3 posts tagged “mormonism”
so, here on day two of my utah trip, we spent a bunch of time back-to-school shopping (i now have some truly gorgeous pants -- i feel so preppy, since we went to j.crew and ann taylor -- but i'm excited too, since they're very pretty, and i'll get to wear them for the new school year) but then we went to temple square and looked around. we also ate dinner in the rooftop garden of the joseph smith memorial building -- i tried to get pictures of that, but none of them came out, which is too bad. you can see for miles.
in any case, here's a picture of the temple and then a replica of the golden angel atop it, which was in the visitors' center.
if you aren't familiar with salt lake city... there's i think thirty-five acres in the middle of it that make up temple square. the main building therein is the temple, which has the golden angel on its highest spire, and into which no one can enter who isn't mormon (this is true for any mormon temple. my mother and grandmother got to go into the one in sacramento, but only before it was consecrated). there are other buildings there too: an assembly hall, two visitors' centers, and the tabernacle, which is the same as the tabernacle for which the choir is famous. i got a couple of pictures of that, too. it was under construction, though, so not too much to write home about.
there are all these bronze statues around the city, most of them portraying family life -- men in the timeless collared-shirt-and-pants combo, women in long skirts and collared shirts, which i suppose are also timeless but very "pioneer" to me. the only one that i think is weird, though, is the one of john the baptist restoring the aaronic priesthood.
yeah. john the baptist. hovering. with his hands on the heads of two mormons (is it joseph and hyrum? i'm not sure. i can't remember. i should look it up -- i knew this once.) in the 1800s. i guess that this is a vision made flesh? except not flesh. vision made bronze. or something.
oh, whatever, i know there are many weirder things that people believe, but the suspenders just make me think, "my Lord, this is so creepy!"
in the visitors' center, too, there was serious focus on the family. i mean, take a look at that little disney house over there. there was a video playing in it about "god's plan for the family," and i felt like i'd been transported into some alternate universe where mickey was a mormon. i mean, i'm down with family values, but this was some seriously creepy stuff. and of course, the whole place was full of very nice young women ("Sister So-And-So") and very nice young men ("Elder So-And-So" -- notice that women never get to be "Elder"?) who were very happy to find out where you're from, why you're there, and if you would be interested in finding out more about our Lord, Jesus Christ.
i was tempted, but did not give in to the temptation, to tell them, "oh, i'm here to visit the grave of my dearly beloved excommunicated great-grandfather. you know, really pay homage to his willingness to stick up to his ideals and tell you all to go to hell." but i didn't because i'm nice, and also because i didn't want to have to deal with the consequences of my actions.
they did have a thingee in which you can look up your ancestors, though, and while g.t. harrison was there, they had utterly no information about him -- and i know they have more than that in their records, because he was married in a temple. nope, he's been wiped. birth and death date only, not even info on his children, though i bet some of the kids who have stayed mormon might be in there.
anyway, the creepazoid didn't end there. behold the writing of the book of mormon, complete with fake totally real hieroglyphs, that in no way have anything to do with farming records, nope, never, not at all, uh-uh. they had one of these for all the major prophets, right up to "uncle joe" as i've taken to calling him. for some reason, peter gets to be a prophet, but not any of the other apostles. what's up with that? there was also isaiah and so on, of course. and, while not wax, almost as good was a version of adam & eve in which eve had an incredibly 1960s hairdo.
i seriously expected these things to come alive and eat me.
then, of course, at each station you could touch a screen to start a "narrative" about whoever the figure was, right up to the "living prophet," mr. hinckley. i won't even go there. it was just too far beyond the comfort zone for me; i didn't really even want to hear what he had to say in his prophecies, though i imagine sometime i will have to listen to them.
finally, in the visitor's center there's a twelve-foot jesus statue. no, really. so i took a picture in front of it. flash photography wasn't really okay, but i figured that i need this for my research. or my thesis desk. same thing, whatever. there was a "narrative" for jesus, too. hey, did you know that jesus speaks in a utahn accent, and sounds about sixty years old? no, really! now, when i read my bible & my book of mormon, i'll know how to imagine jesus talking.
there were also lots of paintings all over in which jesus looked an awful lot like joseph smith. funny, that.
okay, i'm trying not to be too cynical, but temple square would be a trial for a saint. all of the mormons i met were very much believers, very much convinced, and it was almost touching to see their faith. but to me, it really did seem like a huge disney theme park gone horribly wrong. i guess i'd feel that way at any of the big "jesusland" museums or theme parks in the bible belt, too, and i'm trying to use that to justify my snark -- this is a real religion! i should be more respectful!
but having just come off of the research i've been doing?
not so much.
so, the first real day i spent in utah.
i got up at a ridiculous hour so that i could get ready, eat breakfast, and meet dr. stan larsen, who is a special collections librarian at the university of utah. it was awesome. i was expecting someone intimidating, but he was extremely friendly and helpful, and even offered to help me figure out where to publish the results of my research -- no one i know is familiar with journals that would take an interest in mormonism, though i guess i could play the theory of religion aspects of it (note to self: research if anyone's done theories of falling away from religion).
i spent pretty much all day in the library, with a break for lunch. then it was back to the hotel for some decompression, and then we went out to dinner and to see the mormon tabernacle choir practicing.
strange but true: everyone is nice in utah. i thought it was exaggerated. i thought, well, portland is a really nice city; utah can't be that much nicer. wrong! wrong, wrong, wrong. everyone, everyone, everyone is so nice in utah that i might just slip into a diabetic coma. also, i am the only woman under the age of thirty who has a haircut shorter than four inches. it must be some kind of secret dress code that only i am not privy to.
anyway, it looks like tomorrow, we'll wander around temple square some more, and i'll get in some more time at the library. saturday we're driving to provo to see grandma's hometown, and on sunday, we're going to get up to watch the tabernacle choir's sunday morning broadcast (longest continually-running radio show in the world!) and see everyone going to church in their sunday best. i hope we can find a coffee shop to hang out in.
today, i didn't take pictures -- it was too dark for good ones by the time we made it to temple square, and the library obviously didn't allow any. we weren't even allowed to bring our own paper in; we had to use theirs because it was yellow and therefore difficult to get mixed up with the stuff in the collections. (i wonder: what about collection stuff taken on legal pads? i'm sure there's some.) tomorrow, though, many a picture will be taken.
...you may i will be in utah.
yep, this afternoon i leave (at 3:30, to be specific) and i'm not coming back till late monday night. originally, the plan was to go to vernal and a family reunion. unfortunately, my grandpa lee took ill, so he couldn't make the drive all that way. therefore, my grandmother came (they aren't still married). we're going to provo, to see where she grew up, and also to the university of utah to see where my great-grandfather's work is archived in the special collections.
this is the guy that allows me to make all those excommunicated-from-the-mormon-church jokes.
yeah.
anyway, we're also going to be in a hotel right outside temple square, and we have tickets to see the tabernacle choir sing, which should be great. i love choral music, and the tabernacle choir is probably my second favorite after chanticleer. (did you know that they were part of the music for nacho libre? snerk. it's one of my favorite of their cds, too, "matins for the virgin of guadalupe.")
so, basically, i won't be in town for the next week or so. i make it home just in time to catch next week's house m.d. -- which i am very excited about, since we're on the final run up to the season premiere. don't tell me i shouldn't be getting so happy about the existence of such a show. i know it's lame. hey, maybe in utah i can convince my mother that it would be fun to rent the first season, to watch at night when we're all zonked from a long day of librarying/walking around salt lake city/whatever. or not. watching tv on your work-cation: astoundingly lame.
