Comments on: Poll: Temple Attendance

By: Eric Russell

Eric Russell — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 05:59:36 +0000

Good idea, Flying Fish. Here are some more ideas to increase faithfulness among the members. I bet lowering the percentage of tithing would result in more full tithe payers. And reducing the requirements for getting a temple recommend would also result in a greater number of TR holders. I also say we make the definition of the WoW something that’s “between you and the Lord.” The number of WoW keepers would skyrocket.

By: JonD

JonD — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 04:50:36 +0000

Rel #19, 39, 51, etc.: I’m a late-20s single man and most often go to the temple (>1/month) with small groups of single friends, and girlfriends at certain times.

One of my favorite parts is being able to chat in the celestial room about the ordinances, trying to learn from other’s insights of the symbolism of the temple and the meaning of the scriptures.

Try it – take a friend, spouse, etc. and have a good chat about the gospel in the celestial room. The only time I’ve been hurried out is when I’ve been on the last session of the day, but I’ve spent over an hour on several occasions.

By: D. Fletcher

D. Fletcher — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 02:47:26 +0000

Maybe if we got the temple movie remade by Peter Jackson, with a few T-Rex’s fighting in the Garden…

By: Steve Evans

Steve Evans — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 02:08:47 +0000

FF, I bet we’re WAY above the statistical average for the Church, and I don’t believe that altering the endowment is an answer to raising attendance rates — or at least a desirable answer.

By: Flying Fish

Flying Fish — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 01:15:07 +0000

According to the unscientific poll, only 3 in 10 attend the temple monthly. I bet this has been close to the statistical average for the Church for many decades. Yes, the Stake may try focusing on raising averages, but they always come back to the resting state average.

To really change the attendance rates I think it requires greater “outside the box thinking” such as:

1) possible content change
2) shorten length of endowment
2) possible presentation change
3) updated teaching methodology (ie ..post 19th century Masonic era approach)

Why should we pretend that some of these future changes can’t still happen? The ceremony has gone through many different changes, iterations, revisions, etc that still convey eternal truths, despite changes in the ceremony itself.

By: MIchael

MIchael — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 03:33:49 +0000

Ben, sorry if you took my comments to be temple bashing. Maybe I misunderstood- the subject is a poll about the temple. My response was “It’s been a while”, and then I explained why. If that’s bashing, well, I’m sorry. The most common response was “It’s been a while”, and other replies (including someone named “Ben” in #14) asked about people’s rationale for their response. I didn’t mean to offend, I merely replied to an honest question with an honest response.

By: Ben

Ben — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:27:49 +0000

Please don’t turn this into a temple bashing thread. I’m simply taking a deep breath and letting those comments go.

By: MIchael

MIchael — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:51:09 +0000

I’ve not been to the temple for an endowment in years. I’d honestly rather read a good book, listen to good music, enjoy the outdoors, or visit the dentist. The temple has never spoken to my soul the way that reading, music and the outdoors can. And at least when I go to the dentist, I come away feeling as though I’ve gotten something from the experience. At the temple, all I get is questions & cognitive dissonance.

The more I read BCC, the more I realize that I’m not a liberal Mormon any longer. I like liberal Mormons, a la Levi Peterson’s recent post, but I’m less and less LDS. That fact becomes more clear when I consider the temple experience. It is not ‘me’, and it doesn’t appeal to me. Whatever sense of spirituality I may have, it finds little sustenance in Mormonism in general, and even less in the temple.

By: meems

meems — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:19:58 +0000

I have only been going once a year because the travel is a long journey. Where I’m living now, there’s not even a temple in the same country.

By: cchrissyy

cchrissyy — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 02:50:32 +0000

Rosetta,
since when does sustain equal agree?

1. To keep in existence; maintain.
2. To supply with necessities or nourishment; provide for.
3. To support from below; keep from falling or sinking; prop.
4. To support the spirits, vitality, or resolution of; encourage.
5. To bear up under; withstand: can’t sustain the blistering heat.
6. To experience or suffer: sustained a fatal injury.
7. To affirm the validity of: The judge has sustained the prosecutor’s objection.
8. To prove or corroborate; confirm.
9. To keep up (a joke or assumed role, for example) competently.