Monday, October 8, 2007

Let's Talk About The Forbidden...

Remember that post I wrote talking about the vicious Mormon cycle? Everybody really isn't that happy, but they all pretend to be? The temple is kind of like that.

I am sure that 99% of people who go through the temple for the first time come out going, "What the hell?" Of course, they have always been taught that the temple is a spiritual place and great things about god are taught there. So they always return to testimony meeting and report about how wonderful and spiritual it was, when in fact, it was wierd, confusing, and downright creepy.

Before the ceremony, you put on all white clothes. The temple "outfit" is with you in a small pillow case type thing. Everyone meets in a chapel and waits for the next session to begin. As you leave the dressing room, you pass through a small cubical where you meet a man inside. This man assigns you a new "name". This name is one of the passwords as you will learn later. Your salvation is at serious risk if you ever divulge this name to ANYONE. (Now come on! God will damn me to hell forever just for telling someone my name?!?! Get serious!) You will use this name at the end of the ceremony. As you go through the ceremony, you are repeating this name to yourself again and again so you won't forget it (therefore you can't really concentrate on what is going on around you).

Everyone is dressed exactly the same. As the ceremony progresses, your wardrobe gets changed around. There is a lot of standing and sitting, raising your right arm to the square, and bowing your head and saying, "Yes".

There is one part where Satan (Yes, Satan is in the temple. Ironic, huh?) turns directly to the audience and states, "If they do not live up to every covenant they make in this temple this day, they will be in MY power!" That is the ultimate fear tactic. If it wasn't for that statement, I probably would have left the church much sooner.

Then, of course, is the passwords, handshakes, and tokens. The ceremony presents several of each as it progresses. Each token (hand gesture) has a secret name (password) and it is associated with a handshake. I never really did get all that stuff straight. Why do you need a handshake, gesture, and password? It never made any sense to me. Each person swears that they will never reveal any of the secrets.

Now don't you find it just ironic as hell that the Book of Mormon condemns secret oaths and covenants, calling them wicked and abominations? The new temple ceremony referrs to them as "sacred" but the pre-1990 ceremony actually called them secret.

Hel 6: 25-26

25 Now behold, it is these secret oaths and covenants which Alma commanded his son should not go forth unto the world, lest they should be a means of bringing down the people unto destruction.

26 Now behold, those secret oaths and covenants did not come forth unto Gadianton from the records which were delivered unto Helaman; but behold, they were put into the heart of Gadianton by that same being who did entice our first parents to partake of the forbidden fruit— (Did satan inspire the temple ceremony? The BoM says so.)

Alma 37: 27, 29

27 And now, my son, I command you that ye retain all their oaths, and their covenants, and their agreements in their secret abominations; yea, and all their signs and their wonders ye shall keep from this people, that they know them not, lest peradventure they should fall into darkness also and be destroyed.


29 Therefore ye shall keep these secret plans of their oaths and their covenants from this people, and only their wickedness and their murders and their abominations shall ye make known unto them; and ye shall teach them to abhor such wickedness and abominations and murders; and ye shall also teach them that these people were destroyed on account of their wickedness and abominations and their murders.
(Bold added for emphasis)

There you have it. The Book of Mormon strongly condemns secret oaths, covenants, and signs and yet all of these things are done in the temple. Notice how the last verse above even referrs to murders? It wasn't that long ago that death penalties were included in the temple ceremony, where people covenanted with their lives that they would not tell any of the temple secrets. Each token, sign, and password also had a penalty associated with it, and it was graphic and violent.

So anyway, here you are sitting in a group of people dressed all exactly alike. Men sit together and women sit together (why do they separate men from women?) You are engaged in standing, sitting, switching your stylish temple clothes around, learning signs, tokens, and passwords, raising your right arm to the square, bowing your head and saying "yes" when prompted.

It is all extremely cultish and even as a believer, I used to get a creepy feeling in the temple, especially the veil room. The veil room has many curtains hanging around and they all have the square and compass markings in them (like in the garments). They are large and open, big enough to pass your hands through (which you do). One by one, people go up to the veil and "converse with the lord" exchanging passwords and handshakes. Upon completion, you are admitted through the veil and into the celestial room where you wait for your companions (if any) to get through and join you.

In this room, people are free to quietly sit, talk, pray, or whatever. Whenever you're done, you make your way back to the dressing room and change. You return your temple clothes (if you rented them. I wonder what Jesus would have to say about money being exchanged in the temple, which it most surely is).

I would go into more detail about the signs, tokens and such, but they are available in other places. The purpose of this post is not to expose the secrets of the temple, but rather to show how 1) it is extremely cultish in nature, 2) the very things that go on in the temple are strongly condemned in the Mormons own scriptures, and 3) how everyone who goes through comes out claiming it was beautiful and wonderful, when in fact it was creepy, wierd, and frightening.

Again, as a former believer, attending the temple is one less thing to take up all my spare time. I could seriously think of a million and one things I would rather do than go to the temple. Add temple attendance to the list of Mormon demands. You can't be saved if you don't go through the temple. You can't go to the temple if you don't pay your tithing. The list of Mormon demands is virtually endless. Thank the good Mormon god I am OUT!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Umm... you should throw away that book of mormons...

Mormon411 said...

I almost did... but then I realized that I had better keep a copy so that when the church changes it again, the evidence will exist.

Anonymous said...

Hahaha.... good idea... prove that mormonism is a cult.. i like it. I think I'll go by a copy today.
-Danja

Mormon411 said...

If you live anywhere in the Salt Lake area you can easily find a copy at any DI or the churches distribution center. If you live in a non-Mormon area, the church will gladly give you a copy; the catch is that you have to let the missionaries deliver it personally. They will, of course, want to teach you a lesson and try to convert you.

Anonymous said...

lol..... they can deliver in at The Christian Bible College I live at...
-Danja

Paul Manning said...

Hey Joe

I thought the main point of the temple is that you make a covenant with the Lord to live a good life of service. Everything else is incidental. Did you get married in the temple? what's your reason d'etre these days


my blog is called 'meditations of a mediocre mormon' feel free to read at http://joe9tee.blogspot.com/

although its sadly lacking in recent entries

EriK said...

Just some feedback. Since you changed the background to green, the red text is ridiculously hard to read. I suggest trying to find a better formatting that doesn't make it look like the words are spazzing around on the screen :D Thanks.

Mormon411 said...

EriK, thank you. I have noticed this problem myself. I will attempt to correct this. However, since the txt was set to red on an individual basis, I can't change it unless I go into the actual post and change it there. I don't mind doing that except that I don't remember which of my many posts used red txt. I have corrected this one. If you find any more, please let me know.

Long Ben Avery said...

You have to remember that Mormonism was started at a period when many "secret" societies being set up. what you describe is very similar to that of The Freemasons. Their induction ceremony contains a few blood curdling punishments for revealing the secrets and signs associated with joining.

Mormon411 said...

Yes it absolutely does! Being a never-mormon, it is interesting that you bring that up because Joseph Smith was a Mason and he basically plagerized the entire Masonic ceremony and claimed it was revelation from god. While the church has since removed the death oaths from the ceremony, they were given to the early saints and, in some cases, actually carried out.

Unknown said...

Being raised a Mormon my entire life and being a devout Mormon, I married a return missionary in a Mormon temple. Yes, I was so disappointed and actually depressed after doing my endowment. The endwoment is the ceremony where you are given your new name and your garments that you must always wear at all times after that. I was very disappointed at the ludicrous, cultish ceremony and shortly thereafter realized I was actually part of a cult. Now Mormons believe in following your " heart " in confirmation to what is true. Well that day, my heart said, there something seriously wrong about this. God cannot be this petty and small minded to require us to know "hand signals" and "secret passwords" in order to get into Heaven. I feel so much for the people who are still in the religion and are still wasting their time doing the endowment and temple work. They truly believe its a tool for their salvation. I still have most of my family practicing this religion. I understand how blind they are encouraged to be regarding any real evidence of truth. They are told to not even look at any real evidence of Joseph smiths lies. It's a shame that so many can be blindly led. Thank god Romney lost the election. This country dodged a bullet !

Mormon411 said...

Marey, Thank you for sharing. It was disappointing, not to mention long! Two or three hours? One of the parts I found especially cultish was the "true order of prayer" where about 10 people stand in a circle around the alter and chat "Oh god, hear the words of my mouth," while raising and lowering their hands. The reason I blog is so that I can free as many minds as possible from this cult and it's lies. Most minds don't want to be freed and so they never will. It's sad but it's also their choice.

Mormon411 said...

Not to mention the creepy washing and annointing ceremony that you have to do before the endowment. They have you get completely naked and wear a "shield" which is nothing more than a towel with a hole in the middle for your head. They then touched you all over your body and blessed it, first with water (washing) and then again with oil (annointing). They have since changed this I am told but have not been to the temple since the change. It won't be long before Mormons are denying that there was ever naked touching going on in the temple...