I was driving up to Newport Beach from San Diego on I-5 yesterday. I forgot about the monstrosity the church built in La Jolla. I just looked at this space aged looking temple and laughed and the word Kolob Castle popped into my mind. Then I thought. No way in hell would I ever join a cult that builds stuff like that. I then thought I must have been a bad boy in my previous life to be born into such a thing.

I always thought it was more like an Alien space ship hiding in plain sight, like in Men In Black.

At any moment it might achieve lift off!

My wife, before she was my wife, lived in San Diego. Her friends older brother was a drywaller that worked on that temple. Contractors worked on the temple days and nights. I know for a fact that there are empty beer cans and bras and panties sealed behind some interior temple walls. We still get back to San Diego once a year. We always laugh when we see that temple.

Ah. The hidden secrets of the temple.

I once met a man who said he was summoned in the middle of one stormy night to come post haste with his pressure washing equipment and remove the skin of darkness from the golden Moroni statue resulting from a well aimed lightning strike.

He said he was offered a handsome fee for getting the thing cleaned before anyone noticed the lightning god's mischief.

I have no way to fact check his story but he did get many of the details correct so I am rather inclined to believe him.

Apparently, several temples have been struck by lightening. So I'm not sure they'd try to cover it up, but you never know.

https://www.ldsdaily.com/world/lightning-strike-damages-angel-moroni-statue/

Moroni hides the lighting rod. Since Moroni is made of plastic resin and fiberglass he doesn't hold up to lighting strikes very well. Maybe God is trying to say something.

Maybe it's a metaphor.

Or, Moroni has a pole shoved up his arse.

And from that picture, clearly he’s not wearing anything underneath.

Prior to reading that post I thought the main purpose of the design was to be offensive.

Now I can look at it and think "someone thought it looked nice." I am frequently stuck in traffic right in front of it.

I got picked up at the airport by a Russian Limo driver who took me to the dinner meeting with the company. As we were drovomg bu the temple he explained to me that the building was for "very wealthy people" and "you have to show them your bank account before they let you in." I told him ... yeah I have heard something pretty similarto that. LOL

That is called 'cutting to the chase.' He gave you the facts and nothing but the facts.

If you had no preconceptions about mormon temples, there's a likelihood that you'd be impressed, especially by the bigger one.

But once you know what goes on inside... there are really no words...

And it's apparent from church history that a 'temple' is not necessary for their precious saving, eternal ordinance. They could literally have a traveling circus tent...

But they've hit on a really cool selling point: announcing new temples! And the membership eats it up. And it's literally the only "positive" the leadership can give to their members right now.

Their membership numbers are slipping horrendously in Europe and Mexico; wards, branches, and missions are closing! There are literally ZERO reasons to announce a Russian temple and now a Hungarian temple...except that they help flesh out a long list and it sounds like a 'win' for the church, and the members can keep their chests puffed out.

And who among us isn't harboring a suspicion that there's some financial malarky going on with all these temples?

to the point where the impact of announcing new temples will be virtually nothing.

Back in the day, when the church was full of faith-promoting stories about the sacrifices and difficulties members had to face in traveling long distances to go to a temple--and how their faith and sacrifice was often rewarded in miraculous ways--then each new temple announcement was greeted like a glorious act of mercy and generosity from God.

Now that the temples are as ubiquitous as convenience stores, I'd guess that most Mormons are completely bored by the announcements made each conference. They probably just play along and pretend to be "wowed" by it all. "Oh, wow, man! Eleven new temples. What was it last time? Ten? Nine? Anyway there must be a lot of temples now. Awesome!"

Ten years from now, I predict the announcements will include something like this:

"And the Church is pleased to also announce the building of a new temple adjacent to the Albertson's in the Goober Heights community. This temple will serve the area south of Clear Creek Avenue. This is so that the members residing in areas south of Clear Creek Avenue will no longer have to travel to the temple located next to the Target store situated in an area that is two miles north of Clear Creek Avenue. This is a glorious day for Goober Heights!"

"If you had no preconceptions about mormon temples, there's a likelihood that you'd be impressed, especially by the bigger one."

One need not be an architectural maven to be struck by the humdrum, lowbrow mindset that conceived of most modern LDS temples.

I've only seen it once when my daughter and SIL were stationed there. We entered the grounds and were attacked by giant leeches. Two sister missionaries cheerfully approached and started their spiel. We told them we were already LDS, but they followed behind us, anyway.

Seeing Mormon temples along the highway are kind of like seeing wedding pictures with all those weird bridesmaid dresses—kind of flashy, but they leave you wondering,”What the hell was that?”

Haha! Oh man. I remember going through the Washington DC temple and the whole place has this dated 1970's wedding feel to it. That's what the temple always seemed like to me. A cheap tacky wedding chapel. Lot's of polyester in the temple that's for sure.

I drove by Battlestar Galactica (my pet name for it) many times when I lived down there. Went to a few sessions as well (I was active at the time). The Celestial Room has multiple elevations in it. It's definitely one of the more unique buildings and as I recall was very expensive to build. No doubt this is a 'hey look at me' temple to drive curiosity of the casual driver down the 5. I'll bet ChurchCo thought people would look at it and say to themselves 'gee - I want to find out what this is about'. But I think the publicity campaign has backfired to some degree - as it ages I think it becomes more of an eyesore for the community.

Going to take away a bit of the shock and awe. The towers for the rail line are more interesting to look at while we are stuck in traffic.

If Number 6 and Boomer showed up as missionaries I just might join, even if they are skinjobs...

If you want to get an adverse reaction, tell people that Leah Remini used to worship there.

Was this the mormon temple that had church leaders upset because transit planners were trying to put trolley tracks across its delight some front lawn?

Or was this part of bad revelation I had when I woke up?

Not sure if the church got them to move them, but they are pretty close to the building.

I'm surprised they'd object. I thought the whole point of the location of temples is to put them where traffic passes by so that people would be astounded at their beauty and want to join in hoards. LOL!

OMG, I just saw pictures of that awful monstrosity.