Heavenly Mother (Latter Day Saints)

In some branches of the Latter Day Saint movement, Heavenly Mother or Mother in Heaven is the mother of human spirits and the wife of God the Father. Those who accept the Mother in Heaven doctrine trace its origins to the movement's founder Joseph Smith, Jr. The doctrine was not widely known, however, until after the movement's succession crisis upon the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1844, and some historians dispute that Smith had a hand in it.

The Heavenly Mother doctrine is mainly taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)cite web | title=The Role of Women in the Church |publisher=Restoration Church of Jesus Christ |url=http://home.netcom.com/~utahdude/rcjc/rcjc_wom.html |accessdate=2006-07-17 ] cite web | title=Pre-Mortal Existence |publisher=BBC |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/mormon/beliefs/existence_1.shtml | ] and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.Fact|date=July 2008 It is not taught by the Community of Christ, where Trinitarianism is predominant. Many Mormon fundamentalists teach that the Heavenly Mother is Eve. In the LDS Church, the doctrine is based on inference from the church's theology and canon, and on authoritative pronouncements by the First Presidency in reference to the Adam-God doctrineFact|date=June 2008. She is sung about in church hymns and discussed in church teaching manuals and sermons. ["O My Father", LDS hymn #292, refers to a mother in heaven. "Oh, What Songs of the Heart", LDS hymn #286, refers to "heavenly parents". " [http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,161-1-11-1,00.html The Family: A Proclamation to the World] " mentions "heavenly parents". Various LDS curriculum materials refer to a Heavenly Mother, for instance see the conclusion of [http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Curriculum/mpandrs.htm/latterday%20saint%20woman%20a.htm/gospel%20principles%20and%20doctrine.htm/chastity%20and%20modesty%20lesson%209.htm#LPTOC4 "The Latter Day Saint Women", Lesson 9] and [http://lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b3bc55cbf541229058520974e44916a0/?vgnextoid=32c41b08f338c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=f04a7befabc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&hideNav=1&contentLocale=0 "Chapter 2: Our Heavenly Family"] , "Gospel Principles", 11 (1997). See also a statement by a former President of the Church in Spencer W. Kimball, [http://www.lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.b12f9d18fae655bb69095bd3e44916a0/?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=c3ead0640b96b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1 "The True Way of Life and Salvation"] , "Ensign", May 1978, 4.] She is also the object of prayer by a small minority of members; however, that practice is officially discouraged.cite web | title= Guide to the Scriptures: Prayer | publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | url=http://scriptures.lds.org/en/gs/p/45 | accessdate=2006-07-23 ] cite web | title="Pray unto the Father in My Name" | publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | url=http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,49-1-64-31,00.html | accessdate=2006-07-23 ]

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, who shortly before his death in 1844 outlined a controversial view of God that differed dramatically from traditional Christian consensus. [See King Follett Discourse; Smith 1844.] 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, 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'." [Wilcox 1987, p. 65.]

In addition, members of the Anointed Quorum, a highly select spiritual organization in the early Church that was privy to Smith's teachings, also acknowledged the existence of a Heavenly Mother. [Wilcox 1987, pp. 65-67; Orson Pratt 1876, p. 292; Wilford Woodruff 1875, pp. 31-32.] Also, the "Times and Seasons" 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". [Joseph's Specked Bird 1845, p. 892.]

In 1845, after the murder of Joseph Smith, the poet Eliza Roxcy Snow, 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"), acknowledges the existence of a Heavenly Mother. [Snow 1845. "See also" Derr 1996-97; Pearson 1992.] 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.

Some early Mormons considered Eliza Snow to be a "prophetess".cite web | title=Abstract of "Poems, religious, historical, and political" |publisher=Harold B. Lee Library/Online Collections at BYU | url=http://relarchive.byu.edu/MPNC/descriptions/poems.html |accessdate=2008-06-13 ] Later, however, Church President Joseph F. Smith (a nephew of Joseph Smith, Jr.) explained his own belief 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." [Wilcox 1987, p 65.]

The doctrine is also attributed to several other early church leaders. According to one sermon by Brigham Young, 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, 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, p.159). However, in 1865, a majority of the First Presidency 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; thus, Pratt's views in the periodical are not considered authoritative. ["Deseret News", Aug. 12, 1865, 373; see also B.H. Roberts, "Defense of the Faith and the Saints", 2:294 (1912).]

Some feminist Mormons have adopted the practice of praying to the Heavenly Mother. However, deceased LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley opposed this practice, saying that Mormons should not pray to the Heavenly Mother. [Hinckley 1991, pp 97-100.] A feminist professor was fired from Brigham Young University for teaching prayer to Heavenly Mother in her class. [cite paper
title = Academic Freedom and Tenure: Brigham Young University
publisher = American Association of University Professors
date = September-October 1997
url = https://www.aaup.org/Com-a/Institutions/archives/1997/Brigham.pdf
format = PDF
accessdate = 2006-07-20 ]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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 by the First Presidency marking the 50th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species". [Smith et al. 1909.] The Church also later inferred the theology in the 1995 statement "", 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. [See, for example, Hinckley 1991, encouraging Latter-day Saint women not to pray to the Heavenly Mother; or M. Russell Ballard stating "we are part of a divine plan designed by Heavenly Parents who love us" in his book "When Thou Art Converted".]

Elaborations on Heavenly Mother

In general, Heavenly Mother "is a shadowy and elusive [belief] floating around the edges of Mormon consciousness". [Wilcox 1987, p. 64.] 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. Fact|date=February 2007

Conversely, as seen by non-Mormons, the relative obscurity of the Heavenly Mother doctrine is part of the Church's ongoing effort to converge with mainstream Christianity.

Notes

References

* Bickmore, Barry R., "Mormonism in the Early Jewish Christian Milieu", http://www.fairlds.org/pubs/conf/1999BicB.html#en112 (1999).
* Derr, Jill Mulvay, "The Significance of 'O My Father' in the Personal Journey of Eliza R. Snow", "BYU Studies" 36, no. 1 (1996-97): 84-126.
* Hinckley, Gordon B., " [http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1991.htm/ensign%20november%201991%20.htm/daughters%20of%20god.htm?fn=document-frameset.htm$f=templates$3.0 Daughters of God] ", "Ensign", November 1991: 97-100.
* Joseph's Specked Bird, Letter to the Editor, "Times and Seasons" 6: 892 (May 1, 1845).
* Jorgensen, Danny L., "The Mormon Gender-Inclusive Image of God", "Journal of Mormon History", 27, No. 1 (Spring 2000): 95-126.
* Origen, "Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John: Book II", ¶6. [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-10/anf10-38.htm#P6457_1075919| Included] in "The Ante-Nicene Fathers", 10 vols. (Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885-1896) 10:329-330.
*Citation
last=Litchfield
first=Allen W.
title=Behind the Veil: The Heavenly Mother Concept Among Members of Women's Support Groups in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
year=1987
publisher=BYU Master's thesis
url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/MTGM,22484 .
* Pearson, Carol Lynn, "Mother Wove the Morning: a one-woman play" (October 1992) (ISBN 1-56236-307-7) (depicting, according to the video's description, Eliza R. Snow as one of "sixteen women [who] throughout history search for God the Mother and invite her back into the human family").
* Pratt, Orson, "Journal of Discourses" 18:292 (Nov. 12, 1876).
* Smith Jr., Joseph, "King Follett Discourse", April 7, 1844, published in "Times and Seasons" 5 (August 15, 1844): 612-17, and reprinted in the "History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", edited by B. H. Roberts, 2d ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, (1976-1980), 6:302-17; "see also" "The Christian Godhead--Plurality of Gods", "History of the Church", 6: 473-79.
* Smith, Joseph F. et al., "The Origin of Man", "Improvement Era" (November 1909): 80.
* Wilcox, Linda P., "The Mormon Concept of a Mother in Heaven", "Sisters in Spirit: Mormon Women in Historical and Cultural Perspective", edited by Maureen Ursenbach Beecher and Lavina Fielding Anderson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 64-77.
* Woodruff, Wilford, "Journal of Discourses" 18:31-32 (June 27, 1875).