(Left) A screenshot of the November 2013 Ensign Conference Report from lds.org (pdf of issue available here), retrieved 5/5/2014. (Right) Photo of the printed hard copy of that exact same Ensign issue and page, mailed November 2013. The printed copy from 2013 has the original all-male General Authories Chart. The pdf of that same issue has a replaced version of that chart, after recent events including being called out on this chart by the New York Times and the Ordain Women April 5th Priesthood Session action.

Guest post from Kristy Money

On March 6, 2014, The New York Times published a follow-up article to their front-page coverage of LDS sister missionaries titled “From Mormon Women, a Flood of Responses and Questions about their Roles.” In this article, in addition to quoting Kate Kelly about Ordain Women and citing my experience of being denied the ability to hold my baby for her blessing, the authors linked to the Church’s extant General Authorities chart, a photo illustrating that “priests and governing authorities form an entirely male gallery of leaders.” Unlike the first NYT piece highlighting sister missionaries, which was publicly linked to and responded to by the LDS Church Newsroom on their front page (though this accompanying yet buried video on women and the priesthood shed a less favorable light on gender issues), the NYT’s follow-up piece received radio silence from any official Church source. However, plenty of church members were upset by this piece and the internet erupted with criticism in blogs and Facebook comments, blaming the liberal media, blaming interviewees like me, and blaming organizations like Ordain Women for — in their minds — making the public think that the Church was sexist. I responded to those criticisms here.

I had a wonderfully uplifting experience attending the April 5th action at Temple Square during the General Conference priesthood session with my baby daughter, though I was saddened by the defensive and inaccurate stance the church PR department took later that day in their press release. I will never forget how courageous we all felt and the spirit of sisterhood that surrounded our reverent group of over 500 with 400 additional proxy names. I was also thrilled to open my copy of the Conference Report May 2014 Ensign and see that the General Authorities chart was updated in print and on lds.org to include the nine female General Officers of the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary. Women’s visibility matters so much, and I recognized this as a big step, this being the first time the church had included these women in the official General Authorities chart. Ordain Women publicly recognized the change on May 3, 2014, celebrated the church’s efforts, and spread the link showing that women were included in this chart (without taking credit for it) “for the first time in LDS history” on social media.

A few days ago, I perused the downloadable pdf of the November 2013 Ensign (the previous conference report issue) on lds.org, and I noticed, much to my surprise, the same newly-celebrated chart with the nine female auxiliaries was displayed in the exact page where the previous male-only one I remembered from that edition would have been. Had I remembered wrong? Was this chart old news after all? But as the photo taken above from a printed copy of that same edition mailed November 2013 illustrates, the newer photo with women had been substituted after the fact. Lds.org just re-wrote history!

I am willing to give Church editors the benefit of the doubt that this silent post-hoc switch on the online November 2013 issue was done with the best intentions. However, I don’t think they realize how disingenuous this looks, how it reinforces the hurt many Mormon feminists like myself already felt after Church spokeswoman Jessica Moody, on March 17th 2014 (11 days after the follow-up NYT article was published), said in a church press release that Ordain Women was “detracting” from “productive conversations” about women in the Church.

In response, Joanna Brooks noted the following on this very blog: “If there has been a ‘conversation’ about gender equality in Mormonism, it is not because the Church has led or even supported it. It is because generations of Mormon feminists have continued to ask faithful but agitating questions of the faith we love, even when it has discouraged, rejected, and disrespected us…The national media -– including the New York Times -– has done more to proactively acknowledge and advance serious conversation about gender issues in Mormonism than the LDS Church, which has been on the defensive on women’s issues for decades.” This sentiment resonated with me, and I feel it is reflected in this quiet history rewrite.

I have personally witnessed actions since Ordain Women’s founding in March 2013 and The New York Times article that advance changes for greater gender inclusivity in the church that I love. I hope and pray that church officials will be more proactive and open about responding to women’s issues. Post-hoc chart switches — or insisting that plans to put portraits of women in the Conference Center in early 2014 had been the result of years of church leaders’ discussions, or that the historic decision to publicly broadcast the priesthood session for the first time so women could watch had nothing to do with Ordain Women’s first request for tickets days before in October 2013 — feel defensive. I’m sure that is not the message church leaders mean to convey to faithful, temple-recommend-holding female members like me, but it’s what I hear from these recent actions, culminating with the Ensign photo switch.