Beyond Mitt's Underwear: Part 4: Ordinances

[tongodeon]

The rituals and practices that Smith restored are called ordinances. Saving ordinances such as full immersion baptism and receiving the holy spirit are required prerequisites for exaltation, eternal increase, and godhood. Sealing ordinances such as marriage and adoption preserve relationships in the afterlife. Endowment ordinances such as the

Comments

[mmcirvin]

I know someone who is quite irritated that the Church refuses to unseal her from her ex-husband unless she marries someone else, and that, since her ex-husband is marrying someone else, this (in the eyes of the Church, at least) involves her in a nonconsensual polygamous marriage. She'd be less irritated if the Church hadn't made such a big deal about opposing same-sex civil marriage using "one man and one woman" rhetoric.

[occlupanid]

As much as I like reading about the masonic origins of Mormon symbols, (esp BEES!) may I suggest using an alternative link other than the "www.inplainsite.org" one? That site is clearly run by nasty people with a very narrow interpretation of their own brand of xian religion, and their use as a reference are therefore mightily compromised...

[theweaselking]

There's a Mormon Apologist site here that basically admits that the practices are extremely similar - but claims that, despite the Mormon founders being Masons, their choice of the same symbols and the same practices is coincidental since both can trace some to the Bible and others, well, the Mormons think the Masonic versions don't count, and they stole SOME of them from Mason-ness[1] but have changed them recently so THOSE don't count.

It's heavily weighted the other way, "debunking" the claims, but the debunking fails on every level at every point. Would it suit?

[1]: I hate noun overloading. "Being a member of a Masonic Order" is not being a mason, nor is are the practices of said orders "masonry". Stoneworkers everywhere are impugned!

[tongodeon]

The problem is that the signs and tokens are secret, so I can't refer you to the standard lds.org link that I normally would.

I've got references to a bunch of links that all point to the same information, which hopefully shows that the admittedly nasty narrow people behind inplainsite.org happen to be right about those claims.

[flwyd]

Ah, the traditional marriage, featuring a Disney clip.

[anonymous]

These are really impressive summaries. You had to have spent a frankly disturbing amount of time not just collating these facts, but thinking about it enough to develop the perspective to group topics this way, and to keep it so concise. I can't help but think about the fact that pre-internet, a summary like this wasn't available anywhere. This all would have blown my teenage mind. I see missionaries out on the street recently and wonder, what do they know now that I had no idea about when I was their age even though I was a really active Mormon, and how are they making sense of it all in their heads. -- Wendy