the thinker

Temples


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“For a Mormon, the temple is as close to the other-worldly as he can come on earth. The temple is God's residence rather more than the local chapel where he does most of his worshipping and all of his congregational meeting. A Mormon visits a temple once a month as a kind of norm, but may go every day, or several times a year. He may also go much less frequently than once a year. But he cannot be a good Mormon and avoid the temple.”

- Mark P. Leone, “The Mormon Temple Experience,” Sunstone Review, September-October 1978, p. 10

“We all have a great obligation to do ordinance work for our ancestors, as well as for ourselves. It is a requirement that we cannot escape. The Prophet Joseph Smith made it clear that the salvation of our departed ancestors is inseparably connected with our own. ‘We, without them, cannot be made perfect,' he taught most forcibly.
“With that in mind, we must search out our genealogies so that our dead may properly be identified as we perform vicarious work for them. From generation to generation we must be united as the Lord has provided. That can be achieved only through the ordinances of the priesthood available in the temples of the Church.”

- “Using Our Temples,” Church News, June 19, 1983, p. 16

“If [the temple] will be in direct view of our most isolated and pristine nature trails, shattering their remoteness... Why do Mormons have to put it here?”
The answer from an LDS project coordinator:
“Because it's the perfect spot for our temple... I don't think there's anybody in Glenview who realizes what the temple will do for the community – the reverence, the awe, the beauty.”

- “Environmentalists Fight Temple,” Salt Lake Tribune, December 6, 1982, p. A-3

“A [Mormon] temple [in East Germany] would…be an ensign to the people that the government is not as repressive as the press indicates. I'm sure the government hopes that this will make members of the Church more satisfied to stay in the GDR [German Democratic Republic]. The Church is no threat to the government, and they know it's no threat.”

- Susan Oman, “East German Communists Welcome Mormon Temple,” Sunstone Review, November 1982, p. 28