Mormonism Mama And Me

By Thelma Geer

Raised in the Mormon church, she dreamed of becoming a 'heavenly queen.' A personal account of one woman's Mormon heritage and her conversion to the Christian faith. Examines several important tenets of the Mormon faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Moody Publishers
• Release date: Aug 1, 1986
• ISBN: 9780802481375

Book preview

MORMONISM

MAMA, and ME

Thelma Granny Geer

"Come and hear, all ye that fear God,

and I will declare what He hath done for my soul’

(Psalm 66:16)

MOODY PUBLISHERS

CHICAGO

© 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986

THELMA GEER

Moody Publishers Edition, 1986

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Selected words within original Mormon quotations have been italicized for emphasis.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (TEV) are taken from Good News for Modern Man, Today’s English Version. Copyright © 1966, 1971, 1976, by the American Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from The Amplified Bible. Copyright © 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright © 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Geer, Thelma.

    Mormonism, mama, and me.

    Bibliography: p. Includes index.

1. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—

Controversial literature. 2. Mormon Church—Controversial

literature. 3. Geer, Thelma. I. Title.

BX8645.G43 1986 289.3’32 86-8558

ISBN 0-8024-5633-2 (pbk.)

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Printed in the United States of America

Dedicated

lovingly and prayerfully to

my Mormon singing mother

and

singing mothers everywhere,

That all may sing with Mama and me

our new song:

"Thou art worthy to take the book,

And to open the seals thereof:

For Thou wast slain,

And hast redeemed us unto God

by thy blood."

(Revelation 5:9)

Contents

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

Preface to the Fifth Edition

Preface

Preface to the Third Edition

Foreword

1. Born a Mormon

Choice Spirits Given the Favored Lineage

Papa Provoked to Parenthood

My Mormon Singing Mother

God, a Polygamous Married Man

Latter-day Saints

Adoration of Heavenly Mother

Joseph Smith’s Blood Pleads unto Heaven

Jesus and Satan—Sexually Begotten Sons of God

The Bible—A Polluted, Insufficient Guide

2. Born Again

Mama’s Reaction

A New Song

3. Mama Looks to Heaven

4. Back to the Beginning

Underground Mormonism

Mormon View of Man

Chief Means of Man’s Exaltation

I Wanted to Be Queen of Heaven

5. Joseph Lied, God Never Died

No One Can Go to Heaven Single

God Is Married-To Mary

God, A Being of Body, Parts and Passions

6. Adam Is God?

Much More Was Told

Adam Came from Another Planet

Not Without a Fight

Adam-God Today

7. Grandpa Was a Polygamist

Joseph Smith Rules in the Spirit World

Polygamists Are Virile

No Females in Hell

Abraham’s Righteousness

Jesus Christ a Polygamist

Polygamy Is Still Valid

8. Holy Murder

Love Thy Neighbor to Death

A Firsthand Example

Fight for Wife and Life

Judas-Kicked Until His Guts Gushed Out

9. Blood Flows in Utah

Sins Requiring Blood Atonement

Blood Atonement Still Valid

10. Grandpa Pays for Mountain Meadows

Mormonism’s Scapegoat for Mountain Meadows

Mormon Sadie Hawkins Day

Grandpa Lee Is Reinstated Eighty-Three Years Later

Epilogue

Afterword

Appendix A: The Mormon Temple Ceremony

The First Estate

The Second Estate

The Third Estate

The Fourth Estate

Appendix B: The Black Is Freed from His Curse

Appendix C: Referenced Material

Index

Acknowledgments

To name all of those who have aided in the production of this book would require a book itself. However, you all know who you are—and I bless God for the contribution that each of you made. Special thanks must go to my dear loving and patient husband, Ernest. Most of all, I am beholden to the Holy One who brought them into my life and who convicted me of my sin and need for salvation, brought me up out of the horrible pit, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings (Psalm 40:2). To Him I became indentured when He caused my name to be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. To Him, the author and finisher of all faith, I give all honor and glory and praise, now and forever.

Preface to the Fifth Edition

As I prepare Mormonism, Mama, and Me for this fifth edition it is Mother’s Day, 1986. Again my heart longs for and misses my precious mama—one of God’s dearest and greatest gifts to me. Through tear-dimmed eyes I reread chapter 3 of Mormonism, Mama, and Me and return in memory to those precious last hours of Mama’s life here on earth. In awed stillness and reverence before God, I relive that triumphant, momentous moment when at last Mama quietly surrendered her soul completely and eternally into the keeping of God’s matchless and only Son.

Again on this special Mother’s Day, when I’m missing Mama so much, I’m reminded of the love of God that sent His unique Son to die for our sins. I think of how lonesome and empty heaven must have been while He was away. I praise and thank God that He so loved the world—including my beloved Mormon people and Mama and me.

As I pray and plan and labor to bring Mormons—and all others—to exclusive faith in Jesus and His atoning death on the cross, the task seems hopeless, the obstacles unsurmountable. But God reminds me that He is more than able. Didn’t He bring me—a stubborn thirty-one-year-old fourth generation Mormon—up and out and set my feet upon the Rock, Christ Jesus, and establish my goings (to go and tell)? Hasn’t He through these thirty-nine years of my Christian pilgrimage empowered me to go and tell what Jesus means to me and what He longs to mean to my Mormon people? And is it not amazing that He still marvelously strengthens and energizes me to keep on keeping on even though I’m now seventy-going-on-seventeen?

I’m more than amazed; I’m excited and delighted, for, you see, as a perky seventeen-year-old Mormon miss at those Friday night Mormon dances I really thought I was dynamite. And now I am—all because of He who lives in me. Since He lives in me and I in Him, I can’t help but keep on answering His charge to go and tell. Today I claim His promises as I did thirty-nine years ago. Many shall see it … and shall trust in the Lord (Psalm 40:3b). Ask of me, He prompted, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession (Psalm 2:8).

Through Mormonism, Mama, and Me (now more than 150,000 in print in five-and-one-half years), God is giving me the heathen for my inheritance and the world for my possession—for the glory of God the Father and the exaltation of His dear Son.

You, too, can claim the above blessed promises. You, too, through Mormonism, Mama, and Me can put into effect these soul-winning promises for your loved ones.

Begin by calling their attention to the picture of my original 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon (see inside front cover). Ask them to read on page 17 the last sentence of the first paragraph wherein I "pledge and give notice: my original (1830 1st edition) Book of Mormon (valued at $7,000) will be surrendered to the first Mormon able to prove that any Mormon doctrine discussed in this edition of Mormonism, Mama, and Me has not been taught by Mormon authorities."

Entreat your Mormon family members and their friends to research Mormonism, Mama, and Me. Direct their attention to paragraph three, It required the male and female, united, to make one image of his [God’s] own body … it required the male and female to make an image of God. Be sure to refer them to the footnote that asserts that their LDS Compendium contains the best available material for the use of the Elders. As late as 1898, Mormon missionaries and other LDS elders were openly teaching that it required male and female to produce Adam. Today it is a hidden, secret doctrine.

Then, by using the index, locate and show them photocopies of page 120 of the Compendium. Turn next to the photocopy of Brigham Young’s public statement that Adam was made as you and I are made.

Follow through each subject so that you can help Mormons and non-Mormons see that Mormonism is not of God. Gently and prayerfully expose their doctrines to the searchlight of biblical truths. Then leave the results and the glory to God, who so loved….

Let me hear from you.

I am yours in Jesus,

Granny Geer       

Preface

This is a singing love story. Perhaps it should have been entitled Our New Song—Mama’s and Mine. In it I hope to impart to you my love for Jesus, for Mama, and for my beloved Mormon people. But, most of all, I would have you know the love of Jesus and how much God so loved.

This book is my sincere attempt to explain the complex subject of Mormonism and the very hallowed experience I had of salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you read this mixture of testimony and refutation of false doctrine, please bear in mind that this book is prompted by my deep love and concern for my beloved Mormon people. As a fourth generation Latter-day Saint who was born in the Mormon country area of Eastern Arizona, I grew up loving the Mormon people, their heritage, customs, and way of life. For this very reason, I want all of them to know assurance of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ and to acknowledge His divine right to be preeminent in every way and in everything. As the apostle Paul cried out from the bottom of his heart for his people, Israel, to be saved (Romans 10:1–4) so do I cry out to my people (who think they are literally a modern Israel) that they too, might be saved.

For every assertion and disclosure of Mormon doctrine discussed, I have attempted to furnish ample documentation from reliable Mormon leaders and general authorities. Every reference has been carefully checked and rechecked for accuracy and proper context. These men (whom the Mormons really-believe speak for God Himself: Doctrine and Covenants, 21:4–5, 68:4, et al.) have made their doctrine clear to Mormon and non-Mormon alike. Even though my basic presupposition is that the system known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not a Christian communion, it remains for each of you to weigh the evidence and decide for yourselves. I pray that each of you, Mormon or non-Mormon, approach the subject with an open mind and heart.

I will not deny, or even apologize for the fact that my heritage as a descendant of Mormon pioneer stock has flavored my approach in this book. The stories I grew up with about my forebears have made them seem like well-known friends, and since one cannot really divorce modern Mormonism from its pioneer influences, I may seem to dwell in the past as far as their doctrines are concerned. To some this may appear unfair or unnecessary; however, just the opposite is true. If Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the other early prophets did not know and understand true Mormonism, who amongst their successors can? Therefore it is necessary to know the roots of Mormonism. It is not only fair to call forth the sayings of Joseph and Brigham for examination, it is demanded by the Mormon church itself every time they proclaim these men as true prophets of the living God.

For my Christian reader, I hope that I have given you sufficient information in this book that you will see for yourself that Mormonism is not compatible with the true gospel of Jesus Christ. For my Mormon reader who is determined (as I was for the first thirty years of my life) to remain in Mormonism, you will at least be acquainted with all the Mormon gospel, the secreted basic meat of Mormonism rather than the watered-down milk allowed the vast majority of Latter-day Saints and the public. I plead with you to face up today and prove whether these things [the teachings of the Latter-day prophets] be so: Jesus was not begotten by the Holy Ghost … the Father came himself and favored that spirit with a tabernacle [body] instead of letting any other man do it…. The God-given power of procreation … is one of the chief means of man’s exaltation and glory…. No man or woman of this dispensation [YOU!] can enter the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith …!

Preface to the Third Edition

As this third edition of my love story about Jesus and for my Mormon people goes to press, I make further acknowledgment of my responsibility to God, to my Mormon people, and to Christians everywhere to continue to honestly represent Mormonism for what it really is and to stand steadfastly, but lovingly, against its errors and hidden doctrines. But I have an added responsibility: the responsibility to assure all readers—Mormon and non-Mormon—that in spite of Mormon charges to the contrary, I have not misrepresented Mormonism in any way. As proof of my sincerity and honest presentation and in answer to Latter-day Saints’ charges against me, I do hereby pledge and give notice: my original (1830 First Edition) Book of Mormon (valued at $7,000) will be surrendered to the first Mormon able to prove that any Mormon doctrine discussed in this edition of Mormonism, Mama, and Me has not been taught by Mormon authorities.

Actually in my writing of this book, I had withheld some of Mormonism’s teachings, which range from the blasphemous to the ludicrous. But they are not unimportant; in fact, several represent foundation stones of Mormon belief—false doctrine built upon false doctrine resulting in a theological house of cards:

It required the male and female, united, to make one image of His [God’s] own body, and that male and female [God and one of His purported wives] were necessary to form one Adam … it required male and female to make an image of God.¹

Apostle Orson Pratt estimated that

the vast family of spirits who were [sexually] begotten before the foundation of the world … amounts to one hundred and five thousand million which was the approximate number of sons and daughters of God in Heaven.

If we admit that one personage was the father of all this great family, and that they were all born of the same mother, the period of time intervening between the birth of the oldest and the youngest spirit must have been immense [based upon a nine-month gestation period]. If we suppose, as an average, that only one year intervened between each birth, then it would have required over one hundred thousand million of years for the same mother to have given birth to this vast family.

If the father of these spirits, prior to his redemption [death and resurrection], had secured to himself, through the everlasting covenant of marriage, many wives … the period required to people a world would be shorter … with a hundred wives, this period would be reduced to only one thousand million years.²

The reason that Mormon authorities teach that God and His wives and Jesus and His wives (and all resurrected, temple Mormons) have spirit babies in heaven is because they eat spirit food instead of earthly food:

When the world is redeemed, the vegetable creation is redeemed and made new, as well as the animal; and when planted in a celestial soil, each vegetable derives its nourishment there from; … This is the origin of spiritual vegetables in Heaven.,,, Thus the spirits of both vegetables and animals are the offspring of male and female parents which have been raised from the dead…. The celestial vegetables and fruits … constitute the food of the Gods…. Celestial vegetables, when digested, form a spiritual fluid which gives immortality and eternal life to the organization in which it flows.³

My dear reader, may I ask you this question: Would you want to trust your soul’s eternal destiny to such foolishness as this? God’s Word, the Bible, warns us to give no heed to fables and endless genealogies and to refuse foolish and ignorant speculations, but rather, retain the standard of sound words in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

To Christians everywhere, I covet your prayers and encouragement as I witness of Jesus’ undying love for my beloved Mormon people.

February 2, 1983    

Safford, Arizona     

Foreword

Mormonism, Mama, and Me is a most timely book, appearing, as it does, at a time when the women of Mormonism are beginning to question their status as equal members of society and to speak out about it.

The plight of womanhood in Mormonism has been an unenviable one ever since the days of Joseph Smith and the doctrines created under section 132 of Doctrine and Covenants. Under these doctrines a man cannot get complete elevation to godhood without a wife/wives sealed to him in the temple, and a woman’s only salvation in the celestial world is to be sealed in the temple to a Mormon husband in good standing.

If a wife apostatizes, her husband has a perfect right, according to the church, to divorce her and with the divorce withdraw all of her celestial rights—she will be left in the grave on resurrection morning. Mormon women have a great fear of such a fate.

Thelma Geer was born and reared in a fourth generation Mormon home, the great-granddaughter of Mormon pioneer John D. Lee, one of the bodyguards of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Lee had nineteen wives (all taken to save their souls) and sixty-four children. No one would have a more comprehensive knowledge of the Mormon plural wife system than Mrs. Geer.

Happily, Thelma Geer came to know the Lord Jesus as Savior as a young woman. In her biography she combines a very complete depiction of the role of women in Mormonism (and its peculiar doctrines) with an impeccable application of Christian doctrine. It is all charmingly told.

This book should be read by Mormon women so that they may lose their fears of retribution should they defect. It should be read by all Christian women who have any contact with Mormon people. Pastors should read the book so that they may have direction in counseling.

Gordon H. Fraser

May 1980           

1

Born a Mormon

Reminiscing is such fun when you’ve finally reached the golden age of grannyhood. The best part is remembering when I was a chubby-cheeked (no wrinkles or creases) eager, loved, and loving youngster. Every bit of me was in love—with everything and everybody, especially Mama. My life and home radiated around Mama.

Doesn’t everyone long to write an I Remember Mama ode? To set down the everlasting impressions of childhood? To relive the happenings and happiness of life on the old homeplace? My recollections center on gentle, loving Mama and Papa, Lula May, and Cecil Lehi Smithson.

At work or play, we were a fun family, a zealous, fourth-generation Mormon family. We pulled together just as our pioneer ancestors had as they pushed and pulled their homemade handcarts across mountains and plains to the Zion of the West—the Great Salt Lake Basin. There with Brigham Young, they proclaimed, This is the place!

We, too, had a piece of Zion to occupy. Led by Mama, we sang as our ancestors had sung:

Put your shoulder to the wheel. Push along.

Do your duty with a heart full of song.

We all have work, let no one shirk,

Put your shoulder to the wheel.

And so, during the Great Depression, we grubbed alongside Mama and Papa and kept grub on the table. In our tight-knit Mormon community of Cactus Flat, Arizona (more properly designated Lebanon on the map, though no cedars flourished there, only mesquite, catclaw and cacti), Mama’s songs and Mama’s stories of our Mormon ancestors encouraged us and kept us proud to be Smithsons—proud to be Mormons.

Mama used to tell us, "Even though we’re as poor as Job’s turkey [however poor that was], we can be thankful that we’re not as poor as church mice, nor as dumb. They’re born and raised in a Mormon church house and never learned to sing ‘Count Your Blessings!’ We all knew what was coming next. With Mama leading we lustily sang,

Count your blessings, name them one by one;

Count your blessings, see what God hath done.

Then we’d listen as Mama recounted our blessings, especially the blessing of being born white Mormons.

Just to have been born a Mormon—especially a light white one—was the greatest of all earthly blessings. An earnestly sought special privilege, an earned-in-heaven reward, a mark of distinction.

As a white Mormon, I proudly accepted the teaching that my fair skin and Mormon parentage signified that I had been one of God’s most intelligent and obedient born-in-heaven spirit children. There in a primeval childhood I had diligently applied myself to all the mandates and instructions of the heavenly Father and my own heavenly mother.

As a reward for my superior attributes and attitudes, I had been singled out, trained, and qualified to be born a white Latter-day Saint, deserving of emulation, adulation, and eventual deification. All dark-skinned people, even darker-complexioned Caucasians, and members of all other religions had been inferior spirits in heaven. (Our family still wonders what celestial mischief one of our favorite aunties got caught in to cause her to be born so dark.) Moreover, they would probably remain inferiors on earth and again in the resurrection. Superior intelligent spirits such as mine would naturally and inherently choose to be born white and delightsome Latter-day Saints, while the more ignorant, ignoble spirits neither earn nor know better than to be born into inferior, false religions.

As a white Mormon, I heartily endorsed these teachings of our Latter-day Saints’ authorities, especially those of Mormon prophet/presidents and apostles such as Apostle Melvin J. Ballard, who declared:

Of all the thousands of children born today, a certain portion of them went to the Hottentots of South Africa; thousands went to Chinese Mothers; thousands to Negro Mothers; thousands to beautiful white Latter-Day Saints Mothers. Now you cannot tell me that all these spirits were just arbitrarily designated, marked, to go where they did … I am convinced it is because of some things they did before they came into this life. (Melvin J. Ballard, Crusade for Righteousness, p. 218)

CHOICE SPIRITS GIVEN THE FAVORED LINEAGE

Mormon President Joseph F. Smith asked of the Mormon people:

Is it not a reasonable belief, that the Lord would select the choice spirits to come through the better grades of nations? Moreover, is it not reasonable to believe that less worthy spirits would come through less favored lineage? Does this not account in very large part, for the various grades of color and degrees of intelligence we find in the earth? (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, p. 48)

Delighting in Mormonism’s assessment that whiteness denoted righteousness, I early gloried in my lovely white skin, my Latter-day Saints parentage, and presumptive preeminence, counting myself worthy indeed and most fortunate.

In tender-hearted, wide-eyed wonder I marveled, as did all Mormon youngsters, that God the Father had once been a tiny human baby, born eons ago on another planet to white Mormon parents. Since all Mormons are carefully shielded and sternly cautioned against contamination with so-called Christian churches and their doctrines, I readily embraced the Latter-day Saints’ delusion that this baby god had grown from babyhood to manhood. And that while living on that earth as a Mormon, God the Father had been required to fulfill all the Mormon gospel requirements including celestial marriage in the Mormon temple and the siring of a multitude of mortal offspring, followed by His death and resurrection. In heaven myriads more spiritual offspring reportedly were—and still are—born to God the Father and His wives through celestial procreation and gestation. Thus, God the Father had progressed from a celestial pre-existence to babyhood, to manhood, and on to godhood just as I would do too if I were an obedient, diligent Latter-day Saint.

Just as my grandparents long ago had set themselves to do, my parents, too, would follow God the Father’s purported gospel pattern. They would practice their religion, obeying the commandments and ordinances of the Mormon church paying their tithes, church and temple assessments in full. Then they, too, could be married and sealed for eternity in a Mormon temple and wear the authorized holy undergarments of the Mormon priesthood. And most certainly Mama and Papa would live their religion by providing earthly bodies for God’s purported millions of spirit children, as many as they possibly could.

PAPA PROVOKED TO PARENTHOOD

Who are we to deny God’s little spirit children earthly bodies and a Mormon home? Mama, with eyes glinting determination, demanded of the world at large and Papa in particular. You know as well as I do that we’re failing our religious duty. After all, we’ve been up there too, begging for bodies, wanting to come to earth. I can’t help feeling sorry for God’s poor little spirit children and ashamed of us for not doing more to help.

Whoa up now, May, Papa patiently soothed. "You know we’ve heard about the little spirits in heaven all our lives and that I know about their needs and feel just as sorry for them as you do. But

Reviews for Mormonism Mama And Me

[erikssonfamily · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Thelma Geer grew up Mormon; however, after marrying a Baptist man, she became a "born-again Christian." Her story is interesting, but too quick. For someone who is critiquing the Mormon faith, she does not build enough credibility. The focus of her book is the origins of Mormonism, but the Mormon faith is constantly changing and reevaluating itself and the arguments in this book seem dated.