Nation IN BRIEF : UTAH : Mormon Feminist May Be Disciplined

A Mormon feminist who wrote that God has a woman as an equal partner in heaven faces ecclesiastical discipline. Janice Allred, who could be excommunicated at a disciplinary hearing Wednesday before her local church board, believes an essay she wrote in an independent journal is to blame. In the essay, published in the journal Dialogue, she said that there is a “heavenly mother” who is God’s equal partner in heaven. Church leaders have said that while the existence of a heavenly mother is a logical and reasonable doctrine, the church has not said whether she is God’s equal. One of the standards defined by the 9-million-member church’s all-male hierarchy is strict obedience to a prohibition on public contradiction or criticism of the leadership. Of the disciplinary hearing, Allred said: “I don’t see it simply as an issue of being able to publish one article. It’s an issue of freedom to speak and write.”