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Mormon endowment ceremony

by zarnigar | 3 years, 2 month(s) ago

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Tags: Ceremony, endowment, Mormon

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Maira

One of the most visible characteristics of the Mormon church (officially "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints", also called the "LDS Church") is its temples. These imposing structures, situated on beautifully landscaped sites, attract attention; they are often local landmarks. As late as the 1950's there was scarcely a handful of such temples in existence, four of them in Utah, and one each in Hawaii, Alberta, Arizona and Idaho. (The first Mormon temple to be built, in the 1830s, is still standing in Kirtland, Ohio, but is no longer owned by the church, and was not designed or used for the same rituals as the later temples.) Since the 1960's, however, the church has built an imposing temple in most of the major cities of the world, and there are now over one hundred worldwide. Mormon temples are quite different, both in design and use, from the buildings where Mormon congregations hold their weekly worship services. On Sundays Mormons gather for meetings, sermons and simple worship in the local "chapel" or "meeting house" or "ward house" or "church" (these terms are used interchangeably by most Mormons). Mormons go to the temple only on weekdays, never on Sunday - the temples are closed on Sundays. Some Mormons go to the temple quite regularly; others rarely, since for many Mormons the nearest temple may be hundreds of miles from their home. Temples are closed to the public and also to Mormons who do not qualify as sufficiently "worthy." The rituals in the temples - especially the "endowment" - are considered so sacred that Mormons are forbidden to discuss them outside the temple itself. Even non-Mormons sometimes object to articles such as the one you are now reading, since such articles reveal Mormons' religious secrets to a curious - and perhaps unworthy and even mocking - world. Many people, not only devout Mormons, feel that it is wrong to do this. Usually two reasons for the objection are given: 1) things that anyone holds sacred should not be profaned, mocked or ridiculed by anyone else, even by one who does not consider them sacred; and 2) the person who is revealing the secrets usually is someone who obtained the secrets only by swearing an oath of secrecy, and thus is breaking an oath. As to the first objection, this article does not "mock" or "ridicule" the secrets of the Mormon temple; it merely reveals them. Also, it seems rather odd to refuse to discuss objectively and openly any subject just because someone else feels that subject is taboo. I doubt that many Mormons would refuse to discuss the sacred initiation rituals of some primitive African tribe or some Satanist cult on the grounds that the tribe or cult considered those rites sacred. As to the second objection, the validity and binding nature of an oath or any promise depends, both legally and morally, upon the validity of the mutually accepted facts underlying the demanding and the giving of the oath. The oath of secrecy given by a Mormon in the temple is based on the assurance and sacred promise by the church that the oath is required by God, and that the secrets one will receive are given by God. If those assurances are in fact false, then one cannot be bound either legally or morally by any such oath, since it was obtained by a lie.
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