Review: Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism, by Taylor G. Petrey

Abstract

Taylor G. Petrey’s book, Tabernacles of Clay, makes an original contribution to Mormon Studies and the study of sexuality and gender. His theoretical and interpretive framework, along with his meticulous movement through fundamental historical moments, doctrines, practices, and responses of the Church of Latter-day Saints to social movements impacting sexuality, race, and gender will be influential for years to come. He places Mormon attitudes, practices, and teaching about sexuality and race in historical context both in Mormonism and national politics and social life. Notably, he helps us see the consequences of the Mormon belief in continuous revelation.I salute Petrey's use of queer theory, which is unusual in Mormon Studies. I was intrigued as soon as he laid out his course of action and was pleased that rather than being an add-on, the theme of fluidity and malleability is woven deeply into the narrative he creates. He is deft in the way he pulls this off, pulling us along gently with a particularly effective reiteration of what he has accomplished at the end of each chapter.Tabernacles of Clay traces the series of national movements that impacted women’s rights, racial categories, gay individuals, and the Mormon response to them. Petrey’s thesis is that “church leaders pitted themselves against these movements by offering competing theories of the nature of sexuality and sexual difference” (1). Their response, which became embedded in official rhetoric communicated from the stand as well as through church publications, dictated and interpreted “sexual purity, gender roles, and marriage; the deployment of psychological approaches to ‘cure’ homosexuality; and political activism against equal rights for women and same-sex marriage” (1).As Petrey states, the value of this book is that it is “a profoundly useful example of a conservative religious response to shifting cultural values that can provide larger insight about religious engagement with change and the history of sexuality” (2). His principal goal is “to provide an explanation for Mormon accounts of the nature of gender, sexuality, and race” (15), relying on concepts that queer theory captures best. “Mormon leaders have often taught that the differences between male and female are malleable and contingent, and so they must be guarded with strict social, ecclesiastical, and legal norms and sanctions” (2).The example of the LDS fight against the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and feminism more broadly, highlights the importance of this book. My own volume, Pedestals and Podiums: Utah Women, Religious Authority & Equal Rights (2016), argues that the church leadership’s opposition reflected internal debate over the meaning of the difference between men and women as preached in General Conference addresses, local meetings, and in official church directives. Petrey’s original twist points to a belief within the church that meaning and inherent differences were fluid, suggesting that this was at the heart of the opposition to the ERA, feminism, and the women’s movement. The belief that these movements could change the God-created difference and that they were fluid enough to be changed by opposing rhetoric was of great concern. A conviction that differences were not absolute, but rather somewhat fluid or changeable—even though God-given—justified mobilizing the church’s human power to wage war against the ERA.Petrey effectively, subtly, and impressively finds his way back to queer theory’s emphasis on fluidity, taking us through the history of the LDS Church’s response to social movements that have affected the understanding of sexuality and gender. He focuses on the body of ecclesiastical teachings and practices, the new institutions and the forces that inspired them, and the church’s “sociopolitical interventions,” including the fight against the ERA and the efforts to ban same-sex marriage. I found the section on the LDS Church’s efforts to strengthen patriarchal leadership particularly insightful and convincing, having observed firsthand the actions of a generation of women attempting to set things right in their own lives.Those who pay attention to historiography will remember what we considered breakout books—the first serious book to take on polygamy, or the ones that asked difficult questions about sacred doctrines or persons. Tabernacles of Clay is a breakout book, a very modern book in its attention to theory and to sociological approaches to the study of gender, race, and sexuality. But it also has subtle insider knowledge that brings life to the interpretation. More importantly, this book will undoubtedly encourage others to tackle the thorny issues it raises. Petrey models how to do it.