My philosophical commentary on Mormon church SECT doctrine of "cultural mandatory full-time motherhood"
Inside Warren Jeffs' world - interview with a former FLDS cult member (3 min)
Explanation of Fundamentalist Mormon belief in HBO series "Big Love" (2 min)
Controversial vintage 70's "anti-Mormon" cartoon on the alleged beliefs & origins of the Mormon religion (8 min)
Posted on www.exmormon.org message board. The comment brackets added for clarification to those unfamiliar with Mormonism, known officially as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS in short form)
My sister recently returned from the mission in the Midwest U.S. [Serving the Mormon mission is similar to Christian mission -- it is optional but culturally obligatory for young men aged 19 and women aged 21 (and rarely retired married couples) to serve a period of time -- 18 months for women and 24 months for men -- teach strangers interested in learning more about the history and culture of Mormonism to proselytize newcomers]
We had conversations on politics [she a 'Bush republican', I'm a left-leaning libertarian who strongly suggest she consider taking concealed carry class for security if she relocates to SLC -- she is curious about meeting liberal Mormons despite her staunch conservative belief common in Utah -- for university transfer that have moderate violent crime rate; expressed my anti-Chinese gov't sentiment for its treatment of Tibet], vegan/vegetarian lifestyle [she a raw vegan, I'm a vegetarian who eats cage-free eggs, cheese and some seafood] and religion [discussing my experience of attending Catholic mass intermittently for a year and a half] in the last few days, whenever she has spare time. She found the conversations with me often enlightening.
However, we sort of disagreed on the issue of full-time motherhood.
She thought it absolutely necessary to obey "God's plan" to be full-time mothers from infant to late adolescence. She has a year or two left to complete the bachelor's degree.
I mildly argued with her that young women need to plan ahead by completing the degrees before embarking on marriage for reproduction and rearing. My mother indefinitely suspended her study to complete B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering when she married my father 3 decades ago.
She countered it is God's plan that every devout LDS woman is obliged to carry & raise children as full-time mothers, in deference of education and real-world experience in work.
While I agree that certain mothers are suitable for full-time motherhoods -- if they intend to carry more children while the fathers are the main breadwinners in substantial income to afford savings, grocery, shelter and bills in long-term -- some aspiring mothers should focus on completing higher education and gaining real-world experience in working (that is, not back-breakingly menial but skilled jobs) before deciding to have a number of children as long as economical feasibility allow (or they can disregard that to their financial peril facing poverty, since having as many children as humanly possible is "obeying God's plan").
This reminds of that '87 fireside speech with Ezra Taft Benson titled "To the Mothers of Zion" which can be read at the link below
http://fc.byu.edu/jpages/ee/w_etb87.htm
I find it kind of disturbing that like FLDS [Fundamentalist Mormons of Texas & Utah-Colorado-Arizona], the mainstream LDS church encourages rapid reproduction to "raise the seed" while women's role in the church are somewhat restricted (the exception may be Relief Society, one of the oldest organizations for women in the U.S.) because men are superior and "God-like" expecting complete, total subordination, thereby making women essentially "second class" citizens like American equivalent to misogynistic Saudi law and prerequisite traditional Islam in the regulation of extreme modesty (such as the Taliban as an extreme example).
I haven't been a TBM [True-Believing Mormon] for over a decade, while my two younger sisters are so thoroughly TBM that they will defer worldly experience in well-rounded education and work ethics just to subscribe to the LDS prophets' decrees that maternity is more important than mind- and energy-stimulating skilled work. And working helps contribute to the society in overall stimulation and prosperity of the municipal, state and national economies -- not just men.
I know daycare may not be an answer and I think that part-time "role rearing" -- swapping between mother and father in parenting children at home and play -- might be a good idea. "Mr. Mom" might seem queer, but it exist.
While I am single, never married and may consider never having children, I am not opposed to full-time motherhood -- only the indoctrination as commanded by the LDS church, mainstream, offshoot (The Church of Christ, formerly Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Independence, Missouri) and fundamental, that make devout women unable to think for themselves to examine the philosophical, sociological and psychological rationale of the 2-decades-long life of a full-time motherhood while delaying work ethics and education that allow the opportunity for a rich, fulfilling and satisfactory life in [financial] freedom and [personal] liberty.
Please note that the statement above is not an endorsement on the merits of Feminism. I actually oppose Feminism to some degree (esp. Militant Feminism). I agree with the right to suffrage for women, equality in salary compensation for the similar performance of skilled jobs, etc. I disagree with the perceived radical attitude of Feminism e.g. abortion on demand and promiscuity to assert the feminist ideologue.
I have never heard many of those stories before. I had read some other reflections on their culture, both positive and negative, in the "Great Brain" books by J.D. Fitzgerald. He was raised in Utah at the turn of the century in a Catholic/Morman household. He became a Catholic and his brother became a Mormon. (Another great book that touches on Mormonism is "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.)
I do think that the family functions best if the mother stays home and the father works. If the dad wants to stay home, I guess that will work too. I think it is better to have one parent stay home.
Women are better suited to caring for children. They can multi-task better than men. Speaking generally, I think women are more nurturing than men. It cannot be denied that women are physically created to care for babies. They can feed a baby, they can carry a child on their hips, and they are softer. Men can do these things, but not as easily and not as well.
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"Stop judging by appearances, but judge justly."
...but may I suggest reading deceased LDS prophet (unlikely)/seer (ditto)/president Ezra Taft Benson's early 1987 speech "To the Mothers of Zion". I find the speech rather condescending and insulting to the concept of self-governed feminine liberty.
Two former Mormon women posted the following in response to the post on the web site preceding this blog post:
By the way, though I barely recollect the doctrines I was taught, I remember that indeed Jesus and Lucifer (aka Satan, Beezlebub) were brothers and that there was a war in heaven. Weird.
And after I ditched the religion, I later learned that a devout practicing Mormon can become a God on his own planet (star) with multiple wives (sealed in mortal life and -- maybe I got this wrong -- may be wedded in the afterlife) who will be obliged to bear the multitudes of spirit children in the hundredfold for "seeding" the mortal life on Earth and other planets that host sustainable life. A considerably mature person with a temple recommend who has completed the procedures of immersion in religion and obedience learn this revelation at any temple.
The black people of Africa are considered cursed even to this day by some 'racialist' Mormons who subscribe to the belief of Cain, the savage who killed his innocent brother and thus his skin turned dark.
If I remember right, excommunicated since 1993 gay intellectual Mormon scholar D. Michael Quinn -- a distinguished historian with higher educational credentials yet could not get work as a professor on Mormon studies at any university because of the pressure of Mormon donors like Arizona State University denied him a position -- claimed he had access to suppressed documents that revealed the witness reports in diaries and letters of early Mormons' lawless behavior, which may explain the infamous Extermination Order of 1838 by a Missouri governor to kill any Mormon in sight because they were frowned upon as "pests".
I find early history of the LDS church fascinating because of how the culture developed that paved the way to the "taming of the West". The early Mormons called the Western territory "Deseret" and designed the symbol of a bee hive to signify "Industrial". Not to mention the bizarre theology and complex socio-cultural organization in hierarchy & practice that continue to outrage the different Christian religious organizations (Protestant, Southern Baptist, etc) who only mock with contempt and ridicule towards the Mormons' view of Joseph Smith as the exalted prophet; Jesus and concept of God & Holy Ghost, etc.
In general, women are cut out to be nurturers. But young girls and boys must not miss out on the Dad / Male factor. Gotta have that. Both young genders benefit.
Then there are some women that are not cut out to be mothers at all. It would be ideal if they WOULD give up their children, seeing that they have no time or concern for them. It would even be better if they didn’t have them at all. These women are definitely cut out for high-powered careers.
This movie has a happy ending which rarely imitates real life. At least the “mother”, the woman who gave birth, knew she couldn’t cope with a child.
So she happily gave it away, gladly. I wish I could have found the ending scene in this movie where Meredith is lying listlessly in a hospital bed, ignoring and despising the infant crying in its basket. The other mothers in this big room look on with disgust.
That was such a great scene.
This one will have to do. The end of the clip is irrelevant and corny, but I think this scene shows what I am talking about. Not ALL women are made to be mothers.