Women in New Religions

Women in New Religions WOMEN IN RELIGIONS Series Editor: Catherine Wessinger Women in Christian Traditions Rebecca Moore Women in New Religions Laura Vance Women in New Religions Laura Vance NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London www.nyupress.org © 2015 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vance, Laura Lee. Women in new religions / Laura Vance. pages cm. — (Women in religions) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4798-4799-0 (cl : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4798-1602-6 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Women and religion. 2. Mormon women. 3. Seventh-Day Adventist women. 4. Family International (Organization) 5. Wicca. I. Title. BL458.V36 2015 200.82—dc23 2014040531 New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Also available as an ebook To my students, for their passion in engaging ideas and for caring to what ends those ideas are used. This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: Why Study Women in New Religions? 1 1. Mormonism: Gendering the Heavens 19 2. Seventh-day Adventism: Women’s Changing Role in an Endtime Religion 49 3. The Family International: Sexualizing Gender 77 4. Wicca: Valuing the Divine Feminine 101 Conclusion 121 Questions for Discussion 131 Notes 135 Works Cited 169 For Further Reading 183 Index 185 About the Author 189 vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Growing up as a Mormon girl in the 1970s, I encountered questions of gender and religion early and often. That they persisted is not surprising, but their growth into a life’s work required the encouragement and contri- butions of many people. I could not have done this work without women and men in religions— especially Mormonism and Seventh-day Adventism—who were willing to share their experiences. To all of the Latter-day Saints and Seventh-day Adventists who have talked with me, answered questions, and provided insights, I am deeply grateful. My students provide ongoing opportunities for me to experience the joy of discovery. For your interest, eager participation, hard work, and creativity, thank you. Most of all, thank you for sharing a love of sociology. Questions become a conversation only with others, and I am fortunate to be part of an incredibly inspiring and engaged academic community at Warren Wilson College. I am especially grateful to Siti Kusujiarti, who is captivated by ideas regardless of the hour; Marty O’Keefe, for her un- shakable honesty; Ben Feinberg, Christey Carwile, and David Moore, who are wonderful colleagues and simply good people; Paula Garrett and Gary Hawkins, who support faculty research with unfailing humor and enthusi- asm; Heather Stewart Harvey, librarian extraordinaire; Julie Wilson, fellow dog lover and willing listener; and Katherine Burleson, Jeff Keith, Jennifer Mozolic, Lucy Lawrence, and everyone who haunts Jensen at odd hours. I am indebted to more scholars than would be possible to list here. Ter- rie Aamodt, Gary Land, Ronald L. Numbers, Julius Nam, and the partici- pants in the Ellen White Project provided better insight into Ellen White. Lavina Fielding Anderson offered much-needed perspective for me as both a researcher and a Mormon woman at a critical juncture. Kendra Haloviak Valentine, Bert Haloviak, Gordon Shepherd, Gary Shepherd, and D. Michael Quinn have all inspired and influenced me with their work. ix x | Acknowledgments The Appalachian College Association provided funding for the sab- batical that allowed time to write this book. Thank you, ACA, for all that you do for liberal arts institutions in the Central Appalachian Region. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation provided monies that made it possible to travel to the Graduate Theological Union to access Mo Letters in the library’s Special Collections. I am especially grateful to the library staff at GTU for their help. To Kate Kelly and James A. Kelly, I appreciate your willingness to allow me to use photographs depicting the efforts of Ordainwomen.org. Gerry Chudleigh, communication director of the Pacific Union Confer- ence and publisher of the PUC Recorder, generously shared his photographs, and willingly read and responded to a lengthy selection of this work pertaining to Seventh-day Adventism. Thank you, Gerry. I only regret that I did not find you earlier. Two anonymous readers provided me with thorough comments on both the form and substance of this work. I thank them for sharing their obvious knowledge and skills. Any errors that remain are my own. Catherine Wessinger’s vision, intellect, and determination make this series possible. I have been impressed by Cathy’s prodigious and brilliant work for decades, and this book would have suffered a great loss without her expansive knowledge and graceful guidance. Jennifer Hammer, senior editor at New York University Press, saw the possibility in this series early on, and I appreciate her expertise and support. Constance Grady, editorial assistant, and Dorothea Stillman Hal- liday, managing editor at the press, provided me invaluable and timely assistance. I am grateful to them, and to all of those at the press who contributed to this project. I owe a great debt to my grandmothers, Janet Vance and Thelma Stewart, whose lives told of a Mormon history more complicated than its official rendition. I would not have spent a lifetime trying to make sense of the gendering of religion were it not for my family; they inform the experiences that shape this work. I thank them all, especially my brother Scott, who is always ready to engage questions, regardless of where they lead. Last, Jennifer Langton and I have now spent more of our lives to- gether than we have apart. More than anyone, Jennifer, you ignite my thinking and inspire me. My thanks to you can only be lived. Introduction Why Study Women in New Religions? Media and other popular depictions of new religions often highlight the bizarre: the mass suicide/murders of members of Peoples Temple at Jonestown, Guyana, polygamous marriages among Fundamentalist Lat- ter Day Saints, the group suicide of Nike-clad followers of Heaven’s Gate, or collective weddings featuring hundreds of followers of Sun Myung Moon simultaneously repeating wedding vows. New religions, however, are more varied—and often more mundane—than these images sug- gest. Indeed, because of the almost exclusive media focus on the more surprising aspects of atypical new religions, in the popular imagination new religions are strange and dangerous, their leaders are treacherous or deceitful, and their followers are brainwashed dupes. This image emerges from a particularly narrow focus on extreme practices, actions, and beliefs of a few new religions or sometimes an extreme reaction of the surrounding culture to the religion, as in the case of the aftermath of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raid on David Koresh’s Branch Davidians on 28 February 1993. This focus on the bizarre is misleading. Most religions began as new religions—by breaking away from an existing religion, through new insights of charismatic leaders, by being imported from another context, or by some combination of these. Christianity emerged from Judaism as followers coalesced around a charismatic leader who eventually came to be called Jesus Christ. Early Christians formed a number of groups that promoted and accepted diverse interpretations of Jesus’s teachings, including varied explanations of the resurrection, the nature of God, and the role of women in the movement.1 Two main streams of Christianity dominated until the Protestant Reformations of the sixteenth century. Catholic Christianity in the West used Latin in its worship, recognized the primacy of the bishop of Rome (the pope) and emphasized Jesus’s 1 2 | Introduction role in atoning for human sin. Orthodox Christianity in the East, in con- trast, used Greek or national languages in its worship, recognized the in- dependence of autonomous state or national churches, and emphasized Jesus’s role as the incarnation of God. Martin Luther (1483–1546) posted the Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, which criticized Roman Catholic practices such as the sale of indulgences;2 in 1536 John Calvin (1509–1564) first published The Institutes of the Christian Religion,3 his influential exposi- tion of Protestant theology, and other interpretations and innovations followed. More recently, a plethora of religious movements have been birthed in the United States. The United States has an especially varied history of new religions, at least in part due to the country’s cultural and religious pluralism, constitutional protections of religion, geographic expan- sion, lack of governmental control of religion, historical-social empha- sis on religion, including religious dissent, and the “built-in tendency for cycles of renewal, reform, and schism” in the Jewish and Christian traditions.4 Ann Lee (1736–1784), an English immigrant, was accepted by her American followers as the female incarnation of Jesus Christ; Jemima Wilkinson (1752–1819) proclaimed herself the “Publick Univer- sal Friend” and led followers in upstate New York; William Miller (1782– 1849) preached that the world would end in 1843 (and later 1844); the Perfectionists of John Humphrey Noyes (1811–1886) helped to create the Oneida community; and Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) taught a system of spiritual healing and founded the First Church of Christ, Scientist.

Load more