Is Eve our Heavenly Mother? Tom Bennett of Centennial Park explains fundamentalist views on Heavenly Mothers, women and priesthood, and the second anointing. Check out our conversation…
Don’t miss our other episodes about Centennial Park! https://gospeltangents.com/denominations/centennial-park/
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Heavenly Mothers
Mormon fundamentalists believe God has more than one wife. In our final conversation, Tom Bennett of Centennial Park explains his understanding of Heavenly Mothers and why he sees Eve as the mother of this world. He also explains how he believes women will receive the fullness of the priesthood, what the second anointing is, why Joseph Musser believed his excommunication couldn’t touch his authority, how marriage works when the woman receives the revelation, and what a visitor can expect at a Centennial Park church service.
In our final conversation, Tom explained that God has more than one wife, but only one of them presides over this world: Eve. “Eve is a position like Elohim,” he told me. “It’s an office in the eternal realm of the priestesses of God.” In Tom’s understanding, the wives who preside over other worlds are Eves to those worlds.
Tom said that fundamentalists spend a lot of time on these deeper doctrines. He pointed to the fundamentalist magazine Truth, which he said ran a sermon on Heavenly Motherhood and the eternal goddesses every Mother’s Day, and he read a quote from Joseph White Musser urging every man and woman to become “prophets and prophetesses.”
That led us to women and the priesthood. In the LDS Church, women can’t hold the priesthood. Tom believes that women “eventually do and will hold the fullness of the patriarchal priesthood,” and he ties that to the second anointing, the ordinance that seals a couple’s calling and election. Joseph and Emma Smith received the first second anointing in 1843. Tom explained that it ordains a man a king and priest, and a woman a queen and priestess, and that it seals their exaltation unless they shed innocent blood or deny the Holy Ghost. He also explained why that matters for fundamentalist history: Joseph Musser received his second anointing in 1899, so in Musser’s view his 1921 excommunication couldn’t take away his authority. I asked whether that’s really any different from being “saved” in a Baptist church. Tom, a former Baptist himself, said that’s a great question, and he gave his answer on grace and works.
We also talked about courtship. Centennial Park doesn’t do underage marriages, Tom said, and there’s no dating in the usual sense. A young woman seeks a revelation about whom she should marry and takes it to the Priesthood Council, which then approaches the man. Tom said the National Geographic series Polygamy USA is an accurate picture of how this works, and that the people in it are still members. He also said Centennial Park doesn’t excommunicate. People who leave can still come home for dinner.
Finally, Tom described church life. Centennial Park has congregations in Centennial Park and in South Salt Lake, with priesthood leaders traveling between them. There’s no Primary and no passing of the sacrament during the service. Families hold Sunday School and bless the sacrament at home, and the meeting itself features a choir Tom compares to “a little Tabernacle Choir.” Speakers, men and women alike, are called up by the Spirit with no prepared talks. I attended one of those meetings myself, and Tom insists anyone is welcome, as long as they don’t treat it as a novelty.
This wraps up our five-part series with Tom Bennett. We covered his journey from Protestant to Polygamy, whether fundamentalists see the LDS Church as the “one true church,” why women choose polygamy, and how Centennial Park views race and the priesthood. Don’t miss our other episodes about Centennial Park at https://gospeltangents.com/denominations/centennial-park/.
Listen to the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts.
Chapters
0:00 Heavenly Mothers
3:02 Women & Priesthood
4:13 Calling & Election Made Sure
9:25 Courtship & Marriage
12:31 Polygamy in the Media
14:41 Church Services
18:22 Community Life
Copyright © 2025
Gospel Tangents
All Rights Reserved
Except for book reviews, no content may be reproduced without written permission.
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