Mormon Temple Rituals part 1

"...Ceremony is essential to humans: It’s a circle that we draw around important events to separate the momentous from the ordinary. And ritual is a sort of magical safety harness that guides us from one stage of our lives into the next, making sure we don’t stumble or lose ourselves along the way. Ceremony and ritual march us carefully right through the center of our deepest fears about change…" ~ Elizabeth Gilbert

I am not going to reveal anything that can’t already be found on the internet about the Mormon Church and their temples. Everything I reveal about the temple in this post, and any future posts as well, is from my personal perspective, and my numerous memories from participating in the L.D.S temple ceremonies many, many times. These next two posts will contain my own opinions based upon my experiences and my own interpretation of being a member of the Mormon Church for forty two years, and an endowed member of the church for twenty years. Before I dive into my personal experiences in the temple, I need to explain the requirements to enter a Mormon temple and the basic Mormon beliefs surrounding their sacred temple ceremonies. 

Randy and I started our marriage without a temple wedding. I was the fourth child to get married in my family. Randy was the third child in his. All five of our siblings had gone through the temple for their weddings; which is what good, worthy, Mormon, young men and women do when they get married. We chose not to be married there for several reasons. We were not active members of the church at that time in our life. We didn’t want to get active either in order to marry inside the temple. Most importantly, we wanted all of our immediate family members and closest friends to be present at our wedding, that's something you can't have if your family members are not temple worth. Randy’s dad, and some of our siblings, would not be allowed to attend our wedding if we had it in the temple. So, we chose to have a civil ceremony instead. We were married in an L.D.S Relief Society class room, not the prettiest place for a marriage but that didn't matter to me. My dad was able to walk me down the isle, something you can't do in the temple, and all of our family members and friends were able to witness our wedding. Unfortunately for my parents, this was all a huge disgrace. Having my father walk me down the isle was not an honorable thing for him to do; but rather, it was a walk of shame. They both felt like they had obviously failed with me. The guilt for not doing things their way, which was actually the church’s way, was laid very thick on me by my mother. Still, I stood my ground, determined to get married on my own terms. Happily ever after began on June 10^th, 1988. We were finally married and starting our life together as one! Those first few years of married life, we spent very little time involved with the church. It was truly fantastic! However, I couldn't help but have a lot of guilt about not attending church because I believed it was the only true path back to God. 

Randy and I were considered ‘inactive’ members, meaning, we didn’t participate in the ward like active, good Mormons do. We didn’t hold ‘callings’, specific jobs the bishop gives you in the ward. (The ward is the boundaries around the neighborhood you live in. It determines where, and when, you attend church. You attend with others in your same ward boundaries.) The bishop is in charge of the ward. Many wards together make up the Stake that you belong to, many Stakes together make up the Region that you are in according to the church. Wards, branches, and stakes are set up all across the world. If you are in a country that allows the L.D.S church into it, you are in a ward, or a branch, with a bishop who has stewardship over you, and in a stake with a stake president as well; members and non-members alike. The Mormons have the whole earth accounted for; even in countries where the church isn't allowed to openly preach, there are Mormons meeting together there. My sister taught school in Abu Dhabi for three years; and, she went to a Mormon church service every week. It wasn't advertised of course; and, she couldn't talk about it openly to others, but she faithfully attended it the whole time she taught school. The point is Mormons have the whole world covered even if they can't openly talk about it. Mormons practice every where, in every country, and the church's goal is to grow so strong and so large it will take over the world. They have God's only true religion; so one day, Mormons will absolutely rule the world; this is no joke! That's what they believe and preach in church.

Mormon Sunday services are three hours long. There are three meetings held during that three hour block of time. Sacrament meeting is first and for everyone. Families sit all together. Sunday school and Primary are usually during the second hour, and are divided up by age groups. Yet, men and women, boys and girls still meet together. Sunday school is divided up by ages twelve through eighteen. After eighteen, they attend Sunday school with the adults. Primary is for the children ages eighteen months to twelve years old. They stay together for the last two hours of church. During the last hour of church, the adults and young adults are separated into girls and boys, men and women. If you’re a man, you go to Priesthood meetings. If you’re a woman, you go to Relief Society. Boys ages twelve-eighteen attend Young Men’s classes. Girls ages twelve-eighteen attend Young Women’s classes.

Like I've stated, we didn’t attend church most Sundays. We didn’t hold callings. We didn’t pay tithing, 10 % of your income before taxes every pay check, each month. You are required to do these things, and much more, in order to go to the temple. Also, you must live the Law of Chastity meaning you can’t have any sexual sins such as masturbating, oral sex, sex outside of marriage, ‘unnatural’ sexual activities, viewing pornography, homosexuality, or infidelity to name a few sexual 'sins' that will get you into trouble with your church leaders; basically any sexual sin should keep you out of the temple. In addition, you must live the Word of Wisdom meaning no drinking alcohol, coffee, or tea. You can’t support, or affiliate, with groups, or individuals, that oppose what the church teaches, LGBTQ groups, or polygamist groups, would good examples of that. You must believe in Joseph Smith as the restorer of Jesus Christ’s gospel here on earth. You must believe in the atonement of Christ the way the Mormon Church teaches about it. You must always be honest in all of your dealings with yourself and others, although don't expect that same honesty from the leaders of the church! You must sustain the prophet, General Authorities, and local authorities of the church; you must confess any and all of your sins that have not been previously confessed to a bishop; and lastly, you must consider yourself worthy to be in the very presence of ‘God’, (because the temple is literally His house here on earth), in order to grace the temple with your presence. That's a pretty big price tag in order to enter the temple!

Temple recommends are a piece of paper that lets you into the temple. A person who holds a temple recommend is considered to be a ‘card carrying’ Mormon. Back then when we first went through the temple, recommends expired after one year. You had to renew it every single year. Now, they are good for two years. You need to have an interview with your bishop, or his counselor, AND your Stake president, or his counselor, in order to get a recommend or renew one. Both men will ask you the same specific questions in those two separate interviews. The questions all relate to the beliefs, and behaviors, I listed in the previous paragraph. If you don’t answer how you are required to answer then you risk not getting the recommend. Or worse, having a disciplinary council, sometimes called ‘a court of love’, if they don’t like your answers. Temple recommend interviews are the way the church keeps close tabs on its members, being interviewed and encouraged to spill your guts regarding your sins is started when children turn 8 and are interviewed for baptism. Then, once they reach age 12 they will be interviewed every six months. This screams 'cult' to me now, but growing up Mormon it was normal for me as a youth to sit alone with an old man every six months and answer embarrassing questions about my sexual habits. Programming the youth is extremely important to this organization. The youth are its future and right now more and more of the youth are starting to 'wake up' and leave the church.

The Temple is the holiest building in the Mormon Church. Like I said, it is considered by Mormons to be indisputably the house of God, and Jesus Christ, on earth, which is why you must be extremely ‘worthy’ to enter it. The Church’s goal is to have as many temples though out the world as possible. Right now the church has 155 operating temples, 14 temples under construction, and 8 more temples announced for future construction, including a temple in Rome. Members are pressured to be married in a L.D.S temple. They are also expected to come back to the temple as often as possible to do that same temple work for the dead. As a Mormon, going to the temple is absolutely the most important thing you need to do in this lifetime.

The first time you go through the temple, you have your personal temple work done. The church encourages you to come back frequently to do that exact same temple work for the deceased. As I have explained in preceding posts, those who die without going through the temple still need to have this work done for them. Members and non-members alike meaning everyone who has ever lived on Earth needs this work done in order to go to Heaven after the final Day of Judgment; that’s a lot of people!

 All these rituals take place in the temples of the church. First, the church has a baptism for the deceased person performed in order for them to become a member of the church. Usually, young men and young women do these baptisms in the temple. Then, the adults do all the other ordinances. The washing and anointing ritual, called the initiatory ceremony, comes next for the deceased. This is where you receive your garments, and your new name, more on those subjects in future posts. After that, they perform the endowment ceremony for the departed. This is needed for ‘the dead’ to have the secret signs, tokens, and handshakes in order to get into Heaven. It is also where you make many covenants, or promises, to God and to the church. Lastly, if the departed was married, they are sealed to their spouse. If they had any children, their children are sealed to them as well. Now, they are finally an eternal family and can be together forever, if they all accept their posthumous temple work that is.

This is why, eventually, we did go through the temple. Our families were very concerned for us. We didn’t start our family out the ‘correct’ way. Therefore, our eternal salvation as a family was in jeopardy. We did ultimately go to the temple almost three years after we were married due to extreme pressure from our families and our bishop. For me, it was honestly to shut everyone up and to ease my guilt. I did feel guilty about not marrying there in the first place. I had been shamed about it long enough. I had a huge amount of fear for my children I had brought, and would be bringing, into the world. I felt I had an obligation to bring them into a good, active, Mormon family. That’s what they were waiting for, I believed. Sooner or later, I had to go through the temple. There was no other way about it.

In order to get our recommends to enter the temple, we had to start coming to church, pay our tithing, accept and perform callings, and we had to have many, many meetings with the bishop each week to prove we were worthy by repenting of our ‘sins’, and being committed to this life style change. We took on meaningless callings to confirm that we were willing to help in any way they asked us. We did all these things for several months until we were finally considered worthy enough to enter the temple to be sealed as a 'forever family'. 

           We went through the temple for the first time on March 22^nd, 1991 to be sealed together as a ‘forever family’.  

           Before I share my personal experiences in the temple, which will be in part 2, you need to understand a little more about these bizarre temple rituals. 

In 1990, due to declining temple attendance, the church changed a major part in the temple endowment ceremony following a survey of about 3,400 members, of Canada and the US, regarding their feelings about the temple ceremonies. The church made several changes after this survey. In the temple film, (yep, you actually watch a movie while in the temple), they eliminated the Protestant Minister who was paid by Lucifer, aka ‘Satan’, to preach false doctrines to the world. Many new Christian converts in the 70’s and 80’s found this part of the temple film offensive which is why it was removed, in my opinion. The church also stopped all penalties associated with the signs and tokens given. The penalties were gestures such as cutting your throat from ear to ear, slicing apart your chest, and slashing open your bowels. They modified the women’s pledge to be obedient to their husbands, and replaced the syllables connected to the ‘so called’ language of Adam, (Pay Lay Ale), with words in English. I must add that I cannot say the words, “Oh God!” out loud without thinking in my head, “hear the words of my mouth.” And lastly, they removed the five points of fellowship at the veil; these were five places on the body where the two people at the veil, the temple worker on one side of a thin sheet and the temple attendee on the other side of the sheet, must be touching each other as they whisper questions and mutter answers through a very sheer curtain. ‘The veil’ is actually a thin white, semi-see-through cloth which hangs from the ceiling to the floor with special markings on it and uniquely shaped holes in it. You must pass through this veil in order to enter into the Celestial room of the temple. The temple worker on the other side of the veil is always a man and symbolizes the angel’s you will encounter on your way to Heaven. You must know the secret passwords, signs, tokens, and handshakes that he will ask you for in order to proceed through the ‘pearly gates’ that lead into Heaven. These changes were an attempt to help increase temple attendance. 

Up until the 1930’s an Oath of Vengeance was taken during the temple endowment ceremony. Members were required to swear vengeance upon this nation for the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Members covenanted to pray, and never cease to pray, to God to avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation and to teach their children, and their children’s children to do the same. The early Mormons were very upset at the government for the death of their first prophet and his brother! They swore this oath in their temples for about 85 years! I learned about all of these changes in my endless research after I left the church.

I was truly shocked at the temple rituals the way they were when I went through them for the first time. Who knows what I would have thought about taking ‘death oath’ penalties like cutting open my throat, if I ever revealed the covenants? I was very stunned to learn about these consequences and oaths once I was out of the church. I encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about the Mormon temple ceremonies and how they have changed them over the years to Google it! A great website to get information about the changes made to the temple rituals is www.Mormonthink.com. The complete temple practices are all available now, before and after the changes were made. I wish I could have ‘Googled’ it in 1991. I would like to think that I never would have gone through with it, if I had known then what I know now, which is why I feel the sincere desire to share my experiences in the temple from the first time I went through it. I was definitely tricked into attending the temple; therefore, I believe I am no longer under any obligation to remain silent about what happened to me in that ominous building so many years ago. 
           In part two I will go into depth about the details of the rituals, my personal experience while doing them, and the effects they had on my life up until I left the church. 

Namaste!

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