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:
“Could it not be that just at the moment masculinity has brought us to the brink of nuclear destruction or ecological suicide, women are beginning to rise in response to the Mother’s call to save her planet and create instead the next stage of evolution? Can our revolution mean anything else than the reversion of social and economic control to Her representatives among Womankind, and the resumption of Her worship on the face of the Earth? Do we dare demand less?”
—Jane Alpert (b. 1947)
“We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.”
—Morning Prayer, General Confession, Book of Common Prayer (1662)
“One of those heavenly days that cannot die;”
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“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 1:18,19.