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My wife and I copped a couple of passes recently to take a tour of the new Mormon Temple at 17th and Vine streets. It was late afternoon and the sun still shone with the intensity of summer. We peered upward at the granite structure that rises 200 feet in the air. The beautifully landscaped plaza sits on 1.6 acres of valuable Center City property. We were already in awe as we joined the long line of visitors. A reflecting pool glistened in the sun. The stained glass panels of the plaza seemingly represented another time, another world. A modern day addition to the ancient Wonders of the World.
The guides moved the crowd quickly with Disney World-like efficiency, even to the point of placing mandatory shoe coverings on our feet. The coverings, we learned, were for the most practical of purposes. They save wear and tear on the lushly carpeted covering of the interior floor of the temple. Certainly the kind of touch Mom would’ve liked. The most spectacular sights lay ahead.
From the stunning accoutrements of the regal chandelier in what is called The Celestial Room to the tiniest detail of the well-matched tony fabric of the sofas and chairs in the temple’s countless rooms, the Mormon Temple is a place where taste and elegance rule. If one were going to represent the major religions of the world by furniture groupings, the Amish would be log-cabin simplicity at one end of the spectrum, and the Mormons would be French Provincial at the other end. The Mormons are said to tithe 10 percent of their income to their church. A nice portion of those offerings must’ve gone toward funding the temple. When we consider that unlike most beautiful structures in the world, the expense of building the Mormon Temple was at today’s prices, you get an idea of just how costly this entire project was.
I have to admit that if I were the Mormons, I wouldn’t have allowed hordes of tourists placing their fannies on these chairs and sofas. Mom would’ve insisted on plastic slipcovers. The Mormon Temple was closed to the public two days after our visit before it was turned into the insides of a SEPTA bus littered with bags of Doritos and empty bottles of Pepsi. I sensed my wife’s fingers were itching to vacuum the carpet.
Of course, the sheer extravagance of the Mormon Temple calls into question whether any religion should be spending so much on materialistic decoration. I’ve heard the same question raised about the Vatican (Mom wanted the Pope to melt the gold, sell the masterpieces, and buy macaroni for the poor). To be fair, it’s not as if Mormons, Catholics, and members of other organized religions don’t run charities on behalf of the underprivileged, but the debate remains valid. And the Mormon Temple is another reminder of that debate.
One of the many Mormon guides addressed the question of why the temple and more than 150 others have been erected in the United States. In the Bible, Jesus commanded his flock to build temples (whether he envisioned that such temples could exceed the national wealth of a small nation is for others to speculate). I find the extravagance of the Mormon Temple a good argument for requiring organized religion to pay taxes. I don’t make that recommendation lightly or because of an anti-religion animus. Just my sense of rendering unto Caesar what Caesar can use for public purposes and lighten the load on the rest of us.
While the Mormons do have churches, temples such as the one here in Philadelphia have been built for various purposes such as meetings, teaching sessions, and moments for quiet contemplation. However, Mormons also plan to hold weddings and baptisms in the temple. We were ushered into the Baptismal Room. Mormons believe that in order to qualify for the afterlife, one has to be baptized. Belief in the afterlife is a very important component of the Mormon Church. Practitioners believe that people marry for all eternity. Families are supposedly united in the afterlife. Many of us might not view such a circumstance as a positive. Who really wants to spend eternity watching Uncle Vito pick his nose at the dinner table? But it is the Mormon belief in baptizing the deceased that gets more of our attention.
One can act to sponsor the baptism of a deceased family member and the ceremony held in the lovely Baptismal Room. The idea is that by baptizing those who had no opportunity when alive to be baptized, they can join you in the afterlife. If the deceased are bothered by not having been consulted in their baptism, no one has heard any complaints yet.
A word about the Celestial Room is in order. It is here that materialism meets spiritualism head on. Mormons will come in silence here to contemplate their relationship with God. In the center of the room hangs the most magnificent chandelier one has ever seen. This room represents a human effort to honor the glory of heaven.
Outside, the sun was setting over the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was as if we were being reminded that when it comes to sheer beauty, we humans have not found a way to one-up nature. Not even with the grandest of chandeliers. SPR
