So I extended the olive branch to my wife and met her and our three children at the open house of the Atlanta temple. Here are my thoughts:

1) I felt like I was in prison and had dropped the soap...so like a good little _ _ _ _ _ I took it and let my mind drift off somewhere else.

2) The sense of desperate anxiety by the hosts and members was palpable. "Please don't think I'm weird, we're just normal xtians..."

3) There were almost more temple ushers and helpers than people taking the tour.

4) The crowd was easily 95% LDS.

5) There was no rhyme or reason to the order in which we toured the rooms. I was struck by how small the endowment rooms were (only about 36 capacity).

6) Nothing was said of the annointings and washings. When I (rather loudly) asked what these little curtain rooms were by the dressing rooms, I got some choice looks from the faithful who thought I was a member and had just broken some unspoken rule.

7) The architecture of the temple from the outside is very dated and utilitarian looking. On the inside, I felt like I was in a nice hotel, not a place of worship.

8) They wouldn't let me keep the plastic booties they slipped over my shoes. Bummer.

Just go home and take a shower. I'm sure that icky feeling will wash off.

I noticed the endowment room was rather small with less seats. They are noticing that the amount of people are just not there for the sessions so take away seats and it will seem like a full house. The chendelier in the sealing rooms and especially the celestial room were way overdone. The money spent on those was rediculous. I see where tithing money is spent. Like anonforthis said, it did feel like a hotel. Very compact, no flow and definately not the same feeling you got when you came previously before it was redone. I was expecting something a lot different and was somewhat disappointed.

I was half expecting a bellhop to ask for my bags. Reminded me of the Biltmore Hotel...

I've been to a couple McTemple open houses, and "ditto" to everything you said.

Mormons are the majority, and they are proud. To most nomo's, it's "okay, whatever."

Since they can't/don't talk about what goes on, it's really just a tour through a building most "Christians" would find superfluous and/or incongruous to typical Christianity.

And the CIA-looking security guards posted throughout gave me the creeps.

I actually felt sorry for the enlisted 14-ish year old girls that were the booty installers. I thought it demeaning, but they seemed happy to do it.

My mother talked me into going with her to a temple open house at the Provo? temple when I was in college. It was so impressive that I don't even remember which temple it was. We were visitng an aunt in Pleasant Grove so it had to be near there.The only memory I have is standing line and noticing that the rooms were roped off. I do not remember a single detail or room. I must have been really impressed. I think I made the comment that it reminded me of a hotel.

The poor tour guides and guards were nervous wrecks, seemingly afraid someone would think they were weird. That in itself is weird, isn't it?

I also heard them grumbling to each other behind their hands about certain other tour participants who asked rude questions or smirked. They need to find guides with thicker skin if they're going to act like such dips.