Question: Is it true that little is known about our Heavenly Mother because she is "protected"?

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Question: Is it true that little is known about our Heavenly Mother because she is "protected"?

This idea is simply speculation, and has no basis in scripture or Latter-day Saint doctrine

In trying to fathom why there are only scant and vague references to a Heavenly Mother in LDS theology, Church members who might have had good intentions but no inspiration or authority to speak on the matter have arrived at false conclusions. Perhaps the most common bad explanation for our lack of information on Heavenly Mother is the idea that she is being "protected" by our Heavenly Father from the blasphemy he and the Son endure. This is an old-fashioned bit of folk-wisdom steeped in the benevolent sexism of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It's a misapplication of the "courtly love" and romantic notions that were once important in Western literature, manners, and sexual politics. These kinds of protective ideals were well-rooted in Western culture centuries before the Church was restored.

We have found no evidence of a Church leader, male or female, talking about Heavenly Mother being "protected" by her own obscurity in LDS doctrine. Though this was once a widely spread idea it appears to be little more than speculative folk-wisdom unsupported by prophetic revelation.

If, as President Hinckley states, a prayer to Heavenly Mother cannot "add to or diminish her glory" then certainly blaspheming against her cannot harm her either. She needs no protection from us.


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