Runtu : the endowment is a sacred ceremony / http://proza.ru/2023/12/05/725 / performed in Israel
2023 : Telegram : Runtu, Uri TikTok : Юри Рюнтю : " The general purpose of PROSE is to preserve language as it is spoken by the people. Language is the key to expressing civilization itself. The most complicated and mature language embodies the highest level of civilizations across time and history. It is how we view and remember events, a lingo to record the world around us. Here we stand for the history of Russian literature in Australia. This prose represents Australian citizens who still enjoy writing in the mother tongue of their Russian heritage. Anyway, this Russian-speaking literature belongs to Australian Modern Culture and flourishes equally alongside its Anglo-Saxon counterpart. The previous background of writers is pleasantly mixed with the new style of life they experience in Australia ". / http://www.proza.ru/diary/yuri2008/2020-01-11 / Iouri Runtu: French : Rudolf Noureev : La Mort a Paris / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English Yuri Ryuntyu / Celebrities RU : the Neo-transcendental theatre : 2022.
2023 : Telegram : Runtu, Uri TikTok : Это Юбилейный Год - как написано в 2000 - и издано в 2001 - на двух ДВД-дисках : грандиозная книга : " Искушение Правотой : Борис Ельцин " - по которой преподают c 2006 - Историю Новой Демократической России и СССР: 1922-1991 в США : в Школе Мировой Экономики : Стэнфордский университет США / Stanford University, Stanford, California USA / http://www.proza.ru/diary/yuri2008/2020-01-05 / Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia : Hео-трансцендентальный театр : 160 Kниг автора Рюнтю Юри - 2022.
2023 : Telegram : Runtu, Uri TikTok : Keywords: Russian literature.; Russia - Intellectual life.; Russia - Civilization : XX - XXI century / Europe - Civilization / Human rights : 21st century / http://proza.ru/diary/yuri2008/2019-09-30 / Russia : Hео-трансцендентальный театр : 2022.
Runtu : the endowment is a sacred ceremony / http://proza.ru/2023/12/05/725 / performed in Israel
A lot of believing Mormons are understandably upset about HBO’s decision to recreate part of the LDS temple ceremony, commonly called the “endowment” by Mormons.
For those who don’t know what it is, the endowment is a sacred ceremony performed only within Mormon temples.
Joseph Smith, the church’s founder, became a “Master Mason “ on March 16, 1842 and then on May 4 of the same year introduced the new endowment ceremony in an upper room of his store in Nauvoo, Illinois.
The endowment incorporated much of the symbolism of the Masons, including signs, tokens, key words, and penalties, but modified them to fit within a story of the creation, fall, and redemption of humans.
The ceremony has changed significantly over the years (most recently in 1990 with the removal of the penalties and other elements, such as the long section involving a “sectarian minister”).
Growing up in the church, I went to the Los Angeles temple once or twice e a year to do proxy baptisms for the dead.
I knew that, once you were of a certain age, you went to the temple to perform sacred ordinances, the most sacred being the sealing of husband and wife (and children) as an eternal family.
But the endowment was a mystery to me.
Unlike most Mormon kids, I didn’t know about temple garments, mostly because my father, although he had been to the temple, never wore them.
My mother wore hers, but I never saw her in just her garments. My oldest sister told me recently that she had seen my mom exactly twice in her garments.
So, the endowment was a mystery to me. When I was 12, I got a job working at a gas station a few blocks west of the Los Angeles temple, and I remember talking to a young woman who had a BYU sticker on her car.
She mentioned she had been at the temple, and I asked her what she had done there.
She looked a little flustered and said,
“Um, temple work.” I had no idea what she meant.
At 18 I finally went to the temple for the first time.
My grandfather met me at the Provo temple, and I went through what at the time was a bewildering and sometimes troubling three-hour (or so) experience.
With time I got used to the ceremony, and only occasionally would I feel like I was engaged in something absurd.
I went through the endowment (again as proxy for a dead person) hundreds of times over the next 22 years, and I pretty much had the ceremony memorized.
When I left the church, my bishop told me that the best way to regain my testimony would be to attend the temple, along with the usual “pray and read the Book of Mormon.” It didn’t work, obviously, and when I attended the temple no longer wanting it to be true, it was hard to force it into something spiritually uplifting. It was what it was, and it left me feeling rather cold. So, I never went again.
So, what to make of the furrow over Big Love’s recreation of at least parts of the endowment? If this had happened when I was still a believer, I would have been mightily pissed off.
For believing Mormons, discussing specific temple content outside the temple (even among believers) is to profane that which is sacred.
As one believer commented, it’s the context of the ceremony that makes it sacred, and you can’t understand the context without the presence of the Holy Ghost.
So, for HBO to detach the endowment from its physical and spiritual context is blasphemy in the extreme.
I suspect that the presentation of the endowment in the show is an intentional middle finger to Mormons, probably payback for Proposition 8, though I could be wrong.
So, I sympathize with Mormons who feel violated, and I understand completely why they feel that way. But on the other hand, the endowment is no longer sacred to me, and it doesn’t bother me much that someone else is interested in it enough to put it on TV.
Some ex-Mormons I know are rejoicing at the opportunity to make the church look bad–and seriously, who is going to watch the endowment and say to themselves, I want to be part of that?
Some people obviously delight in profaning what other people find sacred.
And in all honesty, I’ve been guilty of that in the past.
But at this stage in my life, I’m not interested in seeing
the depiction (I don’t subscribe to HBO),
so I probably won’t see it.
But I wonder what the reaction from the public will be.
Even if they do a completely faithful rendering
of the ceremony, most non-Mormons will
find it bizarre and maybe a little creepy
(but then most Mormons feel that way the first time they go, hence my bishop’s and stake president’s counsel not to worry if the ceremony upset me when I went the first time).
But the genie’s been out of the bottle a long time. On the Internet there are audio recordings and transcripts of the ceremony, photos of the temple robes, and illustrations of the signs and tokens.
I suspect that, after viewing Big Love, more than a few people will become curious and hit Google right after the show ends.
For me, though, revisiting the endowment is like watching “classic” sports games on TV.
I was on pins and needles in 1988 when Kirk Gibson hit his walk-off home run in game one of the World Series.
Twenty years later, the moment has lost some of its lustier. It just doesn’t mean much to me anymore.
That’s how I feel about the endowment.
It took me years to make myself comfortable with the ceremony, and even longer to find something uplifting and spiritual in it.
But now it’s just part of the past, devoid of meaning. And once something has lost its meaning, it’s no longer sacred or profane.
Runtu 10 Пьес автора и Стэнфордский университет US
Рюнтю Юри: литературный дневник
10 Пьес автора и Стэнфордский университет США : / http://proza.ru/diary/yuri2008/2022-02-26 / Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022 .
-
10 Драма ЖИЗНЬ МАТВЕЯ : Вторая Мировая Война : авторская страница : Историческая драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : / http://proza.ru/2022/01/30/876 / 1938-1995 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
9 Драма Смерть Собора Святого Духа / http://proza.ru/2017/12/04/141 / авторская страница : Историческая Драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1725-1987 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
8 Драма Пророк Mухаммед и Xадиджа / http://proza.ru/2019/10/21/888 / авторская страница : Историческая Драма на исламскую тему и Мировая Культура : России - Европы - Азии и Арабского Мира : 575-620 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
7 Драма Братья Карамазовы как Приемыши / http://proza.ru/2017/12/03/1052 / авторская страница : Историческая Драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1860-1879 : Психоанализ романа « Братья Карамазовы » писателя Ф. М. Достоевского: 1860-1879 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
6 Драма Дети и Внуки Братьев Карамазовых Runtu Uri / http://proza.ru/2017/12/03/1129 / авторская страница : Многое из текста драмы - обсуждено в беседах автора - ( в июне 1987 и в сентябре 1988 : Россия ) - с Ириной Одоевцевой и - с Анастасией Цветаевой ( в мае : 1980 : Коктебель : Черное море : СССР ) : Историческая Драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1879 - 1998 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
5 Драма Русский Сальери Борис Пастернак / http://proza.ru/2017/12/03/369 / авторская страница : Историческая драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1930-1964 / http://proza.ru/diary/yuri2008/2022-03-08 / 1930-1964 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
4 Драма Лубянка Маяковского и Лилии Брик / http://proza.ru/2017/12/02/1200 / авторская страница : Историческая драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1922-1930 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
3 Драма Ад Есенина C. и Айседоры Дункан / http://proza.ru/2017/12/02/380 / авторская страница : Историческая драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1919-1925 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
2 Драма Тайна Александра Блока / http://proza.ru/2017/12/02/1082 / авторская страница : Историческая драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1917-1921 / http://stihi.ru/diary/yuri2005/2022-03-08 / 1917-1921 Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022
-
1 Драма Жена и Мать 1918 Царь Николай II / http://proza.ru/2017/12/02/400 / авторская страница : Историческая драма на славянскую тему о Великой культуре Грандиозной России : 1881-1918 / Iouri Runtu: French / Юри Рюнтю : Russian / Uri Runtu: English : Yuri Ryuntyu / Canberra ACT Australia / Celebrities RU Telegram : 2022