| From: DECWRL::"[email protected]" "Mike Sellers 27-Jun-89 1110 PDT" 27-JUN-1989 15:10:11.78
To: decwrl::lds
[I omitted parts not relative to the Portland Temple. AL]
I'll have to give this a more full treatment at some point, but let me tell
you a something about what happened when my wife and I were guides for the
Portland Temple Open House (BTW, to start from the end, just before we all
left, we were admonished to go and write the experience down in our personal
journals; writing here doesn't really count, I guess, but it's close anyway).
We were asked to be guides for the silent tour of the Temple on the first
day of the Open House (6/15). As a result, I think we got a disproportionate
number of members there, as well as a disproportionate number of detractors.
Nearly 10000 (9985 to be exact) people went through the Temple that day.
They say between 250K and 300K are expected overall (metro Portland has a
population of about 900K including all the outlying areas).
Our assignments were to stand (or sit -- most of the spots had chairs
available) in a certain place in the Temple for an hour to an hour and a
half, keep people moving past that spot, keep them quiet (remind them that
it is a silent tour and that all their questions can be answered at the
end), and watch for maliciousness and vandalism. We got a 1/2 hour break
between each assignment, and then were escorted to a new spot (and then
that person got to take their break). It was really very well organized,
even on the first day, and everything went like clockwork. The youth were
assigned to the entrance and exit of the building, and were given the jobs
of putting booties on people, taking them off at the end, and checking any
cameras or packages so they could be returned to the people at the end of
the tour. The booties are like surgical booties; I believe they are
asking people to wear them (even the guides, etc.) in an attempt to save
he carpet, and to keep people from tracking mud (or worse) in on their shoes.
My wife and I were assigned to adjacent spots for three of our four
assignments (they tried to do that as much as possible). The tour routed
people through every part of the building (some doors, like janitor's
closets, were closed but labeled, and we had instructions to open any door
that someone requested be opened); as a result, we were posted in the
women's locker room, in a stairwell, in the Solemn Assembly room, and
in the nursery/waiting room. However, one of the spots had been moved,
so when my wife was sent to the Solemn Assembly room, I got to go to the
Administrative Center (ho hum). When I got there, though, I found out that
I was sitting in the "Command Center". My job was to monitor the security
radios for the two teams walking the grounds, doing parking, etc., and to
relay any security calls that came in from the guides. For example, if
someone got sick or fainted, or if someone needed to be escorted from the
grounds or was caught vandalising something, a guide would call the
Command Center, and I would record the message and relay it on to one of
the roving Directors. It was mostly very boring. The only unusual thing
I heard on the radio was that someone had apparently thrown a box of nails
in the parking lot. Hmmm. No one threw up in the Celestial Room (though
a woman had fainted there earlier in the morning) or was caught vandalising
anything.
While I was there, I also got a chance to sort through the comment cards
that people can fill out before they leave. These have a space for
comments, for the persons religion, and then a box to check if they want
to be contacted by the church. There were 9 referrals as of 6:30pm on
the first day, which was out of several hundred comment cards. One woman
said something like "This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
I am sure that God lives here. I wish I could be Mormon so I could come
here again, but I can't because I'm Catholic." But then, she asked for
the missionaries to contact her too. In addition to the referrals, there
were many, many other positive responses from people of all different kinds
of religious persuasions (the most common probably being Presbyterian,
Catholic, agnostic, and Jewish, in that order). Comments like "this is a
beautiful building" and "thank you for letting us see your sacred place"
were common. One person who identified himself as a Jew said "This is
the most beautiful place I have ever seen. I feel like any Jew, Moslem,
Christian, or Mormon could worship here." I thought that was a clear
testament to the spirit that pervades the Temple. One LDS from Orem, UT
said "I have seen a lot of temples, and this has got to be the Rolls Royce
of them all" (he may have said that just because all the woodwork in the
Temple --down to the trim and the lockers in the locker rooms-- are all made
of mahogany, and all the stonework is solid marble, including things like
the changing stalls). I was quite impressed by the number of people who
had been able to grasp the fact that the Temple was more than just a
pretty building -- and not a single person said anything about it looking
like something out of Disneyland.
There were also a few (like less than a dozen) negative comments. One
woman wrote "A beautiful building. What a fire trap." Maybe she's
married to a fireman? Another person wrote "Just think what all the
money could have done for the poor." Yet another wrote "This is Satan's
house. As a gospel Christian, I will pray for you."
When we were being instructed in what to do and how to behave during the
Open House, I was impressed by the righteous stance taken by the brethren.
They said that we shouldn't engage in discussions or arguments with any
detractors or protestors, and that we should allow them their freedom of
speech to say whatever they wanted. The protestors would not be allowed
on the Temple grounds, but we were to do nothing to stop them when they
were on the public sidewalks. In addition, we were to be courteous, quiet,
kind, and as reverent as possible when dealing with a potential troublemaker.
No strongarm tactics, period. We were each given a card with an exact
statement to say if we had to ask someone to leave; saying the exact words
would protect ourselves, the church, and the person from any possible legal
liability or ambiguity. After seeing the responses of so many non-LDS
people to this Temple, I was even more impressed by the way they saw the
Church. Most probably didn't agree with us on all of our doctrine, but
they could at least sense the spirit of the place. In addition, I was
comforted (more so than I would have anticipated) that very few people,
if any, were swayed by the rather transparent protesters outside the
temple. No one made anyone come to the Open House, and no one from our
church tried to shove anything down their throats. It seems like, except
for perhaps a few who came in to the temple with their minds already dead
set against it, the vast majority of people were able to discern who
was acting out of love for God, and who was acting out of hatred and fear.
Mike Sellers
[email protected]
Mentor Graphics Corp.
P.S. A few other tidbits about the Portland Temple: It is made out of
white marble from Vermont, and roofed with green slate also from Vermont.
There are no windows in the building. In many places, the marble has been
shaved thin enough to be translucent, which is an incredibly beautiful
sight. The Solemn Assembly room takes up the west end of the third floor
of the building (the room is essentially two stories high), and when the
sun is setting, the beams come right through the whole west end of the
building into the Assembly room. I am told that when the sun is just
right, the Sunstones carved on the outside of the building shine even
brighter than the rest of the marble (the marble being thinner there).
The Celestial Room takes up the east end of the third floor, and is also
two stories high. It has a stairway leading up to a balcony, where you
can sit and contemplate for a while without being in the way of other
people (my wife always tries to haul me out of the Celestial Room in
Seattle as quickly as possible because she feels like we're in the
way). There are (I think) 12 sealing rooms, including one gorgeous one
that is right off the Celestial room and sits within the main spire of
the Temple. The Endowment rooms are smaller than in most other Temples,
but it looks like they are geared up to make the sessions move along
efficiently. There is mahogany and marble throughout the building,
and even an indoor arboretum.
I hope you all get a chance to see our new Temple as soon as possible.
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