Valerie Hudson – Two Trees Theology & Feminist Equality in LDS Doctrine

Venue & timing: FAIR conference; talk allotted $(50)$ minutes, ending at “quarter-till.”
Speaker: Valerie M. Hudson—named by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the top $(100)$ global thinkers.
Previous FAIR appearance: co-presented with Ralph Hancock & Richard Sherlock on SQUARE II.
SQUARE II journal overview
- Goal: premier on-line LDS forum addressing contemporary world issues.
- All submissions peer-reviewed.
- Audience engagement: controversial topics have reached up to $(50\,000)$ views.
- Spring issue highlight: first faith-affirming female-authored article on polygamy.

D&C $132$ frames polygamy as an Abrahamic sacrifice, not an eternal norm.
True Abrahamic sacrifices are:
- Temporally bounded.
- Eventually receive a “ram in the thicket” (deliverance) either in this life or the next.
Practical implication: the Church does not baptize currently practicing polygamists, even where civilly legal, because outside a direct command such practice is an abomination.
Monogamy, conversely, is never described as an abomination—rather, it is consistently portrayed as a divine blessing.

Definition of “God”: an exalted woman and man sealed in the New & Everlasting Covenant (see D&C $132$ ).
- Heavenly Father is not an “old bachelor;” Satan holds that status.
Eternal embodiment:
- Gendered bodies retained forever; they are gifts, not curses.
- Female physiology (breasts, womb, ovaries) celebrated as blessings.
Eternal marriage & increase: Marriage persists eternally, bringing fullness of joy through unending posterity.
Gender equality principles:
- “Equal” ≠ “identical.”
- Wide-ranging spheres of equality: blessings, power, intelligence, dignity, consent, agency, value, potential, virtue, spiritual gifts, temporal stewardships in Zion, etc.
- Elder L. Tom Perry (Feb $2004$ ): spouses are co-presidents, not president/vice-president.

Three LDS distinctives:
1. The Fall was foreordained and ultimately a blessing.
2. Eve did not sin in partaking.
3. Consequently, Eve was rewarded, not punished.
Cosmology setup:
- Pre-mortal realm divided from evil by a chasm; literal Heavenly Parents rear their spirit children.
- Adolescence of spirits prompts a training-through-mortality “Plan of Separation.”
Opposition of plans: Christ’s full-agency plan vs. Satan’s coercive alternative; $\frac{1}{3}$ rebel ( $(<br /> \tfrac{1}{3})$ ) while $(\tfrac{2}{3})$ accept Christ’s.

Tree 1 – Knowledge of Good & Evil (red fruit): gateway into mortality, full agency, and the Light of Christ.
Tree 2 – Tree of Life (white fruit): ordinances of salvation & exaltation leading home.
Two stewardships:
- Women: guardians & givers of the first tree’s fruit (birth, agency awakening).
- Men: guardians & givers of the second tree’s fruit (priesthood ordinances).

Not inferiority but pedagogical symbolism: demonstrates Adam’s helplessness regarding Tree 1.
“Help meet” (Gen. $2{:}18$ ) in Hebrew denotes “equal power to save.”
- Elder Earl C. Tingey: spouses walk side by side, none before/behind.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks: Eve displayed “wisdom and courage.” Her act was the minimal transgression necessary to enact separation and agency.
Pre-mortal reaction: we pleaded, “Mother Eve, please eat!” and rejoiced when she did.
Suffering foreseen: rape, forced marriage, trafficking, etc. —Eve still stepped forward; she was the best, not the worst, among women.
Reciprocal honor: the resurrected Christ first appeared to a woman (Mary) as repayment.

“Cursed is the ground for thy sake” → not punitive but enabling opposition (virtue/vice, pleasure/pain).
Child-bearing “sorrow” ≠ malediction; motherhood is soul-satisfying.
Genesis $3{:}16$ “rule over” mistranslated: Elder Bruce Hafen—Hebrew bet ⇒ “rule with.”
Therefore: God promised co-rule, not hierarchy.

Secular patriarchy: men ruling over women.
LDS “Patriarchal Order”:
- President Ezra Taft Benson: term refers to priesthood lineage “from father to son,” and is actually “an order of family government” wherein husband & wife covenants mirror Adam & Eve.
- President James E. Faust: every father is a patriarch and every mother a matriarch, functioning as co-equals.

Restored priesthood rights re-establish proper male treatment of women:
- Single standard of chastity, marital fidelity.
- Commitment to marriage, active fatherhood, valuing daughters/sons equally.
- Rejection of abuse, pornography, and neglect.
- Willing burden-sharing (housework, etc.).
Priesthood ≠ bonus denied to women; it is men’s apprenticeship toward Heavenly Father.
Women possess parallel body-based & spiritual ordinances (pregnancy, childbirth, lactation)—gifts of Tree 1.

True societal health determined by man-woman, parent-child relationships—not wars, markets, or oil prices.
Jacob $2$ : despite temples & scriptures, the Nephites risk destruction; the Lamanites survive because husbands/wives & parents/children love one another.
Thus, women’s status is a barometer of a civilization’s vitality.
Gender equality is the bedrock of Zion—the “bricks,” not decorative garnish.

Eden pattern mirrored in temple covenants:
- Phase 1 (Tree 1): Adam hearkened to Eve.
- Phase 2 (Tree 2): Eve subsequently hearkens to Adam concerning ordinances.
Possible analogous pre-mortal covenant: sons would hearken to daughters as daughters shepherded spirits into mortality.

Church supports—does not dominate—families.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: whatever heavenly organization exists, families are central and eternal.

Two colored fruits: red (life, agency) & white (righteous path home).
Son placed first; daughter arrives to open Red Door; an adversary attempts deception.
Daughter chooses courageously; brings son; collective heavenly rejoicing.
Parents instruct: son will later open White Door, offer fruit back to daughter; mutual hearkening establishes equal partnership.
Narrative underscores continuous giving/receiving of both stewardships throughout mortal history.

Two-tree model does explain priesthood stewardship division.
Second tree = Tree of Life seen by Lehi/Nephi; protected by cherubim; accessed via ordinances.
Tradition of Mary weaving the temple veil before Christ’s birth noted; further research encouraged.
First-temple imagery may have included a female-deity tree; link to “Asherah” traditions (per Daniel C. Peterson).
For full exposition see Hudson & Sorensen, Women in Eternity, Women of Zion ( $2007$ ).

LDS theology demands:
- Egalitarian marital governance.
- Rejection of misogynistic cultural patterns.
- Sacred valuation of female embodiment and maternal roles.
Societal application: measure nations/church units by safety, dignity, and flourishing of women.