It is a nation of 1 billion people.There are at the most 8000 members of the church on record.I dont think any more than 50% of them are fully committed and active in their church devotion.

What is the motivation for building a temple there?My opinion is that they would like to get a foot hold and be able to compete with existing religions and show they are just as great as any of them.Another reason is that members there do not have to travel to wherever to attend a temple.Another reason is to just how mighty they are as a church.They might feel peeved that dont have the inroads to compete with Hinduism etc in that country.The church has planted temples right in the middle of New York city and Philadephia to establish themselves in a predominantly non Mormon environment to send a message to say we belong here too.The same thing was done in Rome.

Who has theories of why India is an appropriate pl ce to build a Mormon temple?Maybe they just want to show they are as mighty as any of the established religions there.There was a time between 1880 to 90 that temple marriage ceremonies were performed on ships outside of the territory of American anti polygamy laws.Why cant they just perform temple activites in a special area of a chapel seta side for that purpose?

They want to show the members that Mormonism is a significant religion. A temple in India is more effective in that sense than another one in rural Idaho.

Some company has to build the church I suppose so I guess it means jobs for the local people. I would also make it a requirement that a rich country like the USA needs to send a few million $ to India for various building projects.
Come on. You guys are rich. Give us some of that money?

~~~~iceman9090

Because it couldn't afford to buy one.

Ironic in that Christianity has been in India since the 1st century. Thomas the apostle's tomb is in the St. Thomas Cathedral in Chennai (Madras.) In the 1500s Jesuits made inroads into colonial enclaves like Goa.

Brigham taught that sealings for the living did not require a temple. Almost none of Joseph's sealings were done in a temple.

In the 60s there was speculation the each Stake Center would have a room where the living could be endowed and sealed. I think this was about the time the endowment was switching to a movie vs a play.

In China the church is building a multi use meeting center where some temple ordinances can be performed.

Brigham said a temple is required to perform ordinances for the dead.

As far as a temple in India I think it is for several reasons. First being money. Putting overseas money to work for the church in the countries or areas it is raised. The church gets huge profits by having church owned companies build temples. Funneling tithing into for profit church companies.
Second is image. Look we are in India!
Third pressure on expats overseas. Keep them temple recommend worthy. Including paying tithing.

Indians are dying to become mormons.

Wait! Are we sure Rusty didn't confuse Indians with Lamanites?
Maybe he meant to say Indiana and said India instead?

It increases their property value base.

It helps the membership with the perception that CoJCoLDS is a growing, international church. It provides for Mormon tourism. And it gives the church a place to park their money because it seems to hardly ever dawn on church leaders to use it for charitable purposes.

Having said that, if you know anything about India, then you know that in terms of culture, it is highly resistant to both Christianity and Mormonism. And in terms of numbers of Mormons, there is no way that a temple can be justified there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2020 12:42PM by summer.

It will be the only temple in India that requires a permission slip from your church leaders to go in.

YEP