Thanks for that link. The flight-attendant officiators in every one of these temples (apparently) really seals that Mormonism is McDonald's Church to me.

I find it interesting that women swore in this ritual to "Serve the law of their husbands" until in 1990 they changed it to a lot of fluffy language that MEANS THE SAME EXACT THING.

Also, Adam's actor looks a lot like Mitt Romney, all white and chin.

Also... pre-1990, everyone would get their loins anointed during this ritual as well.. Apparently the best time to be a mormon priest was in the 80's. Oh wait, also I think they can do these rituals with 12 year olds...

You care to expand your comment simi?

quotes from Racketeer's link:

" (Ironically, although Mormon women don the "robes of the holy priesthood" during the endowment ritual, women are never ordained to the Mormon priesthood. Most Mormon males over the age of twelve are ordained to the priesthood, but no female has ever been ordained.)"

" Each participant (called a "patron") goes to a locker room and completely disrobes, removing his street clothes and covering the body with a loose white poncho (called a "shield"), which is open on both sides...where temple workers ("officiators") are waiting for the individual patrons...The patron enters the booth, and receives the washing, which consists of a token wetting of each part of the body by the officiator, reaching underneath the shield.. The head, eyes, nose, neck, shoulders, arms, loins, legs, feet, etc. are all washed and blessed."

"UPDATE! (January 2005) In the first major change in the endowment ordinances in fifteen years, church authorities on January 18, 2005, revised the washing and anointing ordinances. Patrons now put on the garment themselves in the locker room, then don a white smock before proceeding to the washing booth. Only the head, hands and feet are exposed. The washing now consists of a single wetting with water of a spot on the forehead, and the anointing is a single dab of oil on the forehead. No other parts of the body are touched by the officiators, as was the case previously. The patron is told that he has been "symbolically" washed and anointed, and that his temple garment is now "authorized.""

ah. I could see the confusion. But you are mistaken as to the washing and annointing what have you happening to 12 year olds. While you become a priest in the arronic priesthood at twelve you don't actually do any temple nonsence (what this video is showing) until you're either going on a mission (18 when you're a guy or 21 if your a woman) or getting married. Unless, you're doing baptisms for the dead but the only thing that happens then is that people keep dunking you underwater.

Thanks bac for clearing that up. So they aren't guilty of child molestation like the catholics, but I can still see how someone would object to pledges of fealty and loyalty to one's husband at the age of 18 can be premature. I know from meeting mormons a lot of their most faithful female members are quite young; they get easy missionary work, they live in arranged housing, and they get good rescue healthcare, paid for by the church. And even though technically an 18 year old is an adult, I haven't met many 18 year olds lately who I found mature.

Actually a womans most important role in life is getting married as opposed to going on a mission. That is to say it's encouraged that a woman get maried before it's encouraged to go on a mssion. Also missions cost the person going on the mission about ten thousand dollars. at least that's how much it was ten years ago.

Well, there should be. Joseph Smith lifted the whole thing, hand clasps, signs, tokens, aprons, etc from your ceremonies. I think it's also sort of ironic that he supposedly tried the grand hailing sign of distress as his final act on Earth.

He has the mannerisms of a Star Trek villain.

So you left the church after getting that far into it? How did you manage?

I left the church towards the end of my 2 year mission. Just couldn't keep ignoring the screaming inside my brain telling me it was all bullshit.

Leaving was a huge shitstorm. I got called into a GA's office (one of the top 85 men in the church) and he tried to tell me that "nobody believes in evolution anymore" among other insanities. Got excommunicated for "insurrection" or something.

Best move I ever made

That took some balls. Thanks for sharing man. I'm really fascinated by this stuff, and I hear it's incredibly hard to leave once they have their hooks in you.

It's really a long, slow burn of audio/visual-dependent ritual that seems to have been made up on a rainy evening; one draft and we're done.
The movie that they watch is something incredibly ham-fisted.
But for my money, 1:08:45 to about 1:16 or so.
I'll leave the weirdness for y'all to unravel on your own, except to say a few key words:
-large hotel meeting room in the Midwest
-presumable, obscured, big flat parking lot
-David Byrne's True Stories
-Michael Palin saying, "Son, one day all this will be yours..."