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Mormonism and the nature of God/"Celestial sex"
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Contents
Criticism
- Critics claim that Latter-day Saints believe in a practice called "Celestial sex," and that this is the manner in which "spirit children" are formed.
Source(s) of the criticism
- Richard Abanes, Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism (Harvest House Publishers: 2005). 154, 157, 255, 331n35. ( Index of claims )
- Richard Abanes, One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church (New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003), 285, 573n21 ( Index of claims )
- The God Makers (film)
Response
Coexisting with these two deities was a limitless amount of cosmic spirit matter known as "intelligence," out of which Elohim and Heavenly Mother made countless spirit babies via celestial sex.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 285
Quotes made by early LDS leaders are used to support this claim. It should be noted, however, that LDS leaders never used the offensive term "Celestial sex." This phrase was coined, and continues to be used, only by critics of the Church.
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 387 "[I]ntelligence or spirit element became intelligences after the spirits were born as individual [spirit] entities."
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 750 "Our spirit bodies had their beginning in pre-existence when we were born as the spirit children of God our Father. Through that birth process spirit element was organized into intelligent entities."
John A. Widtsoe, A Rational Theology, p. 69 "Sex Among the Gods. Sex, which is indispensable on this earth for the perpetuation of the human race, is an eternal quality which has its equivalent everywhere."
Sex Among the Gods. Sex, which is indispensable on this earth for the perpetuation of the human race, is an eternal quality which has its equivalent everywhere. It is indestructible. The relationship between men and women is eternal and must continue eternally. In accordance with Gospel philosophy there are males and females in heaven. Since we have a Father, who is our God, we must also have a mother, who possesses the attributes of Godhood. This simply carries onward the logic of things earthly, and conforms with the doctrine that whatever is on this earth is simply a representation of spiritual conditions of deeper meaning than we can here fathom.
Brigham Young, June 18, 1865, Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, 122. "[God] created mand, as we create our children; for there is no other process of cration in heaven, on the earth, in the earth, or under the earth, or in all the eterniteis, that is, that were, or that ever will be."
Orson Pratt, "The Pre-Existence of Man," The Seer, March 1853, vol. 1, no. 3, 38
Conclusion
Endnotes
None
Further reading
FAIR wiki articles
FAIR web site
- FAIR Topical Guide: