I heard that a group of Ex-Temple Mos were planning to wear their garmies for a Halloween party in which they were planning to go into the streets of downtown SLC and getting in circles yelling "Pay Lay Ale."
I hope it happened and if so, and you know anything about it, please post and let us know.
I for one would laugh myself sick. Tommy Monsoon would probably faint fomr shock. That would be nice. Thoughts?

I hope it happened and I would have loved being there. Sadly, I'm fresh out of garments.

I don't like mocking the temple publicly. It just makes Mormons defensive and looks tacky. There are so many more effective ways to counter Mormonism than shock therapy.

Plus it just feeds their persecution complex.

They'd just whine about religious persection, which of course they l♡ve!

Plus it wouldn't really matter to most non-mos who wouldn't get it.

...and further evidence "the church is truuuuuuue...."

Naw. I'm comfortable with it.

I assume by temple garmies you mean temple robes, and yes it just triggers defense mechanisms. Mockery is rarely an effective mechanism in trying to get through to someone.

Mockery is extraordinarily effective. Who cares whether mockery triggers persecution complex or defensive mechanism in TBMs. The issue is fear. Garmies are sacred because terrible punishment is supposed to fall on those who reveal their secrets, much less those who publicly mock them. This is superstition. To mock a superstition is to tempt fate--if the punishment is true. By demonstrating the punishment is not true, mockery undermines the truth claims. Also, by being an outrageous statement of disrespect, mockery gives a voice to smaller statements of disbelief--like it makes it okay, by comparison, to simply remove your garments and state publicly that you will no longer wear them. Remember this is not mockery of an individual, it's mockery of a concept, like using your forbidden-to-reveal temple name as part of your sarcastic username.

This is why political cartoons are effective. Mocking garments is very similar to cartoons mocking Mohammed. That totalitarians make such mocking a crime is very telling. By making Mohammed just another public figure--to be mocked or not as individuals wish it--totalitarianism is undermined. The opinions of individuals, their individual choices and beliefs, gain superiority over the preferences of the gang. The elevation of individuals' opinions that mockery demonstrates is antithetical to cultism, which subsumes the individual entirely.

Whether mockery is an effective means of getting through depends on who you're trying to get through to. If you want to get through to an individual TBM, obviously you wouldn't do it by shock-therapy. But if you want to get through to a culture, shock therapy can be just the ticket. Witness gay rights parades. Once they were affronts, now they're cool.

Halloween costumes are the perfect opportunity for such mocking. Google great Halloween costumes and you'll find pointed, and clever, social commentary.

And it is the individual TBMs I was speaking of, the key here is that in my opinion society at large is already looking at mormonism as it should (which is to ignore it and consider it weird), the Mormon society is too top-heavy for this to work, which leaves the individuals, who will not respond to mockery.

As for tempting fate, the problem there is that the fate occurs after death, so the believers just assume the punishment occurred.