Behind the Veil: the Heavenly Mother Concept Among Members of Women's Support Groups in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
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Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 1987 Behind the Veil: The Heavenly Mother Concept Among Members of Women's Support Groups in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Allen W. Litchfield Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Mormon Studies Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Litchfield, Allen .,W "Behind the Veil: The Heavenly Mother Concept Among Members of Women's Support Groups in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" (1987). Theses and Dissertations. 4882. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4882 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. behind the veil the heavenly mother concept among members of womens support groups in the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints A thesis presented to the department of sociology brigham young university in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree master of arts by alienailenW litchfield august 1987 this thesis by alienailenlitchfield is accepted in its present form by the department of sociology of brigham young university as satisfying the thesis requirement for the degree of master of arts eardellgardelldelldeliJajacopsonjacobsonjac60stoncopson committee chairman 7 fucfufud C cutC marie cornwallcuicommitteeui member cu i rigdig 1 lawrecelawre ce A young coryimitteecoryfmittee memberabermber r cyrucyxu 11 OScig019 7 auaaoa date jamesjamestjam t duke department chairman acknowledgments the author expresses sincere thanks to instructors and friends in the departments of sociology at the university of lethbridge alberta and dalhousie university in halifax nova scotia especially remembered is reginald bibby as one who introduced the author to the field of sociology the experience at the brigham young university has been a very satisfying one major credit is owing to the committee chairman cardell jacobson for his encouragement positive leadership editing writing tutorials counsel and friendship marie cornwall has been most generous in allowing the use of these data for this study and providing guidance in areas from feminist theology to statistical analysis larry young a fine creative teacher has always been helpful and motivating all provided helpful comments and criticisms all the way through the process other members of the faculty that have been especially important in the authors graduate training are james duke bruce chadwick richard johnson and tim heaton we acknowledge the research support for the study provided partially by the college of family home and social sciences of brigham young university thanks go to the church education system for allowing the author to take a sabbatical to work on this project dale lebaron and phillip redd always provided promotion and encouragement in this endeavor more than anyone else the author thanks his wife gladys for her willingness to go through this experience with him and for providing the motivation and time that allowed for the thesis to be completed thanks to their six children for their understanding and concern the author is grateful for his parents who have provided a heritage of support and motivation and parentsinlawparents in law for their help throughout the process iiilii111 TABLE OF CONTENTS page acknowledgments iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES v chapter 1 introduction 1 overview of chapters 2 historical context of female deities 4 the development of an LDS heavenly mother 5 literature review and theoretical discussions of mother 10 the study of the LDS heavenly mother concept 18 chapter 2 DEFINING TERMS AND STATING propositions 20 dimensions of religiosity 20 feminism 23 alienation m 26 salience m m 27 specific propositions to be tested 28 summary of propositions 36 chapter 3 methodology&methodology 39 the target population 39 questionnaire 41 demographic profile of the WSG population 42 rationalizingoperationalizingOpe the scales 58 testing the scales 62 correlationsintercorrelationsInter among the religiosity scales 66 chapter 4 RESEARCH FINDINGS m 0 m 68 belief in heavenly mother 0 0 68 salience of mother in heaven m 72 predictors of mother in heaven salience 0 79 feminism and alienation as predictors of salience m 86 chapter 5 SUMMARY AND conclusions 92 APPENDIX m 97 references 0 0 114114.114 iv LIST OF TABLES table page 1 predicted correlations between religious dimensions and belief in heavenly mother 31 2 predicted correlations between religious dimensions and salience of heavenly mother 3561351135 3 WSGs marital status compared to random LDS sample and US national figures 43 4 number of children reported by WSG women 45 5 WSGs years of education compared to random LDS sample and US national figures 46 6 household income of WSG population 48 7 frequency of attendance at sacrament meeting 4949.49 8 comparison of levels of alienation random LDS sample and the WSG population by gender 51 9 NORC 1983 and WSG population on their personal concern about womens rights by gender 53 10 agreement patterns of NORC sample and WSG on question regarding negative impact on young children when mothers work 53 11 NORC 1984 sample and WSG population on desirability of legal possibility of abortion in various circumstances 54 12 NORC 1983851983 85 sample and WSG population selfassessmentself assessment on liberalconservativeLiberal Conservative continuum 56 13 varimax factor pattern of eight feminism items 61 14 varimax factor pattern of eight alienation items 61 15 item analysis of religiosity scales 64 16 item analysis of feminism alienation and mother heaven scales 65 v 18 comparison of belief in god jesus christ satan and heavenly mother 69 19 zeroorderzero order correlation coefficients between belief in heavenly mother and dimensions of religiosity and demographic variables 70 20 multiple regressions of religious dimensions on belief of mother in heaven by gender 72 21 frequency of thinking about heavenly parents by gender 73 22 percentages having felt love from heavenly parents compared by gender 74 23 comparison of men and womens frequency of discussing various religious topics by percentage 75 24 percentage comparisons by gender on items related to salience of mother in heaven 77 25 agreement with reasons the church does not know more about heavenly mother by gender 78 26 zeroorderzero order correlation coefficients of religiosity scales and belief and salience of mother in heaven by gender 80 27 standarizedstandardized regression coefficients and explained variance belief in and salience of mother in heaven regression models for women 82 28 standarizedstandardized regression coefficients and explained variance belief in and salience of mother in heaven regression models for men 83 29 zeroorderzero order correlation coefficients of mother in heaven belief and salience with feminism scales by gender 86 30 feminism scale averages by gender for two ways to understand the nature and roles of heavenly parents 88 31 zeroorderzero order correlation coefficients of mother in heaven belief and salience with alienation scales by gender 88 32 agreement with the ordination of women to offices of the priesthood by gender 94 viVI chapterschapter1CHAPTER 1 introduction I1 had learned to call thee father thru thy spirit here on high but until the key of knowledge was restored I1 knew not why in the heavens are parents single no the thought makes reason stare truth is reason truth eternal tells me ive a mother there eliza R snow 180418871804 1887 among well known feminine deities in world history are the following egyptian goddesses nut and isis the greek deities athena wisdom and war aphrodite love artemis hunting demeter agriculture and hera wife of zeus the parallel roman goddesses venus diana minerva vesta and juno ishtar in phoenicia later adopted and adapted by many palestine nations indian sub- continent deities such as lakshmi prosperity sarasvatiSarassaraswativati learning durga wife of shiva and the leading mother figure among the hindus parvati or uma motherhood karnagikannagi chastity and naparamitaprajnaparamitapralnaparamita the mother of all budihasbuddhasBuddhas norse goddesses friggbrigg wife of odin freyja love and beauty and hel underworld and the aztec female deities chalchiuhtlicue running water and tlazolteotltiazolteoti pleasure and illicit love conspicuous by their absence are western twentieth century goddesses monotheistic modern religions havent contributed great female deity figures the closest the mainstream western judeochristianjudeo christian religions have come to producing a female god is mary the virgin mother although being declared the queen of heaven by pius in the 1950s she has never risen above the status of secondary god or a sort of dowager queen mother other female gods are branded heretical products of deviant cults and even mary is stripped of all divinity by most protestant groups western religions may have angels not important ones like gabriel but singers or background supporters of the heavenly program who are presumed to have female identity and some female saints primary gods however in traditional judeojudeochristianchristian culture have been painted in a variety of ways but one near universal has been that they all have been patently masculine one interesting