Mothers Who Know Speak Out

At the recent October 2007 General Conference of the LDS Church, the Church's new Relief Society President, Julie B. Beck, spoke to the women of the Church, and her words have since spurred a world of reactions, comments and blogs as to the role of Mormon Mothers.

She praised the mothers who, on Sundays. . .

". . .bring daughters in clean and ironed dresses with hair brushed to perfection; their sons wear white shirts and ties and have missionary haircuts."

Much attention has been spent on her defining Mothers as:

". . .nurturers. This is their special assignment and role under the plan of happiness. . . Another word for nurturing is homemaking. Homemaking includes cooking, washing clothes and dishes, and keeping an orderly home. Home is where women have the most power and influence; therefore, Latter-day Saint women should be the best homemakers in the world. . . Nurturing requires organization, patience, love, and work. Helping growth occur through nurturing is truly a powerful and influential role bestowed on women."

Today, KUER's "RadioWest" brought together noted LDS women to discuss the reactions to Mrs. Beck's definitions and invited listeners to call and write in, or to enter comments at the KUER blog under the heading Mormon Women and Priorities.

I had already submitted my comment when I went to the exact text of her talk and discovered it was titled "Mothers Who Know". How funny, because my point is that Mothers need to Know More and to engage accordingly.

Here is my response to her statement and the discussion I heard today:

I'm not Mormon, but I am a mother, and the advice Julie Beck gave out means something to every woman, for we all are trying to create the environment and role models that will serve our children -- and ourselves, so we can be the best, healthiest, happiest Mothers/Wives/Sisters/Daughters possible. For how can a home be nurturing if the Mother is not healthy and capable of being happy? So, I, too, must comment.

There are many areas discussed on today's RadioWest that I could agree with, disagree with, add to -- but the most important concept missing in Julie Beck's advice is our responsibility as Mothers to make sure the world we release our children into has a healthy future.

Turn off the media? No! Just learn to select carefully, to seek excellence, to become well informed. The tendency of nice, compliant women to let the men take care of the business of the world has lead us to the brink of World War III. Am I exaggerating? No. This is the threat that Mr. Bush stated last week.

Our noble Motherly "nurturing" is useless if we do not question leaders who would have our children kill others, and risk being killed -- or worse yet -- permanently mentally and physically damaged.

It is an extraordinarily sad circumstance that the home state of the LDS Church, which teaches the importance of nurturing family and living one's spiritual beliefs so thoroughly -- has the reputation of being the most "red" state in the country and has thus supported Bush and Cheney fully, as if they are these authority figures are worthy of the same kind of trust given authorities of the Church.

What a terrible mistake.

What a foolish forfeit of the future.

These two men, and those they have brought to power, have lied to us, have cheated us, have polluted our resources, have destroyed laws that protect us, have used weaponry that releases radiation in a country we are supposed to be helping as well as on our own people and then lied to avoid liability.

They have turned the United States into the ultimate bully, and they have taken the deaths of 3,000 and turned it into a most un-Christian, un-democratic retribution that has brought the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who cannot escape the hell their world has become.

This unnecessary, costly, disastrous war they have taken us into will continue on and on, for these men also have financial ties to all the contractors, but especially the weapons makers, who arm all sides, one way or another.

That is what happens when Mothers believe it is their job to withdraw from "politics" and the busy world outside so they have time to obsess on perfect hair, ironed clothes and spotless houses for their children.

Mothers who pay attention and want to know the truth behind the propaganda do not quietly allow these things to happen -- not to their children -- not to our children -- and not to any other mothers' children.