Jul 30, 2019
Within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the
various rituals and ordinances that take place in LDS temples are
considered to be the highest expression of God's love for us and
the path of human ascension. And for many church members,
especially the ones who have really leaned into temple ritual, it
is. But for a significant number of others, most likely a majority
of those who have participated, temple experiences baffle them or
even become sources of deep internal conflict or discouragement, or
they even play a role in their choosing to leave Mormonism, either
through being less involved or even fully removing themselves from
its membership records.
In this episode, my very good and wise friend Jody England
Hansen and I acknowledge the experiences of participants
all along this spectrum of reactions, but discuss the temple and
ritual in general through the lenses of myth and ritual studies,
symbolism and archetypal energies and truths, and our own
experiences with the temple, including key moments from our own
journeys with the temple that have led to our own shifts toward
greater appreciation of what gifts lie within when we let go of
certain preconceived notions and wrong-headed rhetoric about the
nature of the endowment and other ordinances. A key feature in our
journeys through life and in faith must be a willingness to allow
our world views to expand as we accumulate more and more
experience. What can seem like THE truth at one time in our
development must be able to yield to the lessons found in all the
complexities life will lead us into. And an absolute key in all of
this shifting must involve embracing mythic truths and rich
symbolic methods that teach us in ways that are impossible simply
through what our minds alone can discover.
I think you will find the discussion herein to be challenging but
also liberating, unusual in its frankness while also empowering.
May it be so!