As a Mormon girl, I was raised to believe that the pinnacle of my life would be when I entered the temple to marry a worthy Mormon man. My very salvation depended upon getting married in the temple --- a temple ceremony seals a husband and wife together for eternity. The highest level of Mormon heaven is reserved for members that have married in the temple and born children. The doors of heaven are closed to those who are childless, single, or un-worthy to enter the temple.
To enter the temple, a member must hold a temple recommend. To get a temple recommend, a member must be of a certain age and have been active for at least a year. A member must also pass an interview, during which he/she must demonstrate that their belief in the Church. A member is asked if he/she believes in the Church; supports the authorities; abstains from mind-altering substances such as coffee, tea, and alcohol; obeys the law of chastity, including abstaining from premarital sex, masturbation, and porn; and have paid a full tithe. If a person can’t fulfill all of these requirements, then they are denied a temple recommend.
One of the most heart-breaking consequences of leaving the Mormon church meant that I was banned from attending my siblings’ weddings. One of my brothers got married around the time I was starting to leave the Church. My parents didn’t even bother to bring me along for the wedding --- I stayed at home while they made the trip to D.C. for his wedding. Three days of wandering an empty house, wondering what was wrong with me.
A year later, another of my brothers got married. By that time, I was fully out of the Church. His fiance was a convert --- her family was Catholic. His fiance’s mother was upset about the idea of a temple wedding and insisted on organizing a church wedding. She wouldn’t take no for an answer --- she had spent years dreaming of organizing her daughter’s wedding.
This is when the matter became very delicate. If members choose to have a civil ceremony, they are barred from getting sealed in the temple for a full year. If they do choose to have a civil ceremony instead of a temple ceremony, church members begin to doubt their worthiness and faithfulness. Church authorities also warn them about the dire spiritual consequences of waiting. There is an intense amount of pressure --- both social and doctrinal --- to have the wedding be in the temple. My sister-in-law was forced to choose between her family and her religion.
So my brother and his fiance evaded the situation. They down-played the importance of the temple ceremony to the in-laws. The wedding was in Pennsylvania, so my brother and his wife woke up at 3 the morning of the wedding, drove to D.C., had the temple ceremony, and then came back for the church wedding. To circumvent the issue of a civil ceremony, they hired a Mormon minister who was very careful about his wordings. Instead of saying --- “I now pronounce you husband and wife”, at the end of the ceremony he turned my brother and his wife around and said “I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. G-----”, thus avoiding saying the words that would have made the ceremony real. And no one in my sister-in-law’s family was any the wiser. They danced, drank, and partied, never knowing that the ceremony they had just seen was a sham.
My sister got married last year. Once again, the issue of my break with the Church was brought to the forefront. My sister’s fiance came from a long tradition of Mormons. My husband and I were the lone non-Mormons within the two families. And so we were relegated to baby-sitting the children during the ceremony. My mother asked me --- after the ceremony was finished and the photography had begun --- if I was upset about being left out of the wedding. I longed to tell her my true feelings --- that being banned from the wedding felt like a knife to the chest --- but I also knew that making an issue of the matter accomplishes nothing. My family performs their weddings this way because they place their faith in a church that demands the exclusion of non-members.
Correction: The sentence "Members are required to show their W2’s to prove that they have paid a full tithe of 10%, was removed", as this is not church-wide policy.
Correction: The sentence "Members are required to show their W2’s to prove that they have paid a full tithe of 10%, was removed", as this is not church-wide policy.
