Handbook Change-Women SS Presidents

[I Have Questions]

It's interesting what the OP quote from the Deseret news leaves out. First, note that the main quote left out the source of the opinion:

[BYU religion professor Jenet Erickson] said Wednesday’s announcement reflects a belief that Sunday School is one area where women and men can work together in meaningful ways to expand the growth and development of members of the church....

In actuality, this new policy will not lead to "women and men [working] together" because, as is stated earlier in the linked Deseret article:

...“If a man is called as Sunday School president,” the letter stated, “he must hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, and his counselors and secretary must be male members of the ward. If a woman is called as Sunday School president, her counselors and secretary must be female members of the ward.”...

Yes. It’s set up to specifically prevent men and women working together. Here is the actual letter to Bishops…

“The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have determined that, effective immediately, the bishop may call a man or a woman to serve as ward Sunday School president,” the First Presidency said in a letter to Church leaders worldwide on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. “If a man is called as Sunday School president, he must hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, and his counselors and secretary must be male members of the ward. If a woman is called as Sunday School president, her counselors and secretary must be female members of the ward.”

My understanding of the rationale behind this seemingly hasty move, is because stakes and wards in a lot of areas are struggling for male priesthood holders to fulfil the big callings.

“In any given ward, Sunday School presidencies may at times be composed of men and at other times of women, based on circumstances in the unit and the inspiration of leaders,” they said.

They are giving the coded message - if you haven’t got enough men, let the women run Sunday School. And there’s a caveat…

The stake Sunday School president will continue to be a Melchizedek Priesthood holder and member of the high council.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

Heavens to Betsy, the troll and follower in chief sets a new record response time!

Three or four in a row, no less!

Regards,
MG

Like a dog returning to its vomit, the patriarchalist will return to his ways.

[MG 2.0]

Heavens to Betsy, the troll and follower in chief sets a new record response time!

Three or four in a row, no less!

Regards,
MG

Who are you calling names? And why?

Not you. The persons who are engaging in targeted harassment. Apparently there are now names/designations for this kind of troll:

Wikistalking/Cyberstalking
Follow Target Troll
Stalking Troll

From what I've read their goal isn't just to disrupt a thread, it's to discredit or silence a specific individual across multiple discussions.

This last evening and at other times a particular poster makes a habit of doing just this very thing. It's been ongoing and disrupts the flow of almost any given thread that I make a comment on. Rather tiresome. But predictable.

Targeted harassment involves monitoring posts of one particular individual to "correct" that person, insult that person, or pick a fight wherever that person goes. This description applies mainly to one person on this board and very possibly two or three others.

In my opinion they should be sanctioned/curtailed from being able to disrupt the board in this manner.

Three common tactics (I had to look this up) used by one or more posters:

1.Sealining: Pestering a poster with "innocent" but endless questions to exhaust him or her.
2. Character Assassination: Attempting to turn the rest of the board against a person by bringing up his or her past posts out of context.

I understand that when I defend myself, as I have done many times, I have provided the "fuel" these posters need to keep the fire going. The most effective way to handle them, of course, is to use the Block or Ignore tools immediately. Which I've done.

Unfortunately that also gives them the satisfaction of having the final word. That's why, at times, I will make a generic statement which applies to the trolls that are currently and incessantly jumping in just being trolls and doing what they do

You, Morley, inadvertently got caught in the middle of one of those times. I have not considered you to be a troll. In fact, at times you ask important questions and lead the conversation along interesting lines of thought even as I personally see you as having mistaken ideas.

But we each come at things with different perspectives, learnings, and perspectives. So I can understand and accept that. It's just the incessant trolling by a few people that can make or break the flow and sharing of ideas on a board such as this one.

Regards,
MG

[Equality]

To repeat, isn't that a good thing...women in another leadership position? I would think that critics would, at the very least, see that as a positive move.

I see this as a positive development. It's emblematic of the fact that the church is hemorrhaging "worthy" men. They are leaving in droves.

This may be the key to women eventually getting the priesthood. So many men will leave that the tricks they've been using (e.g., making wards and stakes larger to try to increase the pool of members from which they can staff the leadership positions) will no longer be sufficient.

Hallelujah, I can hear the stone clunking forth!

[Marcus]

Who are you calling names? And why?

Not you. The persons who are engaging in targeted harassment. Apparently there are now names/designations for this kind of troll:

Wikistalking/Cyberstalking
Follow Target Troll
Stalking Troll

From what I've read their goal isn't just to disrupt a thread, it's to discredit or silence a specific individual across multiple discussions.

This last evening and at other times a particular poster makes a habit of doing just this very thing. It's been ongoing and disrupts the flow of almost any given thread that I make a comment on. Rather tiresome. But predictable.

Targeted harassment involves monitoring posts of one particular individual to "correct" that person, insult that person, or pick a fight wherever that person goes. This description applies mainly to one person on this board and very possibly two or three others.

In my opinion they should be sanctioned/curtailed from being able to disrupt the board in this manner.

Three common tactics (I had to look this up) used by one or more posters:

1.Sealining: Pestering a poster with "innocent" but endless questions to exhaust him or her.
2. Character Assassination: Attempting to turn the rest of the board against a person by bringing up his or her past posts out of context...

In addition to not being able to count to 3 when he posts his AI cut-n-pastes,
Mentalgymnast seems to be feeling some guilt over how he treats members of this board, as he has exactly described his targeted harassment of grindael:

An example of mentalgymnast's trolling of grindael:

When grindael excitedly announced that he had been chosen to present his research at the Whitmer conference and shared with us some of his work, this was one (just one of many!) of the trolling comments that mentalgymnast posted on his announcement thread that evening:

by the way, loser, we are already well aware that you don't believe in the Divine calling of Joseph Smith...so what's your point in preaching to the choir? You already know you're gonna just get high fives. So what's your point? Much ado about nothing, isn't it?

You're a loser, grindael. Ya, I know I just called you a loser. But the shoe fits.

Too bad all mentalgymnast can do is project his exact behavior onto the board without realizing he's describing himself perfectly. He could just stop insulting and stereoytyping all who believe differently than he does.

[MG 2.0]

Other attributes/characteristics of the type of troll I’ve talked about on this thread:

Algorithmic Gaming- pushing their comments to the top to bury a post they would rather not have seen.

Psychological Wearing- using words such as “clearly” and “absolutely “ and the like, act as triggers to influence others to your own way of thinking and overwhelm the ‘mark’.

Circle jerking- my guess is that many here know what that is and some have participated in it.

I would encourage the moderators to consider whether certain members of this board have created a pattern of Brigading with the intent of targeting certain posters.

This is trolling behavior by definition.

Regards,
MG

[MG 2.0]

I think I have laid out quite adequately why certain people on this board might be considered to be trolls.

With OCD.

Regards,
MG

[Marcus]

To repeat, isn't that a good thing...women in another leadership position? I would think that critics would, at the very least, see that as a positive move.

I see this as a positive development. It's emblematic of the fact that the church is hemorrhaging "worthy" men. They are leaving in droves.

This may be the key to women eventually getting the priesthood. So many men will leave that the tricks they've been using (e.g., making wards and stakes larger to try to increase the pool of members from which they can staff the leadership positions) will no longer be sufficient.

Hallelujah, I can hear the stone clunking forth!

Lol. It is interesting but not surprising that using only half of their adult membership has backfired on the LDS hierarchy. That clunky stone is still hanging on though, by emphasizing their sexism one more time. As I think Doc put it, Mormons can't ask a priesthood holder to serve under a woman who holds a leadership position, especially since now she may not even be <gasp> wearing sleeves!!

[malkie]

I see this as a positive development. It's emblematic of the fact that the church is hemorrhaging "worthy" men. They are leaving in droves.

This may be the key to women eventually getting the priesthood. So many men will leave that the tricks they've been using (e.g., making wards and stakes larger to try to increase the pool of members from which they can staff the leadership positions) will no longer be sufficient.

Hallelujah, I can hear the stone clunking forth!

Lol. It is interesting but not surprising that using only half of their adult membership has backfired on the LDS hierarchy. That clunky stone is still hanging on though, by emphasizing their sexism one more time. As I think Doc put it, Mormons can't ask a priesthood holder to serve under a woman who holds a leadership position, especially since now she may not even be <gasp> wearing sleeves!!

Ahhh - I think you have something there. Perhaps it's not so much a case of "he says, she says", as fear of "he looks, he feels guilty, he blames".

[I Have Questions]

To try and bypass MG’s attempt at derailing his own thread. Again. I’ll repost this…

It's interesting what the OP quote from the Deseret news leaves out. First, note that the main quote left out the source of the opinion:

[BYU religion professor Jenet Erickson] said Wednesday’s announcement reflects a belief that Sunday School is one area where women and men can work together in meaningful ways to expand the growth and development of members of the church....

In actuality, this new policy will not lead to "women and men [working] together" because, as is stated earlier in the linked Deseret article:

...“If a man is called as Sunday School president,” the letter stated, “he must hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, and his counselors and secretary must be male members of the ward. If a woman is called as Sunday School president, her counselors and secretary must be female members of the ward.”...

Yes. It’s set up to specifically prevent men and women working together. Here is the actual letter to Bishops…

“The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have determined that, effective immediately, the bishop may call a man or a woman to serve as ward Sunday School president,” the First Presidency said in a letter to Church leaders worldwide on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. “If a man is called as Sunday School president, he must hold the Melchizedek Priesthood, and his counselors and secretary must be male members of the ward. If a woman is called as Sunday School president, her counselors and secretary must be female members of the ward.”

My understanding of the rationale behind this seemingly hasty move, is because stakes and wards in a lot of areas are struggling for male priesthood holders to fulfil the big callings.

“In any given ward, Sunday School presidencies may at times be composed of men and at other times of women, based on circumstances in the unit and the inspiration of leaders,” they said.

They are giving the coded message - if you haven’t got enough men, let the women run Sunday School. And there’s a caveat…

The stake Sunday School president will continue to be a Melchizedek Priesthood holder and member of the high council.