I Rewrote the LDS Temple Recommend Interview Questions

Salt Lake City Temple, Utah. Image from kasabubu at Pixabay

LDS Mormons, headquartered in Utah, build these super-duper special multi-million-dollar buildings called temples. They now have between 150–250 of them around the world.

Now, these temples aren’t like regular chapels for weekly church services. Much like ancient Israelites (and completely contradictory to Jesus’ words that God doesn’t dwell in temples made by human hands), LDS Mormons believe the presence of God resides in the inner chamber of the temple, or rather, that when they set foot in the inner chamber, called the celestial room, that they effectively are in presence of God.

As such, there’s a whole bunch of rituals, robing and disrobing, secret Freemasonic handshakes and cross-my-heart-hope-to-die promises to God made that come first in order to get there.

And before any of that, to even set foot in an LDS temple, first you have to not only be LDS, but pass not one but two interviews with priesthood leadership who both sign off on your barcoded temple entry card, known as a “temple recommend”.

Here is the current full list of questions you must correctly answer to get in:

1. Do you have faith in and a testimony of God, the Eternal Father; his Son, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost?

2. Do you have a testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of his role as your Savior and Redeemer?

3. Do you have a testimony of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

4. Do you sustain the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the prophet, seer and revelator and as the only person on the Earth authorized to exercise all priesthood keys? Do you sustain the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as prophets, seers and revelators? Do you sustain the other general authorities and local leaders of the church?

5. The Lord has said that all things are to be “done in cleanliness” before him. Do you strive for moral cleanliness in your thoughts and behavior? Do you obey the law of chastity?

6. Do you follow the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ in your private and public behavior with members of your family and others?

7. Do you support or promote any teachings, practices or doctrine contrary to those of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

8. Do you strive to keep the Sabbath day holy, both at home and at church; attend your meetings; prepare for and worthily partake of the sacrament [Communion]; and live your life in harmony with the laws and commandments of the gospel?

9. Do you strive to be honest in all that you do?

10. Are you a full-tithe payer?

11. Do you understand and obey the Word of Wisdom?

12. Do you have any financial or other obligations to a former spouse or to children? If yes, are you current in meeting those obligations?

13. Do you keep the covenants that you made in the temple?

14. Do you honor your sacred privilege to wear the garment as instructed in the initiatory [a temple ritual] ordinances?

15. Are there serious sins in your life that need to be resolved with priesthood authorities as part of your repentance?

16. Do you consider yourself worthy to enter the Lord’s house and participate in temple ordinances?

Now, these might sound like fine questions for the most part. They confirm faith and fealty, and have a general attitude to honorableness and integrity to them.

But when you dig a little deeper, you’re effectively swearing loyalty to the LDS church’s interpretation of God and his commandments.

Question 3 is about submission to the LDS leadership as authority figures over you.

Question 5 is about heavy thought control and sexual repression.

Question 7 forbids alternative opinions and associations outside the accepted Mormon narrative.

Question 10 contains a very loaded financial obligation for the rest of your lifetime.

Question 14 rigidly controls the clothing you can or ought to wear for the rest of your life.

Questions 5, 8, 11 and 14 all presuppose the detailed understanding of several series of commandments and restrictions related to various topics that an LDS is expected to keep throughout their life, such as avoiding tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco and hard drugs in order to “obey the Word of Wisdom”.

This is the sort of stuff that makes you think Judaism and Roman Catholicism had a baby in early 19th-century America and named it Mormonism.

Anyway, without getting sidetracked by lengthy discussions of my problems with LDS temples in general (which I’ve already written about in detail), I wanted to try the simple exercise of rewriting my own list of questions.

Like, for arguments’ sake, let’s just assume that the LDS temple is honestly a genuinely good place where you can go to be closer to God, and so we need to preserve a simple barrier to entry… what ought that barrier/standard be?

Here’s my list of my own interview questions according to my current understanding of the goodness of God and his true gospel:

1. Have you been “born again” of the Holy Spirit of God through the baptism of fire experience, with the Spirit of God residing within your body temple in one-flesh relationship?
2. Are you striving to keep your spiritual flame alive through your personal relationship with your Creator?
3. Do you have an intimate awareness of the ways in which God speaks to you directly, including a knowledge of his mission and calling for you in your spiritual walk in life?
4. Do you keep God’s covenant with his people Israel (aka “the ten commandments”) to the best of your knowledge and ability?
5. Do you strive to follow the teachings of Jesus to the best of your knowledge and ability?
6. Do you seek regular opportunities to give of your excess to those in need; ie, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the widows and orphans in their needs, etc?
7. Do you have any unresolved crimes, sin, trauma, ego or demons haunting you and/or others in your life, that you need assistance confessing, forsaking, healing, humbling, turning away from or making right again through good works?

That’s it.

You know, I really think that’s it.

I wanted to come up with a whole sixteen of them like the current LDS version, but honestly, who cares. This is sufficient. And seven is a perfectly good number.

If I was your spiritual leader or pastor or elder or bishop, and I was trying to ascertain your suitability or “worthiness” for a calling or role or super special privileges in the “temple”, beyond asking generally about your family/home situation and needs, these seven questions are all I’d really care about. Teach them correct principles and let the govern themselves, right?

And if I currently had a spiritual mentor or pastor in my life, this is a set of interview questions that I would answer happily with confidence, honesty, humility and self-respect.

So, if anyone from the LDS church headquarters in the Salt Lake City just so happens to be reading this (you know who you are), feel free to pass my recommendations on to the top brass. It’s really time to stop infantalizing the membership and let them govern themselves. Thanks.