Temple Secrecy

[Mormon Red Death]

secret has a weird feeling to it. Cultish, mysterious, etc. Trying to distance ourselves from that.
Which seems like semantics to me.
At face value, the temple is weird and secret and cult-ish. It totally caught me off guard in pre-internet day first visit.

I always non-chalantly say to a newbie right before they go.

Don't worry the blood washes out very easily

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

When at the temple do you go into the little stalls to change or do you just change next to the locker?

I always just change next to the locker, and last time I was there I noticed it made a bunch of people really uncomfortable.

[myboynoah]

My dad tried to prepare me. But it did more harm than good.

It took me a couple of months to be comfortable with the idea, concept and spirit.

I think it would have been easier, honestly, if I would have had exposure to other religions that have more emphasis on ritual observances. A simple attendance at a Catholic service, for example, would probably have made it less traumatic in my mind.

IMO opinion, most of the shock comes as a result of our populist "low" religion. There is very much an informality to our normal worship services, and the concept of ritual dress and action, while very much a part of other religions, was as foreign to me when I first went through as Japanese was at the time.

The fact that my dad kept whispering things to me about this, that or the other the whole time didn't help.

You make a good point. My wife was Catholic, which in many ways helped to prepare her for the ritual and symbolism, as well as all the standing and sitting. She had her reservations, as do most I'm sure, but they weren't that significant. She loves the temple.

[Pheidippides]

You make a good point. My wife was Catholic, which in many ways helped to prepare her for the ritual and symbolism, as well as all the standing and sitting. She had her reservations, as do most I'm sure, but they weren't that significant. She loves the temple.

Very interesting that you say that. My wife, who is not Catholic, grew up in a Catholic community, occasionally attending Catholic services such as funerals and weddings and thereby getting a taste for the ritual. Not surprisingly, she didn't have any awkwardness when she went through (and she was relatively young) and loves the temple as well.

[FMCoug]

Very interesting that you say that. My wife, who is not Catholic, grew up in a Catholic community, occasionally attending Catholic services such as funerals and weddings and thereby getting a taste for the ritual. Not surprisingly, she didn't have any awkwardness when she went through (and she was relatively young) and loves the temple as well.

I had never thought about it but this makes a lot of sense. I didn't find it that strange either. But I grew up Protestant and lived at a Masonic Children'st Home where I was exposed to all kinds of masonry stuff.

[Pheidippides]

I had never thought about it but this makes a lot of sense. I didn't find it that strange either. But I grew up Protestant and lived at a Masonic Children'st Home where I was exposed to all kinds of masonry stuff.

I think it's really less odd to the rest of the world than it us to us. You're essentially taking 19 year old children, mentally immature and raised on simple primary answers from a religion that prides itself on populist and logical (in its own way) thinking, and then throwing them into a ceremony that is ritualized and symbolic. In the space of two hours, you have successfully destroyed everything they thought they knew about worship services. And, what's more, more often than not it has been the very people who raised them on simple primary answers who are now participating in the ritual and symbolic.

For me, it was complete evidence that the world had turned to banana fruitcake. Everything I had ever thought to be stable and true had just evaporated in thin air. What OTHER things had my parents deceived me about?

In a very odd way, this proved to be the basis of my faith. From that moment, I started a process of deconstruction of myself and my beliefs (one that has never stopped, really) and asked myself what I really believed, where my foundation of existence was, etc. I started as simple as "do I believe in a Supreme Being, and, if so, who is that?" and worked my way forward. I am thankful for that experience because, while my religious denomination has not changed, my approach to said religion (and my willingness to think critically about it from within) is far different than it otherwise would be.

[SeattleUte]

We had a big discussion yesterday in priesthood meeting about the Big Love episode. When referring to discussions on the temple, we often hear the phrase "sacred, not secret". That always seemed a tad disingenuous to me, since it really is both. But given last night's event and the advent of the internet, one can certainly make a case that the temple ordinances are not secret. Not anymore. A five-second google search reveals the complete ceremony to the curious. Ironically, the only people to whom the ceremony is a mystery is active LDS who have not gone through the temple yet and who have the self-discipline not to look it up.

The original endowment ceremony was "revealed" by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo right after the saints started dabbling in Masonry. There is no record of a revelation related to the temple ceremony in the traditional sense that we see with the sections in the D&C. It wasn't even written down for many years. The ceremony underwent numerous iterations, with BY and others providing input. The original endowment ceremony lasted up to ten hours. It has evolved significantly over the years, including two substantial revisions in my lifetime.

Early church leaders made no attempt to deny the masonic links. BY called it "true masonry". If one looks at the masonic rituals, the parallels are striking. I have always wondered if the "secrecy" part of our temple tradition is a result of the masonic influences and tradition. Furthermore, it seems to me that much of what has been removed in my lifetime represents some of the more "masonic" elements. I can't help but wonder what changes lie in store for the future. And if we eventually remove ALL masonic elements (signs, tokens, etc.), would there be a need for secrecy anymore?

You're way to sensible. If pressed you'd probably admit that Masons domonstrably have no ancient lineage.

[wuapinmon]

Sure. That's a good response. But look at the language you are using ("I cannot reveal", "bound by my word to not reveal"). You have covenanted with God to keep it secret. Secret vs. sacred is a false dichotomy. It is both. Looking at it another way, 99% of non-LDS would define what you are describing as "secret".

A related question is why do we feel such a need be defensive about the "secrecy" label?

People around where I live call us a "cult." They think that we do all kinds of ghastly stuff in temples. I think, for me at least, the idea that I'm in some kind of "secret combination" makes me defensive about it.

It is a secret....by my language, it is secret; I agree. How about, "It's sacred to me, therefore I keep it secret, even though the secret is readily available online?" Honestly, I think my use of "not secret, sacred" goes back to what I was told when I took at my endowments at 19. I hadn't really thought about the why of what I said until now.

[RobinFinderson]

Can anyone think of a better way to introduce the temple endowment? I was not well prepared for the endowment. It was one shock after another, starting with the introduction, which essentially said this:

You are about to receive your own endowment, or you are here to receive the endowment on behalf of someone who has died. If this is your own endowment, you will make serious promises to keep some things private from the world. If you break these promises there will be eternal consequences, however because of the sacredness of the promises you will not have learned what they are yet. If you aren't ready to make a bunch of promises that have never been fully explained to you, and for which you will be severely punished for breaking or abandoning, now is the time to walk out of the room, in front of the friends and family who have probably all traveled here at some considerable personal expense to experience this glorious day with you. You now have five seconds to choose.

[PaloAltoCougar]

When at the temple do you go into the little stalls to change or do you just change next to the locker?

I always just change next to the locker, and last time I was there I noticed it made a bunch of people really uncomfortable.

I talked to a member of our stake presidency about this a couple of weeks ago. We agreed that if in changing you going the Full Monty, then please, take it into the locker (and these instances would be rare); otherwise, why bother? You're exposing less than you would at a church b-ball game.

On the general topic, it's interesting to read about other's initial experiences. I went through for the first time in '71, after my first day in the SLC Mission Home. Nobody had told me anything about the process. At least back then, in the SLC Temple assembly rooms, there were windows up quite high, and midway through the ceremony I was struck by the thought/fear that my hometown buddies, none of whom were LDS, would somehow look in through the window and ask, "Man, what are you doing?"

I now usually enjoy the experience, and have a lot of interesting thoughts and ideas run through my head. I was helped a lot by two essays on the temple I read years ago that I can no longer find. One was by Hugh Nibley, the other by a classmate, Paul Toscano, neither of whom attend the temple anymore, albeit for different reasons.

[TripletDaddy]

I was way off in what I had envisioned before I went to the temple. Keep in mind that when you grow up in a non-LDS environment, you don't have the benefit of knowing what garments are, temple clothes, etc. In an LDS home, even if you never saw them, you know that they exist.

I started constructing a mental picture of the temple when I was in high school. I based it off verbal snippets, really. Fragments of truths here and there....comments I would hear at Church or in conversations.

To those that are in the know, these comments are all pretty obvious and clear. But to the uninitiated, esp those with no other context, they can be really confusing if left unchecked.

Examples of things I had heard, all of which turned out to be true:

1. You go from room to room
2. You learn a lot each time you go to the temple
3. You get hungry from all the sitting and standing
4. You receive your endowment
5. You do Initiatories
6. Someone told me to note the symbolism of the ceremony, including when the lights in the room get brighter
7. You put names of friends/family on the Temple Roll
8. When you die, you are buried in your temple clothes
9. The ward members volunteer in the temple and the temple workers are all very nice and helpful.

Now, if you take all of that and put it into the head of some teenage kid that has nobody else to explain it to him, you get a slightly skewed expectation.

I honestly thought that you go to the temple to literally "learn" stuff every time. As in, "sit down class, we will now start by reading Chapter 22...." Also, each temple "session" began with some sort of roll. If your name was put on a temple roll, it was like a spiritual gesture of sorts, as in, "well, you couldn't be here, but we marked you as being in attendance." I actually wasn't totally off-base on that one, although largely missed the mark.

I thought that you simply walked around inside, going from room to room, admiring the murals and artwork, much like being in a museum. However, the format was like a huge guided tour, where you go to one room, sit down, listen to the tour guide, then stand up, walk to another room, sit down, etc...hence all the sitting and standing.

The temple workers all stood around and were there to answer any questions you had, all of which could only be discussed in the temple. "So, ok, here is my question.....what color hair did Adam have?" "No problem, son, I can tell you that now that we are both inside the temple!" I was hoping you could go up to anyone and ask them whatever you wanted and you would get the answer, maybe out of some secret book or pamphlet.

I thought that your first time through, you actually received some sort of paper or certificate explaining this endowment. I pictured the endowment to be a financial thing. As in, "sshh...don't tell anyone, but the Church will help you buy a house! Congrats!" (keep in mind, I was only a teen and again, had no parents to explain this to me).

I was expecting special effects or some sort of great pageantry, esp with regards to the lights getting brighter. Not necessarily a light show, but I thought it would start out pitch black and then the house lights would come up very quickly, almost like a concert. "Ladies and Gentlemen....WELCOME TO......THE TEMPLE!" *crowd goes wild*

The concept of temple clothes was foreign to me because I had been to youth baptisms before and saw all the adults wearing white pants, shirt, tie. I didn't get what the big deal was about renting specific ones for the temple, but I did think it would be kind of cool to be buried in all white clothes.

Anyway, clearly I was off base on a lot of my expectations.

I fully plan on sitting my kids down and simply telling them what goes on in the temple, in fairly decent detail, but not word for word, Big Love detail. I will speak generally of the temple until they have their recommends and are ready to go. Then, when the time comes, I will sit them down with my wife and we will chat about what to expect.

When we were married, I remember our sealer pulling us aside and telling us that in the home, it is fine to discuss many aspects of the temple, save a few, specific things. The Church supports the notion that the home can be as sacred as the temple. As such, I have no heartburn about prepping my kids for that time, when the time is appropriate.

As an aside, I was never turned off or freaked out by the temple. I was simply left scratching my head. As in, "ok, I was way off on that one." I love going to the temple and really look forward to it. I hope that my children catch the same fever, but I also want to give them the benefit of preparation that I never received. The temple is meant to be a great experience. No reason why it can't be, even your first time.

[Clark Addison]

Long Quote.

I want to go to that temple.

[UtahDan]

I want to go to that temple.

Lol. My thought too. That sounds interesting.

[FMCoug]

Lol. My thought too. That sounds interesting.

It sure does. The temple as "The Lord's University" analogy is often made. How cool would it be if it was really like that? You go in and there is a list of courses / seminars for that session. You choose what interests you and pick up a syllabus, etc.

[TripletDaddy]

hey, you guys are mocking!

Listen, I didn't have the luxury of being around any sort of temple prep or nomenclature growing up. I had to piece it all together on my own and make some (un)educated guesses.

I admit that I wasn't even close, but what the heck was I supposed to expect?

I didn't have Big Love to help get me ready for my first time through!