Do you ever have deep thoughts that come into your brain and you can't seem to figure them out in your head and they drive you crazy?? Oh... only me? Hm.
In the LDS Church, we have a firm belief that we are children of Heavenly Parents... not just beings created by a sole male deity, but the offspring of a Father and a Mother who are deeply involved in our earthly existence and who together form our concept of "God". We are taught that in order to respect our Mother, we must not discuss her existence or pray to her (though according to a new scholarly article in BYU Studies, we have never been told by a general authority to not speak of her, we've just been told not to pray to her... but sometimes I do anyway). Despite her being largely invisible in the everyday proceedings of the Church, I've always felt a strong conviction of this doctrine... that there isn't a single male deity but rather gods and goddesses working together bringing forth life not terribly unlike the world as we see it.
I was doing some light doctrinal reading about Heavenly Mother the other day when the thought occurred to me: why do we only consider Heavenly Father the literal parent of the Savior? Heavenly Mother is not the literal parent of Jesus Christ, as Mary was the vector. With all the talk of Heavenly Father... I wonder if Heavenly Mother ever looks down on us and feels forgotten or belittled. Can you imagine if you had a whole brood of children who only ever wanted to talk to their father on the phone every night?
And if Mary is a daughter of Heavenly Parents, wouldn't the conception of Jesus technically be considered incest?
I'm not trying to be offensive here, just had some thoughts. Anyone have any ideas?
In the LDS Church, we have a firm belief that we are children of Heavenly Parents... not just beings created by a sole male deity, but the offspring of a Father and a Mother who are deeply involved in our earthly existence and who together form our concept of "God". We are taught that in order to respect our Mother, we must not discuss her existence or pray to her (though according to a new scholarly article in BYU Studies, we have never been told by a general authority to not speak of her, we've just been told not to pray to her... but sometimes I do anyway). Despite her being largely invisible in the everyday proceedings of the Church, I've always felt a strong conviction of this doctrine... that there isn't a single male deity but rather gods and goddesses working together bringing forth life not terribly unlike the world as we see it.
I was doing some light doctrinal reading about Heavenly Mother the other day when the thought occurred to me: why do we only consider Heavenly Father the literal parent of the Savior? Heavenly Mother is not the literal parent of Jesus Christ, as Mary was the vector. With all the talk of Heavenly Father... I wonder if Heavenly Mother ever looks down on us and feels forgotten or belittled. Can you imagine if you had a whole brood of children who only ever wanted to talk to their father on the phone every night?
And if Mary is a daughter of Heavenly Parents, wouldn't the conception of Jesus technically be considered incest?
I'm not trying to be offensive here, just had some thoughts. Anyone have any ideas?
I've definitely had the whole deep thoughts with our faith since it is so vast. I've always known and still do know the church is true but I do come up with some crazy thoughts that draws blank stares from my husband. Not necessarily from this standpoint. To the comment about Mary and incest, I don't think so. Just because everyone was a spirit before they had a body and I don't think we conceived spiritually our children now ( I could be wrong, but then pre-destiny would come in... ) So since we are all related anyway, I don't think it counts as incest, but then you have the whole argument of the conception...which is a whole nohter can of worms. I'm not sure if this even makes sense but it does make my brain hurt. My current conundrum is the whole polygamy thing. I know we don't practice it anymore but I can't even delve into my thoughts on this one, being as this is a comment and not a separate blog LOL i think its okay to acknowledge that we have a Heavenly Mother, but i think its more we don't talk about Her to keep Her sacred so people don't desecrate Her or use Her name in vain. But that's just me, no doctrine to back it up.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note, you are not a lone and I really enjoy your blogs.
I think since we're all children of heavenly parents then it's ALL incest.
ReplyDeleteWe had a girls night where this all came up and it was super interesting listening to everyone's perceptions of a Heavenly Mother and her role in premortal vs earth life. There are so many different possible interpretations. Totally fascinating.
Hey, thanks for the link to the article. I got my dad's account info and just finished reading the whole thing. Very interesting stuff, although the one block quote from George Q. Cannon made my skin crawl a little bit. One thing that worries me and wasn't really addressed in that article is polygamy in the afterlife and how that relates to Heavenly Father's wife. You know what I mean? Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I am envious of Kayla's girls' nights, because this topic has never come up on any girls' night I've been to!
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ReplyDeleteSo I googled George Q. Cannon quote polygamy to find the quote Lauren was talking about. I didn't find it but what I did find, unnerved me. MormonThink... ever heard of it?
ReplyDeleteAnyways, the whole topic of polygamy and the celestial kingdom came up recently with me too. It's been a faith building expereience that I am still working on. After talking with my husband and a stake leader, this is what I got and this is what helps me sleep at night LOL Per said husband and stake leader, the law of polygamy is for certain individuals, like a calling, and just like the law of sacrifice (we don't have to sacrifice lambs anymore... just tithing) since we are not held accountable for it now, we won't be in the next life. So since we are not asked to practice polygamy now, I don't think we will be asked to practice it in the next life. My MIL made the point that there had to be more than once Heavenly Mother since she had to create spiritual children for all the worlds... I'm not sure how that works. I like what the stake leader said. With that said, I know that we won't be placed anywhere for eternity where we won't be comfortable. Polygamy might work for some people and not for others. If it came down to it, and thats really what Heavenly Father wanted me to (like He tells me to my face kind of thing) then I have faith that he would give me the strength to do it like He has all the other obstacles in this life. Remember, He is our Father and He loves us and He does not desire us to be unhappy. We are equals with our husbands, help mates, not servants. So its just one of those things that should be taken up with prayer, with both of Our Heavenly Parents.
I could be in total left field, but this is what I know as of right now
Last comment, because I am blowing up your blog! This whole things has inspired yet another conversation with my husband... I was deeply disturbed by Mormon Think and then he said, Hey! Why don't you check out LDS.org... the source. SO I did, and what I read about polygamy and the church's stance made me feel much better. I felt the Spirit. Not that the other site is Satanic, but I didn't feel the Sprirt. I didn't feel good and I didn't like it. SO it makes me think of the half truths we can be told. How man can twist things and I bear testimony that Heavenly Father loves us, the gospel is simple and no need to complicate it. I'm going to go with the LDS.org way. We all know there is shady stuff out there about the church but we don't need to fall subject to its allure. Fear is the opposite of faith and sometimes we can be blinded by sneaky wordings of things. On that note, I am going to bed! THanks Cait for an awesome discussion!
ReplyDeleteOn polygamy, this article might be helpful:
ReplyDeletePolygamy