Review

Title: Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos
Author: Taylor G. Petrey
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Genre: Religious nonfiction
Year Published: 2024
Number of Pages: 214
Binding: Hardback, Paperback, ebook
ISBN: 978-1469682693
Price: $99.00; $27.95; $25.68

Reviewed by Ryan Ward for the Association of Mormon Letters

As the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints approaches its third century, it finds itself with a number of challenges. Some of these are shared by any number of conservative religious organizations which find themselves increasingly at odds with the secular turn of society. Others are unique to the LDS church or, at least if not wholly unique, present their own unique practical challenges and difficulties.

Two of the most visible issues are the way the church limits the participation of women and the way that it treats LGBTQ individuals. There is no shortage of argument and spirited debate about these issues, both within and outside of the church. Depending on who you ask, you might hear that the church is the most progressive of religious institutions for women or that it is one of the most oppressive and domineering. With regard to LGBTQ issues, the church has clearly staked out its position, including historically funding anti-LGBTQ initiatives and doubling down on some of the most harmful rhetoric and ideas (at least by implication) in its recent policy update on transgender individuals. There are many, both inside and outside of the church, who are affected by these issues and seek some kind of policy change or genuine discussion and engagement with these topics.

While there has been historical movement on these issues, and we can expect more in the future, issues related to gender and sexuality have the church in a particularly awkward position due to the issuance of the Family Proclamation by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1995. This document, though not officially canonized, has served as the blueprint for discussions and policy around these issues. While some had hoped that perhaps the church would soften its stance on some of the most divisive (or lack of evidence-based) pronouncements and assertions within the proclamation, recent talks have reinforced and doubled down on this document as doctrine.

Taylor Petrey’s new book, Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos, enters the fray at a particularly volatile socio-political moment. But, despite the provocative title, which will surely trigger some people, and contrary to the way Petrey is portrayed by some orthodox members and apologists (his book Tabernacles of Clay provoked a book-length response and attempted debunking), this is not a polemic against the church’s position on LGBTQ issues or an ideological screed. Instead, Petrey has written a patient and generous dissection and exercise in what is referred to in the scholarly tradition he dialogues with as “queering” (disrupting, destabilizing, or critically examining) Mormon theology regarding gender and sexuality. In doing so, he has presented a rigorous and thoughtful framing with which to think on these topics. Those so inclined, like Petrey, to allow these ideas a foothold will find themselves on much firmer and more hopeful theological ground than they likely thought possible.

Petrey’s stated goal for the book is to explore “an interrelated set of questions about the interpretation of gender, sexuality, and kinship in the historical teachings and scriptural texts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (p. 2). The framework he employs to this end is queer theory. As Petrey explains, this is a diverse discipline that is not necessarily about looking for queer-compatible threads in whatever area one is investigating but more an alternative method of analyzing existing power structures from a non-normative perspective, looking “to what is repressed or ignored for clues about to where to begin any analysis” (pp. 5). In other words, queer theory has transcended its original topic material and become a hermeneutic with which to analyze any set of value systems or power structures. So, Petrey clarifies his project as follows:

This isn’t a matter of making queer theory compatible or reconciled with Latter-day Saint thought. Rather, it is a method or approach that may be taken to any system, including Latter-day Saint thought. Such an analysis follows a certain set of rules (or rather breaks them) to discover weak spots within a system so as to analyze heteropatriarchal power and offer alternatives. This book hopes to do so through investigating kinship. (p. 5)

Using the hermeneutic of queer theory and the specific lens of kinship allows Petrey to then explore what he calls the “Mormon cosmos” in order to tease out and disrupt the heteronormative assumptions and historical teachings and interpretations of foundational canonical material to, in fact, show that these sources, while traditionally interpreted in a patriarchal heteronormative fashion, are in fact rich with alternative interpretive possibilities. Specifically, a focus on kinship allows Petrey to move past the explicit focus on sex and heteronormative patriarchy that is so thoroughly ingrained within Mormonism to explore alternative configurations of kinship that are still possible within the LDS tradition.

Each chapter takes a fundamental aspect of LDS theology and explores it for possible non-patriarchal, non-heteronormative interpretations. Petrey explores the nature of the Godhead (Chapter 2), doctrines and teachings related to Heavenly Mother (Chapter 3), supposed gender specificity in the accounts of the creation (both biblical and unique to the LDS canon; Chapter 4), gender essentialism as it relates to material embodiment (Chapter 5), and the patriarchal heteronormative values implied (but not necessarily explicit) in the many permutations of the doctrine of polygamy (Chapter 6).

While relatively brief, the book requires and rewards careful reading and rereading. The analysis is at times dense and may be a challenge to those not used to reading scholarly work, but the ideas here are well worth spending the time and effort to understand. They are carefully and convincingly presented and the book is beautifully written and has hundreds of notes and sources for interested readers to chase up.

Each chapter has its gems. Those familiar with Petrey’s work will recognize some familiar themes in the first half of the book, but there is enough new material to dig into and cast his previous work in a new light. I found the analysis and exegesis in Chapter 4 (Gender Fluidity and Kinship in Creation) to be particularly impressive. At times frankly stunning and revelatory, this chapter explores the creation stories in the Bible and Pearl of Great Price and demonstrates convincingly that the heteronormative and gender-essentialist assumptions that underpin much of the church’s doctrines regarding the roles of men and women and the broadsides against gender fluidity and homosexuality formalized in The Family Proclamation are based on a superficial and in some cases frankly incorrect reading and understanding of the scriptural accounts.

This chapter, the centerpiece of the study, shows the fundamentally transformative potential of Petrey’s project, and the results and implications for understanding the Eve and Adam story are profound. I won’t say any more because half the fun here is how Petrey so patiently and thoroughly dismantles the patriarchal gender-essentialist interpretations of these texts that are focused on the sex act as a reproductive commandment. His analysis had me awestruck and grinning.

Another major contribution of this book is found in chapter 6, where Petrey excavates historical and doctrinal polygamy in order to extract the threads of a broader kinship. He admits that this exercise is fraught with difficulty given the way polygamy played out within LDS history and its clear patriarchal heteronormative foundation. But even here, Petrey finds fertile ground to expand our understanding of this seemingly cut-and-dried case. He is careful not to gloss over the historical and ongoing trauma that polygamy has created but also cautions us against accepting monolithic interpretations of the practical and doctrinal reasons behind the practice.

In this regard, his analysis of adoption practices and theology is most instructive and shows that polygamy was just one of many types of sealing practices in the early church that had at their base a desire to solidify kinship bonds beyond death. He does not shy away from the difficulties. Still, he forces us to really stare at them and consider other possibilities here, which open up a theological path towards greater inclusiveness of LGBTQ realities.

Overall, Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos is a thought-provoking and deeply considered treatment of these topics. The very mention of these ideas will rub some members the wrong way, and Petrey will likely be pilloried in the apologist press for a while (something he is quite accustomed to). But for those who are willing to go there with him, Petrey remains an essential voice on these issues within the church. His rigorous and innovative work here continues to chart a possible path toward greater inclusion.

Crucially, this path is found not in a wholesale rewriting of standards or doctrine to conform to modern mores and ideas but in a careful and curious reading of foundational LDS theology and doctrine. One of Petrey’s greatest accomplishments here is writing a book that is so confronting without being confrontational. He admits that the prospects of the church changing its position on these issues remain unlikely. But should the increasing toll these doctrines and policies continue to take on the lives of LGBTQ individuals prick the hearts of leadership enough to consider a different path seriously, Petrey’s work provides a way forward that embraces, rather than discards, the unique, peculiar, beautiful, even queer aspects of LDS theology.