How the other half lives...
Our field trip to a Mormon temple- part 1
If you have ever been in the Bay Area, you will recognize the other side of the building pictured above. Among the buildings that sit atop the hills that hem the cities of the East Bay into their pocket next to the sea, the most familiar is this space ship-looking building. It is, of course, the Mormon temple for the area. And as I have stated from having passed the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City and having heard the stories of people who have toured these imposing structures, they are like the Vatican if redone by Disney.
I have known Mormons all my life. In all of my honors classes at my public high school in California, Mormons were well represented. (And Mexican Americans were not, even though they constituted 60% of the student body, but that is the subject of another griping post entirely.) The Mormon kids were almost always blondes and very light complected; they were often the best students and athletes. They were almost pitied by others since the Mormon church in Hollister was right next door to the high school, and it was known that they had to go to their Mormon religion classes before regular classes started.
Fast forward to my renegade Lefebvrist seminary years: on the plane going to Buenos Aires that I took in order to become a crypto-fascist integrist seminarian, most of my travelling companions were bubbly, all-American Mormon missionaries ready to spread the Gospel of Joseph Smith in the Southern Cone. One of the first structures I saw in Argentina was the Mormon temple for Buenos Aires. It was right off the airport. How convenient...
Anyway, there were actually a few freakish incidents involving Mormons during my time in South America. Everywhere I went, the only Americans I would see were Mormons. Mormons riding bikes in the suburbs of the Capital. Mormons in front of the National Shrine in Lujan. I nearly got a group of fellow SSPX seminarians into a fist fight with a group of blonde Mormon kids right next to the obelisk on the Avenida 9 de Julio. And I saw Mormons on dirt roads in the countryside outside of Cordoba...
But that is worlds away now. Finally having a bit more time on my hands to do frivolous things, I finally decided to visit the people I have tormented so much on their own territory. And I decided to take AG with me so that I would control myself and play nice.
First of all, I have to say if you are ever in the Bay Area and are tired of snapping photos of the Golden Gate Bridge for the millionth time, this temple is well worth the visit. Pray particularily for a clear day because the view from it is gorgeous. The grounds are well kept, the fountain is beautiful, and the structure itself is, well... something to see.
After touring the grounds on top of the Oakland hills, we finally decided, with some forboding, to enter into the visitors center for some informative attempts to learn Mormon doctrine. We skipped the part where the statue of Jesus "talks" to you. (Again, the Vatican if done by Disney.) We went over to the reproductions of Christian religious art and the model sized replica of the city of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus. (Which was kinda cool.)
Next, we went to the large doll house looking structure where an interactive video presentation was given of Mormon children answering such questions like, "who is God?" and "what happens after we die?" All very cute to be sure.
Next, we saw an "original" copy of the Book of Mormon, all the way back from 1830. I'll give it a two and a half out of five stars.
Next, we went into a little room where we were presented with photos of the Mormon hierarchy: a bunch of smiling white men in nice suits. (I think I whispered to AG: "Our hierarchy are much snazzier dressers.") In another interactive video presentation, each one explained a part of Mormon history and doctrine and swore that they were completely sincere and could be trusted to be telling the truth. ("I'm white, middle class, and have nice teeth. And I kinda look like your Uncle Bill. So what I am saying is true...")
But what they said, well, that really got my goat...
But for that you will have to wait for part two. This post is too long as it is.
posted by Arturo Vasquez @ 9:08 PM
20 Comments:
There is a Mormon temple outside of Washington, D.C., just off a major highway. Decades ago when I used to drive around the city on my way home late at night, it would seem to float in the floodlights surrounding it, visible for miles like something out of a bizarre children's story. Right as the temple comes into view, there is a railroad bridge across the highway. Shortly after the temple was opened, graffiti appeared on the bridge; big smoky letters that spelled out "Surrender Dorothy!."
I think what they didn't say is that AG is a descendant of Ham and cursed because she is Black and cannot be a full member of the Church.
You were a descendent of the Lamenites (?) that fought with the Tribe of Israel that came to the Americas (not called the Americas than) and had war with the Toltecs or Incas or whoever they were back than.
Also, you can become a God and create planets. As Adam is God was.
The most interesting to me is that there is a physical Mother (wife of God) that physically gave birth to everyone.
I do like the polygamy thing though. It is better than the Italians gumads and your peoples amantes more institutionalized.
Polygamy makes more sense than people want to admit.
Eep. I've never seen that thing close up nor from that side. Only from the other side and from a distance: the Bart Train. My Godfather has, occasionally, attended the Greek Orthodox Parish that is very near there. John is legally blind although he can tell the difference between light and dark, see some colour, etc. He said that once he went to Church and the Temple was all decked out for Christmas.
And the Greeks had a few choice words for it.
I think they voted to give Blacks full membership sometime in the early '80s. Doctrinal development and all...
Steven W is right – they did give the right to their numerous priesthoods to blacks back in 1978, because ‘new revelation’ from one of their ‘prophets’ – don’t need doctrinal development when you teach ongoing revelation – revealed that blacks could now be priests; ‘God’ had finally decided we were no longer unworthy. But we blacks can still hope that ‘God’ will change our black skin and features following the death of our mortal bodies and make us “white and delightsome.” I am not kidding – Mormons teach that all races will become white, because that’s how ‘God the Father with his Physical Body’ made humanity.
The grounds are actually really pretty, in a very well manicured and with several fountains country club sort of way. They have hidden speakers that play calming choral music when you’re walking around. But the view is really great – one can see the Oakland skyline, and then, as if floating in the clouds, the San Francisco skyline. A really cool effect.
For the record, I did NOT want to go into the visitor center – I don’t like to be rude and ultra-confrontational, but it’s hard for me when people believe such drivel. Going into the visitor’s center was just encouraging my worst faults….But in addition to the cool model of Jerusalem, they did have pictures of the interior of the Temple there, for interested parties (those of us who have not been baptized and Mormons who don’t have temple recommends are not allowed to enter). Its furnishings are those that one would find in a decent cream-colored Hilton Hotel.
Arturo didn’t mention the camera work when the ‘witnesses’ (the white men in nice suits on the video) gave their ‘testimony.’ To the faint sound of birds chirping and a slight breeze rustling through the leaves, with soft chimes ringing (yes, it was that generically soothing), the camera got closer and closer to each man’s face as they verified that what they were saying was 100% truthful. I thought, “That’s great camera work – has a certain psychological effect. And it’s creepy.”
Arturo didn’t know that they believe in premortal existence, but I think that’s part 2….
I've always been fascinated by the Mormons, ever since I read Harold Bloom's book The American Religion (wherein he argues that Mormonism is THE true, quintessential religious embodiment of the American spirit).
I look forward to part II of your post.
huw,
The Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Ascension is RIGHT next to it - luckily (for the Orthodox), the hill is at a pretty sharp incline right there, so views of the temple from the Cathedral are mostly blocked by at least a 20 feet drop.
bja,
I think Bloom is right.
The Mormons theology is Tolkenisque. However, they are very nice people--hard working, honest, stress education, family oriented.
They do not believe in an Aristotelean model of logic and faith alone can supply--thus the ability to believe in some of the absurditities or aspects that can be disproven historically or archeologically.
It has turned into a quasi New Age (you can become God), with occultic and Masonic trappings and leanings with Old Testament garb with polygamy a theocratic state and currency to a fairly mainstream Christian denomination.
While there was past discrimination against Blacks (as in all Churches including Catholic ones although perhaps not philosphically but certainly practically) the Mormons now are almost half Spanish speaking due to Missionary work. They have accepted many Spanish speaking families from Mexico, Central America and South America.
They seem to have very stable family lives and it seems very positive. Mormonism certainly helps with the bourgeouis values of order, stability and producivity. They have interesting "welfare" and other self help and subsidarity programs that are actually very "Catholic" with a stress on self sufficiency.
AG, the Temple probably looks more like the inside of a Marriot Hotel and not the Hilton. Hilton is Paris Hilton. Marriot Hotels (a good chain in my book) is owned by Mormons.
The Boy Scouts (a great institution) is also greatly influenced by Mormons and probably the reason that the Boy Scouts kept out gay scoutleaders and kept God in (because the Catholics usually capitulate to the secular order and are infiltrated by homosexuals to an incredible extent)
Most Mormons I meet are good people. They have a cohesive social system. I am not Mormon.
Their theology is wacky to me.
Their sense of history and archeology is off in my book.
They had an inherently racist outlook.
Nothwithstanding, they are good people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0d1HbItOo
The Greek Orthodox Church there has a great Pantocrator on its ceiling- kind of a Klingon Christ.
The angels on the iconostasis are very muscular.
FYI, after the "Surrender Dorothy" graffitti was removed from the Beltway overpass in D.C., "Dorothy Lives" soon appeared followed by "Yellow Brick Beltway".
In reply to the comments posted earlier referencing mormon history and racism, I have come to understand from my own look into Joseph Smith that he was very anti-slavery during a time that it was extremely unpopular to be.
A phrase the mormons use alot from the bible is that 'by their fruits ye shall know them'. I have known alot of great hard working honest mormons in my life also and it doesn't make logical sense that nice intelligent people can have such a "drivel" doctrine, as AG stated it was.
Sorry forgot to sign in, Matt M.
Actually, most of the things said here about the Mormon were said about the early Christians. Celsus is just one example of an Anti-Christian and his Rhetoric sounds so much like the modern Anti-Mormons.
http://www.fairlds.org/pubs/Celsus.pdf
A Catholic Utterance (1800's)
3In a pamphlet entitled The Strength of the Mormon Position, the late Elder Orson F. Whitney, of the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, related the following incident under the heading "A Catholic Utterance":
Many years ago a learned man, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, came to Utah and spoke from the stand of the Salt Lake Tabernacle. I became well-acquainted with him, and we conversed freely and frankly. A great scholar, with perhaps a dozen languages at his tongue's end, he seemed to know all about theology, law, literature, science and philosophy. One day he said to me: "You Mormons are all ignoramuses. You don't even know the strength of your own position. It is so strong that there is only one other tenable in the whole Christian world, and that is the position of the Catholic Church. The issue is between Catholicism and Mormonism. If we are right, you are wrong; if you are right, we are wrong; and that's all there is to it. The Protestants haven't a leg to stand on. For, if we are wrong, they are wrong with us, since they were a part of us and went out from us; while if we are right, they are apostates whom we cut off long ago. If we have the apostolic succession from St. Peter, as we claim, there is no need of Joseph Smith and Mormonism; but if we have not that succession, then such a man as Joseph Smith was necessary, and Mormonism's attitude is the only consistent one. It is either the perpetuation of the gospel from ancient times, or the restoration of the gospel in latter days."
To learn the truth of the history of Black Mormons. For the times Joseph Smith was far ahead of others when it came to the blacks and Missouri wanted to be a slave state but the Mormons presented a problem for that so they persecuted them and expelled them out of their state and had an extermination order against the Mormons. That's right the Mormons were persecuted because they advertised for free blacks to came and be a part of their Church and live as they live. The policy of Blacks not receiving the priesthood came from Brigham Young and was later lifted even though Mormon history has many black members. I guess the best one to explain the black history would be Black Mormons.
Black LDS History & Black U.S. History Time Line
http://www.blacklds.org/history
The Black Mormon Homepage
Pasted from
The Genesis Group
Pasted from
Blacklds.org
Pasted from
Blacks and the priesthood
Pasted from
Dispelling the Black Myth
http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2002_Dispelling_the_Black_Myth.html
A rather interesting Black History:
From Black Panther to Black Mormon
LeRoy Eldridge Cleaver, the Minister of Information in the early Black Panther Party, and the author of the international bestseller Soul on Ice (1968)--once considered the "Manifesto" of Black Nationalists and even white Radicals.
Cleaver was the most well-known American Black Nationalist and Radical in the 1960s. He was the most well-known Black Panther in the 1960s; the Party being a combination of Black Nationalism and Marxism. After fleeing the U.S. to avoid a manslaughter charge (he was with other Panthers in a shootout with Oakland California Police in 1969) he exiled himself to Algeria and later Cuba. He soon became disillusioned with Communism and Socialism when he saw that socialist countries were no "paradises of the workers" as he had been led to believe. He had a "born-again" experience in Cuba, and became a born-again Christian. He returned to the U.S. in 1975 and was given many years of probation (he was not the shooter). Being a famous figure for years, Cleaver was "wined and dined" by prominent Evangelicals and was offered multimillion dollar contracts to start his own Christian television ministry. He declined this, perferring to work (at a low salary) with young black men in a prison ministry. He concern was not becoming wealthy, but to work with young black men in prisons; to convert them to Christ as the way to free them from crime and gangs. By 1982 he had become disillusioned with the commercialism and showmanshipism of Evangelical Christianity, and he started looking into alternative religions. Also in 1982 he met Cleon Skousen, founder of the Freeman Institute (now called the National Center for Constitutional Studies). Cleaver gave talks for the Freeman Institute, and Skousen (a well-known Mormon author and former FBI agent) introduced Cleaver and his wife to the Mormon Faith. In 1984 he was baptized into the LDS Church. He remained a Member of it until his death in 1998, at age 62, of diabetes.
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