Heavenly Mother (Mormonism) - Worship and Prayer To Heavenly Mother

Worship and Prayer To 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.

Early leader George Q. Cannon 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 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, 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, James E. Talmage, Melvin J. Ballard, and Bruce R. McConkie.

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, saying that Christ instructed his disciples to address the Heavenly Father in their prayers. A feminist professor was fired from Brigham Young University, one of the reasons being her public advocacy of praying to Heavenly Mother.

Read more about this topic:  Heavenly Mother (Mormonism)

Famous quotes containing the words worship, prayer, heavenly and/or mother:

    The worship of Mammon may be vulgar or immoral, but it persists while other religions falter and disappear.
    Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    Prayer is the fair and radiant daughter of all the human virtues, the arch connecting heaven and earth, the sweet companion that is alike the lion and the dove; and prayer will give you the key of heaven. As pure and as bold as innocence, as strong as all things are that are entire and single, this fair and invincible queen rests on the material world; she has taken possession of it; for, like the sun, she casts about it a sphere of light.
    Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)

    There is a Book
    By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light,
    On which the eyes of God not rarely look,

    A chronicle of actions just and bright—
    There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine;
    And since thou own’st that praise, I spare thee mine.
    William Cowper (1731–1800)

    It takes a heap o’ children to make a home that’s true,
    And home can be a palace grand, or just a plain, old shoe;
    But if it has a mother dear, and a good old dad or two,
    Why, that’s the sort of good old home for good old me and you.
    Louis Untermeyer (1885–1977)