Organ music playing in the chapel. Quiet whispering. Ushers. You have to pay to be there. The whole thing revolves around dead people. It's quit morbid actually.
The Idaho Falls Temple is very funeral home like. The only thing missing is the caskets. The Cardston temple looks like a tomb. The Provo temple by the MTC looks like the mother ship. They have arrived! I wonder if there are any hot Plieadian blondes in there?
Interesting analogy. At least at the temple you don't have to look at a dead person. Yet some dead people I've seen at funeral homes look better than temple patrons.
I’ll add that funeral home directors are always gentle and comforting. Once in the Provo Temple my apron fell off as I was leaving the Celestial Room. A temple worked proceeded to ream me a new one in front of everyone for undressing outside the locker room. Hey, my fly was up!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2017 10:40PM by BYU Boner.
I'm going to play Devils' Advocate here. One could also conclude that funeral homes are designed to evoke the same sort of emotions as one supposedly gets in a temple- a sense of timelessness, of calm and spiritual reassurance. Regardless of what actually goes on in those places, I think an honest intent is there if you want to find it.
The bottom line is that it's about the bottom line.
Funeral homes are a business--they are in it for the money. This is the main thing they have in common with Mormon temples.
Funeral homes and temples are both depressing, but in different ways. The funeral home reminds us of the deceased and death, but the temple is centered on the THREAT OF DEATH. "We're gonna die, and unless we keep coming to the temple and paying tithing, we will lose our families forever!"
Temples have a menacing edge to them. I went when there were still blood oaths and naked touching. It was all threatening to the point of being evil.
In a funeral home, the furniture is for people to actually sit on.
See. That's what the Mormon business plan never captured me as a customer. Being with my family forever would be hell. Not heaven. Their core product never appealed to me.