the prominent role the LDS Church plays in defining health behaviors and providing health resources make it an important context in which to explore the way gender influences access to mental health support resources within religious organizations. Indeed, this context shows how essentialized gender norms coupled with a patriarchal, hierarchical organizational structure can create institutional barriers that can have profound implications for mental wellness.” [Author]