Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the Mormon temple the first time?
turnonthelights Sep 2012
I remember looking at my parents dressed in those strange outfits and thinking "what the hell is this!" My dad looked embarrassed when I looked at him like he knew it was strange and felt bad for putting me through it. My mother fell asleep throughout most of it. I remember telling my mom that the videos were horribly acted and why couldn't they have at least hired better actors. The naked touching and "oh god hear the words of my mouth" chants were creepy and cultish.
I remember my little sisters waiting anxiously for me to get home that night to hear what my reaction was. I told them I was seriously doubting the truth of the church after that freakshow. I didn't tell them the details but scared the sh*t out of them none the less :)
Note: The 'naked touching' was removed a few years after the changes in the endowment ceremony in 1990 .
twojedis
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
When my son went through before his mission, I was hoping he didn't think it was too weird. In the celestial room afterward, my BIL (married to my sister) leaned over to me and said that after his first time through he thought, " Great, I just joined a cult.". What he said stuck with me and allowed me to admit how weird it is, although it is nearly 3 years after the fact. Glad I'm out!
ymountain
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
My boyfriend said he was extremely weirded out when he watched his half sister get sealed to his parents (he was not even a teenager yet). Apparently his mom and dad were all dressed up in the goofy garb and what not. He said that after the ceremony was over, he turned to his dad and said, "now I understand why people think we're a cult." LMAO
catnip
I was too tired from the long trip to think much of anything, except
"Lord,I hope we'll be done fiddling with these goofy outfits soon!"
oxymormon
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
exactly!
actually, my thought was: "doesn't the BOM go on at length about 'secret combinations'? WHY are we doing this?"
kgigeque
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
I am 60 and have never been to the temple (I escaped young), but I watched the ceremony for the first time this year- the hidden-camera version that was posted online for awhile - and I will never quite feel the same way about my family members who have all married this way. How could no one see that this is a CULT, CULT, CULT and run away?
lucky
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
did that father remind that son that he better not tread much further down that ideological path or he might end up with his throat cut ? or some such unexplicited penalty since 1990.
lucky
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
No, I was so busy thinking: "what the Hell is this" insane freakish crap! and "This is just WRONG!" that I forgot about the label of cult as it might have applied to this insane EVIL.
lucky
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
kgigeque Wrote:
It probably has a lot to do with the psychological noose that LDS Inc has around the initiate's neck. .....in the masonic ceremony the actually have a noose around the initiate's neck for a while.
Mon
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
I thought, was that it? Seriously where was the hardcore knowledge I was suppose to recieve. It did not make sense to me that we had to say all that crap at the veil to get into heaven. Didn't HF know if one sparrow fell from the sky (or some dribble like that) but he didn't know me at the veil the good daughter that talked to him at least 5 times a day by prayer, was at this meeting house almost everyday of the week. I thought he knew the intents of my heart, but he doesn't know me when I turn up at his front door? Made no sense to me.
The handshakes made no sense to me either, it seemed like a very ineffective way to moniter who came in and out of the celestial kingdom. Very secrect combination to me. When I questioned it saying, what if you were evil but still knew the sayings and handshakes, or what if you were good and couldnt remember, I was then told well HF would know the intentions of your heart, HELLO whats the bloody point then, just look at my heart!
And yes the "Oh God hear the words of my mouth" seemed very very odd to me. Especially after being told how god hated vain repetition. And ladies with the priesthood blessing me.
The temple to me taught the COMPLETE opposite of what was taught in church.
heat27
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
Definitely felt like a cult when i had those clothes on.
saviorself
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
How can a spirit do a handshake? I thought that spirits do not have hands.
rocketscientist
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
When I got married, I wasn't active in the church. My wife and I went off to grad school and there met a group of unusual mormons (definitely not the Utah type!). As a result, we both became very active and turned into true believers. We then spent everything we had to return to Utah to be sealed in the temple. I was expecting some great new knowledge that would bring us to another level as far as the gospel was concerned.
What a shock! The washing and annointing actually didn't bother me, somehow it felt intimate and spiritual. But, the endowment ceremony was another matter. I kept thinking "secret combination," and asking myself "why the ritual?" Seeing Gordon Jump as Peter and seeing my father in law in the bakers hat almost made me laugh out loud. But the "Pay, Lay, Ale" and the acted out penalties were the icing on the cake. I left the temple and immediately started building my "cog dis shelf." Four years later and an article on the Book of Abraham and I was out.
Samantha Baker
The two times it stuck out the most... Temple and MTC
Greyfort
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
No, I was just frightened and wanted the heck out of there.
Not Now
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
Here's what I posted in the thread: "Anybody remember going thru the temple before they made the movie?"
I first went through in 1960 (Salt Lake). I was in total shock because I had heard nothing but criticism about Catholics for having statues and other "graven images." But there I was, sitting in front of a statue-like actor and surrounded by "graven images" on the walls. I couldn't believe that the ridiculousness of the situation didn't seem to register with anyone but me.
In retrospect, I wish I had said I wasn't feeling well and then left.
I'm told a relative of mine cried for three days after a first temple experience.
cl2
I thought "this is not the church I was raised in."
and I also thought about being taught that we didn't have rituals and here I was.
I should have had a clue. My dad never went back after he got married until my sister married 25 years after he did. I never went through a session with my dad--I can't imagine him wearing that hat. My dad looked just like John Wayne--big and tough.
My mother--she asked me to get someone else to go through with me the day I went. She said she had a hard enough time handling it without helping me.
When they said sexual intercourse, I about fell off my chair.
I thought the worst part was the 5 points of fellowship. I felt I was being felt up.
twojedis
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
Very well said!
munchybotaz
I never went through the temple, but I remember thinking it might be a cult.
I'm not sure why. Someone might have said it to me--my evangelical hippie boss from my job at the dental lab? Maybe it was in the pamphlets he gave me, me that I ended up taking to seminary. Maybe one of my parents or someone from church mentioned how those nasty anti-Mormons say it's a cult, as part of the whole "we're not weird/Satan is after us" thing that Mormons do. Or maybe I got the idea from something in the news, like the People's Temple thing in Guyana.
I know I considered the possibility. I was uncomfortable in general, and I had particular problems with the leaders being so old and with being monitored by people I wasn't related to.
dagny
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
I did but I immediately went into protect, rationalize and make it fit mode.
I figured that Satan designed cults to confuse people who went to the temple!
Stumbling
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
Yep.
Nothing since has changed my mind.
JoD3:360
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
I'm not sure I thought "cult" but I did find myself in the Celestial Room fearfully looking at my parents as if they were cultists.
matt nli still
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
Yes during my sealing to my parents.
rise
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
I just watched the whole thing on youtube. The part where the women put the veil over their faces was seriously creepy.
wanderingsheep
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
I remember thinking explicitly that it was extremely cultish when I went for the first time I went through when I was 19. I guess that is why they want you to go so many times, so the strangeness becomes the new normal. Only took 13.5 more years to realize something was up. Good grief.
My wife also told me she got dirty scowels from the women temple workers for not remembering what to say at the vail.
rationalguy
Re: Anyone think "CULT" when they went through the temple the first time?
I always thought there was something wrong, even when I was tying to accept it as correct and become a good little Mo. The authoritarianist feel it has bothers me most. There's nothing I despise more that the phrase "Bow your head and say yes." I remember my silent response was often "F--- You!"
danboyle
I never knew why people called mormonism a "cult"...
until I went through the temple, in 1979.
I got the full cult treatment: naked washing and anointing, new name issued, then I, along with my parents and family, got to slit our throats together (ear to ear), disembowel ourselves, pledge everything we have and will ever have to the church, and promise not to disclose these secrets.....
It was, and still is, the most cult-like thing I have ever been involved in. I felt like running for the door, but just like every other cult, the peer pressure, family pressure and 19 years of indoctrination kept me there.
What a mistake I made by not getting the hell out of there.
"Recovery from Mormonism - www.exmormon.org"