I have read several threads concerning irritable, bad tempered, bad attitudes, ect of some of the temple workers. Is this the norm or the exception? Are they all old as well as crabby?
More often those attending were crabby. There are people of all ages there, but there are more older people on missions. At least one I remember was creepy.
“How can you tell if someone is converted to Jesus Christ?”
For forty-five minutes those in attendance made numerous suggestions in response to this question, and the leader carefully wrote down each answer on a large blackboard. All of the comments were thoughtful and appropriate. But after a time, this great teacher erased everything he had written. Then, acknowledging that all of the comments had been worthwhile and appreciated, he taught a vital principle:
“The best and most clear indicator that we are progressing spiritually and coming unto Christ is the way we treat other people.”
from Ashton talk; The Tongue Can be a Sharp Sword
eta: Would they allow this talk today? would be be REQUIRED to re-tape it? Would Ashton be put of Emeritus Status the Next Day?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2012 02:01PM by guynoirprivateeye.
In my experience nearly every single temple worker fell into two categories: Creepy or Crabby. 99% were in the crabby group. I never understood it then because serving in "the house of the Lord" was supposed to be utterly magnificent right? It was only after I left that I began to feel very sorry for those who felt spritually black mailed into spending hours upon hours everyday on their feet during their golden years. I'm sure when many of them were planning out retirement it didn't include feeling like a Walmart greeter minus the fancy blue vest.
At least Wal-Mart greeters get paid minimum wage. You know, a nice little check, not enough to threaten their social security, but enough that they can buy groceries and medications, with enough left over to set aside for that seniors cruise they really want to take.
where the women weren't total bitches. They'd nitpick at such stupid things as if the bow on your sash wasn't tied perfectly.
When I did baptisms for the dead--they'd get you in an open shower stall after you were done and not give you a towel until you handed them your "jumpsuit." This was very traumatic to me as I have always been over the top modest and where was I taught to be modest? Mormonism. Then they get you in the temple and strip you naked many times.
Like someone else said 99% were either creepy or crabby. The guy they sealed me to over and over again was creepy--the last time i went to the temple. Why they didn't pull my husband aside to do sealings with me is beyond my capability to understand.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2012 11:49AM by cl2.
That never happened in the men's changing rooms. Of course guys in general and Mormon guys specifically are often worried about doing things that might seem gay, like ordering another man to strip in front of him.
I think we've talked about this before but I forgot which temple to said did this.
Was it in SLC? That is where the woman was do demanding that I strip in front of her and put the soaking we suit in a bucket before she would let me have a towel.
I also did dunkings in the Logan temple and it wasn't so bad because I remember the picnic after better than the proxy dead rituals.
One of the bitchy ones rented me a temple dress that was a clingy polyester and 2 sizes too small for me. You might as well have just painted my naked body white for how revealing it was - I was sooo embarrassed. When I went to show the ancient, bitchy lady it didn't fit and ask for a larger size, she just got all snippy and said it "Looked fine to me and this wasn't a fashion show and you need to wear what you are given, young lady." The younger, middle-aged woman who was doing all the running while the bitty ran the counter stopped and said "No it doesn't look right and anyway, it doesn't matter. If she feels it's uncomfortable and immodest, then we need to get her the dress she'll feel comfortable in." The older lady gave me and the nicer lady one hell of a dirty look then marched off, grumbling to help another patron. The nicer lady smiled and got me the dress I wanted, much to my relief.
When you run an assembly line you become a robotic individual who inevitabley sees the constant flow of faces as just that. Unconsciously, they eventually fall into a pattern where their main duty is to maintain an orderly and environment.
You see this same look in the faces at the ticket booth, and at the fastfood counter.
I found them mostly nice, but they like to feel like they are doing something productive so they nitpick. I got in trouble for being efficient when moving my robe to the other shoulder. "you must completely remove the robe" Oh brother. I guess if they wanted us to be efficient, they would have just put it on the correct shoulder to begin with.
Two decades ago I spent several hundred dollars on my wedding dress. I designed it myself and a very talented dressmaker created it. We worked hard to make sure it was modest or "temple standard" so I wouldn't need one of those hideous inserts. It was a lovely dress and it suited me.
At the temple, two temple matrons in the dressing room argued for 5 minutes over my dress. One insisted I'd need an insert over the collar of the dress because it was supposedly immodest. I said, look, we designed it to be temple standard and my garments don't show at all. (I was in my early 30s and knew how to stand up for myself. I was no sweet 19-year-old you could boss around.)
The other temple matron said to this one: "You leave her alone. Her dress is just fine. In fact, its the most modest one here today."
Another time, I went into the Manti temple for a freind's wedding. I was wearing drop earrings that were dressy, but not loud. On our way to the dressing rooms, a temple matron stopped me and told me my earrings were too big and to take them out. I told her politely I fully intended to take them out when I changed into my temple clothes. She stood there, trying to decide whether to continue arguing with me. I just continued walking.
Honestly, they're lucky any one shows up any more to go to the temple. YOu'd think they'd worry about more important things.
Glad I won't be spending my retirement as a temple worker, GAG
A long time ago, I became a part-time "Jehovah" at the veil. On my rookie start, I was met "through the veil" by a very humble man who could not repeat required Maso-Mor(m)onic dialog, not even if doing so might save his life, not even his spiritual life. At least four times I tried unsuccessfully to elicit the correct order of mumbo jumbo from this poor man. I was stumped until I was told by an old mentor, who stood beside me, to bring my petitioner through the veil. A little scolding I got, and was sternly told that it was church policy to insure a happy temple experience for its patrons. How had I messed up I wondered. I was a patron myself but I was not having a good time. I was embarrassed. I even felt guilty, but for what I could not ponder.
I would like to say that with my next petitioner at the veil, I recited portions of "The Three Little Pigs". I think that would have been happy relief, at least for me.
That was my very last Mormon temple trip to the holy veil. I requested name removal years later after I became fully cognizant of the fact that Joseph Smith was a liar.
that patron could have been me, my first time going through. i was only 19, completely unprepared and freaked the F out over what i had just seen and done, and couldn't FOR THE LIFE OF ME work out the wording of the secret phrases at the veil.
unfortunately, my veilmaster had no patience with me at all, and expressed his exasperation continuously throughout the process.
truly, it is the temple experience that started my long process out of that church.
When I was a teenager, our ward made a baptism trip to the Logan temple, the closest one to us at the time. It was my first temple trip like that so I was really excited to go.
I remember NOTHING else about the experience besides the bickering and back biting that went on with the little ladies in the dressing rooms who were helping us get ready. I was so shocked by that.
When I got my endowments and was sealed at the Washington DC temple in 2000, I was left with two terrible memories - one, of course, was the endowment session itself. A terrible experience for me.
The second - how incredibly humorless, grouchy, and bitchy the temple workers were. (Especially the old female ones). One in particular was the haughty lady who ran the clothing/garment shop. She left my wife, a convert of just a year, in tears.
I can honestly say that my first temple experience was the beginning of my conscious exit out...
I have run into a few that I am sure had dementia or some other condition that would explain their unacceptable behavior. Most of the temple workers were decent, in my experience.These are people who herd the masses and do it in a "sober" manner.
When I went the first time, I was so disgusted with the naked-oil-rubdown. The lady doing it even asked me at the end if she had done something to offend me. I must have seemed totally pissed off. I take a little bit of the credit for this horribly invasive practice being changed.
Wedding day: I had a very modest dress, but was still stuffed with dickies. The women working did a great job at making you feel not special...just one of many other brides getting married that day. A couple of them were very rude.
Wedding ceremony: Totally lame. The guy that performed our marriage was a very nice, socially awkward guy. He kept making stupid jokes throughout the whole ceremony. He said several times how pretty I looked and then put me on the spot by saying, "you know you're pretty don't you?". I had no idea how to answer him. DH and I were both just happy to have the whole thing done with.
My wife and I were attending the temple in Provo. For some reason we were selected on our way in to the waiting chapel to be the "witness couple". (this is the designated couple in an endowment ceremony that demonstrates many of the rituals to the whole room and who also performs certain rituals on behalf of the group as a performance).
Anyway, our session goes upstairs and is seated in the endowment room waiting for it to begin, and for some reason the worker decides at the last minute that he has a big problem with my temple shoes. These are the shoes, mind you, that I had worn for nearly 15 years by then without any problem. They were completely white, and though they had laces, they easily slipped on and off.
Anyway I try to mention all of this while he is making a ruckus in front of the whole room, but no, the asshole is insistent that I accompany him to the back of the room while he rustles around in the robe cupboard. He goes through the whole thing but all he can find are a size 13 pair of the rental slip-ons (a little like airline slippers) which are just gigantic on my feet.
So you can just imagine the hilarity because every time I had to stand up and go to the alter I am tripping and losing these huge slip-ons, and the times they stayed on my feet they stuck up 3 or 4 inches from the back of my feet when I knelt at the alter. Humiliating and hilarious! Truly the entire session was struggling not to laugh during the whole time. My wife said she was snickering so much it was the first time she was glad to have the damn veil on. (Thanks alot honey!)
After that experience I became pretty militant about temple workers and had no problem telling them they seemed to be forgetting whose house the temple was supposed to be, and to mind their own damn business. I recall in the Bountiful temple telling a worker lady, who thought our party had spent "enough time" in the celestial room and needed to leave, that we would leave when we decided we were ready or her option was to call the cops.
My opinion is that the temple worker cadre becomes a cult within a cult. For many workers it fills up their lives and they are just immersed in the political dramas of the job and the petty rules and control issues. Temple workers tend to be the culty-est of the culty and are used to control and position and authority.
Just a fancy version of the Hokey Pokey. I used to sing that tune in my head while doing all the shoes on shoes off, right shoulder left shoulder, tie it in a bow. It Helped me remember what was coming next.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/29/2012 05:37PM by Mia.
I suppose that at least for my "wedding" it was good. The temple matron and president were long-time family and my friends, and he performed the ceremony.
I was the ONLY bride that day, and so it was all about me. We were the witness couple, as we had gone through a few days before going to chicago.
The only dissapointment was that I could not wear my dress for the endowment, but of course they let me wear it for the sealing, though it was 3/4 length sleeves and i had to deal with that and the neckline, even though my aunt had made it perfect for the temple.
My uncle took pictures, that is my other regret. It was his first wedding and it sucked, but we didn't have the money to do anything else.
But, I knew everyone there in both the endowment and sealing. Now, I did go to Provo on my first run-through, and that was terrifying. I didn't freak too much for some reason, I had a dear friend with me. I was shocked that I didn't get to sit next to dh though. Needless to say I never ever did washings and annointings, oops, not supposed to call them that.
I have to catch myself not answering the phone to my tbm friend and saying "what is wanted" with a vampire accent....
What u do is call them on their $hit. Just simply say sister Smith ur being a bitch right now and I don't appreciate it thanks. Then go about your business.
Just remember, most of the temple workers are bitter that the choose to be eternal traffic cops in the temple instead of spending their retirement golfing and playing with the grandkids. Most seem to forget that the temple is supposed to be a peaceful place, and they take a death grip on some stupid bearucratic policy.
Makes me think of that line in Beetlejuice where it turns out the people who committed suicide are sentenced to perform public service for eternity in the afterlife. Kind of like being a temple worker in your retirement.
No good deed goes unpunished. If these poor people weren't bitter and hateful before becoming temple workers, I would imagine it doesn't take much time before the whole experience makes them bitter and hateful.
It's like Disney employees. Disney is like a cult employer. You must conform to Disney standards as an employee or they will show you the door. So you have to be happy happy chirpy chirpy all the GD time. About five minutes of that and I'd be grumbling the most hateful vitriol under my breath at every opportunity. The temple workers have all the challenges of being essentially spiritual fast food workers and having to act like Disney employees at the same time... for FREE!