Evidences of Mormon
A compilation and review of the claims made by the Book of Mormon compared against non-apologetic data

What do Mormons believe about the Virgin Mary? - the fact and myth cheat sheet

This is part of the Mormon fact and myth cheat sheet on this website. The main list of Mormon facts and Myths can be found here. This section specifically discusses Mormon belief about the Virgin Mary.

This is a compilation of facts and myths about Mormon beliefs compiled from comments and other resources. I add things to this list as I run into them so this list has more information on it than I have had time to write about in detail. Some of these can be uncommonly random.

Some of these comments may have been collected from someone that is trying to imply that Mormons won't tell you about these things. This is partially accurate simply because we don't actually believe in many of these things. On a similar note, I have pulled some of this information from several "campaigns" which claim that they just want to help us Mormons realize the error of our ways. However, most of these campaigns are not actually targeted to Mormons. They are targeted to those who are not Mormon and may be curious about what we really believe. In war and politics it is known as a "disinformation" campaign and it's used to keep other people in the dark or doubtful of factual information. If these campaigns were intended to target Mormons, they would talk to us directly, instead of referring to Mormons in the third person as "they," and they would use our real teachings to try and convince us of our error.

You may notice that after the first sentence, these descriptions are written in a way so that anyone can quote them if they need to. The disadvantage to this is that there are some things that get repeated in the explanations more than once. It should be noted that this site is not an official source for Mormon doctrine, so if you're going to quote from this site I would recommend that you point out the sources or link back to this page so readers can verify accurate sources for themselves. I have also bolded some things in each statement to help identify the key points.

Speaking of repeating stuff, this introduction is fairly standard on the other fact and myth pages so you can probably skip it on the next one without missing much.

The Mormon Fact and Myth Cheat Sheet

Link to the main Mormon fact and myth page


Mormon belief about the Virgin Mary


"Mormons believe that God had physical sex with Mary":

This is false

This is false.

Mormons believe Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost. Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon state that Christ was conceived this way.[1] Since Latter-day Saints believe that the Holy Ghost is a spirit[2] this is impossible in Mormon doctrine.

"Mormons do not believe that Mary was a virgin":

This is false

This is false.

Mormons believe that Mary was a virgin when she conceived and gave birth to Christ.[3] Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon state this.

"Mormons do not pray to Mary":

This is true

This is true.

Mormons do not pray to Mary and do not view Mary as the intercessor with her son on behalf of those who pray to her. Latter-day saints direct their prayers to God the Father.[4]

"Mormons do not believe in the Immaculate Conception":

This is true

This is true.

The Immaculate Conception is the belief that Mary was kept free from the Original Sin of Adam. Latter-day saints believe that all of mankind, including Mary, are responsible for their own sins and not for Adam's, any of their parents, or anyone else's sins.[5] Thus, Mary is already free from the Original Sin in LDS doctrine.

References

1 -
Latter-day Saints believe that Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy GhostShow

2 -
Latter-day saints believe the Holy Ghost is a spiritShow

3 -
Latter-day saints believe that Mary was a virgin when she conceived and gave birth to the SaviorShow

4 -
Latter-day saints direct their prayers to God the Father in the name of Jesus ChristShow

5 -
Latter-day saints believe that children are not born guilty of the Original SinShow