Mrs. God.

Here is an article on the Mormon doctrine that God has a wife (or maybe wives) by a Mormon:

A programme on BBC2 has made news for presenting scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou's theory that "God had a wife". The reactions from the religious and academic world were varied, but for Mormons, it can best be summed up as, "Yeah. We know."


The doctrine of Heavenly Mother was introduced by Joseph Smith in the early days of the church, and affirmed by prophet after prophet in the years since, but without much elaboration. Much of the discussion about Heavenly Mother consists of references to the logic of the relationship – if God is the father of our spirits, as Mormons believe, then there would need to be a mother. The best known of these arguments is found in a favourite Mormon hymn written by Eliza Snow. In "O My Father" she writes:

"In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason, truth eternal Tells me I've a mother there."

Heavenly Mother also fits into the unique and complicated Mormon cosmology, where the family unit is often referred to as the "building block of eternity". We have families here on Earth that we can carry on in the next life, in the same model as the God we worship.

Worshipping Heavenly Mother, though, has proven to be a dicey proposition. You can find mentions of her in the manuals we teach from at church, but they don't go far beyond "she exists", and efforts by noted scholars and writers to expound on that have, in several instances, resulted in excommunication for apostasy. At the 1991 October general conference, then apostle and future prophet Gordon B. Hinckley gave a talk that has since governed the approach members are to take toward Heavenly Mother.

He emphasised that we were not to offer prayers to her, citing the instructions of Christ to pray to " our father". In an obvious reference to those scholars and writers, he warned against "the activities of a few who evidently are seeking to lead others in the paths which they are following". He then explained that "none of us can add to or diminish the glory of her of whom we have no revealed knowledge".

That talk, combined with notable excommunications and other disciplinary action that would follow closely in the years to come contributed to an environment in which Heavenly Mother is largely left alone. As a mouthy youngster I would try to discover why we didn't know much about her and was offered well-meaning but problematic suggestions from fellow members. Some guessed that she was busy with other tasks, some that Heavenly Father wouldn't want her name profaned, rendering her too sacred to talk about.

Since, presumably, the wife of God is divine, it would seem that the Mormon faith recognizes a divine Quaternity.