Category: Temple

Reactionary or Revelatory? Thoughts on the New Temple Garment

On By lisatorcassodowningIn Mormon Feminism, Temple31 Comments

Last evening, Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Salt Lake Tribune gave subscribers a glimpse at a new, sleeveless garment design for women currently available “in hot climates such as Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, the Philippines and some southern U.S. locations.” Additionally, “there is a light, one-piece ‘shift’ (looks like a slip) option and skirt bottom for women who mostly wear dresses as in Africa.” This is big news for practicing LDS women, and I’m pleased by this change and hope the new styles are offered soon to everyone. I see this as evidence the voices of women who are speaking out are penetrating the Church Office Building. 

Of course, the change is bittersweet when I think of the decades I endured infections and rashes, not to mention the daily misery of wearing another long layer of clothing on hot, humid days in Texas. The physical discomfort was nothing compared to the guilt that drove me to wear the temple garment, regardless of weather. I’m of a generation of women who were instructed that the only “proper” way to wear the top was underneath my bra. I did exactly that until I couldn’t. The rashes I endured made it impossible to wear a bra at all. I either complied with the instruction I received in the temple or sat braless at home for days while the rashes healed. During a temple recommend interview, I nervously explained this to my former bishop, concerned I wouldn’t get the sought-after signature. The embarrassment on his face and the speed with which he moved on signaled I shouldn’t bring it up again to male leaders, so I never did again. My garment decisions became my own, which is exactly what they always should’ve been. Mine, without any threat of judgment hanging over my head.

Continue reading “Reactionary or Revelatory? Thoughts on the New Temple Garment” →

Fairview: An LDS Temple or a Test Case?

On By lisatorcassodowningIn authority, Temple6 Comments

IN MY PREVIOUS POST, I made it clear I find the way the LDS Church and its leaders, from the top down, are attempting to ramrod a massive temple into Fairview to be unethical and really quite silly. The threats of litigation made against the Town of Fairview follows a pattern we’ve seen with other temples, but the patterns at play go back much farther than our recent temple building spree. Chances are, you’ve heard the expression “might makes right,” but for LDS, the pattern is more akin to “right makes might.” Many LDS across the nearly 200 years of our story have acted without reasonable forethought, as if the consequences of their actions couldn’t possibly bring disappointment. (Think Independence, Far West, and Nauvoo.) The LDS belief that God is guiding his “one true church” through a modern prophet is so strong that it’s as if members expect God will give them the power to overcome all opposition under any condition. Hence, right makes might. Most recently, many local LDS members followed this pattern by swarming the Fairview Town Council meetings and plaguing the town’s mayor with thousands of emails. The message was clear from our Stake Presidents: the Church (therefore, God) wants the McKinney Temple built as planned on the church-owned lot adjacent to the Fairview meetinghouse. We swarmed and, of course, the town began to resent our arrogance. That’s the pattern. The question is, why is it so dang important to build this temple in this way and in this place? Why are we creating animosity when we could create cordiality?

Continue reading “Fairview: An LDS Temple or a Test Case?” →

Build the McKinney Temple According to Fairview’s Ordinance, or No, I Won’t Help Deluge the City Planner with 15,000 Emails

On By lisatorcassodowningIn Temple7 Comments

THIS ISN’T GOING to win me any friends locally. I may live within the boundaries of a fantastic stake and have one of the kindest, gentlest men I’ve ever known as my stake president, but I’m also in north Texas, near Fairview, where the LDS Church hopes to build the McKinney Temple. I am endowed and sealed, and I sustain my stake president. In this case, that requires me to refuse to do something I find out of the line with the gospel of Jesus Christ and contrary to the mission of the LDS Church. For clarity, I no longer hold a temple recommend because my familiarity with its historic connections to problematic, early Mormon polygamy make it uncomfortable for me to be there. My disinterest in participating in temple rituals disinclined me to speak on the controversy surrounding the proposed temple, all of which hinges on the fact that it’s height would require an exemption from current city ordinances. Yesterday, however, at 3:58 pm, I received an email that I found compromising and manipulative, asking me to help flood the Fairview City Planner with emails–15,000 to be exact. This pulls me into the issue in a personal way and so I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind.

Continue reading “Build the McKinney Temple According to Fairview’s Ordinance, or No, I Won’t Help Deluge the City Planner with 15,000 Emails” →

An Apology to the Community of Christ for My Arrogance

On By lisatorcassodowningIn Repentance, Temple, The Things We Do5 Comments

MARCH’S SALE OF THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE by the Community of Christ (CoC) to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has put me in a lasting, reflective mood about the history of my own LDS arrogance. It’s memory unsettles me and compels me, these many weeks later, to make a confession of my pride and apologize to Community of Christ members, as well as members of other churches I previously thought myself above.

Continue reading “An Apology to the Community of Christ for My Arrogance” →

LDS Sr. Leadership, the SEC, and my Sustaining Vote

On By lisatorcassodowningIn authority, Temple, Tithing16 Comments

PUBLIC CHATTER HAS largely abated regarding the February 21 SEC order and its incumbent fines of $1 million against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and $4 million against church-owned Ensign Peak Advisors. You can read the specifics in the order by clicking the colored link above (its surprisingly easy to understand), but the tldr; version is that, between 1998 and May, 2018, the First Presidencies and Presiding Bishoprics (identified as “senior leadership” in the order) created 13 shell (or unfunded) companies into which they pretended to transfer portions of the Church’s billions in order to hide it from the public, and then they knowingly falsified documents (F13 forms) to cover it up. This is a civil* crime. The realization that our senior leadership spent two decades willfully committing crime ought to shock members to their core. It does me. 

SEC orders are negotiated documents, which means the Church agreed with the accusations as stated in the Feb. 21 order. They did it. For 20 years, the First Presidencies and Presiding Bishoprics willingfully broke the law. The fact is, the following men, each of whom served in either a First Presidency or Presiding Bishopric sometime between 1998 and 2018, made hypocrites of themselves as they illegally hid the Church’s wealth from the SEC, the general public, and, most importantly, from its membership. They are:

Continue reading “LDS Sr. Leadership, the SEC, and my Sustaining Vote” →

Advocating for the LDS Advocates Within

On By lisatorcassodowningIn Inclusion, Mormon Feminism, Temple5 Comments

ASPECTS OF THE LDS TEMPLE experience have, once again, been modified. The endowment ceremony now features prominent images of Jesus and the witness couple is reportedly eliminated. Most interesting to me, however, is the addition of an introductory film that identifies the covenants that supplicants will be asked to make, seemingly to address the lack of informed consent that LDS and former LDS have been advocating for. I’m not sure that learning of these covenants just before the ceremony reduces peer pressure or clarifies much about them, but this shift tells me the men in charge are recognizing that informed consent is something members must be able to make. They’ve been listening, just as they (eventually) listened to women who spoke up about the way the previous endowment script disconnected them from a direct relationship with God. Other changes in the last 50 years include the removal of blood atonement penalties from the endowment and shields in the initiatory. Each of these were aspects of the temple experience that advocates justifiably asked be modified. 

Advocacy from within the Church has helped bring many changes in recent history. Protect LDS Children and Ordain Women had members and leaders re-examining policy and perspective. I won’t enumerate the many positive changes each movement helped the Church achieve, but the impact of member advocacy is clearly seen in both movements and brought about celebration from the rank and file.  

Continue reading “Advocating for the LDS Advocates Within” →

Polygamy Culture and Temple Rites

On By lisatorcassodowningIn Feminism, Polygamy Culture, Temple11 Comments

In my previous discussions of polygamy culture, I mentioned that the 19th century practice of Mormon polygamy has had a lasting impact on the emotional health of contemporary LDS women, but I shied away from a detailed discussion of how the still-present practice of sealing multiple women to one man negatively impacts LDS women. At its core, polygamy culture continues to thrive because of this issue. And, in reality, the ways the current practice of temple-authorized polygamy (geared, to be clear, for the next life) are so numerous that I can only scratch the surface here. But it’s a surface that must be scratched until the problem is clearly exposed. Continue reading “Polygamy Culture and Temple Rites” →