Females are not exempt from Perdition, don't be stupid.

A couple of years ago, one of my religion teachers at BYU-Idaho told me that a woman couldn’t be a son of Perdition or, rather, a “daughter of Perdition” (A son of Perdition is a person who denies the Holy Ghost, who loves Satan. The sin of being a son of Perdition is not covered by the Atonement. Cain, for example, is a son of Perdition.) This teacher believed that women are so spiritual that denying the Holy Ghost is out of our realm of possibilities. Upon further study, I found no evidence for this to be true. Sure, the scriptures call them “sons,” but all of scripture uses masculine terms to designate both genders. There is no ancient or modern justification for a difference here.

But why did my teacher think that women can’t be perdition?

In the church we seem to have an unrealistic idea of what women are. Mormons, especially men, seem to think that women are angels. This isn’t true. And the idea that women can’t be spiritually weak is stupid and dangerous.

To be a child of perdition, a person must have two things: knowledge and agency. There’s a phrase that likes to be used by members, “Greater light, greater condemnation.” People are given leniency for not following truths they were ignorant about. A child of perdition must have an understanding of the truth before they can deny it. By saying that women can’t be daughters of perdition, you’re saying that women cannot reach the level of understanding necessary to be a child of perdition.

The second thing a person needs to be is a child of perdition is agency. As much as God must hate it when his children become children of perdition he does not stop it from happening. God respects our agency, and nothing is out of our realm of possibility—good or evil. By saying that women can’t be children of perdition, you’re saying that women don’t have complete agency.

Do I want women to be children of perdition? Of course not. I don’t want anyone to be children of perdition. But, I worry that when we don’t see spiritual weakness as a possibility in women, we don’t take the steps necessary to prevent it. Leaders, parents, and our community assume that what can be stumbling blocks for men (like pornography) can’t and won’t be stumbling blocks for women. But women can stumble! We’re human! So while parents are making sure their sons are supervised on the internet and are preparing for missions, we should also be making sure that our daughters are spiritually safe.