Last summer I moved to Provo. I had just taken a job in Springville and felt the need to be within a closer proximity than my Salt Lake home offered. I didn't want to move to Provo because it is the center of Happy Valley and having already graduated from college, from the U of U no less, I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of taking up residence in BYU sanctioned housing with young college students. But the housing was cheap, so I moved. The unfortunate thing about BYU housing, minus the BYU, is that if you're not a student (who is already required to take a certain number of religion courses), you have to be enrolled in an institute class and attend at least 75% of the time, otherwise they kick you out.
Initially, I wasn't thrilled at the idea of having to take another institute class, but I tried to look at it positively and figured that it would be a good place to at least meet people and make friends. My mother suggested that I take the Temple Prep course. This was her way of encouraging me to take out my endowment, which was an idea I had toyed with in the past, but never felt a huge desire to actually follow through on. Wearing garments was a huge deterrent for me. Anyway, I followed her advice and enrolled in the Temple Prep course with an open mind and fairly high expectations of what I would learn.
Growing up as a member of the LDS faith, I was well aware of how "sacred" the temple and its ceremonies were. I knew that certain things "couldn't" be discussed but I fully believed that in taking the Temple Prep course, I would at least learn the basic mechanics of what went on in the endowment ceremony.
I was wrong. What I got was a handful of Sunday School lessons that I had already heard throughout my life as a member of the Church. I learned nothing new. The title of this class implies that its purpose is to PREPARE individuals to enter the temple, a place that is not largely discussed in detail. You learn in primary that it is a place to feel the spirit and a place where you can be sealed to your family for "time and all eternity". I learned more about the temple before I was 12 years old than I did in the Temple Prep course.
I want to take you through the teachers lesson manual that can be found on lds.org and let you be the judge.
First off, the Lesson titles and the Objectives are chuckle worthy.
Lesson 1: The Temple Teaches about the Great Plan of Salvation. Objective: "To help class members understand that the plan of salvation is taught in the temple.
Lesson 2: We Must be Worthy to Enter the Temple. Objective: "To help class members understand that they must be worthy to enter the temple."
Lesson 3: Temple Work Brings Great Blessings into Or Lives. Objective: To help class members understand that those who attend the temple worthily will receive great blessings from the Lord.
Lesson 4: Receiving Temple Ordinances and Covenants. Objective: To help class members understand the importance of temple ordinances and covenants.
Lesson 5: Learning from the Lord through Symbols. Objective: To help class members understand and appreciate the use of symbols in the temple.
Lesson 6: Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple. Objective: To prepare the class members to worthily enter the temple.
Lesson 7: Continuing to Enjoy the Blessings of Temple Attendance. Objective: To follow up on the class members' visits to the temple and help them prepare to enjoy the temple throughout their lives.
I just want to point out that the objective portion is unnecessary. I'm fairly confident that your average reader will be able to figure out what each chapter will be "teaching" just by reading the title. The titles themselves imply that valuable information will be passed along throughout the course. But like all things Church, what a student actually receives is a watered down version of Sunday school lessons they've already had at various times in their very recent past.
For example, Lesson 1 reveals that the Plan of Salvation is taught in the temple. A member that is born into the Church begins learning about the Plan of Salvation as soon as they turn 4 and enter Primary and they don't stop learning about it until they die.... well, unless they leave the Church first of course. As I took the class, I thought to myself, well, maybe they reveal some super secret stuff about the Plan, but after reading the actual Temple ceremony script, I realized that everything they talk about, as far as the Plan of Salvation goes, was taken straight out of the Bible. There was no added revelation and nothing poignant to extrapolate. If you know the story of the Creation from Genesis, then there's no need for you to attend the first lesson of Temple Prep.
Lesson 2 also touches on "facts" that every member of the Church comes to understand as they attend Sunday meetings and other activities. Ones worthiness is constantly stressed. You must be clean and pure, in both body and mind. "They must be morally clean, pay a full tithing, obey the Word of Wisdom, keep the Sabbath day holy, and strive to live righteously in all other ways." Paying tithing is a question you have to answer in the affirmative with any discussion you have with your bishop or stake president. It is very important to them. I really like the very end of this quote that says to strive to live righteously in all other ways. I feel that while this statement is very generalized, it is also the cause for most doubt in members regarding their own worthiness. How can they ever hope to be righteous in everything if it isn't all laid out for them? It's a constant mental battle when you try to decide if something that might be wrong actually is wrong or if it might be right in a certain case or if the "sin" itself is noteworthy enough to be considered a "sin".
In order to receive a full temple recommend you have to be interviewed by both your bishop and the stake president. This is when your worthiness is called into question by an outsider. The questions that they ask in the interview for the limited recommend interview are all fairly personal. Having never obtained a full temple recommend, I can only imagine what kinds of questions they ask in an effort to weigh your worthiness. "The bishop has the responsibility of making inquiries into our personal worthiness. This interview is of great importance to you as a member of the Church, for it is an occasion to explore with an ordained servant of the Lord the pattern of your life. If anything is amiss in your life, the bishop will be able to help you resolve it. Through this procedure, as you counsel with the common judge in Israel, you can declare or can be helped to establish your worthiness to enter the temple with the Lord's approval." Keep in mind that Bishops and Stake Presidents are not trained therapists. They are "guided" by the "Spirit". If someone goes to them with a problem, they are not properly trained to respond. In most cases, the "sinner" loses the ability to use his/her temple recommend, is instructed to stop taking the sacrament (the thing that is like being baptized again-meaning, your sins are washed away), and to pray and fast for forgiveness. They attend more interviews with these bishops and stake presidents until these leaders feel that the "sinner" has truly repented and has been forgiven by god. Then everything is reinstated. How is this process actually helpful?
I interpreted the title of Lesson 3, Temple Work Brings Great Blessings into our Lives, as though this chapter would actually list off some of those elusive blessings that no one seems to be able to identify. But it's the same watered down, generic list that I found in those New Era articles I discussed in my last post. The manual does list a few versus in D&C 109 that supposedly describe what blessings one will receive for faithfully attending the temple. Versus 10-12, 22-23, 59, 67, 72 and 75 are listed specifically. This section was a prayer that was offered at the dedication of the Kirtland temple. It is assumed that this prayer was a "revelation", and I think that it is this assumption that leads members of the Church to use these versus as "proof" that one will receive blessings by attending the temple. What I discovered upon reading the above versus, is that the "blessings" that are declared to be received by individuals are in actuality more broadly applied to a general population, but more importantly, they are blessings for the Lord. HIS kingdom will fill the whole earth, HIS servants will meet HIM and live with HIM forever (which sounds all nice and dandy until you realize that for the rest of eternity your purpose is to praise HIM). HE will remember the sick and afflicted (again, this sounds nice, but he's very picky about the specific sicknesses and afflictions that HE will actually pay attention to.) HIS people will be gathered in stakes. HIS servants will spread HIS truth. Angels will have charge over HIS people. HIS glory will be upon HIS people. The reason no specific blessings are listed for individuals is to allow every individual to interpret a good occurrence in their lives as being the direct result of their attending the temple, even though it's more probable that a good occurrence in life is the direct result of an individual's own hard work. ALL GLORY to GOD. Anyway, maybe I'm being selfish wanting a more specific list of blessings that I should expect, but with God as my example, how could I not be?
Like Lesson 3, I felt that Lesson 4 and 6 would be a little more insightful. Lesson 4 is supposed to discuss temple ordinances and covenants while Lesson 6 is supposed to go over how to prepare to enter the temple. Going into the class, I wanted to learn what kind of covenants I would be making with God so that I would be able to prepare myself for any possible life changes that I would need to make or at least be able to form goals that would get me to a more righteous position in my life. I also wanted to know how to specifically prepare to enter the temple. Let me go over what I knew prior to taking the class about both of these desires. #1- My baptismal covenants were fairly straightforward: I became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. I am called a daughter of God, which meant that I took His name upon me, I would try to bear another's burdens and to mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that need comfort. I would be a witness of God all the time and serve him and keep his commandments. I at least expected a list similar to the one above for temple covenants. The second thing I new was that in order to get into the temple I needed to go through the process of getting a temple recommend (i.e. interviews with church leaders) and buy some garments.
This is what I got out of both lessons. Lesson 4: Ordinances in the Church are as follows- baby blessings (your "earthly" father blesses you with specific things, like health, intelligence, good decision making skills, and to find a worthy mate), baptism and confirmation, the sacrament (which is supposed to be like being baptized all over again), ordination to the priesthood (which only men receive), and temple ordinances. Just to deviate slightly, I had a teacher in the tenth grade who would ask us to define words at random. He would always remind us, after someone committed this "sin", that you cannot define a word by using it in the definition. For example, you can't explain what an ordinance is by saying that you can receive temple ordinances. That doesn't clarify anything.
I also "learned" that you're expected "to make solemn covenants to give ourselves to God and to help build His kingdom on earth." Basically you're expected to do whatever God asks whenever God asks without asking questions. I feel that every covenant that we make, i.e. baptism and the endowment, is exactly the same. You're supposed to covenant to live worthily (whatever that actually entails), to spread the gospel, and to return to Him. Why is it necessary to covenant over and over again if you're going to get the same reward?
Lesson 6 gives you five ideas for preparing for the temple: Be worthy, Be humble, Understand that receiving these ordinances and covenants is essential to gaining eternal life, Understand the importance of wearing the temple garment, Prepare for personal and sacred worship. No where in the "discussion" of these 5 ideas is the student told how to accomplish any of these. You're just supposed to BE worthy, to BE humble. You're just told that it is essential to receive temple ordinances, that it is important to wear the garment and that you need to meditate and ask for help with your problems.
They do actually have a small section dedication to Special Preparations for the First Temple Visit, which are as follows: Have a temple recommend; plan and schedule your visit; make appropriate travel plans; dress appropriately; arrange an escort of the same gender to take you through the temple; provide your own temple garments; try to purchase your own temple clothing. Do you feel prepared?
Lesson 5 is fairly obsolete, since everything inside the temple is "sacred" and can't be discussed, so the symbols that my class focused on talking about were patriotic symbols and things like STOP signs. It was truly educational. The closest the manual got to discussing any symbols related to the temple was by "revealing" that the garment that is required to be worn after the endowment is a visual and tactile reminder of the covenants that are made in the temple. Revelatory.
The final lesson seems to assume that every member of the class has now attended the temple and taken out their endowment. The lesson revolves mostly around the idea that the class members will share and discuss their experiences. Here's the issue with that: 99.9% of the students who take the class aren't able to go through the temple after only 6 lessons. Many bishops and stake presidents require that you take the entire course before even interviewing officially for a recommend, so what is the relevance of lesson 7? My class showed up to learn that night, was told that because no one had yet been to the temple the class would be cut short, and we all walked away with brand new calendars complete with temple pictures. It was the highlight of my Temple Prep experience.
I found a blog online of a teacher of the Temple Prep course that feels similarly about this material as I do. This teacher says that the course is "temple prep in name only. Rather, it is pretty much just a course in gospel living." Like this teacher, I realized that this manual in no way actually prepares an individual for the things that they will experience once in the ceremony. There are bizarre rituals, weird handshakes, odd clothing, and secretive names. Despite the ceremony itself being "sacred", it is possible to touch on the basic processes without revealing specifics. Many people come out of the ceremony feeling confused and perhaps a bit weirded out at the ritualistic nature of the ceremony, but so many of them disregard all this because they believe that what they just participated in is part of the "one true church" and that they really did feel the spirit. This teacher makes a valid argument when he points out that "the need for genuine temple prep will become even more necessary with the flood of young women getting their own endowments at 19 in advance of serving missions. There are some aspects of the experience that will be easier for them to negotiate if they have been properly prepared; it is a bad idea (emphasis mine) to just throw them through the doors and hope for the best."
I can't speak from experience, but I have a keen imagination and I know how I would have reacted and felt had I participated in the ceremony myself. The whole idea behind my sharing the lessons from this manual was to show how ill prepared individuals are to go through the temple ceremony, which, in my humble opinion, is by design. The Church leads its members to believe that only good things and feelings can come from temple attendance. They don't specifically say how because there isn't anything specifically good that actually comes from this ritual, but by generalizing blessings and covenants, members are left to interpret their feelings and any good experience as being a direct product of their following the words of the prophets. If the Church specified blessings, they would have many members come to the realization that despite faithfully following the commandments, they aren't actually receiving any blessings.
The Church is very adept at the concept of KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid. Give them non-answers to questions and encourage them to discover things on their own. Well, as long as they come to the same conclusions the Church has already designed.
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