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The Founding of Mormon
Women for Ethical Government

The Story of MWEG

Picture of Diana Bate Hardy, Melissa Dalton Bradford, Sharlee Mullins Glenn, Linda Hoffman Kimball

From left to right: Diana Bate Hardy, Melissa Dalton-Bradford, Sharlee Mullins Glenn, Linda Hoffman Kimball

The members and leaders of MWEG feel deep appreciation and tremendous respect for our founding members. MWEG exists today as a result of their extraordinary faith, sacrifice, and vision. As you read the story of our beginnings in the words of founder Sharlee Mullins Glenn, we hope you can feel the power of these remarkable women of faith:

On January 26, 2017, Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG) was born. I knew that as a citizen of this great country I love so much, I could no longer stay silent in the face of the distressing polarization, hyperpartisanship, and eroding ethics in our government. And so, impelled by my faith and spurred on by President Nelson's call to the sisters to "speak up and speak out," I set up a Facebook group and put in place the basic principles and guidelines that still govern MWEG today (the focus on ethics; a pledge to be faithful, nonpartisan, peaceful, and proactive; an absolute commitment to civility and to what later became MWEG's Six Principles of Peacemaking [which we adapted from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s principles of nonviolence]). And then I invited a few friends to join me.

What happened next was miraculous and completely unexpected. Friends began adding friends who added friends, and within just a few short weeks, thousands of women had joined MWEG — strong women of faith who, in the words of founding member Melissa Dalton-Bradford, "refused to be complicit by being complacent." The original founding members — Sharlee Mullins Glenn, Melissa Dalton-Bradford, Erica Glenn, Linda Hoffman Kimball, Jacque White, Michelle Lehnardt, and Diana Bate Hardy — together with a large team of extraordinary volunteer leaders, worked around the clock, day after day, week after week, month after month, prayerfully seeking God's direction at every step, to put into place a structure that could accommodate our growing membership and most effectively advance our mission, all while engaging wholeheartedly in intensive in-the-trenches advocacy work.

Learn more about the story of MWEG in this article, this op-ed, or in The Little Purple Book: MWEG Essentials.

See our Founders in Action!

 

The Little Purple Book

The Little Purple Book: MWEG Essentials includes MWEG’s genesis story, explains the purpose and focus of MWEG and its founding, expands on the six principles of peacemaking, and shares some of the weekly Sabbath devotionals written by the founders and other MWEG members.

The services offered by MWEG are neither made, provided, approved, nor endorsed by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Any content or opinions expressed, implied, or included in or with the services offered by MWEG are solely those of MWEG and not those of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.