Heavenly Mother's Corner

Do you remember the Mormon TV ads that always ended with "Family, Isn't It About Time?" They aired in the late 80's and through the 90's. I remember them because analyzing them helped get me into grad school. 

I wasn't doing a content analysis for no reason; I was obviously looking for something. What is the role of women in this media? I saw the commercials all the time and wondered my sisters thought about them. 

None of my sisters were asked what they wanted to do when they grew up. I was asked all the time because I have a penis, and having a penis means I get a job of my choosing and a family. My sisters all have vaginas so no one asked what their job was going to be. I remember Dad making regular jokes to dirty old men who came into the Meat Shop: "take your pick." Mormon women do one thing with their lives, and it's the same in the afterlife too. Spoiler alert: the "Isn't It About Time" ads reflect this in a big way. About 5% of adult women who made it on screen actually spoke - just smile and wave, ladies! 

Heavenly Mother is the only unique piece of Mormon dogma still important to me. Acknowledging Her existence in an American-based Christian religion is a revolutionary and beautiful thing. This paints Mormons, and Heavenly Mother, into an ideological corner that I LOVE to hash out.

Mormons must acknowledge the Devine Feminine because the Mormon "Plan of Happiness" is that we each pair with someone of the opposite sex and make babies for eternity on our own planet. No man or woman makes it to the highest heaven alone. The point of being there is to spiritually procreate and make more worlds, but that's only for the perfect Mormon heterosexuals. 

Knowing that the whole point is to be like God and make spirit babies and other worlds, logic dictates there must be a Heavenly Mother who made us. Yet she has no face, name, or story. No one prays to Her or does anything in Her name. She is not a member of the Godhead. None of us would be here without Her, and mentioning Her in a public Mormon meeting is awkward as all hell.

Part of the reason is that ultimately Mormons have to admit there's probably not just one Heavenly Mother. Some of us are spirit half-siblings. One man can be eternally married to several women, still today in the church. The reverse is not true as I'm sure you guessed. 

So Mormons and Heavenly Mother are painted in a corner where she's there, but solely to make and raise spirit babies. She has no power, no other role than birth, and no one speaks to Her directly after that. There are no stories about Her involvement in human history or Her love for us beyond our spirit birth. 

Here's the corner this puts Mormons in: 1) They want to believe they are monotheistic so people don't think they're weird, but can't deny Heavenly Mother exists, or that they believe three separate men are the Godhead and perfect Mormons will be Gods too. 2) They want to believe women are considered equal, but Heavenly Mother exists out of logical obligation, and is not directly referenced in any Mormon scripture, church-approved media, or in the Temple. That I know of anyway - I hear women don't have to cover their faces in the Temple nowadays so maybe Heavenly Mother has made an appearance. 

My sisters are wonderful people, amazing mothers, and successful in their own careers. Mormon women are as capable as anyone in any area of their life, even if the dogma and Mormon media shows them capable as one thing. None of my sisters deserves not being spoken to or about by their children now. They deserve stories and prayers should they become Gods in the Mormon afterlife too. 

I think the entire Mormon version of heaven is nonsense - easy for me as a gay man who can never make it to the highest heaven without a female with whom I can breed. I do however believe in the Devine Feminine. I'm thankful to Mormondom for introducing me to Her, as painted in a corner as She was.