You’ve No Power Here

There is a pivotal moment in “The Wizard of Oz” when in Munchkinland Glinda is protecting Dorothy from the Wicked Witch of the West and declares to the green witch that “You’ve no power here!” 

I was thinking of this scene recently when there was talk among active and former LDS members on Twitter about the church leaders cracking down on people speaking about Heavenly Mother, praying to Heavenly mother, teaching about Heavenly Mother, etc. 

I’ve never felt especially drawn to a Heavenly Mother figure, except for my actual earthly mother who died 14 years ago, and I believe is in heaven. When I speak to my “Heavenly Mother”, I pray to the woman who was my mother on earth  because I feel like I still have an actual mother/daughter relationship to her. Despite my own beliefs and feelings, I know that a relationship to Heavenly Mother is very important to a lot of people in the LDS church, especially to many of my Mormon feminist friends. There is something that feels right about the feminine divine. Or even a non-binary divine (my life-long friend who is a Unitarian believes that God has no gender). 

It is with these thoughts and feelings that I would like to bear my testimony (phew, I haven’t dusted this off this old chestnut in a while) to my friends who are feeling hurt, marginalized, and even ostracized by their church leaders for their relationship with their Heavenly Mother. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they’ve no power over you. They’ve no power over your relationships with the divine. Do they believe they do? Resoundingly yes. These men believe they have the right to micromanage those relationships by virtue of the authority they gave themselves, but they don’t. YOU get to determine your relationship with your Heavenly Mother, Heavenly Father, and Savior. Only YOU. You are the one with the power. 

I stand with my sisters and siblings who claim the privilege of worshipping their almighty Gods according to the dictates of *their* own conscience. You have the right to worship Them how, where, or what you may. 

Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash