Since the Mormon temple ceremonies are in the news I thought I'd link to my previous posts about my temple experience when I was a young TBM Mormon preparing to leave on a mission to Bolivia in the fall of 1983. You can read it here.
For the full text of the ceremony, click here. It includes markup that shows the extensive changes that the church made in 1990 to remove parts that are particularly unsettling.
3 comments:
The temple ceremonies involve a string of unethical brainwashing practices that leave a person very little opportunity to change their mind.
1. You are not informed prior to first attending what is going to happen.
2. Without any information you are asked if you want to change your mind before the doors are shut not to be reopened until the ceremony is over.
3. The doors are closed and presumably locked.
4. You have all of the pressure of family and friends surrounding you who would be very disappointed in your "unfaithfulness", "rebellion", and "unworthiness" if you were to not follow through by performing the entire ceremony.
5. The expectancy of a mission or a wedding in the following days. You would need to cancel your mission or wedding if you did not follow through with all that entails. This would include contacting all of the wedding guests. Many people would suspect "immoral behavior" because you were not marrying in the temple. The same would be true of not serving a mission after backing out of the temple ceremony. This would greatly influence the person’s standing in the Mormon community, their prospects for marriage, and many friendships would be strained.
6. During the ceremony you swear before god, angels, and witnesses under threat of death pre-1990 and currently under threat of eternal punishment not to reveal what you have learned.
7. Many people feel disoriented after the washings and anointings particularly in the past when you were naked other than a poncho with no sides.
8. You are subjected to the identity masking practice of dressing identically in white with everyone else in the room.
9. You are subject to the disempowering practice of dressing in odd temple robes, faux fig leaf aprons, and unusual hats.
10. Many people are confused and disoriented by the fact that their family and friends in attendance have participated in these bizarre ceremonies repeatedly in the past and have been pressuring you participate too.
11. Many people are also dismayed or concerned that they are participating in secret oaths and combinations that are forbidden by the Book of Mormon.
GOBS OF VIDEOS AND DETAILS OF SECRET - NOT SACRED MORMON TEMPLE RITUALS
Check out this information and let us know what you think.
Reading through this information and watching the videos brought back a lot of memories of my visits to the temples - YUCK!
Here are the great links....
http://www.mormoncurtain.com/topic_temples_section1.html
http://how2becomeachristianinfoblog.com/2008/11/22/the-secret-mormon-temple-ritual-secret-or-sacred/
Check out my blog to see the Mormon cartoon that depicts the afterlife where Mormon men will have multiple wives with whom they have eternal sex so as to populate their own planets:
http://glasschimes.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/mitt-romney-just-keep-this-in-mind-for-the-future/
Indeed, the whole thing is rather cult like and it is incredible the unfair situation that the initiate is put into during the endowment.
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