A couple of years ago I taught a lesson in RS (on Mother's Day) on how motherhood is under attack on many fronts, and that we need to be prepared to defend it. I've felt like I should post the quotes that I found -- first a lie that the world tells, and second, the truth to refute that lie as the gospel (the "good news") teaches us.
“The very existence of full-time homemakers was incompatible with the women’s movement....If even 10 percent of American women remain full-time homemakers, this will reinforce traditional views of what women ought to do and encourage other women to become full-time homemakers at least while their children are very young....” Jane J. Mansbridge, “Why We Lost the ERA,” 1986.
“We need to be very alert as to what the (Equal Rights) amendment would do besides what is intended. It is so easy to set about to solve a problem and end up creating yet a greater one.” Elder Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, March 1977
“There is no one perfect way to be a good mother.... What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else."
Elder M. Russell Ballard, "Daughters of God," Ensign, May 2008
“[Housewives] become dependent, passive, childlike; they give up their adult frame of reference to live at the level of food and things.... they are suffering a slow death of mind and spirit.” Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique
“Relief Society helps each sister learn that she is a beloved spirit daughter of Heavenly Father, that she has a divine nature, and that she has the potential to inherit eternal life.” Church Handbook of Instructions
“Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession… The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn’t be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that.” Vivian Gornick, University of Illinois, “The Daily Illini,” April 25, 1981.
"We call upon parents to devote their best efforts to the teaching and rearing of their children in gospel principles which will keep them close to the Church. The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place or fulfill its essential functions in carrying forward this God-given responsibility.” First Presidency letter, Feb. 1999
From a non-partisan group which studied twenty textbooks used in eight thousand college courses: “These books repeatedly suggest that marriage is more a problem than a solution. The potential costs of marriage to adults, particularly women, often receive exaggerated treatment, while the benefits of marriage, both to individuals and society, are downplayed or ignored.”
“Marriage is the shelter where families are created....In marriage all of the worthy yearnings of the human soul, all that is physical and emotional and spiritual, can be fulfilled.” President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
“The institution of marriage is the chief vehicle for the perpetuation of the oppression of women.” Marlene Dixon, professor of sociology, University of Chicago
“I think being married, having families, being faithful, and sacrificing for the gospel is all joyful. It brings true joy in our lives. We need to remember that and emphasize that. Family life is a great blessing to us.” Susan W. Tanner, former Young Women General President
Marriage was “created for a particular purpose: to control women and children.”
Friedrich Engels, co-author with Karl Marx of The Communist Manifesto
“Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children... Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and ... the family is central to the Creator's plan for the eternal destiny of His children....We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.” The Family: A Proclamation to the World
“Man is always and everywhere a blight on the landscape.” John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club
“To feed a starving child is to exacerbate the world population problem” -- Lamont Cole, Professor of Ecology, Cornell University
“The basic doctrinal purpose for the Creation of the earth is to provide for God’s spirit children the continuation of the process of exaltation and eternal life....” Elder M. Russell Ballard “Women of Righteousness,” Ensign April 2002
“We, in the green movement, aspire to a cultural model in which killing a forest will be considered more contemptible and more criminal than the sale of 6-year-old children to Asian brothels.” -- Carl Amery, co-founder of the German Green Party
“God said unto them... subdue it (the earth): and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:28
"Childbearing should be a punishable crime against society, unless the parents hold a government license. ...All potential parents should be required to use contraceptive chemicals, the government issuing antidotes to citizens chosen for childbearing." David Brower, first executive director of the Sierra Club; founder of Friends of the Earth; and founder of the Earth Island Institute.
“We declare that God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.” The Family: A Proclamation to the World
“If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels.” -- Prince Philip, first president of World Wildlife Fund-UK (yes, Queen Elizabeth's husband is a radical environmentalist)
“Remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe..... If you are a mother, you participate with God in His work of creation—not only by providing physical bodies for your children but also by teaching and nurturing them. If you are not a mother now, the creative talents you develop will prepare you for that day, in this life or the next.” President Deiter F. Uchtdorf “Happiness, Your Heritage” Ensign Nov. 2008
“The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines. Population control is the only answer” -- Paul Ehrlich - The Population Bomb (1968)
“For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves.” D&C 104:17
“This workshop, designed for K-12 classroom instructors, examines various approaches to designing and integrating lessons and activities into the classroom that raise awareness of (GLBT) bias and empower students to advocate for change.”
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus of the National Education Association
“We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God's eternal plan....Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” (FPW)
“If the people you live with are happy to see your face, that’s a family” Marlo Thomas, Free to Be... a Family
“The adversary is having a heyday distorting attitudes about gender and roles and about families and individual worth.” Elder M. Russell Ballard “Women of Righteousness”
“The Committee is concerned by the continuing prevalence of sex-role stereotypes and by the reintroduction of such symbols as a Mothers’ Day, which it sees as encouraging women’s traditional roles. It is also concerned whether the introduction of human rights and gender education aimed at countering such stereotyping is being effectively implemented.”
U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
“The ultimate purpose of all we teach is to unite parents and children in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they are happy at home, sealed in an eternal marriage, linked to their generations, and assured of exaltation in the presence of our Heavenly Father.” President Boyd K. Packer Ensign, May 1995