Note: this blog may annoy/anger my relatives and/or Mormons. Consider yourselves warned. From this point on, you're offended at your own risk.
Tonight, I started reading Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's book Black Profiles of Courage. In his essays about prominent people of African descent in American history, he writes not only of these important historical figures, but of what he sees (and I see) as a concerted attempt to write them out of history. And the more I read, the more I find myself muttering, "Tell me about it, Kareem."
Those who know me through my blog or not, know that I have an ambivalent relationship with the Mormon church. (Yes, I know it's properly addressed as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I won't call it that because defying the church's public relations' campaigns is one of the joys of my life.) Anyway, my life has been a strange microcosm of Utah. I had a mother from a devout Mormon family, a father from a very non-Mormon family, who converted. Years after they married, my parents started questioning church teachings, which led us as a family down a long and winding path further away from the religion. As such, I find myself knowing some things about church history and doctrine which most active Mormons might not know, and then I find myself not knowing things that would have become obvious if I'd stayed in the church.
In the days when "Which Greek hero/gay leader/jazz musician/femme fatale are you" quizzes were all the rage on Facebook, one was "Which Book of Mormon Character Are You?" I reported this idly to my mom, noting that so far none of our relatives has turned out to be female characters. My mom looked at me for a minute, took a deep breath, then said, "Cynthia, there are no female characters in the Book of Mormon. Well, there are two, but only one has a name, and neither is someone you'd want to be."
"Huh?"
"Well, you can assume somewhere there are women because generations of sons continue to be born to men, but uh...yeah. It's not like the Bible. You won't find women like Ruth or Esther, or Mary, or Martha."
At that point, I commenced screaming.
See, one of my qualms with Mormonism is that there's a "separate but equal" bit going on. Men and women have different roles in the religion which are both supposed to be equally important, though a woman's path could never lead her to be prophet of the church. (Unless a future prophet has a major revelation.) One of the many topics my mom got into hot water over was equality in the priesthood. Men get the priesthood which gives them the ability to heal, have visions, etc., and eventually maybe lead the church. Women don't get that. Women get to have babies. Although if women choose not to--or are unable to--have babies, they can't get the priesthood by default.
So my screaming went like this: "What the hell? Did you all know that? All the Mormon feminists who have been fighting for generations, they knew they weren't in the Book of Mormon, right? Why the hell would they think they could demand equality from a church whose gospel doesn't even mention them?" (Actually, this is the edited version. My real screaming was far more profane.)
And then it went like this: "So, you as a little girl, were raised to seek solace and wisdom in a book where you would find no one like you? No role models at all? How did you do that? Ok, clearly you didn't forever, but for how many generations have Mormon women sat in pews and read scripture all about men?"
"Well," my mom said, "the Bible is scripture, too, and you could find a few good women in that. Setting aside Eve, of course. It's amazing how women have suffered because of one woman and her lust for an apple." (She was trying to calm me down with humor, but it wasn't working.)
"So how do women get the Priesthood?" I asked my mom, because I know there are devout Mormon women who believe there will be a revelation from the prophet. "I mean, is that prophet going to say, it has been revealed to me that Brother Joseph missed translating a gold plate and now regrets it? Will someone have to dig up a new addition to the gospel? Or will the prophet have to admit that the scripture is...uh... flawed?"
Of course, the Mormon Church has gotten really good at revising history. In efforts to move away from connections to polygamy, and perhaps also to create a female role model, the last few years have seen a lot of books about Joseph Smith and his wife Emma. Not his only wife, but apparently the one he loved most, and his spiritual wife. Everywhere you turn, there are articles, essays, blogs, books and even movies about Emma Smith. She is the face of Mormon women. What's hilarious is that, after Joseph Smith's murder, Emma Smith and her Smith sons, broke away from the traditional Mormon church to create their own version of the religion. That fact seems lost on the Church marketing machine. (Personally, I think her descendants ought to sue for royalties.)
And, as for other women role models, the Church has moved a bit on the concept of Mother in Heaven. Turns out Father in Heaven does have a wife, but, as one friend told me at school, "she was not to be spoken of...because if she were people would take her name in vain the way they take God's name in vain, and so Heavenly Father tries to protect her from this." I came home and announced over dinner that Mother in Heaven was clearly a wuss. A deity who needs to be protected by another deity from mere mortals?
These last few years, I've been trying to remove myself from all this baggage of my childhood, to gain some kind of intellectual and emotional distance--maybe even disinterest--my loyalty still lies with the women who fight for the priesthood. But if you get it, sisters, every time you pick up a Book of Mormon, may you remember that when the angel appeared to Joseph and brought him a gospel, for all intents and purposes, you weren't important to the story.
And, if they write you into it, keep a vigilant watch, or they'll revise you out of it when you're not paying attention.
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