Big Love Temple Cerermony...too sacred?

What is Sacred? If you look it up online you will find that Sacred is defined as: Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy In other contexts, objects are often considered 'holy' or 'sacred' if used for spiritual purposes, such as the worship or service of gods. These terms can also be used in a non-spiritual or semi-spiritual context ("sacred truths" in a constitution). It is often ascribed to people ("a holy man" of religious occupation, "holy prophet" who is venerated by his followers), objects ("sacred artifact" that is worshipped), times ("holy days" of spiritual introspection, such as during winter holidays), or places ("sacred ground", "holy place").

There is a lot in the media right now concerning the HBO series Big Love. They will be depicting and LDS endowment. I feel somewhat knowledgeable about this. First off I have been through the LDS temple and received my LDS endowment. I feel like I can see both sides, yet know why the Church wants it kept "secret"...I mean "sacred".

There are A LOT of scare tactics in the LDS temple Ceremony. I was only 19 years old and I felt like I was being blackmailed. By God himself of course, but in retrospect by the LDS Church. You make promises to NEVER tell anyone about it. You see it then become secret(sacred). But why not tell anyone. Well to put it simply much if not most of what goes on in the LDS temple is a complete knock off from the Masons Ceremony. Here is a web site that compares the two side by side.
http://www.mormonismi.info/jamesdavid/masendow.htm

Again why the secrecy? Well I believe it was to hide the fact that it is copied from the Masons. Still to this day, I have so many uneasy feelings about the whole things. But at least I am now in a place to heal from it.

So Big Love is going to show the Endowment. Good for them, its feels almost validating to know that the Church isn't going to be able to hide all of its "warts" with the attention it is getting now. The showing of the Endowment will surely be an eye opener for Masons around the world. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

My Exit story...from 2007

I just have to share my story because there is no one else but your guys who will understand. My history is that I come from parents who went to Ricks College and then to BYU and were married in the Salt Lake temple. They were the True Blue Mormons that did 'everything' right. My Mom after 21 years of marriage and 6 kids left my Dad and the church. So much for all those weekly family councils, family home evenings and family scripture study (don't they promise protection of the family unit?) At first I was horrible to my Mom, I had a bishop flat out tell me that the church has to weed out its unfaithful and my mom needed to be weeded out. Well I was married shortly after that for 10 years.

My husband and I were active but we didn't attend the temple as often because of its far distance from our home. But other than that we did all the motions of a typical active mormon family. In October of 2005 my DH got very busy with work and had to be out of town every other day. He met a 21 year old hotel clerk (who happened to be mormon) and had a brief affair with her. He chose our family and it took a lot of counseling to put us back together. What hurt me was what the Priesthood leaders told me:"You are to forgive him now or as quickly as possible"I knew I needed to forgive not just from a church standpoint but for my own mental health. But I thought it needed to be on my own time.

So as I am working on forgiving, one night I was doing Internet search for forgiveness and adultery LDS (I think those were my search terms) and I stumbled upon some information on the 'Pearl of Great Price' that Revelation shook my core. But I wasn't ready to give up. I fought and fought to prove to myself that the church was true. But reading the Book of Mormon just made me have more doubts. compounded on that was a Stake president that was "elected" and it almost sealed my fate. The stake president is a bad/dishonest business man and everyone knows it but says...what he does in his business doesn't reflect upon his holy calling??? WHAT?????

Anyways here I am I still am wearing my "G's"(holy garments) and I want out of Utah so bad I cry. Luckily my DH is on this same road of discovery too. I try not to say much because I feel it needs to be done on his own. I am at a loss what to do. I live in a small community if we leave the church we will be shunned. I don't know about my kids I want them to be taught charity and kindness but none of that judgmental stuff.I am lucky that both my parents will support me with my choice...but my DH won't be so lucky with his family. I really don't know where to go from here.

Coming out of the closet!

I am a Post Mormon. I still am technically on the LDS roll books but I haven't graced a chapel for over a year now. Never in a million years would I think that I would find myself in this situation. To an outsider looking in, it must seem uncomplicated. But when your whole world revolved around a church and you walk away from it.....it takes a lot of self reinventing to move on.

I have a lot of issues now, that I am Post-Mormon. Issues that I didn't know even existed until I had left the church. But before I get into that I must say why I left. I left because it is a fraud, and the 'Church' lied to me. They lied about the history and took great lengths to hide it. They brainwash you, and your children.

I hope this Blog is a healing place....sit back and enjoy