You're Oh, Testing one two three testing one two three this is radio free Mormon on the air

broadcasting behind enemy lines.

Tonight's episode, The Stand Down Order to LDS Women.

Today's date is November 26, 2003.

It is the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend

and just over this weekend, I believe it was this past Friday.

There was a newspaper article that was published in the Salt Lake Tribune regarding women and their status for lack of a better word in several stakes in the San Francisco Bay Area and I've got several people,

several women who are on the show to give their takes and their

understandings of this order how it is that was perceived by them when they

learned about it. But before that, before I bring them on, I want to read just the very first few paragraphs of this article from the Salt Lake Tribune, which was written by Piggi Fletcher Stack. It was originally published on November 24th,

2023 and it was updated just yesterday on November 25th,

2003. It is titled A Slap in the Face LDS Relief Society Leaders ordered off the stand.

Area President puts an end to this Bay Area tradition.

Many women are asking why.

So the very first few paragraphs of this article,

which is all I'll be reading today,

it seemed like such a simple act of inclusion. Having female Relief Society leaders sitting on the stand,

facing the pews during Latter-day Saint Sunday services has been a non-controversial tradition among some congregations in the

San Francisco Bay Area for a decade or more. But to many women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the public

presence of women sitting side by side with male ecclesiastical authorities

sent a powerful signal, they were an important and essential part of the community's leadership.

Apparently, though, even that small symbol was too much for some of the faith's male leaders. The practice was abruptly discontinued

...