Looking for My Mother

 Last Sunday during RS I had a thought. 

Preface this… I had listened to a podcast recently where two women were trying out the idea that the Holy Spirit was a female spirit… possibly Heavenly Mother. I thought this was interesting… but not possible. While I love the symmetry of the Father, the Mother and the Son, or even God (the Mother and the Father) and the Son and the Daughter… We actually know the HG is a male spirit. 

But then. Wait. How do we know that?

So when I got home I went digging first in the D&C, then the BoM and then, after not finding ANYTHING other than gender neutral references to the Holy Ghost… I went to the New Testament. There I DID, in fact find the Gospel of John refers to the holy ghost as “He.” 

OK…it’s the NT, and we don't actually think the thing was necessarily translated correctly. My heart dropped when I found that in Joseph Smith’s translation he left the He in there.

But then I was interested in the Greek that John had written his text in. Turns out…

This is Chat GPT's take on it. Yeah. I know… but I don't know enough Greek to translate it myself.

"Outside of John 14–16, there is no clear use of grammatically masculine language (e.g., pronouns like he/his) directly referring to the Holy Spirit in the Greek New Testament.

In most of the New Testament, neuter pronouns and forms are used for the Spirit, in keeping with the neuter noun πνεῦμα.

John is the only Gospel that intentionally uses masculine demonstratives (like ἐκεῖνος) to describe the Holy Spirit — likely to emphasize personhood, not biological gender.

English translations tend to carry over “he” across all references for consistency and theological reasons, even when the Greek doesn't."

Ok… so I then asked CGPT if there were any specific revelations or scripture in the LDS canon that explicitly state that the HG is male. 

Nope. It really looks like some assumptions may have been made by Joseph Smith and Co.

Why is such ungendered language used in ALL the scriptures? Like, I get the NT and BoM, But the D&C, where we have the Saviour speaking as Himself and for Himself throughout most of it? It was written in English, fairly modern English even. Written in legalese in places. WHY such ungendered terminology when it seems every possible loophole is closed in the D&C? 

Was this an assumption that the Lord just allowed to slide? Did He encourage the assumption that the Holy Spirit is male? What is going on here? 

Sure… there are a number of explanations for using ungendered language… but most of them challenge the idea that the HG is a male singular personage. Could the HG be a priesthood office? OK, if so, why not use “He/Him” in scripture even if it is an office acquitted by multiple priesthood holders? Perhaps it is a Priesthood office that male AND female spirits can hold? A different kind of priesthood, as we are assured repeatedly that The Priesthood is for men and will not ever be for women to hold. 

Yes, I am aware that Mormondom is rife with “He/Him” when referencing the HG… but since it is very possible, likely even, that JS had just ASSUMED based on the language of the translations of the NewTestament… it seems apparent that he never actually asked if that were the case.

But why does the Lord never use “He/Him”? Sure… the Lord never used “She/Her” either… is the HG an ungendered Spirit? Is this an example of non-binary in Heaven? If so… not too thrilled with THAT either. That would indicate that Female spirits are SO useless to God that they are entirely absent in our theology other than a vague, as yet undisputed, sorta encouraged, idea of a Heavenly Mother.

Assumptions on MY part, granted. But after a lifetime of assumptions of the lesser nature of women. The lesser nature of myself. After a lifetime of this I am kinda pissed. Also, I have a heart that HAS to consider the possibility that I am lesser. Because which is it..? That God is no respecter of persons… but SOME persons hold the priesthood and all the visible authority in the church, and that SOME persons do not. SOME persons are trophies to be collected via matrimony to bolster only SOME persons righteous fiefdoms in heaven. 

How is it that half of God's kingdom seems to be respected in terms of calling ALLLLLLL the shots, and having alllll the meaningful interaction with deity and half do not. 

I am not asking this of myself. I am no Prophetess…. But then. Kinda, there aren’t ANY Prophetesses according to the LDS church. But there IS a Heavenly Mother? Where is Her Priestesshood? Who attends Her? What would that even look like?

I know I am a Child of loving heavenly parents… but we seem to have the road map for men… but only kinda for women. We have Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost supposedly… Dudes. All parts of the Godhead. Dudes.

If gender is eternal and of eternal importance… who am I?

Who is SHE? Who is Mother? Please come out that I may worship you as well. Am I NOT supposed to worship Her? Am I NOT supposed to emulate Her? To want to be like Her? No? I am supposed to WANT to ONLY be like men? How? I am not a man.

I am also, not a defective man. Other than habits left from a lifetime of living in a Patriarchal society where I HAD to lean masculine or be rolled over, there really isn't much that IS masculine about me.

I am a woman. A female spirit with a female body.

My only takeaway from the search: I am a woman and I'm looking for my Mother.