I rarely get onto this forum, but I am curious about this new development. My wife went to the JRT last Friday with a friend. It was the first time since the JRT reopened, or perhaps since the film was changed. I don't keep track of this BS anymore. But she did say that it was no longer a movie; it was now more of a SLIDE SHOW [emphasis mine]. My first thought was WTF. She said it cut the total time down to two hours. She also said that you only put your cult robe on once. She didn't really say 'cult' robe, that was just how it entered by brain. I'd appreciate any input to give me further light and knowledge on the subject even though I don't really give a [fill in your favorite expletive].

Ya, I heard it's quite different from the early and mid 2000's when I went through the show. But strange as it sounds I thought the old movie was quite good, it had lovely music, and the acting was actually believable, and the devil was endearing! That's something I'll miss :(
I mean you put for a lot effort to get cleaned up and show up and change your clothes and then there's no movie? no dark lord there to scare you?

Oh well...

I haven't been through since the olden days when it was real entertainment--with the preacher and his little sidekick and Arthur "Big Guy" Carlson as Peter. OK, just kidding. Of the whole however many hours it was there was maybe 5 minutes of entertainment with no popcorn and you had to endure getting felt up at the veil.

But slide show? I'd demand a refund.

They should have had Loni Anderson as Eve and Herb the Salesman and the nerdy news guy could be the other two apostles.

Dr.Johney Fever could be Lucifer.

Nah, you know the mormons would have made Venus Flytrap play Lucifer.

NormaRae Wrote:
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> Nah, you know the mormons would have made Venus
> Flytrap play Lucifer.

Now now. WKRP was on the air about the same time President Kimball was having his visions in the upper room of the temple. The room glowed and a big voice said,"Stop discriminating against black people or the church will lose it's tax exempt status."

"the devil was endearing"

That's too much.

In a good sense.

They are crazy. They need more Razzle Dazzle not less. You can't built up the temple endowment as the most exciting wonderful spiritual off-the-charts experience on the earth and then give people a slide show when they finally get there. From a projector I take it? A spider crawls across the screen. What is next, mimeographed papers with your name of the dead on it? Although I do love the smell of mimeograph. Miss that.

I am so glad I went through when it was still the three ring circus. Peanuts and cotton candy. That is what they need. Some refreshments that match the intellectual level of the ceremony.

You may be into something suggesting refreshments. That's how they get Mormons to attend "Firesides" and other evening entertainments in the cult.

The Correlation Committee has outlawed razzle dazzle.

Seriously, remember the Endowment scene from Big Love. It was almost touching. If whatever the name of that church is would put some effort into it, they could come up with a half way decent worship service.

Done and Done Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They are crazy. They need more Razzle Dazzle not
> less. You can't built up the temple endowment as
> the most exciting wonderful spiritual
> off-the-charts experience on the earth and then
> give people a slide show when they finally get
> there. From a projector I take it? A spider
> crawls across the screen. What is next,
> mimeographed papers with your name of the dead on
> it? Although I do love the smell of mimeograph.
> Miss that.
>
> I am so glad I went through when it was still the
> three ring circus. Peanuts and cotton candy. That
> is what they need. Some refreshments that match
> the intellectual level of the ceremony.

I think the truth is the members hate the endowment. So the church is trying to get rid of it without getting rid of it. I think people would rather have a nice building to spiritually reflect on things. Do a group meditation and then move onto the Celestial room to feel the bliss. People hate memorizing lines and older people with arthritis really hate tying all them sashes and strings.

Make it BETTER!

have a fly crawl across the Lens!

Yes, the church went to a slide show when changes were made to the endowment ceremony. My theory is that the change was made so quickly that there was no time to made a new movie. Plus, dubbing the movie into other languages would have been a factor as well.

IIRC there was also a potentially embarassing problem with one of the principals of the movie, possibly the director.

Finally a home for all those unsold & defective -returned missionary slide projectors from the 60's & 70's!!

Mystery SOLVED!!

GNPE1 Wrote:
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> Finally a home for all those unsold & defective
> -returned missionary slide projectors from the
> 60's & 70's!!
>
> Mystery SOLVED!!

Haha! Had those on my mission. Yeah they can watch Man's Search for Happiness in the temple.

Next they'll just have a Power Point presentation.

No, that's General Conference.

The temple will go full artificial intelligence. There will be no people needed. Everyone's DNA will be scanned and put into the computer and all ordinances will be performed by software. The temples will be virtual reality. There will just be one big super computer housed in a very fancy lit up building.

So now there are filmstrips, with a cassette tape full of beeps to cue to move to the next slide?

So half-way through the session: Please eject cassette tape and insert side B.

Too funny!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2019 01:51PM by messygoop.

Wow - a slide show. That has to increase the boredom level by a factor of 3 or more even with the reduced time to sit there. Only putting on the robe once saves time. It was silly changing the robe from one shoulder to the other. Someone would inevitably struggle with that. It is not close to the pre-1990 endowment session any more. Still and will always continue to be a cult though.

Eric K Wrote:
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> Still and will always continue to be a cult
> though.

Even if they reduce it to waving a hankie and bowing your head and saying, "Yes."

Actually, it may improve the experience!

Movies are hard, and expensive, to modify. And they can easily lose effectiveness when they're seen...far...far...too many times in a row.

Still presentations are easier to change around providing a much greater degree of variety. Patrons don't get use to anticipating the next visual, enactment, or music "over-and-over-again-forever-and-forever-endlessly".

The sound and voices are easier to change-up, especially for different language lengths.

If it always seems a little (maybe a lot) different here and there it can make the experience easier to swallow on a repeated basis.

Great points!

around the year 2050, members will be able to go to the temple wearing shorts and t-shirts. Once inside, they will be able to opt out of the formal presentation and ritual format by simply signing out on a form that confirms that they're familiar with the content and agree (on their own behalf and on behalf of whatever dead person was assigned to them by computer) to what will be called a "deemed ordinance completion" whereby all the physical formalities can be waived.

Then they will be invited to go soak in one of twenty large hot tubs built to look exactly like the baptismal font, where all-you-can-eat finger sandwiches, canapes and soft drinks are available pursuant to payment of a cover charge when entering the hot tub and spa area. While soaking in the tubs that can casually chat and gossip about all the apostles who are members of the Kardashian family. "Did you see what Prophetess Gina K. wore to GC last week? OMG! Her cleavage had cleavage!"

That generation of Mormons will occasionally come across some of the criticisms written on RFM and elsewhere and wonder why we criticized. "The temple is fun! Those old people must have been a cranky bunch!"

Motion pictures became popular in the 1920's. 30 years later the Lord finally figured out how to use this new technology in the endowment.

PowerPoint was released in 1987. 30 years later the Lord figured out how to use this technology in the endowment ceremony.

The civil rights movement gained momentum after the Second World War. 30 years later Mormon God figured out that blacks were people too.

Mormon God...30 years late and in fear of tomorrow.

Let the evil Gentiles be guinea pigs and early adopters. Then give the fully tested product to the Saints.

It’s still as sacred as it ever was.

https://youtu.be/6vI3q2aG9e0

presentation of deep doctrine available ONLY in the confines of the consecrated and set-apart walls of an LDS Temple...

....turns out to be a power point presentation that includes a slide showing a guy named Michael (once mistakenly worshiped as a God by Mormon Prophet #2 (Brigham Young)) saying to Jesus (aka "Jehovah") the following key line: "Jehovah, we will go down."

That alone has to be worth the payment of several thousand dollars a year. But it's not just that. You also get to wear a funny hat.

I don't see why people are so critical of the Mormon temple stuff. Clearly, they are delivering amazing value.

The Church has spent a lot of money replacing the temple movies, twice in the last 5 years. Sterling Van Wagenen produced them, so when it became public that the Church had hired a child Molester to produce the temple videos, they had to go.

https://truthandtransparency.org/news/2019/2/4/director-of-mormon-temple-videos-and-sundance-festival-co-founder-admits-to-child-molestation-in-early-90s

^^ This ^^ is of course the REAL reason. Too many people would protest if the Mormons continued to run Van Wagenen's movies.

I wonder if the director was receiving royalties, every time one of his temple movies was played. Probably not. The cult is too cheap.

Hallmark channel fired Lori Laughlin, and has stopped airing her movies. Same thing. It's all business PR.

Couldn't agree more!

I will add that they just fell ass-backwards into a giant leap forward. As another poster pointed out, they currently - well, the last time I attended, anyway - they were using these white people actors with voice-overs in other languages. I attended sessions in the Taipei and Seoul temples and while it had a fun "Jackie Chan" quality to it, it felt as if the local members might be right in feeling like they were also-rans. On the other hand, filming the godamned thing with Asian actors? film one for the African continent with African actors? Film one with a Chinese actor playing Jehovah? Pi Tie, Jaime & Xian? How do you work that?

That's not very "International" of an "International Church" is it?

But put together a jazzy slide show with live motion mixed with still images with the voice overs makes far more sense than using actors. They could legitimately, effectively, cheaply and quickly do the audio track in all sorts of languages and each one would feel authentic - because it would be. The folk in Bountiful get the exact same experience as the guys in Bengaluru.

Bully for Bixby.