James P. Hill, a former member of the Acting Mission Presidency of the British Mission during World War II, and in 1954 a member of the editorial board of the Millennial Star, published these thoughts about the equivalence of motherhood and priesthood for the Saints in Great Britain.
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To man God gave the Priesthood. To woman He gave the glorious gift of Motherhood.
The Privilege of Motherhood
Someone once said to me “You know, your Church is essentially a man’s Church, isn’t it?” Obviously the person hadn’t known the Church very long for she was soon to realise that we honour womanhood as much as, if not more, than any other group in society.
With the world rushing madly towards some fantastic finale in its mad cacophony of atoms, the very real virtues of existence tend to be excluded from serious consideration in the building of character among humanity. Not only do many parents now fail to bear the responsibility of bringing up their children in righteousness but too many married women avoid the privilege of motherhood. It is not only “old fashioned” to have large families, but out of date to bear children at all. Marriage is so often a contractual companionship on a fifty-fifty “business” partnership basis. Far, far too many infants are divorced from the influence of home life to spend long hours of the most formative years of their lives in nurseries.
Too many women are throwing away days that could be filled with accomplishment, and that of the highest order; the development of sublime love in the care of those uninhibited child spirits direct from the presence of God; guiding, moulding and teaching new people in embryo the principles which would go far to make this a better world for us all.
Troubles in rearing? Of course there will be difficulties. These most delicately wrought human frames, inhabited by these striving, anxious spirits, newly subjected to the rigours of earth life, must develop resistance and through resistance, strength and courage and wisdom. How much, O, how much is the love that only a mother, specially endowed of God, can give, needed in those most difficult years of growth.
Men who have achieved respect from their fellowmen in all the world have many times vouchsafed that their mother’s splendid influence has been largely responsible for their greatness.
Someone had to be the Mother of Jesus Christ — the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh. For that divine purpose a young woman named Mary was chosen.
To the virgin espoused to Joseph the carpenter, it could have been no light matter to become the mother of so important a being as He who should be called Jesus, and who should “save his people from their sins” — information imparted to Joseph in a dream and later corroborated to Mary herself, according to Luke the physician. Mary gave birth to other children. There was no attitude of ” holier than thou ” exhibited because she had been selected for such a great purpose. If possibly puzzled at all the circumstances and not fully cognisant of the divine mission of one of her sons, Mary nurtured and trained her boy as was the Jewish custom, in a love of The Law. Her love continued with Him until the end — though His ways must have seemed strange ofttimes.
From the beginning, when Eve became the “Mother of all Living” the scriptures tell of many women who accepted the full responsibility of motherhood and fulfilled their obligations even as the Lord willed it.
Let there be no vestige of suggestion that Woman is Man’s chattel because she becomes the mother of his children. “His” children? Even as arranged in the Beginning, male and female were to produce their kind — to give form to the children of God. Because of this, in Woman is wrought that mother love that is peculiarly hers and hers alone. There is no shame in this. It is a righteous undertaking — a mighty step in the Plan of Salvation.
To be a Mother in Israel is the only thing that can be a greater privilege to any woman, the bearer of children of the union with the priesthood — sanctioned for time and all eternity. — J.P.H.
“Let there be no vestige of suggestion that Woman is Man’s chattel because she becomes the mother of his children.” . . .
Anyone who thinks women are men’s chattel did not know my mother, her sisters, and her aunts. They all bore 5+ children each AND they were driving forces in their communities – one aunt, as a stake Relief Society president, rallied the women in the stake and marched on a school board meeting 250 women strong to protest a resolution they felt was counter to our morality. Another aunt, who was a school teacher, learned Spanish so she could go out on the farms in the evenings and teach the children of the migrant workers, standing to the farm owners who thought she was wasting her time. No chattel in my family!
These women served their church callings to the glory of God and helped raise all the children in their wards through their church callings. They all harkened to their husbands as he lead them in righteousness, and they even helped teach their husbands what the righteous decision was, and those men were wise enough to listen so they could lead correctly. My father appreciated these “counseling sessions”, as he called them, conducted in love and respect for each other, the outcome of which was a united, agreed-upon front. My parents’ desire to be united in all things even led them to sitting down and discussing candidates and measures they were going to be voting on because they didn’t want their votes canceling each other out, and it was NOT a case of Dad telling Mom how to vote – they discussed and came to an agreement.
My father said he never knew the truly correct decision to make until he’d completely heard her view and she had heard his, and he carried this attitude into ward meetings when he was a bishop and needed to know the Sisters’ views before making a decision. (He was doing this clear back in the 70’s!)
Women as men’s chattel? Not in my life experience!
May I gently correct the notion that motherhood and ordination to priesthood office (not quite the same thing as priesthood) are not equivalent? The true male counterpart to female motherhood is fatherhood. There is no female counterpart that correlates to male priesthood offices, that I am aware of.
There are other things. I would have edited out the paragraph about the difficulties of being a mother. Someone who’s never experienced it couldn’t be expected to say anything more helpful than the limp, unvalidating platitudes found in it.
There are other hot buttons he pushed. He misses completely the painful struggles experienced by women who aren’t able to be mothers.
I probably shouldn’t deconstruct this 1954 essay any more closely than that. It’s instructive as a reflection of its time; the way many people felt when my parents were just starting their family. And I can tell from his writing that he’s had some training in writing.
I hope I’ve met your standard for commenting, Ardis.
Of course, MDearest! Thanks.
I post these “The View from …” to amass a collection of teachings or beliefs about women and our roles that have appeared in past LDS records. I certainly don’t agree with them all — this being one that feels like nails on the chalkboard to me — but I also decided not to make any detailed comments on such posts myself but just to read and appreciate what is said by others. Sometimes people find value, sometimes people find fault, sometimes people note attitudes that have changed or that they wish would change.
Sometime, I hope this collection will serve a grad student who wants to look at how LDS ideas about women have grown or changed or developed or regressed or [fill in the blank].