Patriarchal Headship and Mormonism, Part 1

Reactionaries seek to restore Order and end Social Decay, and that needs to start at home. The root of Civilization is Patriarchy, and the core of any successful traditionalist movement needs to center on restoring Patriarchy in the home and society. A man needs to rule over his wife and children, Adultery should be punishable by death, and once a virgin has sex she needs to be obligated to stick with the man she had sex with.

Patriarchal Marriage

The New Testament has no end of verses that promote Patriarchal Headship (cf. Colossians 3:18, Ephesians 5:22, 1 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Corinthians 14:34, 1 Timothy 2:11, 1 Peter 3:1, 1 Peter 3:7). But the problem is that it is easy to ignore ancient scripture as being culturally limited to a far away people a long time ago. Modern reinforcements go a long way. Remind any modern egalitarians in the LDS Church that as recently as Gordon B. Hinckley, Patriarchal Headship was still subtly included in the Family Proclamation, in spite of lip service to equality:

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children."

Notice that hyperlink includes The Family: A Proclamation to the World under the "scriptures" section of the Church's website. ProgMos can screech, yet it is still a declaration by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve, and faithful traditional LDS consider it scripture.

Temple Marriage

I used to consider the possibility that the LDS Eternal Marriage ceremony was kind of lacking for not containing the traditional "love, honor, obey" language. But it actually did comprehend that covenant. The marriage covenant is to "fulfill all the laws, rites, and ordinances, pertaining to this holy matrimony, in the new and everlasting covenant [of marriage]." (Temple Marriage Ceremony as published by Orson Pratt in The Seer, in Unpublished Revelations vol. 1 <2nd Edition> pages 111-112) This statement references both D&C 132 as well as the Endowment Ceremony covenants a bride made either on the day she was married, or sometime prior to that.

Patriarchy: A Core Teaching of the Mormon Temple Ceremony

 For those unfamiliar with the LDS Endowment ceremony, it is the standard temple ritual all Mormons need to participate in to prepare for Exaltation in Heaven. The Endowment consists of a washing and anointing ceremony in anticipation of future heavenly glory, receiving the Mormon undergarment (to signify that an individual has participated in the ceremony and to remind them of their covenants), a reenactment of the Creation and the story of Adam and Eve, and the administering of certain covenants. Choosing to make these covenants results in participants receiving signs, tokens, and keywords that are heavily Masonic in nature (Mormons consider Freemasonry a corrupted, apostate form of a true priesthood ritual), and participants are taught how to use these in ritual prayer.

Pre-2019, all LDS Woman in the Endowment covenant to hearken unto her husband as he hearkens unto the Lord. Before 1990 it was to obey her husband as he obeys the Lord. This was considered an essential and core Temple Doctrine, when the Endowment ceremony was administered for the First Time to the body of the Saints in the Nauvoo Temple:

"Females were not received when we first received the Holy Order. Men apostatized, being led by their wives. If any such cases occur again no more women will be admitted. He [Heber C. Kimball] spoke of the Necessity of Women being in subjection to their husbands. I am subject to my God, my wife is in subjection to me and will reverence me in my place and I will make her happy I do not want her to step forward and dictate to me any more than I dictate to President [Brigham] Young." (The Nauvoo Endowment Companies <21 December 1845> page 116)

"We want the man to remember that he has covenanted to keep the law of God, and the woman to obey her husband, and if you  keep your covenants you will not be guilty of transgression. ...The man was created, and God gave him dominion over the whole earth, but he saw that he never could multiply, and replenish the earth without a woman. And he made one and gave her to him. He did not make the man for the woman; but the woman for the man, and it is just as unlawful for you to rise up and rebel against your husband, as it would be for man to rebel against God. When the man came to the veil, God gave the key word to the man, and the man gave it to the woman. But if a man don't use a woman well and take good care of her, God will take her away from him, and give her to another." (The Nauvoo Endowment Companies <21 December 1845> pages 1119-120)

Queens and Priestesses unto your Husband

Additionally, up until 2019 women were washed and anointed Queens and Priestesses unto their husband. This was considered the highest station a LDS Woman was to attain to:

"It was from him [Joseph Smith] that I learned that the highest dignity of woman-hood was to stand as a queen and priestess to her husband, and to reign for ever and ever as the queen mother of her numerous and still increasing offspring." (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt)

Women were considered as holding rule and being priestesses in their spheres, but only insofar as they were subject to their husband:

"The Priesthood is also with the woman, because she is connected with the man, and the man is connected with his God." (Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses vol. 11 <19 February 1865> page 80-81)

"You [sisters] suppose that you receive the priesthood when you receive your endowments; but the priesthood is on your husbands. Can you honor God and the Priesthood, and abuse your husbands like the Devil? How can you honor the Priesthood, except you honor the man you are connected with? I am talking about good men: I will not in this connection say anything about bad men. How can you honor the Priesthood, except you honor the one you are connected with?" (Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses vol. 5 <12 July 1857> page 31)

So it was still recognized that women needed to be under the direction and guidance of a man, lest she be deceived as Eve was:

"There are places and times where man and woman must operate together [in the Priesthood] to bring to pass the glory of God and their own exaltation, but remember woman is the receiver, man the giver, and one is not without the other in the Lord. A woman who is qualified with the necessary womanly gifts, through her faithfulness may become an Eve to her husband, but even then she will be woman still and may be beguiled by a serpent as the mother of this earth was." (Joseph E. Taylor, Salt Lake Stake High Council Minutes, 13 October 1885, LDS Archives)

 Lack of Patriarchy = Lack of Priesthood Authority

What is the cost of a man refusing to be a bold patriarch and head to his family? His standing and power in the priesthood is weak, if not entirely nullified:

"When the servants of God in any age have consented to follow a woman for a leader, either in a public or a family capacity, the have sunk beneath the standard their organization has fitted them for; when a people of God submit to that, their Priesthood is taken from them, and they become as any other people." (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses vol. 9 <15 June 1862> page 308)

"The President [Brigham Young] remarked in every instance where women were mentioned in the scriptures to have performed any remarkable thing it was where men ceased to magnify their priesthood, and the women were the smartest of the two." (Office Journal of Brigham Young, 24 December 1859, LDS Archives)

"We have many Bishops and Elders who have but one wife. They are abundantly qualified to enter the higher law and take more, but their wives will not let them. Any man who will permit a woman to lead him and bind him down is but little account in the Church and Kingdom of God. The law of Patriarchal marriage and plurality of wives is a revelation and commandment of God to us, and we should obey it; but one says, 'If you do, Judge McKean will be after you.' What has given us a future in these Valleys of the Mountains? It is because we have obeyed this part of the Celestial Law of God." (Life of Wilford Woodruff <9 October 1875> page 490)

The 2019 Temple Changes and How Patriarchy is Still in the Endowment

 The 2019 Temple changes applauded by feminists egalitarianized some of the ceremonies, softened some of the language of the marriage ceremony, and removed the woman's covenant before God, angels, and witnesses to hearken unto her husband. Some see this as the Patriarchal Order being removed from the Temple because of the apostasy and wickedness of the world and many LDS today. But fortunately in one place patriarchy is still preserved, in the final ceremony of the Endowment. 

Symbolically, the last ceremony of the Endowment has a man give the key words and tokens he learned in the previous rituals to a representative of God as part of a ceremony to enter Heaven. Following that, a woman then gives her husband the key words and tokens to be permitted into Heaven. For this reason early Mormons correctly noted that a woman could only enter Heaven if her husband lets her in:

"Do the women, when they pray, remember their husbands? Do you pray for brother Brigham? Yes, you should always pray for him. But when you pray for him, do you pray also for your own husband, that he may have the inspiration of the Almighty to lead and govern his family as the lord? Do you uphold your husband before God as your lord? 'What! My husband to be my lord?' I ask, Can you get into the celestial kingdom without him? Have any of you been there?  

You will remember that you never got into the celestial kingdom without the aid of your husband. If you did, it was because your husband was away, and someone had to act proxy for him. No woman will get into the celestial kingdom, except her husband receives her, if she is worthy to have a husband; and if not, somebody will receive her as a servant." (Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses vol. 5 <4 October 1857> page 291)