Heavenly Mother
Encyclopedia
In Mormonism
Mormonism
Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

, Heavenly Mother or the Mother in Heaven is the mother of human spirit
Spirit Body
A spirit body is the organization of the spiritual element, made into the spiritual form of man, which according to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was made in the same likeness of God the Father...

s and the wife of God the Father
God the Father
God the Father is a gendered title given to God in many monotheistic religions, particularly patriarchal, Abrahamic ones. In Judaism, God is called Father because he is the creator, life-giver, law-giver, and protector...

. Those who accept the Mother in Heaven doctrine trace its origins to Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

. The doctrine was not widely known, however, until after the movement's succession crisis upon the death of Joseph Smith, Jr.
Death of Joseph Smith, Jr.
The death of Joseph Smith, Jr. on June 27, 1844 marked a turning point for the Latter Day Saint movement, of which Smith was the founder and leader. When he was attacked and killed by a mob, Smith was the mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, and running for President of the United States...

 in 1844.

The Heavenly Mother doctrine is mainly taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the Restoration Church of Jesus Christ
Restoration Church of Jesus Christ
The former Restoration Church of Jesus Christ , based in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah, was a church in the Latter Day Saint movement that catered primarily to the spiritual needs of Latter Day Saints who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered .The RCJC was sometimes informally...

  and branches of Mormon fundamentalism, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is one of the largest Mormon fundamentalist denominations and one of the largest organizations in the United States whose members practice polygamy. The FLDS Church emerged in the early twentieth century when its founding members left...

. The doctrine is not generally recognized by other faiths within the broader Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

, such as the Community of Christ
Community of Christ
The Community of Christ, known from 1872 to 2001 as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , is an American-based international Christian church established in April 1830 that claims as its mission "to proclaim Jesus Christ and promote communities of joy, hope, love, and peace"...

, where Trinitarianism
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...

 is predominant.

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she is sung about in one church hymn and briefly discussed in church teaching manuals and sermons. She is also the object of prayer by a small minority of members, though that practice is officially unacceptable.

Origin of the Heavenly Mother theology

The theological underpinnings of a belief in Heavenly Mother is attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement
Latter Day Saint movement
The Latter Day Saint movement is a group of independent churches tracing their origin to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. in the late 1820s. Collectively, these churches have over 14 million members...

, who shortly before his death in 1844 outlined a controversial view of God that differed dramatically from traditional Christian consensus. Smith's theology included the belief that God would share his glory with his children and that humans might become exalted beings, or gods and goddesses, in the afterlife (see Exaltation).

Although there is no clear record of Joseph Smith teaching of Heavenly Mother publicly, several of Smith's contemporaries attributed the theology to him either directly, or as a consequence of his theological stance. An editorial footnote of History of the Church, 5:254, presumably quotes Joseph Smith as saying: "Come to me; here's the mysteries man hath not seen, Here's our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen." In addition, a secondhand account states that in 1839, Joseph Smith had told Zina Diantha Huntington
Zina D. H. Young
Zina Diantha Huntington Jacobs Smith Young was an American social activist and religious leader who served as the third general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1888 until her death...

, one of Smith's plural wives, after the death of her mother, that "not only would she know her mother again on the other side, but 'more than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven'."

In addition, members of the Anointed Quorum
Anointed Quorum
The Anointed Quorum, also known as the Quorum of the Anointed, or the Holy Order, was a select body of men and women who Joseph Smith, Jr. initiated into Mormon temple ordinances at Nauvoo, Illinois, which gave them special standing in the early Latter Day Saint movement...

, a highly select spiritual organization in the early Church that was privy to Smith's teachings, also acknowledged the existence of a Heavenly Mother. Also, the Times and Seasons
Times and Seasons
Times and Seasons was a 19th-century Latter Day Saint periodical published monthly or twice-monthly at Nauvoo, Illinois, from November 1839 to February 15, 1846...

published a letter to the editor from a person named "Joseph's Specked Bird" in which the author stated that in the pre-Earth life, the spirit "was a child with his father and mother in heaven".

In 1845, after the murder of Joseph Smith, the poet Eliza Roxcy Snow
Eliza Roxcy Snow
Eliza Roxcy Snow Young was one of the most celebrated Latter-day Saint women of the nineteenth century. A renowned poet, she chronicled history, celebrated nature and relationships, and expounded scripture and doctrine...

, published a poem entitled My Father in Heaven, (later titled Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother, now used as the lyrics in the popular Latter-day Saint hymn O My Father
O My Father (hymn)
"O My Father" is a Latter-day Saint hymn written by Eliza R. Snow who felt inspired to write it after Joseph Smith, Jr. had taught her the principle of heavenly parents...

), acknowledging the existence of a Heavenly Mother. This hymn contained the following language:
In the heavens are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare.
Truth is reason: truth eternal
tells me I've a mother there.

When I leave this frail existence,
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
in your royal courts on high?


Some early Mormons considered Eliza Snow to be a "prophetess". Later, however, Church President Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph Fielding Smith, Sr. was the sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

 (a nephew of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Jr.) explained his own belief
Belief
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....

 that "God revealed that principle that we have a mother as well as a father in heaven to Joseph Smith; Joseph Smith revealed it to Eliza Snow Smith, his wife; and Eliza Snow was inspired, being a poet, to put it into verse."

The doctrine is also attributed to several other early church leaders. According to one sermon by Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

, Joseph Smith once said he "would not worship a God who had not a father; and I do not know that he would if he had not a mother; the one would be as absurd as the other" (Journal of Discourses, vol.9, p. 286).

Worship and prayer to the Heavenly Mother

Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt
Orson Pratt, Sr. was a leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles...

, an early LDS Apostle, opposed worshiping Heavenly Mother, because, he reasoned, like wives and children in any household, Heavenly Mother was required to "yield the most perfect obedience to" her husband (The Seer
The Seer (periodical)
The Seer was an official periodical of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which first appeared in 1853 and was published throughout 1854.-History of publication:...

, p. 159). However, in 1865, a majority of the First Presidency
First Presidency (LDS Church)
The First Presidency is the presiding or governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . It is composed of the President of the Church and his counselors. The First Presidency currently consists of President Thomas S. Monson and his two counselors, Henry B...

 and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church officially condemned Pratt's doctrinal declarations contained in The Seer, mostly because of Pratt's vocal opposition to the Adam-God theory
Adam-God theory
The Adam–God doctrine was the most prominent of several theological ideas taught within mid-19th century Mormonism, and is part of the modern theology of Mormon fundamentalism. Introduced by Brigham Young in the 1850s, the doctrine teaches that Adam is both the common ancestor and the father of...

; thus, Pratt's views in the periodical are not considered authoritative.

Early leader George Q. Cannon
George Q. Cannon
George Quayle Cannon was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and served in the First Presidency under four successive presidents of the church: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow...

 thought that “there is too much of this inclination to deify ‘our mother in heaven,’ arguing that she is not part of the Godhead and that to worship her would diminish from the worship of heavenly father. However, early 20th-century church leader Rudger Clawson
Rudger Clawson
Rudger Judd Clawson was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 until his death in 1943...

 disagreed, arguing that “it doesn’t take away from our worship of the Eternal Father, to adore our Eternal Mother…we honor woman when we acknowledge Godhood in her eternal prototype”

Some Church leaders have interpreted the term “God” to represent the divinely exalted couple with both a masculine and feminine half. Erastus Snow
Erastus Snow
Erastus Fairbanks Snow , born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1849 to 1888. Snow was also a leading figure in Mormon colonization of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.Snow Canyon State Park Erastus...

, an early Mormon Apostle, wrote “’do you mean we should understand that Deity consists of a man and woman?’ Most certainly I do. If I believe anything that God has ever said about himself…I must believe that deity consists of a man and woman.” This notion was reaffirmed by later church leaders Hugh B. Brown
Hugh B. Brown
Hugh Brown Brown was an attorney, educator and author and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

, James E. Talmage
James E. Talmage
James Edward Talmage born in Hungerford, Berkshire, England, was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1911 until his death in 1933....

, Melvin J. Ballard
Melvin J. Ballard
Melvin Joseph Ballard was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was born in Logan, Utah Territory. His grandson, M. Russell Ballard, was also ordained an apostle.Prior to his birth, his mother had an experience that led her to believe...

, and Bruce R. McConkie
Bruce R. McConkie
Bruce Redd McConkie was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1972 until his death...

.

Some feminist Mormons have adopted the practice of praying to the Heavenly Mother. However, deceased LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley
Gordon B. Hinckley
Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death...

 opposed this practice, saying that Mormons should not pray to the Heavenly Mother, saying that Christ instructed his disciplines to address the Heavenly Father in their prayers.
A feminist professor was fired from Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...

, one of the reasons being her public advocacy of praying to Heavenly Mother.

Acknowledgment of the theology

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not formally acknowledge the existence of a Heavenly Mother until 1909, in a statement on evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

 by the First Presidency
First Presidency
In the Latter Day Saint movement, the First Presidency was the highest governing body in the Latter Day Saint church established by Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1832, and is the highest governing body of several modern Latter Day Saint denominations...

 marking the 50th anniversary of Charles Darwin's
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

 Origin of Species. The Church also later inferred the theology in the 1995 statement The Family: A Proclamation to the World
The Family: A Proclamation to the World
"The Family: A Proclamation to the World" is a 1995 statement issued by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints —whose adherents are known as Mormons—which defined the official position of the church on family, gender roles, and human sexuality. First announced by church president Gordon B...

, where the Church officially stated that each person is a "spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents". Other references to Heavenly parents can be found in Latter-day Saint speeches and literature.

Elaborations on Heavenly Mother

According to historian Linda Wilcox, Heavenly Mother "is a shadowy and elusive belief floating around the edges of Mormon consciousness". Though the belief is held by most Mormons, the doctrine is not actively advertised by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though Heavenly Mother is sometimes mentioned in talks or sermons in Sacrament meetings and in Sunday School classes. The topic is most often consistent with the theology discussed above.

The lack of focused teaching and more information about her has caused speculation among Mormons that lack of information may have an Eternal purpose, to avoid drawing attention to her and to preserve the sacredness of her existence. In 1960 a statement from an LDS seminary teacher who speculated that “the name of our Mother in Heaven has been withheld” because of the way God the Father’s and Jesus Christ’s names have been profaned. Whether he is the source of the idea or is reflecting a prevalent belief is hard to say. It should be noted that a seminary teacher is not considered an authority in the LDS faith and therefore cannot speak for the Church or alter doctrinal principles.

While no General Authority has made an official statement denying belief in a Heavenly Mother nor stating that her existence is too sacred to discuss, several factors may influence the current trend that sees even a mention of Heavenly Mother as treading on forbidden ground. Members take their cues about what is acceptable doctrine from talks of General Authorities and official Church manuals and magazines. The most recent reference to her was made by President Gordon B. Hinckley in a talk given at the General Women’s Meeting in October of 1991 and printed in that year’s November Ensign.

While President Hinckley says the prohibition (on praying to Heavenly Mother) in no way “belittles or denigrates her,” it surely makes her secondary in some way to Heavenly Father, as does President Hinckley’s assertion that men have a “governing responsibility” over women. Also while he does not forbid discussion about Heavenly Mother, he does mark her position as problematic, especially given the way he contextualizes his comments about her.

For Church members eager to follow their leaders to the letter of the law, President Hinckley’s prohibition can easily be read to mean that any who pursue the topic of the Heavenly Mother are also “misguided.” Add to this a grassroots feeling that Heavenly Mother is too sacred to talk about because her husband does not want her name “taken in vain” like his is, and the result is the disappearance of specific references to the Heavenly Mother altogether in Church publications since 1991. No doubt the publicly discussed excommunications of feminists like Janice Allred, Lynne Kanavel Whitesides, and Maxine Hanks, all of whom were disciplined in part for talking about the Heavenly Mother, adds to the general sense that discourse about her is strictly forbidden.

However, BYU Professor David Paulsen has argued that such a belief finds no official backing in statements by church leaders, and that the concept that the Heavenly Mother is consigned to a "sacred silence" is largely the result of a relatively recent cultural perception.

Statements by LDS Church leaders on Heavenly Mother

Various LDS Church leaders throughout the history of the Church have spoken openly about the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother.

Susan Young Gates, a daughter of Brigham Young and women's rights activist, stated that “[the] great Heavenly Mother was the great molder” in Abraham’s personality. “Gates speculated that Heavenly Mother has played a significant role in all our lives, looking over us with ‘watchful care’ and providing ‘careful training.’” Brigham Young
Brigham Young
Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 preached that resurrected “eternal mothers” would “be prepared to frame earths like unto ours.”

Early 20th century church leader B.H. Roberts pointed out that the Heavenly Mother doctrine presents a “conception of the nobility of women and of motherhood and of wife-hood--placing her side by side with the Divine Father.” John Widtsoe, a colleague of B.H. Roberts in the Quorum of the Twelve, wrote that the afterlife “is given radiant warmth by the thought that…[we have] a mother who possesses the attributes of Godhood.” In 1894, The Juvenile Instructor, an official publication of the LDS church, published a Hymn entitled "Our Mother in Heaven."

There has also been some more recent discussion of Heavenly Mother by LDS Church leaders. In a speech given at BYU in 2010, Glenn L. Pace
Glenn L. Pace
Glenn Leroy Pace has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1985. He as served as a member of the presiding bishopric and the First Quorum of Seventy and in 2010 became an emeritus general authority...

, a member of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy, said, “Sisters, I testify that when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny.”

Brigham Young, who taught Adam is Heavenly Father, taught that his wife Eve is Heavenly Mother: "I tell you more, Adam is the father of our spirits ... our spirits and the spirits of all the heavenly family were begotten by Adam, and born of Eve. ... I tell you, when you see your Father in the Heavens, you will see Adam; when you see your Mother that bore your spirit, you will see Mother Eve."

See also

  • Divine Mother
    Divine Mother
    Divine Mother or Mother Divine may refer to*Adi parashakti, a goddess of Hindu Mythology*Blessed Virgin Mary, of Roman Catholicism religion*Father Divine, an American religious leader active in the 1930s, and either of his wives:** Edna Rose Ritchings...

  • Great Mother
    Great Mother
    The Great Mother refers to the concept of the mother goddess, including:*Great Mother, in the Mahayana and Vajrayana refers to Prajnaparamita, and the wisdom of the Madhyamaka...

  • Lady Master Venus
  • Mother goddess
    Mother goddess
    Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...

  • Shaktism
    Shaktism
    Shaktism is a denomination of Hinduism that focuses worship upon Shakti or Devi – the Hindu Divine Mother – as the absolute, ultimate Godhead...

  • Sophia
  • Sophiology
    Sophiology
    Sophiology is a philosophical concept regarding wisdom, as well as a theological concept regarding the wisdom of God...

  • Thealogy
    Thealogy
    Thealogy, a neologism coined by Isaac Bonewits in 1974, is a discourse that reflects upon the meaning of Goddess and Her relationship to life forms. It is a discourse that critically engages the beliefs, wisdom, practices, questions, and values of the Goddess community, both past and present...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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