Mormon temple ceremonies are held sacred, therefore no discussion is allowed at any time before, during or after participating in them. Even a husband and wife are not allowed to discuss between themselves what transpired in the temple as they witnessed it.
The reason given for the secrecy is that it is too sacred to discuss! In reality what the leadership of the church is protecting is the sheer stupidity of the entire scenario. If church members had the opportunity to openly discuss what has been observed in the temple rites with sane reasonable people, they would soon learn that all that has been said, participated in and sworn to is akin to a bucket of excrement.
Doctrine has it that the ancient Temple of Solomon was used to bestow the same ordinances upon the heads of devotees in like manner and that the masons who worked on the temple later organized a secret society, usurped the passage rites and copied them into their own male dominated ceremony. While there is some doubt as to the authenticity of that argument, it could likely be the origin of the expression, "Holy sh*t!"
It is a bucket that committed worthy members carry all the days of their life and even beyond by burial dressed in temple garments with the notion that on the day of resurrection their dead bodies, by then rendered to dust, will materialize and rise up out of the grave within the temple shroud terrorizing the holy gees out of any one who might see the event.
All the tokens, signs, hand and knee grips, penalties, whispered secret names and passwords will somehow pop out of that long dead brain and mouth allowing one so worthy to pass by the angels on the way to the "Celestial Kingdom."
But with one hitch! Husbands know the secret name of their spouses, but the spouses do not know that of their husbands. Since the husband, with his mighty Melchizedek Priesthood, is the one who will by name call forth his spouses at the grave, the threat of not calling forth the obstinate wife is often used to gain domination.
The perpetuation of the secret of stupidity is among church members only, since any human can walk into any public library or open a browser on a computer and see and read the temple rites in abundance. Even knowing this, Church members are reluctant to pursue such an investigation because of the brainwashing they have received on the subject. That brainwashing includes a temple rite oath which prior to 1980 was executed by placing one's thumb on one's throat and declaring that, "rather than reveal these things I would that my life be taken," as the thumb [simulating a knife] was drawn across the throat.*
Traditional marriage? Temple marriage along with all the "endowments" rites and oaths is anything but traditional marriage.
As presently scheduled, on March 15th, the next production of "Big Love" on HBO will demonstrate all of these weird temple practices and oaths which the parents of Mormon children have taken at the outset of their marital relationship. Again as such, no Mormon home or family can be classified as "traditional" in the sense as applied to common American or European families.The news of this showing hit the internet a week ago creating threats to boycott AOL and Time Warner if they allow the show to be aired. So much for the preservation of stupidity of Mormon doctrine in general and their leaders in particular. This is but one more issue that will need to be dealt with as the church leaders are forced to come to grips with reality and jettison some of the more radical concepts bringing the church closer to a true Christian alignment.
How do I know all this stuff? I've done it! I've been there!
* This raises the doctrine of "Blood Atonement" which will be discussed in a subsequent article.
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