Camille Johnson, Relief Society General President, made waves with a talk at the BYU Women’s Conference where she also talked about career, motherhood and following the living prophet. Her address is featured on the official Church instagram. She was born in 1962, earned her bachelor’s degree in 1985, married in 1987, and her law degree in 1989, all before having children – then she had a career as a lawyer with children.
The same account that just months ago quoted Sister J. Anette Dennis, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency when she claimed “There is no other religious organization int he world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.” Thousands of women responded to her claim on instagram as well.
Sister Camille Johnson, the Relief Society General President, earned her undergraduate degree and then went to law school. She married during her time in law school and then had her first child the year after passing the bar. She worked outside the home and raised a family with her working husband. This is commendable and requires a lot of grit and hard work. However, she also called on her audience to heed the living prophets. Is this something she did in her life?
I pursued an education, both undergraduate and a law degree. I was married midway through my legal education. I had my first son the year after I passed the bar. I had babies, and my husband and I loved and nurtured them while we were both working. It was busy, sometimes hectic; we were stretched and sometimes tired. I supported him, and he supported me. Family was, and still is, our top priority. My husband and I sought inspiration in these choices and in the timing. It was what we felt impressed to do. We were trying to let God prevail.
From a financial and professional perspective, it would have made sense to put off having children until I was more established in my career. In letting God prevail, we sometimes do things that others can’t make sense of.
I juggled pregnancy, having babies, nurturing children, carpool, Little League, Church responsibilities, being a supportive spouse, and my professional pursuits. It was a joyful juggle I wouldn’t change. We felt confident in our course because we were letting God prevail.
Being a mother is my highest priority. It is my ultimate joy. That focus is consistent with my diligent pursuit of an education. We are commanded to seek learning—some of which comes in our pursuit of education and much of which comes in our orientation as daughters of God toward motherhood—where we learn to become godlike as we cultivate attributes of love, compassion, and patience.
Whatever our personal circumstances, we are all part of the family of God, members of an earthly family, and preparing to be eternal parents.
Camille N. Johnson, Relief Society General President. BYU Women’s Conference, May 3, 2024
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6g1vn8LGA2/
This is commendable. It is also interesting that she felt confident and free to make these choices which were completely counter to the living prophets counsel of the day. According to her profile on the church website, she was born in 1962, graduated from the University of Utah in 1985, married in 1987, and her law degree in 1989.
Her talk celebrates the fact that her life choices contradict generations of prophetic teaching regarding a woman’s responsibility at home. She gaslights generations of Mormon women who followed prophetic counsel to be home with their children, not realizing that it was an option to ignore prophetic counsel.
She calls on women to “look to reliable sources like living Prophets” and fears that “too many women are looking to unreliable sources” instead of “the best sources — the prophet, the scriptures and the Spirit.” Is this what she did in her own life? She references living prophets, but during her studies and career, what was the living prophets counsel? Women were not told to pursue a career and barely encouraged to get an education, let alone a law degree. No matter the reasons she rationalized in her own life for working despite the counsel of the living prophets of the day, she now counsels women to listen to the living prophets today. The living prophets for decades and generations have told women to be home with their children. Most women in the church did not ignore prophetic counsel, but most women are not the General Relief Society President.
Speaking to thousands of Latter-day Saint women gathered in the Marriott Center on the Brigham Young University campus, and tens of thousands more watching online, President Johnson counseled women to look to reliable sources like living Prophets and the Holy Ghost for answers, establish priorities, cultivate testimonies of foundational truths, and not neglect or dismiss the sacred responsibility of parenthood.
“It is a glorious day to be a woman, a covenant woman, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” said President Johnson.
Her source of optimism is knowing that “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is led by a mighty prophet of God, President Russell M. Nelson, who is the Lord’s mouthpiece on the earth today — not only for members of the Church — but for the whole world,” President Johnson testified.
President Nelson speaks for the Savior whose Church he leads, President Johnson said. “[The Prophet] is pointing us to the Savior who is our source of relief. Jesus Christ is the ultimate source of my optimism.”
President Johnson expressed her fear that too many women are looking to unreliable sources instead of to “the best sources — the prophet, the scriptures and the Spirit.” …
President Johnson said there were times as she was raising three young sons, trying to be a devoted wife, maintaining a law practice and serving in the Church that her scripture study became inconsistent. “But what I learned is that I am far more efficient and effective when I include scripture study in my daily routine. I get more done when I do the things that matter most, first.” …
A woman recently commented on President Johnson’s conviction about the Prophet and wondered how to gain a similar testimony. “I said to my new friend, and I say to all of you — experiment upon their words,” President Johnson responded. …
In 2016, President Johnson and her husband were called to serve as mission leaders in Arequipa, Peru. “Doug and I were giving three years over to Him because we had covenanted in the house of the Lord to sacrifice and consecrate our talents and time and energy to build up His kingdom,” she said.
Upon returning, she planned to practice law for another decade to ensure financial security and spend time with her new grandchildren. Then she was called as Primary general president. Over a year later, she was called as the Relief Society general president.
“Sisters, what if I had stuck with my comfortable narrative?” President Johnson asked. “I would have enjoyed spending more time with my grandchildren and I could have been assured the financial security I don’t presently enjoy. And, I would have missed a soul-searching, stretching and faith-building experience. Uphill? Yes. Worth it? Oh, yes.”
President Johnson testified that “because [the Savior] knows our potential perfectly, He will take us to places we never imagined ourselves.”
‘Let God Prevail’ in Your Life’s Choices and Story, President Johnson Tells Women, May 3, 2024
https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/let-god-prevail-in-your-lifes-choices-and-story-president-johnson-tells-women
What did the living prophets say in the 1980s when Camille Johnson pursued her career and education even after getting married? The leading message and thought in the church was that women should not be working and should stay home and raise children.
Over the pulpit and in classes, men and women were counseled that “numerous divorces can be traced directly to the day when the wife left the home and went out into the world into employment,” from then-President Spencer W. Kimball [in 1977].
And in 1987, then-President Ezra Taft Benson gave a fireside talk for parents entitled “To the Mothers in Zion,” where he counseled, “contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother’s calling is in the home, not in the market place.”
In that talk, President Benson repeatedly discouraged women from working outside the home, says Holbrook, making it “the most important moment in this history that helps explain where we were until the last 10 to 20 years,” she said.
The talk was reprinted as a pamphlet and had immediate, broad-reaching impacts across the globe, Holbrook said.
Deseret News: Mormon women navigate cultural pressures around work, family and faith. Published: Sept 6, 2017, By Sara Israelsen-Hartley
https://www.deseret.com/2017/9/6/20618595/mormon-women-navigate-cultural-pressures-around-work-family-and-faith/
Ezra Taft Benson’s “To the Mothers in Zion” talk was printed as a pamphlet and distributed to women of the church in the same year it was given (1987). To put it into perspective, Camille Johnson was already pursuing her law degree and got married that year. Did she heed the counsel of her living prophet of the day? No, she continued her studies, not stopping to start her family. She only started having children after she passed the bar and was ready to start her career. To be fair, she does mention that it would have been more convenient to start her career before having kids but felt that she should start her family and juggle a career. What exactly were the living prophets counseling at the time? She calls on women to heed the living prophet today, and that his words are true, but did she do the same?
Ezra Taft Benson
Ezra Taft Benson was president of the church from 1985, through 1994. He was the living prophet from the time Camille Johnson was married until he died.
In the beginning, Adam was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow—not Eve. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother’s place is in the home!
I recognize there are voices in our midst which would attempt to convince you that these truths are not applicable to our present-day conditions. If you listen and heed, you will be lured away from your principal obligations.
Beguiling voices in the world cry out for “alternative life-styles” for women. They maintain that some women are better suited for careers than for marriage and motherhood…
It is a misguided idea that a woman should leave the home, where there is a husband and children, to prepare educationally and financially for an unforeseen eventuality. Too often, I fear, even women in the Church use the world as their standard for success and basis for self-worth…
I do not wish to wound any feelings, but all of us are aware of instances of active Latter-day Saint families who are experiencing difficulties with their children because mother is not where she ought to be—in the home…
The seeds of divorce are often sown and the problems of children begin when mother works outside the home. You mothers should carefully count the cost before you decide to share breadwinning responsibilities with your husbands. It is a truism that children need more of mother than of money.
The Honored Place of Woman, President Ezra Taft Benson, General Conference October 1981
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1981/10/the-honored-place-of-woman?lang=eng
The Lord clearly defined the roles of mothers and fathers in providing for and rearing a righteous posterity. In the beginning, Adam—not Eve—was instructed to earn the bread by the sweat of his brow. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a mother’s calling is in the home, not in the marketplace…
In a home where there is an able-bodied husband, he is expected to be the breadwinner. Sometimes we hear of husbands who, because of economic conditions, have lost their jobs and expect their wives to go out of the home and work even though the husband is still capable of providing for his family. In these cases, we urge the husband to do all in his power to allow his wife to remain in the home caring for the children while he continues to provide for his family the best he can, even though the job he is able to secure may not be ideal and family budgeting will have to be tighter.
To the Mothers in Zion, Ezra Taft Benson, Living Prophet, 1987
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual/womens-divine-roles-and-responsibilities/to-the-mothers-in-zion-institute?lang=eng
Bishop H. Burke Peterson
Presiding Bishopric member, H. Burke Peterson called the idea of mothers in the workforce “satanic substitutes for clear thinking.” He said thoughts of it “are counterfeit thoughts that subvert the responsibilities of motherhood.” This was said in General Conference in 1974, when Camille Johnson was 12 and likely still considering what to do with her life.
Earning a few dollars more for luxuries cloaked in the masquerade of necessity—or a so-called opportunity for self-development of talents in the business world, a chance to get away from the mundane responsibilities of the home—these are all satanic substitutes for clear thinking. They are counterfeit thoughts that subvert the responsibilities of motherhood…
Remember, a loving Father in heaven sent some of his own for you to care for. As in the song “To a Child,” children are not a gift to us, but a precious loan, a priceless loan to be returned—returned more valuable than when we received them, understanding more, better prepared to return to him who lent them to us. The charge is ours to increase their worth.
Our Father in heaven would rather have you comfort the scratched arm of a little boy in patched trousers than have a baby-sitter or older sister or brother do the same because you are away working. He would rather have you read stories in the afternoon to a little girl in a faded blue hand-me-down dress than have her entertained by a color TV because you are away working to make the payments. He would rather have a child come home from school to a mother ironing clothes or baking cookies, than to come home to a hired housekeeper because mother is away learning typing or shorthand to improve her job qualifications.
Brothers and sisters, do without if you need to, but don’t do without mother. Mother is more important in the home than money or the things money can buy. Our Father in heaven wants you to be in your home to guide these spirits as no one else can, in spite of material sacrifices that may result. He created you to learn to be a good mother—an eternal mother. It is your first and foremost calling. No baby-sitter, no grandmother, no neighbor, no friend, no Relief Society sister, older brother or sister, or even a loving dad can take your place.
Mother, Catch the Vision of Your Call By Bishop H. Burke Peterson, First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, General Conference April 1974
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1974/04/mother-catch-the-vision-of-your-call?lang=eng
Spencer W. Kimball
President Kimball was president of the church from 1973 until 1985. He was the living prophet all the years when Camille Johnson grew up through adolescence and attended her undergraduate program. He was the living prophet from the time she was 10, all through young women and young adulthood. Was she following his counsel as she applied to law school?
Women are to take care of the family—the Lord has so stated—to be an assistant to the husband, to work with him, but not to earn the living, except in unusual circumstances. Men ought to be men indeed and earn the living under normal circumstances…
Too many mothers work away from home to furnish sweaters and music lessons and trips and fun for their children. Too many women spend their time in socializing, in politicking, in public services when they should be home to teach and train and receive and love their children into security.
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball, Pages 218-219
https://archive.org/details/teachingsofpresi00kimb/page/218/mode/2up
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual/womens-divine-roles-and-responsibilities/to-the-mothers-in-zion-institute?lang=eng
The husband is expected to support his family and only in an emergency should a wife secure outside employment. Her place is in the home, to build the home into a heaven of delight.
Numerous divorces can be traced directly to the day when the wife left the home and went out into the world into employment. Two incomes raise the standard of living beyond its norm. Two spouses working prevent the complete and proper home life, break into the family prayers, create an independence which is not cooperative, causes distortion, limits the family, and frustrates the children already born.
I beg of you, you who could and should be bearing and rearing a family: wives, come home from the typewriter, the laundry, the nursing, come home from the factory, the café. No career approaches in importance that of wife, homemaker, mother—cooking meals, washing dishes, making beds for one’s precious husband and children. Come home, wives, to your husbands. Make home a heaven for them. Come home, wives, to your children, born and unborn. Wrap the motherly cloak about you and, unembarrassed, help in a major role to create the bodies for the immortal souls who anxiously await.
When you have fully complemented your husband in home life and borne the children, growing up full of faith, integrity, responsibility, and goodness, then you have achieved your accomplishment supreme, without peer, and you will be the envy [of all] through time and eternity
Spencer W. Kimball, Living Prophet 1977, Untitled fireside address, San Antonio, Texas, 3 Dec. 1977
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual/womens-divine-roles-and-responsibilities/to-the-mothers-in-zion-institute?lang=eng
David O. McKay
President McKay was the ninth president of the church and the living prophet at the time Camille was born. He was the living prophet since 1951 and until 1970, when Camille would have been 6 and not yet even baptized. His words would have lingered a long time as he was president of the church for 18 years and was often quoted by subsequent living prophets. One of the misattributed quotes of McKay, which he only popularized was that “No other success can compensate for failure in the home.” This quote is in reference to the importance of the role men and especially women have in raising their children.
Motherhood is the greatest potential influence either for good or ill in human life. The mother’s image is the first that stamps itself on the unwritten page of the young child’s mind. It is her caress that first awakens a sense of security; her kiss, the first realization of affection; her sympathy and tenderness, the first assurance that there is love in the world…
Motherhood consists of three principal attributes or qualities: namely, (1) the power to bear, (2) the ability to rear, (3) the gift to love. …
This ability and willingness properly to rear children, the gift to love, and eagerness, yes, longing to express it in soul development, make motherhood the noblest office or calling in the world. She who can paint a masterpiece or write a book that will influence millions deserves the admiration and the plaudits of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters, whose influence will be felt through generations to come, … deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God.
David O. McKay, Living Prophet. Gospel Ideals: Selections from the discourses of David O. McKay, Womanhood and Motherhood, 1953. Pages 452–54
https://archive.org/details/gospelidealssele00mcka/page/452/mode/2up
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual/womens-divine-roles-and-responsibilities/to-the-mothers-in-zion-institute?lang=eng
Authoritative messages about the evils of mothers working had real impact on the lives of LDS women. Because of them, we very well may have lost, to a significant degree, a generation of LDS women in North America developing careers and therefore decreasing their own financial vulnerability. I’m sure we all know middle-aged or older LDS women whose marriages ended and who were left in terrifyingly vulnerable positions, having to try to reenter the workplace after decades of not being in it.
So what I want to know is: how did President Johnson metabolize those messages? How did she live “joyful[ly],” without regret, guilt, and self-recrimination as a working mother in the 1980s and 90s, given these very strong currents telling her that her choices were selfish and would possibly bring calamity on her family?
Again, I’m glad she talked positively about being a working mother. This is a good rhetorical shift. I celebrate a future in which Mormon mothers are less torn up over the work-motherhood issue, when they realize that it’s absolutely valid and righteous to pursue both simultaneously.
But I don’t think we should forget the distance we’ve traveled to get to this moment. As with many other topics pertaining to the church, it just doesn’t help to ignore past reality. Let’s acknowledge the difficulties, the contradictions, and the ways women have had to wrestle with God, conscience, desires, and authority in the face of negative rhetoric from church leaders about working mothers. Let’s acknowledge the fact that so many statements from church leaders in years past emerged in specific cultural contexts and were reflections of their time and people’s limited understandings in that time. Let’s acknowledge progress as women are encouraged to decide for themselves, in concert with their conscience and inspiration, the path and pattern of their lives.
This talk was an important start to President Johnson’s working mother story. But LDS women now are craving to hear the rest of her story, including the messy and difficult parts. The parts where she confronted head-on authoritative rhetoric that critiqued and misunderstood her choices, and where she learned to place primacy on her own inspiration. Now that will be a story I’ll be excited to hear.
Camille Johnson and the Missing Parts of her Working Mother Story, By Caroline, May 5, 2024
https://exponentii.org/blog/camille-johnson-and-the-missing-parts-of-her-working-mother-story/
How can church members acknowledge the messages of these past living prophets and reconcile the example they are given today. This gaslights members into thinking that the choice to work was up to the mother or the family, there wasn’t an understanding tone of allowance for working mothers throughout the church when Camille Johnson was earning her degree and working outside the home. She remains silent on how she reconciled this in her own life, but judging by her current calling, one shouldn’t put too much stock into listening to the living prophets, since she did not and now she’s been the General Primary President and is now the General Relief Society President. By all accounts members of the church would consider her successful in churh duties. If God or the living prophets were displeased with her, this wouldn’t be the case.
How do you reconcile this? Did the church teach you that working outside the home was not the place of a Latter Day-saint woman and mother? Share your thoughts and your story on wasmormon.org.
More reading:
- https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/let-god-prevail-in-your-lifes-choices-and-story-president-johnson-tells-women
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/camille-n-johnson?lang=eng
- https://www.instagram.com/p/C6g1vn8LGA2/
- https://www.instagram.com/camillenjohnson_/
- https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual/womens-divine-roles-and-responsibilities/to-the-mothers-in-zion-institute?lang=eng
- https://exponentii.org/blog/camille-johnson-and-the-missing-parts-of-her-working-mother-story/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20220403004521/https://www.scmlaw.com/scm-welcomes-camille-n-johnson-back-to-the-firm/
- https://www.instagram.com/p/C6q7cjMtPPQ/
- Church Leaders on Power and Authority Broadly Given To Women