Here is the comment, I laughed loudly when I read it:
I have some very serious issues with the temple ceremony and haven’t been back for years. However, I did hear an interpretation of the veil portion of the ceremony from a trusted and revered Institute teacher that made me feel a little bit better about veiling my face.
Veils have a strong symbolic significance within the Gospel. We are told that the Jewish Tabernacle was built to exacting specifications revealed by God. Those specifications demanded that there be three thick veils within the tabernacle. The veils were used to hide sacred items from those who would defile them; from those who were not worthy to see, handle or partake of them.
Those who entered the tabernacle first passed through a veil into the outer court wherein there was an alter and a laver of brass (for the washing of hands and feet). To move into the second room, or Holy Place which housed the shewbread and golden candlestick, the priest had to once again pass through another veil. Finally, to pass into the most sacred room, the Holy of Holies which housed the Ark of the Covenant, the priest had to part a third veil. The holy of holies was God’s special dwelling place and no ordinary person could enter. Three veils hid that room and the sacred Ark of the Covenant.
The word “veil” in Hebrew means a screen, divider or separator that hides. What were these veils hiding? Things of a most sacred nature.
To further illustrate the idea that sacred things are hidden by veils, my teacher went on to say that the womb is one of the most sacred places in the universe, for it is the place where human life begins. This special place deserves our deepest respect for the womb is the place where our Savior began his mortal experience. The womb, because of its sacredness is hidden or veiled by the hymen. No one but the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies within the tabernacle. The symbolism follows that no one but the husband should pass through his wife’s hymen.
My teacher intimated that women, who have been given the womb as part of their sacred trust to cradle our Heavenly Parent’s children as they enter this world, are veiled out of respect for their sacred roles. This is not to say that women are essentially wombs and nothing more, (I hope not, for I haven’t been blessed with children) but that they have been granted the opportunity to participate in one of the most sacred and glorious experiences known to the human race. The veil, he said, is a sign of deep respect.
So, it all comes down to the hymen! Don't I feel silly now for being offended when I watched my mother veil her face.
The lengths some Mormons can go to in order to justify something as disgusting as women being required to cover their faces, bow their heads and say yes to the men just boggles the mind.
"The veils were used to hide sacred items from those who would defile them; from those who were not worthy to see, handle or partake of them."
So the institute teacher told her that women veil their faces in the temple because women are not worthy to see, handle or partake of sacred things that men are worthy of, and that made her feel better about the whole thing?
And I won't even touch the comment about teaching young girls that only a high priest should be able to penetrate them. These girls don't stand a chance of having healthy sex lives...
I rather believe it was meant to be a symbol of the shame of women because of "Eve's trangression." This is an old trope, part of the inherent misogyny pervading all Abrahamic faiths.
I just love it when the faithful or the wavering make stuff up out of thin air and triangulate an explanation out of unrelated nonsense to massage their bruised lie detectors.
Something doesn't make sense? Something bothering you? On the verge of detecting a lie? Quick! Make something up to make it all safe and well in your private Zion . . .
The Moslems believe that a martyrs 72 virgins will be re-virginized, forever and ever, in paradise by having their hymens miraculously re-grown. This teaching isn't THAT weird, but it's still pretty...weird.
Yeah, my Jewish friends say that, historically, the veil has to do with Eve. Doesn't make it any less sexist, but it's a whole lot less convoluted and trumped-up.
Yeah, because Mormon women are treated so sacredly when denied all access to the church's power and money, when told to obey their husbands, when kept out of the priesthood.
First of all, like Mormons know anything correct about the tabernacle or about Judaism.
Secondly, if Joseph Smith himself were here, the only thing he would be able to say is something like, "I don't know. Seemed like a good idea."
Thirdly, the last people to consult about Mormon questions are the Mormons. They know absolutely nothing about their own religion. I always am so embarrassed for them.
Woman was responsible for tempting man, resulting in the Fall. Her punishment was to birth children in pain.
That's how God saw the uterus, according to the Bible, but when did Biblical information ever matter to a Mormon apologist.
The veil is there to give women reduced access to the sacred holy or holies. Nobody speaks when wearing a veil.
It is not a symbol of great respect, but rather a shameful one, an acknowledgment that males may enter the presence of the Lord with a naked face, but not females.
Cinnamint Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Yep. I remember feeling so sad that the heaveny > father I "knew" and loved didn't want to see my > face. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" I feel like that a LOT! My friends tell me to read the Bible and pray and I will find faith and peace. So I keep on trying to read it, but it just makes me feel hurt and p!$$€d! I'm supposed to love, serve, and worship a god who not only doesn't like me, but has an active contempt for me because of the way HE MADE ME!? What's wrong with this picture?
And when I pray, it's like, "You know what, Lord? If the Bible is true and you are for real, YOU DON'T PLAY FAIR!"
My thoughts too! So to the mormon church, a woman or her face is nothing more than a virginal vagina? But instead of an enlarged prostate I would have said the bakers hat was to symbolized the head on a penis...so priesthood holders are just big dicks?
In most Christian churches that remained the rule until the 1960s. Recently, I had a hat on (as I was carrying something) and the pastor objected (I being a man and Paul wrote that a man is NOT to have his head covered when praying). I replied that I was not praying at the moment. I think the rule at ball games and when saluting the flag that men remove their hats is from the same reasoning. Women don't need to take their hats off.
Covering your head and covering your face are not the same thing.
The face mask that athlete wear for protection is as close as most men get to having to cover their faces (oh and maybe beekeepers).
I have been told so many reasons why women must cover their faces in the temple and none of them made me celebrate my womanhood.
Getting rid of that veil made me feel so much lighter. The only thing that felt close to that good was realizing that if there was no God, there was no Satan. In both cases, it felt like walking from the darkness into the light.