Hilarious. If any place teaches poverty, chastity, and obedience (by all means, and for the love of the Honor Code, obedience!), BYU is certainly that place. I was thrilled to be a part of my ceremonial rite of graduation. It was impressive to sit in the Marriott Center among thousands of fellow graduates and be a part of the tremendous celebration of our having received higher knowledge. I was not always a fan of BYU (and still am not totally sold on it) but I loved being a part of those ceremonies. Of course, part of my exhilaration might have been realizing that I was finally finished with the place.

At any rate, I remember it was sitting in the Marriott Center seeing all the thousands of robes and hats and different degrees of knowledge identified by them that made me start thinking about the temple similarities (and Nibley’s great quote). If graduating in heaven from one degree of knowledge to the next is anything like that (a grand celebration of knowledge), I’m ready to go back to school at the Lord’s university (not BYU). :)

Jon

Michael (#6), I have seen some really great services held in the temple chapel–maybe you just need to go outside the U.S.! People who have come in on a two-day bus ride tend to make more of their temple visit. I believe I’ve seen such meetings (hymns, talks by stake or temple presidency, etc.) in Japan, Mexico, and Switzerland (a bunch of Italians up that weekend). It was also a lot of fun to see people roll out their sleeping bags in the halls below the chapel in Tokyo that sits right next to the temple.

Actually the resemblance between the endowment and typical graduation ceremonies is part of why I chose not to participate in my BYU graduation! tho I sat in the audience. It made me kind of queasy to think about participating. I also had Hugh Nibley as a teacher . . . but by the time I got my PhD, there was no way I was going to skip that graduation! I had definitely been initiated into something, and I didn’t know if I liked it, but I was going to claim what I’d earned! I’d never made any vows, but I’d taken on poverty, chastity, and obedience nonetheless.

Jim (#16), of course I agree that ultimately it is the uniqueness, or more to the point, the singleness (wholeness, synthetic unity, integrity) of the temple ceremonies, individually and as a group, that is most important. But I care how non-Mormons understand and think of the temple because they are my brothers and sisters, and I want us to understand each other.

Orin, you need to get out more. There are a lot of strange things in the world, or at least things that seem strange to those who don’t understand them. It’s a good thing you became Catholic after Vatican II!

How can I say such a thing? Because before I went out to serve a full time mission for the LDS Church I went thru the temple. Now that I am Roman Catholic I can say that I have never, and I do mean never, encountered anything as strange as the LDS Temple Endowment ceremony.

Please, don’t compare something done in secret with something done in public…there is so little a parallel that to attempt to draw one is stretching credibility to the breaking point…and beyond.

And thanks to The_Monk for pointing out that very excellent article.

For the Sceptic (#21) I’m sure that the commonality of graduation ceremonies extends well beyond the mid-17th century. Please take a look into the origins of Universities and the links to both the Priesthood and the guardianship of knowledge. Medieval guilds and their initiation rites would also be a fruitful point of comparison.