I recently watched an old videotaping of the Phil Donahue Show with three women who brazenly forfeited their membership in the LDS Church because they were feminists and didn’t like the church’s stand (this was back in 1993).

Briefly, I’ll quickly give you the lineup of these women, but it’s the fourth woman I would like to really focus on.

The first woman had recently written a book that blatantly explored our temple rituals. She was excommunicated because of this book, but she went on to explain her bad marriage, which she had naively entered into thinking “Mormonism never protected me from this”.

The second woman wanted to hold her baby in the blessing circle while her husband and family gave the blessing and name. This was the beginning of her awakening to wondering why women can’t hold the priesthood. She suspected that after the show she would return to her home and get a call from her bishop leading toward her excommunication.

The third woman hated men and asked that her name be removed from church membership.

The show went on, mostly complaining about men who abuse their priesthood. An audience member (non-LDS) questioned: “What do these bad marriages have to do with the Mormon Church?” I had the same question.

Now that I have all of that out of the way…let me get to the point of this post.

We need to be ready to stand as witnesses at all times and in all places, just as the fourth guest did.

While casually watching the Phil Donahue Show (and for those of you who are wondering who he was—he was the Oprah of the 80’s and 90’s), she saw a brief pitch for an upcoming show about the first woman and her book, which she had recently learned about and had strong opinions against. On a whim, she sent a letter off to the show explaining her viewpoint.

The next day, she got a call from the producer of the show and one thing led to another where our fourth guest was invited to be the voice of the church opposite these three women. She was never given much time to say anything, yet she was there to correct erroneous statements made by these angry women and she kept the church in a good light, never fearing to speak up (interrupting, even) when necessary.

This is the whole story. Her name is Candace Sluyter Salima and you can read about her here.

This was a single woman who was not sent by the church to speak up, yet she was willing and ready to act. She received a blessing before flying to New York and felt the power of that blessing and the safety of the spirit as she literally spoke for, and in behalf, of the church.

As member missionaries we are asked to do this very thing. It’s examples like this that can motivate us into being modern pioneers, walking into new and glorious fields.

This is her final testimony. “All in all, my experience in standing for truth and righteousness was an incredible one. It is an opportunity I still thank my Father in Heaven for and I have kept that promise I made. I continued to study the gospel, delving deeper into the scriptures, writings of prophets and apostles and those trusted theologians. I am what I am today because this experience spurred me to new heights.”