Behind the veil
by David Atkins
As a child of ex-Mormon parents whose blood relatives are mostly still practicing Mormons, I heard a good deal about the secret Temple ceremonies that no one was ever allowed to speak of, much less put on film. They have been described before by participants, but actual footage of the ceremonies has leaked onto the web in the last week. Well worth a peek:
Yes, it’s occult and bizarre. That’s also true of every religion, of course. It’s just that most of the more mainstream faiths have rituals to which we have become desensitized through over a millennium or more or practice. But it’s still a little disconcerting to see this sort of thing on video.
It has long been intention to write into my will that no organization may attempt to baptize me posthumously. I no longer have any contact with my Mormon blood relatives, as a result of my brother, my wife and I having written and produced this anti-Proposition 8 ad that aired in California:
I’m told that my uncle mentioned the ad in shock to my father, without even knowing his nephews had made it. Once he found out, I never heard from that side of the family again.
Honestly, good riddance. As I’ve said before, I have more in common with a fellow progressive half a world away than with my conservative blood kin or next door neighbors. I consider myself a world citizen, have little respect for the institution of the nation-state, and am consistently amused by the strain of Westphalian fundamentalism that masquerades as a certain kind of isolationist pseudo-progressivism in certain quarters of the left.
As to posthumous baptism, if my relatives attempt it and my next of kin discover the effort, I want the pants sued off of them, with the proceeds to go to progressive charities. If that happens I just may do more good in death than I will have done in life.
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