Last Friday I dragged the Hulk to see the new Draper Utah LDS Temple.
Once a Mormon temple is built they allow public tours of it before they “dedicate” it. I guess once they do their hocus pocus crap it suddenly becomes only available to people with “temple recommends”.
We arrived at a local Mormon church for parking and a short movie about the temples and their significance for LDS believers. The movie was the most “propaganda” that we got on the whole tour. I was actually pretty surprised by this. There weren’t missionaries everywhere trying to convert, nobody even asked us if we were members of the church or not. I truly wasn’t expecting this. For a religion that prides itself on conversion I thought for sure we would be bombarded by missionaries asking us if we had questions or wanted more information. But…nothing.
First the movie. It was pure propaganda. It explained the history of temples and how important the temples were to members of the church. The one comment I remember the most was the woman in the video who said that with the temple she “knew who her family was”. WTF? DNA testing could tell you that too lady!
We then boarded a bus to the actual temple. During the bus ride we got a brief overview of what to expect. No loud talking in the temple please, we would get a pamphlet for a self tour. After the tour we could stop in a hall adjacent to the temple for refreshments and to have any questions answered. MMMKAY.
We left the bus and took a tent hall (think ET) up to the temple. Inside the procedure was pretty simple. We followed the line of people in front of us through the various rooms. The first room was the baptistry. This is their little baptizing pool that is set upon oxen. The twelve oxen represent the twelve tribes of Israel.
I am going to let you all know that I scanned the pictures from my brochure but I don’t dare post them here. They are copyrighted and anytime I post a blog about the mormon church they find it. Trust me. If you want to see these rooms you can find them all here. TEMPLE PICTURES.
We then went through a waiting area. I think that is probably where people wait until it is their turn for programing, I mean, spiritual instructions.
We then went through a few ordinance rooms. I think this is probably where they see poorly acted religious movies and get rules from their leaders.
We then went through a few dressing rooms including the brides dressing room. Next we went through an instruction room. There appeared to be several of these rooms. There weren’t any descriptions for these rooms, but I bet they are for more programming.
Here’s my thing about all of these training (teaching) rooms. I find it very sad that people feel so insecure in their own abilities and intelligence that they need help from a religion. I think it is a horrible thing that instead of enjoying the world around them and building their part in it, religious people need instructions from strangers who only want their money to feel some kind of self-worth. It is a tragedy that I will never understand.
The next room was the celestial room. They didn’t tell what went on in this room. It looked like a seating area with a really huge fucking chandelier in the middle of it. When you look at a Mormon temple this is the room at the top.
Last we went into one of the sealing rooms. This is where they perform marriages, and seal families together for this life and “the after life”. This sealing ceremony is the reason that the mormons still practice a form of polygamy. A woman can be sealed to only one man, but if they divorce or if the woman dies only the man can get sealed to another woman. It doesn’t mean anything to most of us because we don’t believe in it.
Then we headed out. We grabbed some bottled water in the refreshment room (sorry guys no champagne). Caught our bus back to the parking lot and went home.
Like I said, I was very surprised that nobody at all pestered us to join the church. Not even a little bit.
I was however, not surprised to learn that the church is staffed by all volunteers. No paid positions here. They probably can’t afford to give some people jobs or anything. I’m betting it’s a pretty poor religion. *sarcasm intended*
If a LDS Temple ever opens up by where you live I would recommend taking the tour. It’s free and interesting.
All poor religions have huge fucking chandeliers!!
I am surprised that they weren’t handing out The Book of Mormon to everyone who attended. The Mormon friends we had made sure we had one within a week of meeting.
Sorry there wasn’t any champagne. That’s one lame religion! No booze or coffee…dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb!!!
Hugs!!
Indeed, even if I became brain damaged I would never join Mormonism. I must have my Dr. Pepper and the delicious caffeine inside it!
That looks a lot like the one that was built here in Rancho Cordova, CA in 2006. They must have only one “designer.” I missed the opening, though. Darn.
your description does not do that place justice. just looked at the pictures – palatial is the word that comes to mind, it’s freakin’ enormous!
no wonder they can’t afford to pay their workers
what a humungous waste of money
That’s shocking that there’s NO paid employees. Talk about devotion and sacrifice for Jeebus, or I mean, John Smith or whoever. Wow.
The onlyLDS temple I’ve seen is the one in La Jolla, CA…very beautiful gothic structure.
It’s curious why the most beautiful buildings are always religious ones. It’s almost as if they are completely missing the point!
So what would an LSD temple look like?
@ (((Billy))) probably much more colorful than an LDS temple. They really should embrace the gays, it would make the temples much more fabulous!
What I want to know about is their “special” underwear???
I was taken for a tour of the Mormon buildings in downtown SLC a few years ago. I saw the film and walked through some of the facilities. It was the first time I’d been aware of how weird this religion was.
I was thinking about this post this weekend. My wife and I were aimlessly driving around and she told me the “rich” church on the island (Okinawa) relocated recently so, since we had nothing better to do, we stopped by to check out where all the money goes. It is probably one of the nicest building on the island. We were dissappointed in their recruiting effort though…almost nonexistent.
DB It always seems like such a waste to me when there are starving people in the world. I think the members miss the point of their “religious teachings”. I think the people who run the churches get it though. They know the point of organized religion.
Back when I was a less moral teenager I considered becoming an evangelical Pastor. I came across some statistic online that said in a larger city the average Pastor makes $60,000 starting out; I thought “why not?” If someone wants to pay me to lie to them I can do that. Then morality got the best of me and I joined the military instead.
Something else to add: I did find a way to get my pastoral fix though; I got ordained online. I’ve performed two weddings so far, The God Delusion in hand. Tons of fun!
@Sisyphus Fragment
I have actually thought about doing that online thing. I think it would be nice to have more secular wedding performers here.
missing the point? the lds faith is one of the largest contributors to relief aid, and other charity efforts. sometimes people overlook certain things and instantly jump to criticism. a little research goes a long way
So Chris, please do tell, what percentage of your churches profits go toward humanitarian aid? Oh that’s right, you can’t because they don’t share their financial information with anyone, including the members whose money it is.
“one of the largest contributors to relief aid, and other charity efforts” … and anti-gay bigotry in the United States! A little research goes along way!
LDS temples are not a waste of money….they have more worth than any building built on this Earth, they pefrom sealings that are worth more that anything, and that exceed a lifetime. And money does truely go to humanitarian aid and to people who are in need, thats what we pay “fast offerings” for, and if you don’t believe me, then why was the mormon church one of the first to help with care packages and humanitarian aid to tsunami victims and the hurricane victims..and where else would they get the money? and besides we choose not to pay our leaders, not because we don’t have enough money, its a way of saying that our leadears aren’t forced to work or preach, it’s THEIR choices. you know a little research of RELIABLE resources really does go a long way. I don’t like it when people diss what they really don’t know about. you guys should really study up on the true things about the LDS church rather then passing on untrue things, thats just a little disrespectful..on anyonees account. and by the way ordinance rooms are not places where we watch “bad acting or commands from our leaders” it where we perform special ordinances. and if this faith is so bad then why is it growing so fast? you cannot deny that fact! so many people are joining b/c it is the truth, and next time you go to an open house, listen with an open mind..not criticizing the whole way. A temple represents God’s house, thats why they’re so beautiful and why so much money is spent on them.
In the words of Capt. Kirk: “What does God need with a spaceship?”