Utah Part 2

DAY 2: We began our adventure by journeying to the middle of it all, Temple Square. Of all the 131 temples in the world, Salt Lake City’s is one of the most famous. The learning curve of this trip was largely based upon whether or not we engaged with the people around us. At the same time, Temple Square is the Mormon’s sacred place, which meant that we needed to be respectful and courteous as well. We split up into groups with different locations to start off, the reason being that we wanted to blend into the environment around us to be good observers. Temple Square has temple guards and they have the right to remove you from the property at any time and for any reason, especially if you make the sister missionaries who give tours and talk with people feel uncomfortable (they all carry around little buttons that they can press to call security). Truthfully, I felt like I was in character the entire time, trying to be intentional and observant, but without giving myself away. Payton said my hat helped (if you’ve seen my burlap hat, you know what I’m talking about–he says it makes me look non-threatening and slightly goofy).

The interns from UPFC provided us with a scavenger hunt of sorts to help us explore, like “Where can you find a lock of Brigham Young’s hair?” and “How many pipes are in the organ in the Tabernacle?” Many of the buildings had incredible paintings. I especially liked the paintings of Biblical accounts like this one of Moses consecrating the priests, probably because I’m currently reading through Genesis and Exodus. Well, and after being an Art major in college, it’s hard not to appreciate paintings that make history come to life.

Another one of the art pieces was the Christus Statue, which was in the center of a room that was painted like outer space with galaxies and stars all around. It made me dizzy to look up. This exhibit didn’t strike me as strange until I later realized the implications that it carried. Mormon doctrine believes that Heavenly Father had spirit-children by Heavenly Mother (who is never really mentioned), the first two were Jesus Christ and Lucifer who were brothers. There was conflict in heaven between Jesus and Lucifer on whether or not the spirit babies who were to populate the earth as humans should be allowed free choice. There was a war in heaven and those who fought for Jesus were allowed to be born on earth. They believe that race is also determined by how valiantly you fought in heaven. If you are born into a Mormon family then your pre-existent spirit fought well. If you were born of other ethnicities, then you didn’t do so well, especially if you are of dark skin. Later in life, those who believe in the Mormon “gospel” if they are “worthy”—that’s a whole different story—get to go to the Celestial Kingdom when they die and become gods, get a world of their own, just like Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother and start the process all over again. Their “god” is just one in a long line of progressive gods who all do the same thing. Thus, this Christus statue became stranger when our week in Salt Lake came to a close.

We also visited the General Conference Building, where they meet twice a year to hear their current President/Prophet speak. They have a collection of artwork and paintings of all of the past prophets and their apostles. The auditorium holds 21,000 people and has a unique support structure that makes every seat a good seat because there are no poles in the way. Atop the General conference building they have fountains, a meadow, trees and a view of temple square. It was built to appear like being on the top of a mountain, from below it brought to mind the hanging gardens of Babylon.

After we had reached the top, overlooking the temple (see the picture below), I was able to strike up a genuine conversation with our tour guide. I asked her if she’d been in the Temple and she said, “Yes, many times.” We went on to talk about spirit and how they’re born into the world, spirit prison, why it was that Hitler could work his way up the ranks in heaven, and all sorts of things. I was challenged by the opportunity, but grateful for it because afterward she said, “I’m actually not supposed to answer your questions. I’m supposed to send you over to the missionaries, but I completely forgot!” I was able to later explain how we believe the Bible is supposed to be taken as a complete whole, all of the parts interwoven to form a complete story. It was quite the opportunity as some of the other groups were for some reason identified as “trouble” and given very short tours, with not much opportunity to talk! I tell you, it’s my burlap hat! 🙂

We also visited the Museum, which contained many LDS artifacts from the pioneer days, including the lock of Brigham Young’s hair and the death masks of Joseph and Hiram Smith who were killed in a gun battle in Missouri. They also have an LDS art competition every three years which hangs on display, which included this striking painting of the event where the Smith brothers died as they were trying to keep a mob out of their room (it’s a long story). 

You can see the bullet hole in Hiram’s mask near his nose (on the right). As a side note, Joseph Smith had commanded the people as a part of his revelation to keep good records for posterity’s sake and specifically their genealogies so that they could baptize the dead, but the masks are a little intense as far as record-keeping goes in my opinion.

In the same museum, they had a children’s display that let children play with the “golden plates” and practice transcribing them. It recounted stories from the Book of Mormon like Lehi finding the Liahona (a magic compass). They also had a place where you could use this stamp thing to receive a vision just like Joseph Smith, also costumes to dress up and do traditional south american dancing.

It was quite the day, with multiple opportunities for each of the groups to interact with sister missionaries and to gain a better understanding of the Mormon worldview. Interesting, but utterly heartbreaking at the same time. It seemed so pervasive at this point that I wondered how anyone could ever break free from such a socially enveloping religion. But, hope was on the horizon!