Unpunished Rapture

Salt Lake Tribune Article

In this week's Faith section of the Salt Lake Tribune, Peggy Fletcher Stack included a piece about me and the Mormon Women Project. You can read it here. Thank you Peggy!

Further Thoughts on The Future of Motherhood Article

Well, if being in an author line-up with Armand Mauss and Blake Ostler weren't enough, the Newsweek/The Washington Post blog, On Faith, has picked up my article and posted it here. 

I wonder what the response to the article will be from readers who are not LDS because I specifically refer to two unique LDS doctrinal points in the article. First, the idea that Eve was given conflicting commandments, and secondly that we believe that through parenthood we are giving pre-earthly spirits the bodies they need to progress.

I will never forget the night I recognized that other Christian denominations don't understand Eve's two commandments to be mutually exclusive. I was participating in a non-denominational Bible study group in our Harvard student housing community and the course of study was women in the Bible. During one of the first meetings we of course discussed Eve. It was really the first time I had talked about Eve outside of a Mormon context, although I understood the dark cultural shadow that follows the repercussions of her choice to eat the forbidden fruit. I had read Beverly Campbell's book, Eve and the Choice Made In Eden, and appreciated the extent to which Eve has been vilified. But somehow I had never understood that we are the only ones who believe she could not have had children and yet remained in the Garden of Eden. I asked the other members of the study group, none of whom were Mormon, "How do you think she should have resolved the commandment to have children if that wasn't possible in the Garden?"

My question was answered with blank stares. I was humiliated for not knowing that that doctrine is revealed to us only in the Book of Mormon, primarily when Lehi says, "And now, behold, if Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden.... And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.... Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." (2 Nephi 2: 22-25)

At home afterwards, shamefully pouring through my scriptures, I felt profound gratitude for the Book of Mormon as a source of additional revelation that allows me as a woman to take pride in my First Mother and understand that she really did choose for mankind to be, although it meant the personal sacrifice of her Eden and transgressing the will of God. As I express in the article, I think no such perfect solution similarly exists for mothers today as we face the commandments to bear children yet exercise our free agency.

In the article, I also reference our belief in the Plan of Salvation, namely that we are spirits waiting for our chance to receive bodies that allow us to continue our eternal progressions. This doctrine is, of course, at the heart of why we have children. The gift of a body allows a spirit to learn, grown, hopefully accept the Gospel in this life, and eventually return to Heavenly Father in a resurrected state. As one friend of mine put it, it is the purest form of missionary work.

I hope that those who read the article and do not fully understand these doctrines will still be able to fully ingest my message. Regardless, I am grateful and heartened that Newsweek/The Washington Post chose to publish something that is by a Mormon, about Mormons and accurate about Mormons.

The Future of Mormon Motherhood

I am honored to be included in an esteemed line-up of thinkers at Patheos this week: the "Future of Mormonism" series features some heavy hitters. I was asked to write about the future of Mormon motherhood, and you can find my thoughts here.

"Does the divinely-appointed role of our female bodies contradict the doctrine of free agency we hold so dear? Like Eve, who relied on her own judgment to weigh her contradicting instructions, I believe it is the mothers of the church who shoulder the burden of unraveling that conundrum, not our leaders. We are the ones who live the daily balancing act, finding what works for us as individuals. Mormon mothers now and in the future must rely on personal confidence, assurance of our individual missions, and ability to receive personal revelation so that we can be at peace with the balance of self and sacrifice that defines our routines....." Read more