Should ex-Mormons keep their temple oaths?

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Publisher said:
A Christian’s word should be their bond…their word was given freely.
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At the time I made those promises I was not a Christian - I was a Mormon.

Also, I was not told what to expect in the temple. By the time the promises come up, it is too late to get out of it. The pressure to conform is tremendous, and I was a naive 21 year-old. I had no idea that the endowment would be so pagan and so silly. I was tremendously disappointed.

Paul
 
True, there’s not a lot of disclosure or preparation, really. It’s a Mormon cultural thing.
 
higherednerd said:
I’d say the question is moot. If an ex-Mormon keeps his Temple promises, he’ll stand alone. All the Mormon Temple ceremony versions have been in circulation, and are on the Internet now.
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Isn’t there a principle involved here, though? People of principle are often quite used to standing alone.

Reflectively,
Mick
👍
 
But it’s not really a secret. Just something that is awkward to talk about because it is supposed to be limited to a particular setting - like sex. Perhaps that is why traditional Mormons were also skimpy when it came time to tell their kids about the birds and the bees back in the day. Their culture has an odd mixture of earthiness and prudery. When the Manti Mormon faction, the group started by James Harmston, began doing Temple stuff outside the Temple (the True Order of Prayer with folks in their Temple clothing) that was a no-no, a taboo breaker, that led to other things. Most of us keep our sexual activities to ourselves (and any partners) but there is a time and a place that is ok to talk about them, in some circumstances. And, sexuality itself is not a secret.Even the Mormon church says, not secret, but sacred.
 
Catholic20064 said:
I suspect the real reason Mormons don’t want their temple ceremonies made public is that it would hurt their missionary outreach. Of course the real reason the ceremonies were made secret was to hide Joseph Smith’s plural marriages and those of others that followed.
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That’s two different real reasons. 🙂

Numerically,
Mick
👍
 
The first plural marriages did not involve Temple ceremonies. In fact, they didn’t have a Temple at all much of the time in early Mormonism. The wedding is actually separate from the Endowment. The Washing and Annointing and Endowment go together. The wedding is actually a Sealing, and can also involve children who were born outside the covenant of Celestial Marriage.
 
higherednerd said:
Mormons make a LOT of promises. To tithe. To obey the word of wisdom. They send their kids on missions, and vow to consecrate their increase to the building up of the church. Just leaving breaks a lot of promises. The Catholic confessional involves genuinely private confidences that could embarass an individual. The Mormon Temple is a shared even. Even they concede that it’s not secret, just sacred.
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“JUST sacred?”

What an odd thing to say.
 
There is a time and a place where a person might need to discuss their Temple and Church experiences. Therapeutically, perhaps, as a part of the leaving process. Some people feel they are performing a noble disclosure, warning prospective converts about what they are signing on for. There was an anti-Mormon group who wanted to rent a flatbed truck and enact the endowment ceremony outside of the Denver Temple open house when it was built. Another anti-Mormon group talked them out of it. The danger of loose talk is that it cannot accurately portray precious, sacred, and very personal experiences, and tends to provoke ridicule, especially when it is ill-motivated (i.e. Antis with flatbed trucks). That’s not accurate, and can border on defamation.
 
I think that an “ex Mormon” should keep their oaths “sacred” just as I would expect an “ex Catholic” to keep certain things sacred, such as the Eucharist. I would no more expect an “ex Mormon” to trash and abuse the oaths made anymore than I would expect and “ex Catholic” to mistreat what they once believed (and others still believe) to be the body of Christ. As one poster also stated (in so many words), and ex priest is - and should be - expected to not break the seal of the confessional. Some things were meant to stay private; LDS temple ceremonies and catholic confessions included! Just because the temple information may be available on the internet from the postings of a person who does not believe in their sacredness, does not mean it is ok for everyone else to volunteer that information to anyone willing to listen. Since when is the excuse “everybody is doing it” a legitimate excuse??

Annie
 
There’s only so much they talk about. Back in the day, people heading into the Temple were surprised by what happened. Nowadays modern Mormons are less awkward.
 
PaulDupre said:
At the time I made those promises I was not a Christian - I was a Mormon.

Also, I was not told what to expect in the temple. By the time the promises come up, it is too late to get out of it. The pressure to conform is tremendous, and I was a naive 21 year-old. I had no idea that the endowment would be so pagan and so silly. I was tremendously disappointed.

Paul
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Mormons ARE christians:thumbsup:

Annie
 
The specialness and sacredness of the Mormon Temple have nothing to do with whether the apron is green or blue, or how thorough the washing is, or what the system for assigning sacred names is, or whether women pull down their veils for the true order of prayer. These are symbols trying to teach extremely esoteric concepts. Perhaps in the early days, they believed that a literal handshake got you through the veil. People differ in their understandings of things.
 
Annie_B said:
Mormons ARE christians:thumbsup:

Annie
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Sorry, but no. These days they are taught to think they are Christians, but they are not. When I was LDS, and when I was an LDS missionary, we did not want to be called “Christian”. We would have been ashamed to be lumped in with those whom Brigham Young called “as ignorant as the brute beast of the field”.

The modern LDS church has apostasized from what Joseph Smith and Brigham Young taught. Joseph Smith would not recognize your church as the one he founded.
 
PaulDupre said:
Sorry, but no. These days they are taught to think they are Christians, but they are not. When I was LDS, and when I was an LDS missionary, we did not want to be called “Christian”. We would have been ashamed to be lumped in with those whom Brigham Young called “as ignorant as the brute beast of the field”.

The modern LDS church has apostasized from what Joseph Smith and Brigham Young taught. Joseph Smith would not recognize your church as the one he founded.
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Sorry, but yes:D However, I really expected no other response than “no” from most people here (who are not LDS). Your experience as an LDS missionary was just that - YOUR experience. I am not “taught to think I am a Christian” as you put it; I don’t need to be taught what I already believe. I believed that the LDS church was CHristian LONG LONG before I ever joined.
I follow Christ and therefore can call myself a Christian. A Christian is a follower of Christ! I know it is futile to argue the point here at CA; I am merely stating what I believe to be true. No amount of discussion will shake my faith in JESUS:thumbsup:

Annie
 
dianaiad said:
oooh, annie…you are going to wish you had NOT said that. Raise your shields, sweetie…

INCOMING!!!
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Thanks for the warning:D I knew that would be a hot potato, but I could not stand by and leave it alone:o
Annie
 
To SSTeacher,

We were excommunicated because we told the Bishop of the Ward we were in that we no longer believed in the Mormon teachings, we would no longer attend meetings, and that we were seriously contemplating a commitment to another church. We weren’t investigating the Catholic Church at that time but we could no longer consider ourselves Mormons. So, it wasn’t an action we disagreed with at the time, it was an end to a long and painful struggle.
 
CarolinNC said:
To SSTeacher,

We were excommunicated because we told the Bishop of the Ward we were in that we no longer believed in the Mormon teachings, we would no longer attend meetings, and that we were seriously contemplating a commitment to another church. We weren’t investigating the Catholic Church at that time but we could no longer consider ourselves Mormons. So, it wasn’t an action we disagreed with at the time, it was an end to a long and painful struggle.
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Thanks for taking the time to explain.🙂

Appreciatively,
Mick
👍
 
The end of a long and painful struggle is what it is for most people who leave. Role-exit psychology documents and described this process pretty well. So, there’s no “sin” to explain when you have your name removed - some old-school Mormons have a hard time understanding that. To them, it’s “apostasy” and a sign of bad personal spiritual hygiene at the very least. As the church grew and expanded outside of Utah, though, attitudes got more modern. You can still find holdouts, though. I knew of a divorce lawyer who would tear into a spouse who left the church, portraying them as having some sinful moral falling of some sort. BTW a lot of people just leave,without bothering to have their names removed. My ex was an example, and for over a decade the church would try to find him, even contacting me and the kids (which upset them).
 
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