Nah, it's because the temple is sacred. The TBMs are dying to tell anyone who will listen about the goofy outfits, getting naked under a poncho, cultish proceedings, and whatnot, but they can't because it's all sacred.
squeebee Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Nah, it's because the temple is sacred. The TBMs > are dying to tell anyone who will listen about the > goofy outfits, getting naked under a poncho, > cultish proceedings, and whatnot, but they can't > because it's all sacred.
One of my wife's TBM friends says she's embarrassed to talk about the church to people. To quote her, "we believe in some weird stuff." And this woman served a mission too. Ha!
I'm embarrassed about the temple--embarrassed I went through it; embarrassed about how silly and goofy it is. I mean really. The temple is too much of a joke to be sacred. If I ever went back to church, I could never stomach the temple. I can't imagine wasting time there. Just mind numbing boredom.
The LDS church should just open up the temples, like the CoC does. Make them real, open, authentically spiritual places. They should be places where people can come and experience some serenity. That's the best the temple experience can aim for. Anything else just screams goofy cult.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2014 10:08PM by derrida.
Serenity in the celestial room: "Move on, now, your minute is up."
The Mormon cult keeps people silent by fear of the wrath of the Priesthood/the Morgod. Or, worse still, threats of social ostracism. In my case, I took a blood oath not to tell!
Original temples in Israel were for teaching and interaction of the men (women not allowed) through classes and discussions, keeping sacred texts in the library for studying, and eventually they were used for sacrifices because everyone doing their own sacrifices at home was getting smelly and unsanitary so the priests did them at the temples where there were the necessary tools, water and altars. Mormons mistake the fonts for cleaning up after sacrifices as proof of baptisms. Wrong!
Mormon temples don't do any of those original things unless you want to stretch that the endowment movie is somehow a teaching moment but, of course, no one ever explains what you are supposed to get out of it. People were never married in temples. People were not baptized in temples. There were no pews nor organs nor women. Mormon temples are a sham and an enormous waste of money IMO. Too bad they are not used to house and feed the homeless and hungry. We could use more of that and less mindless waste of time and energy in temples.
I'm embarrassed I ever believed all that I was told by the Mormon priesthood simply because they told me they had authority. My favorite quote now is from Benjamin Franklin: "Always question authority" and "We are all born ignorant but you have to work hard to stay stupid." I think temples are about working hard to stay stupid.
Sort of - mostly I think they hide stuff because they can't explain it intelligently. There is no intelligent, easy explanation for what goes on in the temple. Mormons think it's because they have super-special knowledge and others won't understand and will laugh.
I found both good and bad in the endowment, but I could just tolerate it. I did find that it made me ashamed to be on a mission. What, I'm tying to convert people just to get them to go through THAT?? Doesn't the rest of it mean anything?
jujubee Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > do you think emberassment is a reason tbms don't > talk about the temple?
Nope... I think, like everything else they don't talk about it because they're told not to talk about it by someone above them on the org chart.
The first rule of TSCC is obedience. The second rule of TSCC is obey the first rule at all times. The Third Rule is if you can't find someone above you to directly tell you what to do, look around and copy everyone else.
They threatened to cut my throat and disembowel me. Isn't that reason enough? I have talked about it after I came to the conclussion it was all false, up until that point, I considered it creepy and sacred. Besides, there aren't that many people that want to know all that stuff.
Plus generally it doesn't give a good impression to let someone know oneself is entangled with such cult rites. Most people would be creeped out (rightly so) by hearing such things.
In the new temple movie the actors are trying too hard in my opinion and it makes the entire film comical. And the person who portrays Jesus sound Australian saying some words
That's the church subtley introducing new doctrine to get around the whole "Lamanite DNA" thing.
Jesus didn't visit the Americas: he visited Australia (where he picked up the cool accent), so the Aborigines are Lehi's real descendants. It makes sense because Australia is a much shorter boat trip from Yemen than Mesoamerica, possibly avoiding the whole death-from-scurvy issue.
The new doctrine has some complications, including the need for up to five Cumorahs, but church leaders are confident that apologists can make it all make sense.
A conspiracy theory is that the church came down hard on Simon Southerton because he had DNA evidence to contradict their new doctrine, before they'd even announced it.