No jot, iota, or tittle of the temple rites is otherwise than uplifting and sanctifying. In every detail the endowment ceremony contributes to covenants of morality of life, consecration of person to high ideals, devotion to truth, patriotism to nation, and allegiance to God. James E Talmage, The House of the Lord p84
There is, however, another piece of armor worthy of our consideration. It is the special underclothing known as the temple garment, or garment of the holy priesthood ... enabling us to withstand the fiery darts of Satan. Carlos Asay, Ensign August 1997, The Temple Garment
pre-1900: Then with that enmity I will buy up armies and navies, popes and priests, and reign with blood and horror on this earth.
post-1900: Then with that enmity I will buy up armies and navies, false priests who oppress and tyrants who destroy, and reign with blood and horror on this earth. Temple endowment ceremony
Adam: What is that apron you have on?
Lucifer: It is an emblem of my power and Priesthoods. ibid.
The ceremony also contains elements resembling the Masonic rituals current in 1830, when Joseph Smith founded the church ...
The latest revisions diminish these elements, including gestures symbolizing the participant’s pledge to undergo a gruesome death rather than reveal the rituals. The New York Times
Despite injunctions for secrecy, accounts soon began to circulate about the temple rituals. During the 28th December 1845 meeting of the Quorum of the Anointed, Kimball had, according to Clayton, ‘alluded to the stories in circulation that several persons had been killed on their way through the ordinances, and that men and women were stripped naked here. Joseph [Smith] said that for men and women to hold their tongues, was their salvation’. David John Buerger, The Mysteries of Godliness: a History of Mormon Temple Worship
[Wilford Woodruff] stopped the practice of sealing people to General Authorities and other Church members outside their family lineage and instead directed that they be sealed to their own parents. ibid p52
... omit from the prayer circle all reference to avenging the blood of the Prophet. ibid. p55
[The ceremony was shortened from] six to nine hours in length to roughly three hours. The graphic penalties, all of which closely follow Masonic’ penalties wording, were moderated. The Temple garment style was altered. ibid. p55
... The introduction of this new-style garment caused considerable unrest among some members. Nevertheless, the pre-1923 style garment was required in the temple ceremony until 1975 when its use became optional. ibid. p56
... several phrases used in ceremony film scripts were subsequently dubbed out in the mid-1970s, [including the] preacher’s reference to Satan having black skin, [and] Satan and the preacher no longer fix a specific salary to proselytize the audience for converts. ibid. p62 with footnote
... The earliest accounts of the Nauvoo temple endowment indicate that initiatory washings followed a literal Old Testament model of actual bathing. Large tubs of water are specified in the separate men’s and women’s rooms. The anointing was performed by liberally pouring consecrated oil from a horn over the head and allowing it to run over the whole body. ibid. p81
The Saints have endeavored to keep the ceremony of the endowment perfectly quiet; but some of them have let the cat out of the bag and disclosed all. We have the story from two different sources, and as both correspond, we give it credit, although persons abroad, not acquainted with Mormonism, will be loath to believe that so much depravity as is evinced in the invention of this ceremony can exist, and that men and women can be found who consider the obscene rites sacred.
There must always be two candidates, a male and female presented for the endowment at once. These must pay one dollar each as a fee. If a male cannot find a female to take the endowment with him, the heads of the church provide one, and vice versa.
The candidates are first taken into a room together, where they are stripped of all their clothing and are made to wash each other from head to foot.
They are then separated and put into different rooms, where they are oiled – with perfumed sweet oil, by one of the functionaries of the church.
They then pass into another room still separate, where one of the Twelve pronounces a blessing upon them and gives them extensive powers and privileges – such as a plurality of wives to the male, and other similar blessings to the female.
The ceremony being ended, the candidates are brought together, still in a state of nudity, into a room where they are allowed to remain together, alone, as long as they see proper. They are then invested with their robes and take their departure.
The really deluded among the Saints consider this ceremony as sacred and intended as a trial of their virtue. But it was invented by the Twelve, evidently for the purpose of offering them an opportunity for gratifying their brutal lusts. Warsaw Signal 18th February 1846, Thomas Sharpe editor
cf.
I discover by your paper, in what you have published in regard to the Mormon endowments, given of late in the temple, that you have been wrongly informed at least, so far as actual experience has taught me in the orgies of an afternoon, in that (as I have been taught to believe) most holy building.
In revealing what I am about to do, during the laughable farce, several oaths and obligations of a serious character, not to reveal the secrets of the priesthood – had they been given me by any thing other than assumed authority, and vile, corrupt, licentious libertines, taking upon themselves the livery of Heaven, and essaying to represent the characters of our God and Savior – knowing those characters as I did previously to be the most debased wretches upon earth, the whole farce appeared to me to be nothing less than fearful blasphemy.
... We were divested of all our apparel, and in a state of perfect nudity we were washed from heat to foot – a blanket was then thrown about our persons, and then commencing at the head we were anointed from heat to foot with sweet oil scented (I think) with lavender. We were then clothed in a white robe. Warsaw Signal 15th April 1846, letter from Emeline
Then in January 2005 the church changed the ordinance again. The ponchos were sewn up on the sides and temple patrons had to wear their garments underneath them. The touching stopped and the washing and anointing is done with motions close to the body.
The changes to this fundamental saving ordinance are akin to changing baptism from total immersion to a sprinkling on the head. Yet Mormons point out that changing saving ordinances is a wicked sign of a church’s apostasy. Deconstructor, board post 29th December 2006, ‘Naked Temple Touching – Then and Now’
Please, brethren, do not discuss outside of the temple that which occurs in the temple ... But when you leave the doors of the House of the Lord, be true to a sacred trust to speak not of that which is holy and sanctified. Gordon B Hinckley, article Ensign May 1990, ‘Keeping the Temple Holy’
We’ve brought Zion to Babylon ... the greatest day ever for the city of New York . . . I can’t think of anywhere that needs a place of peace and of refuge and of repentance more than New York City. This temple is a blessing. Gordon B Hinckley, New York June 2004
I don’t know how the missionaries find some of the people they find. The FBI can’t find them, the police can’t find them, but our missionaries find them [laughter]. Why is that? Gordon B Hinckley, fifteenth Morg president
The First Presidency and the Twelve, after most prayerful and careful consideration, have reached the decision that the present program of missionary farewells should be modified.
The departing missionary will be given opportunity to speak in a sacrament meeting for 15 or 20 minutes. But parents and siblings will not be invited to do so ... There will not be special music or anything of that kind …
We know this will be a great disappointment to many families ...
However, we ask that there be no public reception to which large numbers are invited. Gordon B Hinckley, general conference priesthood session October 2002
Temple marriage is another shock. You hear about it all your life, and when you actually participate, you feel cheated – terribly cheated. This is not a wedding, it’s a cult ceremony. A bride should look lovely, and a groom should look like the little guy on the top of the wedding cake (you see him in real weddings). Not only do you look weird, the ceremony is short, ugly, and depressing. You don’t even feel married. You are supposed to marvel at the symbolism of the wedding ring, and faint with ecstasy over the mirrors. Please. I was not even sure I could touch my wife when it ended. I did not feel married. lightfingerlouie, board post 15th April 2008, ‘Where the Mormon Shoe Pinches’
I could not come to terms with the missionary experience either. It came as a complete shock to me. I went out full of idealism, and high hopes. I was going to embark on a splendid spiritual journey. I would gain that elusive testimony, know the church is true, and come back ready for a life of obedience.
What I got was a para-military nightmare, fresh from the exercise of totalitarian authority. I was told what to read, think, eat, and wear. I was not able to sit down in the summer heat without being made to feel guilty. I was expected to be out at night in sub-zero weather, knocking on doors at 9:00 p.m. I was rebuked for honesty, and humiliated for normal thoughts. I was pushed around, bullied, and misused. I came as a volunteer, asking for nothing. In exchange, I was treated like dirt. I never have forgotten the experience. After all, it was ‘the best two years of my life’. lightfingerlouie, board post, ‘The Stuff I Couldn’t Take, And Still Can’t Forget’