Posted by:
Ex-Lamanite
(
)
Date: May 11, 2012 02:50AM
My first experience was mixed.
Some of my relatives are born again Christians, so I had received a fair amount of anti-Mormon exposure prior to attending the temple for the first time. For example, I once heard a formerly Mormon, born again Christian woman testify that she was forced to get naked in the LDS temple on her wedding day. Along those same lines, a Christian man once told me that Mormons made a pact with the devil in the temple.
When I first attended the temple, I felt somewhat smug that I would finally disprove all the anti-Mormon propoganda. However, when I arrived at the washing and annointing, I was utterly shocked when the temple worker handed me a white polyester poncho and said, "Please remove all your clothing, including your underwear, and then put on this shield."
With my mouth gaping in disbelief, I said, "What?"
He looked somewhat irritated as he repeated his instruction: "Please remove all your clothes, including your underwear." Then he walked away.
When I went to my assigned locker, I sat for a long time and wondered if the temple worker had presented me with some kind of bizarre test of faith. Did he really want me to remove all my clothing? Was it possible that the woman from the anti-Mormon crusade had actually told the truth about her wedding day? I must have agonized over these questions a little too long because the temple worker returned and instructed me to hurry. I ventured one last attempt at modesty, "Are you sure I can't just leave my underwear on?"
"No," he said with a tone of finality, "You must remove all your clothing and then put on your shield."
Finally, I complied, but felt embarrassed and mortified.
When I opened the locker door, I stepped into the dressing room wearing only the white polyester shield. In those days, the sides were open, so the back flap tended to lift as I walked, exposing my nakedness for anyone to see. I was horrified! I gathered the loose ends of the shield into my hands and wrapped them around my body.
And then the actual washing and annointing began. I could not believe that the church allowed - required - these old men to touch my naked arms, breast, legs, and "loins" as they annointed me to become a priest and king in the afterlife. In fairness, they didn't actually touch my "loins," but they did touch my naked hips as they pronounced the blessing upon my loins to be "fruitful and replenish the earth." It seemed just too bizarre!
I was relieved to escape the washing and annointing.
When the endowment started, I realized that some of what I heard from my born again family members was actually true. I began to worry that the whole thing was true - that I really had been deceived by the Mormons. And then when Lucifer appeared in the temple ceremony, my heart sank. The whole time Lucifer was depicted on the screen, I literally trembled in fear that the church was about to force me to make a pact with the devil, just as my family's preacher had once warned.
In the temple ceremony, Peter eventually commands Lucifer to depart. There is no oath to Satan as my born again relatives had predicted. I cannot tell you how relieved I felt when Lucifer was cast out! I went into the Celestial Room with a feeling of exhaustion and relief.
And here's a somewhat nuanced point that sometimes gets overlooked. As my experience shows, Evangelicals sometimes exaggerate their claims against the church, and because they stretch the truth, I believe I stayed in the church MANY more years than necessary. Even though part of their claims turned out to be true, the fact that someone lied about the oath to Satan allowed me to dismiss born again Christians as dishonest and misleading. It laid the groundwork for me to believe the LDS Church when they later said, "See? They lied about our temple ceremonies, so that proves that they are being influenced by Satan to persecute us."
In hindsight, I think if my relatives had been more up-front and factual with me, my temple experience would have confirmed their words and I would have left the church much sooner.
Also, I think I would have left the church sooner if I had experienced the penalties.