USA Today on Mormons, Mitt, and Racism

[scottie]

I am not looking forward to the awkward conversations that are headed our way re: race and who knows what other issues as the Romney campaign goes forward. But I am hopeful that Romney's run will bring forth an official LDS apology for what I believe was a racist policy.

Is anyone else besides me waiting for a major news outlet to really dig deep into what goes on in the temple? Stuff like temple clothing and rituals/signs/tokens are on the Web already (and mostly accurate); can you imagine USA Today publishing that info with pictures, etc?

[Sleeping in EQ]

Is anyone else besides me waiting for a major news outlet to really dig deep into what goes on in the temple? Stuff like temple clothing and rituals/signs/tokens are on the Web already (and mostly accurate); can you imagine USA Today publishing that info with pictures, etc?

I expect that it will happen.

[scottie]

I expect that it will happen.

And how will the reaction not be, "This Romney dude is kind of crazy"?

[jay santos]

I expect that it will happen.

Interesting, I don't see that happening. People seem to respect what we do in the temple enough to leave it alone. I expect some rough treatment, but not necessarily that.

[Uncle Ted]

The attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time. The prophets of the Lord have made several statements as to the operation of the principle. President Brigham Young said: "Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the holy priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the holy priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to."

http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmormon/FP.html

I wonder how the First Presidency of 1949 explained Elijah Abel. So was the commandment from the Lord received sometime after Elijah Abel received the priesthood? Or was the whole "direct commandment from the Lord" a lie?

[Moliere]

Is anyone else besides me waiting for a major news outlet to really dig deep into what goes on in the temple? Stuff like temple clothing and rituals/signs/tokens are on the Web already (and mostly accurate); can you imagine USA Today publishing that info with pictures, etc?

I'm not convinced a major news outlet will do it. I also doubt the top levels of the Obama administration will try and smear the Mormons. I think Harry Reid would have something to say about that if they go too far. I don't think it would look good for a political party to smear the religion of one of its top leaders.

I do expect it from some of the blogs or more prominent, but independent, news sources. I also expect a lot of it on Facebook. I've already seen pictures of garments posted by MJ's cousin (he turned atheist a couple years ago and incessantly posts about his hatred for Mormonism) and it wouldn't surprise me to see temple clothing and other things to circulate.

[pellegrino]

I wonder how the First Presidency of 1949 explained Elijah Abel. So was the commandment from the Lord received sometime after Elijah Abel received the priesthood? Or was the whole "direct commandment from the Lord" a lie?

It probably wasn't a bald faced lie. They probably took BY's comments on it as definitive and seeing as how Joseph Smith never really said much on the matter, Elijah Abel could apparently be explained away. In short, their cultural experience confirmed what information they had from the 19th century so they thought nothing of it.

[ERCougar]

Here is the apology from Bob Jones, by the way. I have no love for them but this is a well crafted statement:

This is a great statement.

I worked with a nurse in residence who graduated from BJU (ha). She was still fairly conservative, but nothing like she had been, and we used to swap funny stories from our respective colleges. I'll spare the details, but let's just say that their honor code makes our look downright licentious.

[RC Vikings]

Is anyone else besides me waiting for a major news outlet to really dig deep into what goes on in the temple? Stuff like temple clothing and rituals/signs/tokens are on the Web already (and mostly accurate); can you imagine USA Today publishing that info with pictures, etc?

I'm not sure most members are ready for all the scrutiny a Romney win will bring. Also I wonder how a Romney win would affect the missionary work.

[ERCougar]

Is anyone else besides me waiting for a major news outlet to really dig deep into what goes on in the temple? Stuff like temple clothing and rituals/signs/tokens are on the Web already (and mostly accurate); can you imagine USA Today publishing that info with pictures, etc?

Didn't Big Love already go there? I've never watched it, but I remember hearing that they had recreated the temple ceremony to some extent.

[Shaka]

Most of the secret/sacred LDS stuff can be found online. The cat has been out of the bag for several years.

A couple of years ago one of the news or history channels did a doc on Masonry. The Masons wisely chose to cooperate and get out in front of the issue because the latest Dan Brown book, which featured Masonry prominently, was coming out. The doc showed the secret rituals of Masonry with commentary by Masonic leaders. This cooperation allowed the Masons to control the release of information and the public interpretation of that information instead of letting a third party release the rituals while applying their own spin. As far as I can tell the strategy worked well.

The LDS Church should consider similar tactics. If they information is going to come out in a more public way than it already has, they might as well be the ones controlling how it's presented.

[Moliere]

Most of the secret/sacred LDS stuff can be found online. The cat has been out of the bag for several years.

A couple of years ago one of the news or history channels did a doc on Masonry. The Masons wisely chose to cooperate and get out in front of the issue because the latest Dan Brown book, which featured Masonry prominently, was coming out. The doc showed the secret rituals of Masonry with commentary by Masonic leaders. This cooperation allowed the Masons to control the release of information and the public interpretation of that information instead of letting a third party release the rituals while applying their own spin. As far as I can tell the strategy worked well.

The LDS Church should consider similar tactics. If they information is going to come out in a more public way than it already has, they might as well be the ones controlling how it's presented.

In all honesty, how much of the temple ritual is not to be discussed outside the temple? If you get technical (meaning only the stuff that is covenanted not to share), it's really on 1% of the whole thing. Everything else is not discussed just because it is weird sacred. Maybe shedding some light on it will be a good thing and I agree the best way would be for the church to initially control that release.

[jay santos]

I'm not convinced a major news outlet will do it. I also doubt the top levels of the Obama administration will try and smear the Mormons. I think Harry Reid would have something to say about that if they go too far. I don't think it would look good for a political party to smear the religion of one of its top leaders.

I do expect it from some of the blogs or more prominent, but independent, news sources. I also expect a lot of it on Facebook. I've already seen pictures of garments posted by MJ's cousin (he turned atheist a couple years ago and incessantly posts about his hatred for Mormonism) and it wouldn't surprise me to see temple clothing and other things to circulate.

Yep. We have 100M news people right now in the US. Anyone with internet access and an opinion. There will be all kinds of exposes on Mormonism. The Time magazines and USA Todays will keep it respectful but I'm sure there will be some brutal blogs and op-eds that make the rounds.

[pellegrino]

In all honesty, how much of the temple ritual is not to be discussed outside the temple? If you get technical (meaning only the stuff that is covenanted not to share), it's really on 1% of the whole thing. Everything else is not discussed just because it is weird sacred. Maybe shedding some light on it will be a good thing and I agree the best way would be for the church to initially control that release.

I'm telling yall, there is no way in Hell that the church does anything of this sort. The primary reason is that if they do then church members will figure that it's ok to talk about the temple outside of the temple and that

there is a huge difference between how the masonic ceremonies and the mormon ceremonies are perceived by their respective participants. The masons don't really believe that it's sacred, or that it has anything to do with eternal life. It's a vehicle for communicating knowledge and information. Unfortunately the way it has evolved in LDS circles is that it is divinely inspired, essential for salvation, and that the penalty for speaking about any aspect of it outside of the temple could be the loss of salvation.

It would be great PR for the church to take the lead and discuss the ceremony before it gets dragged through the mud by the press (it will happen) but I don't think the Q15 have the cajones to do something that bold, for fear it will alienate their own base. It's easier and much more self righteous to just ignore it.

[jay santos]

In all honesty, how much of the temple ritual is not to be discussed outside the temple? If you get technical (meaning only the stuff that is covenanted not to share), it's really on 1% of the whole thing. Everything else is not discussed just because it is weird sacred. Maybe shedding some light on it will be a good thing and I agree the best way would be for the church to initially control that release.

This is a great idea. As far as I know, basically everything can be discussed except for the exact language and symbols related to the covenants. It would be a good idea for the church to introduce the temple ceremony in a fairly detailed way. In a way it would help make those specific language and symbols more sacred and reverent because we're identifying exactly what part of the temple is meant to be sacred.

Everyone gets that Jews couldn't speak the name Yahweh, but it would be weird if they tried to broaden the secrecy to a two hour ceremony where the only real secret/sacred thing was the name Yahweh.