After 38 years of TBMism I'm now an ex-Mo who's philosophically 'christian' and theologically atheist. Anyway, my mom still thinks I'm TBM (trying to decide when to break the news).

My mom is in town and she wanted to go to the Payson temple open house (She has a temple fetish--she's a temple worker--everything is 'temple this, temple that'). I decided to go just to support the family outing and it made for a fun little road-trip.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I tried to go in with an open mind... maybe how I imagine an investigator might go to and Open House.

If you're not familiar with Open Houses, the first thing they have you do is watch a 10 minute video about temples--complete with 'inspiring' music of the 'restoration', brief 'testimonies' of 'living prophets', and the requisite let-me-massage-you-with-my-voice narrator from the endowment audio/visuals.

My reaction? Everything felt SO forced, so fake... not just mildly (and I'm really not trying to be obtuse)... I felt sick. The video had clips of Packer, Holland and Monson--all of whom looked pale, decrepit and ghostly. What they said (with Holland being forcibly sentimental) seemed contrived and ridiculous. The narrator, at one point, said that 'we' go to the temple to learn "love, fidelity and honesty". Really? Thinking back to when I would go to the temple, MAYBE I can see a case for 'fidelity', but 'love' and 'honesty'? I NEVER felt like that those were important themes in the temple.

The tour itself was 'meh'... the design and architecture wasn't all that impressive. There were some beautiful aspects to it, but for the most part I felt like I was touring a factory... not a holy place.

Anyway, just wanted to impart. SO glad to be done with it...

Get yourself a nice clean white handkerchief. You'll need it to say "Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna," waving it clumsily. (One of the strangest Mormon rituals I've ever done.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2015 10:43PM by rationalist01.