Mormon temple garments explained

[BrownieMomma]

Happened across this interesting tidbit on Mormon underwear

 

http://news.yahoo.com/mormons-address-m ... 28671.html

 

LDS is fighting back, after all these years of secrecy.

[browncoatslytherin]

interesting.

i read carolyn jessop's book, and in hers it was explained a little differently, so i suppose maybe different sects of mormonism have different beliefs regarding it.

(i'm not going to go into carolyn's explanation for it right now because i've had too little caffeine and i'm a little too far removed from the book right now and i wouldn't want to misspeak on something.)

[acheronbeach]

Or maybe the LDS church's PR unit is whitewashing the history and meaning of the garments. (cynical, maybe, but the LDS church has not historically been known for honesty)

[browncoatslytherin]

lol that is true as well. :P from what i'm remembering, the given explanation is kinda sorta a stretch of the truth...like it could be extricated from it. but the exact explanation was much more in depth. i have the book on my kindle app on my phone, i'll see if i can find the passage on lunch break.

[Hane]

Obviously, the profusion of info and imagery on the Internet forced the hand of the LDS here.

I've read a lot about the LDS Church. Apparently, many of their faithful have conflated the terms "sacred" and "secret," so only insiders were supposed to know anything about the sacred undergarments or temple clothing.

In an ex-Mormon site, one poster reported having to suppress laughter when seeing a man dressed in the ceremonial temple garb (which includes a green apron and headgear that looks like a baker's hat). I can't help thinking that the contemporary Mormon hierarchy tried for far too long to keep these things secret for fear of being laughed at.

The Mormon temple ceremony was depicted in an episode of "Big Love," and there was a huge outcry by LDS faithful. I thought the ceremony, the temple, and the garments were presented in a respectful way, but that's just me.

I think openness from the get-go would have prevented a lot of the Mormon image problems the Church is now dealing with.

P.S.: I can guarantee that the habit worn by the first nun in the video is a fake--I wore the same thing in a community theater play (left over from a production of "Nunsense").

[2xx1xy1JD]

It was a decent PR video (from the POV of someone who knows nothing about the garments). Show the garments, brief explanation that they are meaningful to believers but not "magical", and essentially not that different from sacred garments worn by other religions. Point made.

[FakePigtails]

I lurk on the exmormon subreddit and the reaction there's been interesting (keep in mind many have spouses who still believe). Basically, they were all told right up until this video's release that the garments and temple clothes were NOT to be seen by anyone else, as in anyone doing so would face punishments, and that the garments did have protective powers (something I've heard myself while at a Mormon friend's house when I was young). And then now the Church puts out this video showing the clothing and saying there's no special power to them. There's also confusion/bemusement at people seeing their devout friends who would have been pissed at anyone else doing this now sharing the video on facebook as if the 180 is no big deal.

[Jessica]

Mormon temple garments: Uncomfortable, poorly-fitting (I swear they think every Mormon woman has had 10 ids and has the lower-ab bulge that hangs down to their knees!) way to control and manipulate members. As one wise person on a forum once said, if they can control what underwear you wear, they can control everything. I will never forget when I took them off for the first time (not for showering or changing), I was so afraid to leave the house because I thought something bad would happen to me. I thought I would get in a car wreck as a punishment because I had heard lots of "If you don't wear these, think of what could happen!" stories. Yeah, beautiful symbol of sacred covenants my ass...

[NotALoserLikeYou]

Or maybe the LDS church's PR unit is whitewashing the history and meaning of the garments. (cynical, maybe, but the LDS church has not historically been known for honesty)

Exactly. Traditional LDS beliefs are really out there and the church keeps moving away from them in order to attract more followers.

[Jessica]

They make it look like just another Christian church to get you in, then the weirder stuff comes out when you've made all these social ties and would feel too awkward to back out. "Oh but it's your choice to (whatever weird thing they're pushing on you)!" they say. Yeah right, who the heck is going to be brave enough to walk out of the endowment ceremony and say "Enough is enough" in front of 100 other people?

[tralala]

I lurk on the exmormon subreddit and the reaction there's been interesting (keep in mind many have spouses who still believe). Basically, they were all told right up until this video's release that the garments and temple clothes were NOT to be seen by anyone else, as in anyone doing so would face punishments, and that the garments did have protective powers (something I've heard myself while at a Mormon friend's house when I was young).

:pink-shock:

Well then. The fact that my mormon roomate from several years ago was forgetful about her laundry makes this fact hilarious to me, as I often had to move her undergarments out of the dryer to dry my clothes. My heathen hands were all over these garments.

No wonder she was having bad luck with the lads. I was messing up the protective powers of the cheaply made underwear!

[Firiel]

I lurk on the exmormon subreddit and the reaction there's been interesting (keep in mind many have spouses who still believe). Basically, they were all told right up until this video's release that the garments and temple clothes were NOT to be seen by anyone else, as in anyone doing so would face punishments, and that the garments did have protective powers (something I've heard myself while at a Mormon friend's house when I was young). And then now the Church puts out this video showing the clothing and saying there's no special power to them. There's also confusion/bemusement at people seeing their devout friends who would have been pissed at anyone else doing this now sharing the video on facebook as if the 180 is no big deal.

What I've been told by my LDS friends is that garments offer spiritual protective power, and that while physical protection may not be "part of the deal" there are stories about them sometimes offering physical protection as well.

[Jessica]

Because I'm in a grumpy mood... http://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/commen ... e_clothes/ Thought y'all would find these comments interesting.

[tigerchild]

A friend turned me on to the Mormon Expression podcast. She and I have bonded because our experiences of leaving the church (I'm not LDS) were very similar and until the internet I really had no one else I could relate to/talk to about what it's like to walkaway/get kicked out of a church where it's your entire life/community.

The host was raised in the LDS faith but no longer believes. They talk about garments, other cultural stuff, ect. My favorite episode is the "Weird Off" between the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses about who's weirder as a religion. I really like John Larson, and to be honest I find the podcasts to be helpful in my own processing even though I was raised fundie evangelical, not LDS. It's about the regular mormon church though, not the FLDS, btw.

You can find it on itunes podcast, and probably online.

[ADoyle90815]

They make it look like just another Christian church to get you in, then the weirder stuff comes out when you've made all these social ties and would feel too awkward to back out. "Oh but it's your choice to (whatever weird thing they're pushing on you)!" they say. Yeah right, who the heck is going to be brave enough to walk out of the endowment ceremony and say "Enough is enough" in front of 100 other people?

I've heard that during the endowment ceremony, there is a part where "if someone isn't ready, they can leave now" or something like that, but I don't think anyone's been brave enough to actually take them up on the offer and just walk out. My guess is that even if someone wanted to, they have family members and friends who would pressure them to stay, or shun them for walking out. If someone were going through that ceremony before getting married, there's a good chance that temple wedding would be cancelled and the relationship would be over. I've never actually been inside a LDS temple as I didn't last long enough once I realized how weird it was even without the temple. I've just heard that there is that moment where someone who is brave enough could get up and leave. I agree that they make it look like another Christian church to get people in, but some of the weird stuff doesn't go on in the temple.

[Jessica]

The temple wedding would be cancelled because you have to go through the endowment ceremony in order to go through the sealing ceremony. The hand gestures you learn in the endowment are done in the sealing. You take each other's hands in the "Patriarchal grip, or sure sign of the nail" then they ask a couple questions (to which you say yes) and bam, you're done. The actual sealing takes about 2 minutes.

The only time I ever saw anyone leave the endowment ceremony was when an older woman with uhh... "mental health issues" stormed out while yelling at her (dead) husband, and her care-taker went running out after her.

[browncoatslytherin]

okay, i found the passage from carolyn jessop's book "escape". it's put in amongst an explanation of a game that they were playing as children called "apocalypse" about the end times, which is reflective of their beliefs of what will happen at that time. it's a rather long game and there's a couple of offshoot explanations here and there, but here's the passage that talks specifically about the underwear:

when god gave the order, the army of several hundred thousand would march out of the jungle. they would decide who would live and who would die by tearing off an individual's clothes. if he or she was wearing blessed garments underneath their outer garb, they'd be spared. but those without the sacred underwear would be murdered.

my cousins looked as scared on the outside as i felt on the inside. only those who covered every inch of their bodies with blessed garments would be saved and get to live in the millennium of peace. it was sobering - especially to a six-year-old - to think that you could make it through all the different destructions but still end up dead if you didn't wear the right clothes.

keep in mind carolyn was raised as flds. (at this period of time she's describing, warren jeffs was not in power) i have no real reference to compare if this is reflective of the mainstream mormon theology or if it's unique to flds, but if anyone has any other information, feel free to chime in.

[SaturnianCatalina]

In an ex-Mormon site, one poster reported having to suppress laughter when seeing a man dressed in the ceremonial temple garb (which includes a green apron and headgear that looks like a baker's hat). I can't help thinking that the contemporary Mormon hierarchy tried for far too long to keep these things secret for fear of being laughed at.

I read a story on an ex-Mormon site (I've actually never been Mormon, but for some reason I find it interesting to read about them) where someone going to the temple for the first time saw a little old man dressed in the temple regalia and, knowing there was a cafeteria in the temple, told the friends she was with that she saw the temple chef and went on and on about how adorable he was! :lol: She was shocked to later put on the same items, needless to say.

[WonderingInWA]

I grew up in Idaho and if you think there are a lot of Mormons in Utah, there are actually more per capita in Idaho.

Our next-door neighbors had 7 kids and one was my age so we played together some (you know, when it wasn't Sunday and wasn't Family Home Evening and wasn't Primary or some other church function). I remember one of her chores in their home was to dust and they had a box of dust rags in the bottom of the linen closet. And guess what they did with old garments? They cut them up into dust rags! So I'd seen my first garments (or fragments of garments) in my neighbor's rag box, and this was the early 1970s, when there was no internet and those undies were still a big secret.

A high school friend of mine, who is a faithful Mormon, posted the Yahoo article on FB the other day trying to play it down that their undies are just as normal for their faith as any other article of clothing to another faith. I just shook my head. They must all be so fearful that something they bought into is finally being shown to the world.

[toejamflipflop]

They make it look like just another Christian church to get you in, then the weirder stuff comes out when you've made all these social ties and would feel too awkward to back out. "Oh but it's your choice to (whatever weird thing they're pushing on you)!" they say. Yeah right, who the heck is going to be brave enough to walk out of the endowment ceremony and say "Enough is enough" in front of 100 other people?

The Mormon Church and I use that term lightly is a Cult not a church. If you read an unbiased biography of its Founder Joseph Smith you will see why I call it a cult. Smith was a Charlatan and Thief who conned people into doing his bidding under the guise of calling himself a God who was Called BY God from the Planet Kolub to rule here on earth. Joe Smith is right up there with Tommy Cruise and the Scientologists.

[FaustianSlip]

So I just tried to watch the video, and it came up with an error message saying that it's "private." I wonder if the Church thought better of it and decided to pull it.

[bluehydrangea]

My family is from the part of the Midwest where all the Joseph Smith stuff went down, the temple was burned, the exodus to the West happened, etc. If you're familiar with Mormon history, you'll know what I'm talking about. But my grandparents still live in this town and spend lots of time there; my dad was raised there. They rebuilt the temple about ten years ago, and allowed non-Mormons to tour it for just a few days. We went, along with like a million people from Salt Lake City, and wow, it was really something...obviously very elaborate (gold and marble everything), but just the...eeriness of it all. There was a room that I remember looking like a straight-up courtroom, and they gave no detail as to what went on there.

Mormon culture fascinates me. The people are sooo clean-cut, all-American. So secretive. It's just very, very interesting the deeper you dig.

[Rachel333]

It's interesting that they're doing this. It's a good move, IMO. I do think the idea of garments is a bit silly, but I do think they deserve the same respect as other religious clothing. Sikh's have special underwear too, for example.

The video is still available http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkTz_NQqKA8, by the way.

They rebuilt the temple about ten years ago, and allowed non-Mormons to tour it for just a few days.

Nauvoo, I assume? That temple is one of my favorites. They tried to make it look like the original, rather than the modern cookie cutter temples. (I actually think those are pretty too, but boring compared to the older ones.) I would be very interested to tour one someday if I ever get the chance. I've actually never even seen an LDS temple in real life, though I did see the original Nauvoo sunstone recently in the Smithsonian US History Museum.

I'm actually an atheist, but there's something about religious clothing, ceremonies, and buildings that I absolutely love. I never miss a chance to tour a cathedral/temple/mosque/etc., and I think it is fascinating to see the different forms that religious devotion takes.

[bluehydrangea]

Nauvoo, I assume? That temple is one of my favorites. They tried to make it look like the original, rather than the modern cookie cutter temples. (I actually think those are pretty too, but boring compared to the older ones.) I would be very interested to tour one someday if I ever get the chance. I've actually never even seen an LDS temple in real life, though I did see the original Nauvoo sunstone recently in the Smithsonian US History Museum.

Yes, it's really cool. When I was young, the foundation of the old temple that remained was decorated in an elaborate flower garden, and I grew up going there and hearing the stories of the temple burning and the execution of Joseph and Hyrum. So when they rebuilt it, it was such a shock! It's breathtaking, if a little eerie on the inside. There are an abundance of sunstones on the new temple, too! I actually have a little replica of one here in my house, I think everyone in my family does, lol. We're not even Mormon, but lots of family history there.

[homeschoolmomma1]

They need to do more research

"The saffron robes of the Buddhist monk. All are part of a rich tapestry of human devotion to God."

Buddhist don't believe in God.