I've read on several sites, including here and on Richard Packham's own site, that temple attendance has been a problem for TSCC for what seems to be years now, and yet more are being built all over the world year after year.

But what happens when temple attendance gets so low that it makes more sense just to close the temple? Does it ever get like that with any temple?

Seeing how the rate of new converts is down to a trickle, I can't really see how building more temples can benefit the church in the long run. Not only that, but some temples are being built closer and closer together, such as with the Meridian Temple, which is less than 20 miles away from the Boise temple.

Is it absurd to believe that the church will be forced to close a few temples or sell off temples in the future due to low attendance? I can't see them really dumping money into a building that's mostly empty for much of the time.

With the endowment ceremony online, surely that's not going to INCREASE interest in the temple for a LOT of Mormon youth.

Half the appeal is the mystery/reverence surrounding the temple. Parents have told kids for over 150 years how awesome and sacred the temple is.

Now Mormon kids will be drawn to the temple videos like a moth to a flame. Watching the temple endowment online will be as common for Mormon kids as watching porn when their parents aren't home.

if the kid could even make it through the first 5 minutes.... gosh I don't think I could make it through the first 5 minutes, the last few times I had gone to the temple I fell asleep!!

Appearance is everything with the Morg and the temples are a symbol and sign of pride for "the brethren" and their followers. They would never close a temple due to low attendance, even if no one was coming.

Ex-CultMember Wrote:
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> Appearance is everything with the Morg and the
> temples are a symbol and sign of pride for "the
> brethren" and their followers. They would never
> close a temple due to low attendance, even if no
> one was coming.

Well, there goes your 10%, folks!

Ugh, this is so wasteful. I hate thinking that family members have been paying for years to empty temples when they needed the money the most.

No, but they will do what they do now, require you to make an appointment, then play games by cutting back general availability without saying what is happening. There is all kinds of manipulative tricks you can use to make a temple that is closed ninety percent of the year, seem like it is always busy. Especially to members who don't live near it.

Watch for them to put up big privacy fences, and gates that don't let you see into the temple parking lot.

Maybe their temple requirements will loosen. Or, they will turn them into chapels, and start selling the original chapels for profit.

You could segment off the better tithe payers by saying that they are the only ones who get to hold regular Sunday services in the temple. Just like the Joe days when they held special services in the Nauvoo temple.

More people would fork out cash, by actually paying tithing or paying 5% extra tithing for the privilege to use the temple as a ward house and let the non-payers stay at the old ward house.

It's brilliant. Increase cash flow and feel elite because you paid more for nothing.

LDS's main cash cow now taken to the next level;

I'm LDS and pay 10% and you are not, so I am better than you.
to
I'm LDS and pay 15%, get to use the temple on Sunday services and am way better than regular LDS and non-LDS.

Talk about an major increase in cash flow.

I suspect that the reason we have new temples being built is that it is a way for the non-profit tithing money to be laundered into the for-profit LDS inc. The for profit LDS inc builds the temples at such a narrow margin that they are able to write off most of the profits but keep the money rolling in for the leadership.

In a nutshell - the non-profit church collects the money and then hands it off to the for profit LDS inc who pays little to no taxes on the transaction so then the GA's get to do with the for-profit money as they see fit.

If there is a way to take advantage of the tax codes and tax-exempt status of the organizations, the mormons have figured it out.

Just my 2cents.

It doesn't take that long for a temple to pay for itself in increased tithing revenues. Having a temple close makes it so the local leadership can turn up the pressure. Call people who have had trouble being regular tithe payers to be temple workers, cleaners, grounds people, anything that requires them to have a recommend. Schedule ward temple nights regularly so it becomes obvious who might not be attending because they don't have a recommend and shame them into paying for one. Just having it there where its something people see all the time (some mini temples are built next to stake centers since they already have the property and then don't have to have more parking space) makes it more in-your-face than when it's 3 hours away.

Once it's paid for there is very little upkeep cost. No taxes, no cleaning or landscaping costs (get the servants to do it), no personnel costs. It's an asset that can be leveraged. It keeps money coming in, no matter how little, that wouldn't otherwise be coming in and always more than what it costs to maintain the thing. And just the fact that they keep building temples, keeps their base (people in the Morridor) content and convinced Zion is growing so that they keep forking the moolah over.

Temples do NOT have to be heavily utilized to accomplish their purpose. Their entire purpose for being is to be the money machine. TSCC would not survive without the temple scheme.

You're right. The only way the church would part with their temples is if the church ceased to exist.

Temples are now largely a PR message.

They are also increasingly ugly, almost without exception. Now the world can see what corporate kiss-asses consider beauty.

The temples are nothing more than guilt-inducing profit centers.

Who cares if you have to make an appointment now in some of the temples because attendance is so low and they don't have enough temple workers to staff it.

I can forsee temple attendance being more heavily stressed, with the veiled threat of losing your eternal family and going to outer darkness becoming less veiled, if you don't pay your tithing to get a recommend.

But the backfire result will be that even in Third World the fear factor won't work, and those countries' members will decide that the family in this world needs the use of their money more than the morg.

I just recently posted this thought on another thread. The church considers temples a primary tool to thwart the power of Satan on earth. I was taught that each temple that is built diminishes Satan's power. So the more the better. They are also a PR tool and money centers as we all know.

If the idea that a temple is a tool against the adversary then there you have it - the church will just keep building and building and building.

They have to keep building them to make sure the self-fulfilling prophecy comes true: "temples will dot the land..."

Morgbots have morgasms every time they announce a new temple in General Conference. And they hang pictures of these temples on the walls of their homes like trophies. They are more like milestones and check marks to the faithful that the work of the "true church" is proceeding as it should. Do they really care if they they are being utilized like they should? Not really.

The temple would be a big hit if the endowment cerimony made breasts and male reproductive organs bigger. People would gladly pay the church money to enter the holy house of the Lord if that was the pay off.

I started a thread on this a while back. Some interesting comments - http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,778318,778318#msg-778318

Thanks for that.

What I wonder is: what other organization would possibly want those buildings and what on earth would they do with them?

I think someone here once suggested that the regular church buildings could be turned into community centers, which seems plausible; but what other function could the temple buildings possibly serve?