I wouldn't agree that "many Mormons angrily and vehemently deny" anything of the sort. People are people and I'm sure some Mormons might be found to advocate any position you care to name, just as some Baptists or some Catholics or some Buddhists can be found to advocate any given position. That doesn't really mean much of anything. Do you have a question about LDS belief, or are you merely bemused that some people, regardless of their faith, are uninformed about their own traditions?

WAIT BEFORE YOU NEG THAT QUESTION* READ THIS ========================================================= Let's look at what LDS Prophets and Theologians have had to say about this subject throughout Mormon History: First, Gordon B. Hinckley PUBLICLY acknowledged... ========================================================= ...that there IS an LDS "Mother in heaven" in Ensign and in public speeches with statements like this one: “Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me." ("Daughters of God" by Gordon B. Hinckley; Ensign, November 1991) Next, please consider this: ========================================================= "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not formally acknowledge the existence of a Heavenly Mother until 1909, in a statement on evolution by the First Presidency marking the 50th anniversary of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.[16] The Church also later inferred the theology in the 1995 statement The Family: A Proclamation to the World, where the Church officially stated that each person is a "spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents". Other references to Heavenly parents can be found in Latter-day Saint speeches and literature.[17] NOTE: [16] ^ Smith et al. 1909. [17] ^ See, for example, Hinckley 1991, encouraging Latter-day Saint women not to pray to the Heavenly Mother; or M. Russell Ballard stating "we are part of a divine plan designed by Heavenly Parents who love us" in his book When Thou Art Converted. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Mother_(Latter_Day_Saints)#Acknowledgment_of_the_theology Finally, please consider this: ========================================================= "In the Latter Day Saint movement, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, some adherents believe in a Heavenly Mother as a wife of God the Father. The theology varies, however, according to denomination. Some denominations disavow a belief in her, some do not make her a part of the official doctrine, and others openly acknowledge her." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Mother "The theological underpinnings of a belief in Heavenly Mother is attributed to Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, who shortly before his death in 1844 outlined a controversial view of God that differed dramatically from traditional Christian consensus.[6] Smith's theology included the belief that God would share his glory with his children and that humans might become exalted beings, or gods and goddesses, in the afterlife (see Exaltation). Although there is no clear record of Joseph Smith teaching of Heavenly Mother publicly, several of Smith's contemporaries attributed the theology to him either directly, or as a consequence of his theological stance. An editorial footnote of History of the Church, 5:254, presumably quotes Joseph Smith as saying: "Come to me; here's the mysteries man hath not seen, Here's our Father in heaven, and Mother, the Queen." In addition, a secondhand account states that in 1839, Joseph Smith had told Zina Diantha Huntington, one of Smith's plural wives, after the death of her mother, that "not only would she know her mother again on the other side, but 'more than that, you will meet and become acquainted with your eternal Mother, the wife of your Father in Heaven'."[7] In addition, members of the Anointed Quorum, a highly select spiritual organization in the early Church that was privy to Smith's teachings, also acknowledged the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[8] Also, the Times and Seasons published a letter to the editor from a person named "Joseph's Specked Bird" in which the author stated that in the pre-Earth life, the spirit "was a child with his father and mother in heaven".[9] In 1845, after the murder of Joseph Smith, the poet Eliza Roxcy Snow, published a poem entitled My Father in Heaven, (later titled Invocation, or the Eternal Father and Mother, now used as the lyrics in the popular Latter-day Saint hymn O My Father), acknowledges the existence of a Heavenly Mother.[10] This hymn contained the following language: In the heavens are parents single? No, the thought makes reason stare. Truth is reason: truth eternal tells me I've a mother there. Some early Mormons considered Eliza Snow to be a "prophetess".[11] Later, however, Church President Joseph F. Smith (a nephew of Joseph Smith, Jr.) explained his own belief that "God revealed that principle that we have a mother as well as a father in heaven to Joseph Smith; Joseph Smith revealed it to Eliza Snow Smith, his wife; and Eliza Snow was inspired, being a poet, to put it into verse."[12] The doctrine is also attributed to several other early church leaders. According to one sermon by Brigham Young, Joseph Smith once said he "would not worship a God who had not a father; and I do not know that he would if he had not a mother; the one would be as absurd as the other" (Journal of Discourses, vol.9, p.286). NOTES: [6] ^ See King Follett Discourse; Smith 1844. [7] ^ Wilcox 1987, p. 65. [8] ^ Wilcox 1987, pp. 65-67; Orson Pratt 1876, p. 292; Wilford Woodruff 1875, pp. 31-32. [9] ^ Joseph's Specked Bird 1845, p. 892. [10] ^ Snow 1845. See also Derr 1996-97; Pearson 1992. [11] ^ "Abstract of Poems, religious, historical, and political". Harold B. Lee Library/Online Collections at BYU. http://relarchive.byu.edu/MPNC/descriptions/poems.html. Retrieved on 2008-06-13. [12] ^ Wilcox 1987, p 65. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavenly_Mother_(Latter_Day_Saints)#Origin_of_the_Heavenly_Mother_theology Summary and Conclusion ========================================================= So, sorry, it whether it's overt, or covert there is CLEARLY a "Mother in Heaven" in LDS Theology. I know that reality may disturb YOU but it certainly doesn't merit negging a valid and thoughtful question from a inquisitive Mormon Studies Scholar. * Negging this question just demonstrates your ignorance and closed fanatical mind.

You said it in your question: Mormon theology IMPLIES that we have a Mother in Heaven. Some people even imply that there may be multiple Mothers in Heaven (eg. God is a polygamist). The hard part is trying to decipher what is said in Sunday School and Priesthood / Relief Society with what is official doctrine. A certain religion professor at BYU was excommunicated because she was teaching that we should worship Heavenly Mother, including praying to her. OTOH, Eliza R. Snow (known as the prophetess) wrote in "O My Father" that reason dictates that we have a mother in heaven. This hymn was approved by the First Presidency to be included in the hymnal. What infuriates me is when people falsely state that all God and his wife (wives?) do is have an eternal orgy.

WHILE THE EXISTENCE OF A LIVING MOTHER IN HEAVEN HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED THROUGHOUT MORMON HISTORY, PRAYING TO, OR WORSHIP OF, THIS SPIRITUAL BEING HAS CONSISTENTLY BEEN DENOUNCED AS THIS EXCERPT FROM AN ENSIGN ARTICLE BY GORDON B. HINCKLEY CLEARLY DEMONSTRATES: Gordon B. Hinckley, “Daughters of God,” Ensign, Nov 1991, p.97 Always let your Father in Heaven be your friend, to whom you may go in prayer. And now, speaking of prayer, I touch on another matter. Last April, I spoke to the regional representatives of the Church, as I have done for a number of years on each occasion when they have come for general conference. These are training meetings where the regional representatives get information that they may carry with them across the Church. There is nothing secret or hidden about what is done there. However, recently I heard that someone had secured a copy of my talk, looking upon that as a singular accomplishment, as if it had been given in a secret and sinister manner, designed to keep it from the world. This is nonsense. I am therefore on this occasion going to take the liberty of rereading that portion of the talk which pertains to a matter over which some few women of the Church appear to be greatly exercised. I give it to all, in this forum, because of the activities of a few who evidently are seeking to lead others in the paths which they are following. I speak of those who advocate the offering of prayers to our Mother in Heaven. I quote from that earlier address: “This [practice] began in private prayer and is beginning to spread to prayers offered in some of our meetings. “It was Eliza R. Snow who wrote the words: ‘Truth is reason; truth eternal / Tells me I’ve a mother there.’ (Hymns, 1985, no. 292.) “It has been said that the Prophet Joseph Smith made no correction to what Sister Snow had written. Therefore, we have a Mother in Heaven. Therefore, [some assume] that we may appropriately pray to her. “Logic and reason would certainly suggest that if we have a Father in Heaven, we have a Mother in Heaven. That doctrine rests well with me. “However, in light of the instruction we have received from the Lord Himself, I regard it as inappropriate for anyone in the Church to pray to our Mother in Heaven. “The Lord Jesus Christ set the pattern for our prayers. In the Sermon on the Mount, He declared: ‘After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.’ (Matt. 6:9; italics added here and in following references.) “When the resurrected Lord appeared to the Nephites and taught them, He said: ‘After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.’ (3 Ne. 13:9.) “While He was among them, He further taught them by example and precept concerning this practice. The record states that ‘He himself also knelt upon the earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him.’ (3 Ne. 17:15.) “Furthermore, He said: ‘Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed.’ (3 Ne. 18:21.) “On another occasion, ‘Jesus departed out of the midst of them, and went a little way off from them and bowed himself to the earth, and he said: “ ‘Father, I thank thee that thou hast given the Holy Ghost unto these whom I have chosen; and it is because of their belief in me that I have chosen them out of the world. “ ‘Father, I pray thee that thou wilt give the Holy Ghost unto all them that shall believe in their words.’ (3 Ne. 19:19–21.) “And so I might continue with other specific instances from the scripture. Search as I have, I find nowhere in the standard works an account where Jesus prayed other than to His Father in Heaven or where He instructed the people to pray other than to His Father in Heaven. “I have looked in vain for any instance where any President of the Church, from Joseph Smith to Ezra Taft Benson, has offered a prayer to ‘our Mother in Heaven.’ “I suppose those … who use this expression and who try to further its use are well-meaning, but they are misguided. The fact that we do not pray to our Mother in Heaven in no way belittles or denigrates her.” http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=956a94bf3938b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

DO they now?!? Funny, in 62 years I've never met one who did.

Short Answer: Those who do are in error. ------------ ------------ Long Answer: Well I have never met a Mormon who angrily nor vehemently denied this doctrine. ----- I have met some members who get angry and vehemently deny some of the implications that are occasionally impossed upon the doctrine of a Heavenly Mother. For example when some attempt to paint it as a picture of lust and baseness "endless Celestial sex" is one of the terms that grates on me. And this for two reasons: 1. Imagine someone was talking about your mother as though she were just a sex object for your father. Would such talk not boil your blood? Such talk objectifies your mother and disgraces your father, and is highly offensive. Now how much more offensive should it be when such talk is about your Father in Heaven and your Mother in Heaven? - 2. To ridicule Latter-day Saints for believing that God is married by using language such as "enldess Celestial sex" propituates the notion that sex is a bad thing, that it is inherantly evil and Heaven could not with stand it. I believe sex is ordained of God when practiced within the bonds of matramony. I believe that it is inherantly good, though like all other good things it has it's twisted and corrupt forms, which are not sanctioned of God. ----- I have also met Mormons who try to dodge the issue. Sometimes it is because they are worried others will attempt to debase or ridicule this doctrine which they hold sacred. Sometimes it is because they feel unequiped to properly discuss it. (They don't know much about it because not much has been revealed. We know less about our Heavenly Mother than we do about the Holy Ghost) Sometimes they dodge because they are worried that the doctrine, because it is so differant to what other churches teach, may scare some away from the church before they get a chance to understand it. Or sometimes they are simply working on gaining a testimony of the doctrine themselves (there is a lot of doctrine in the Church of Jesus Christ of LdS, and we do not learn it all at once, we learn line upon line precept upon precept. Sometimes we need to accept what we don't understand merely because we know what we do understand is true, and wait for the time when God makes those other things manifest to us) ------- Now I said I've never met any Mormons vehmently opposed to the doctrine of our Mother in Heaven. But I am sure that there are atleast a couple who are. As to why they are so opposed I can only guess. Perhaps they were raised in a faith that taught that such a belief would be foolish, and they have trouble letting go of that. Or perhaps they for whatever reason haven't been taught or haven't noticed being taught the doctrine in church, and they suppose that it was just made up by the antagonists of the church. Whatever the reason the doctrine as you have said is "implicit in LDS Theology" so no Mormon ought to be offended by it.

Since this has been bumped anyway, allow me to add my experience to that of those that have already responded. I have also never heard of anyone denying the existence of our Heavenly Mother; in fact, quite the contrary. May I ask which “Mormons” you have heard “angrily and vehemently deny this”? Thanks!

yet another reason that Mormonism is NOT a true branch of Christianity, but rather a cult ...

I have found very few Members of the Church actually take time, during the week, to study the scriptures on a regular basis. And as a result their only exposure to the doctrines of the Church comes from what they learn in Sunday School. So when they are confronted about our doctrines, they do not know how to answer, so they get angry or just say "I don't know." This is not true in all cases, but it does happen quite often...Later

since i am not mormon, i really can't say. why don't you ask a real mormon.