In contrast, St. George has a far higher percentage of Mormons. Above, you can see three shots of the St. George Temple. In 2008, me and my wife spent 2-3 weeks travelling around Utah and Arizona with our American Mormon friends, Laura and Ida. This was a wonderful time, and I found the St. George Mormon Temple stunning. Being non-Mormons, me and my wife couldn't go inside as entrance is strictly reserved to fully practising LDS (Mormon) members.
Inside their Temples, the LDS do higher ordinances (sacrament-type) rituals for both themselves and dead people (usually relatives). First, they do baptism of the dead where an LDS member can be baptised on behalf of any number of dead souls, while the latter have the choice of whether to accept these baptisms or not in the afterlife. Second, Mormons enter eternal marriage here, the spouses fully committing themselves to eternal togetherness rather than just earth life. Third, the Temple is where Mormons have their endowment, where they're given the potential to develop into gods, themselves, in the afterlife.
Like I say, I'm not a Mormon, but for a good few years, I've been fascinated by LDS beliefs. Thus, the Mormons have given me the ironic and semi-endearing title of being an 'eternal investigator'
The picture above is a scene from the centrepiece of 'The Book of Mormon', Christ descending from heaven (shortly after his ascension) to visit native people in Central America. The official LDS belief is that ancient Jews travelled to and were living in the Americas long before Christ visited the Earth in the Middle East.
Is there any archaeological evidence of Christ's visit to Central America Pat? The Mormon pioneers fascinate me with their farming. Where they like the Amish?
ReplyDeleteThe Mormons often point to the pre-Christianised Central Americans having worshipped a bearded God, which they associate with 'The Book of Mormon' story about Christ descending into the Americas. I've also heard the Mormons talking about ancient Jewish artefacts being found in the US.
ReplyDeleteWhat is unusual is that up until the 1950s, the Mormons sometimes dressed a little similar to the Amish. The clean-cut, business suit image which we see with LDS missionaries now is only a recent phenomenon brought about by President O'McKay in the 1950s which caught on with the LDS missionary expansionism of the 1960s.
Didn't know that the clean cut Mormon image was a modern phenomenon Pat. Perhaps they would appeal more if they dressed or farmed like they used to?
ReplyDeleteSaying that I do have great respect for them. Like yourself they have impeccable manners and are some of the nicest people I have ever met.
Do any of them still small farm or are they all business people?
I guess some will still do the small farming, but business is now their forte. For example, BYU is said to have one of the top Business Studies faculties in the US.
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