Observations©
By Donald S. Conkey
A little over 50 years ago, at age 33, my life changed forever when I entered the waters of baptism and covenanted with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and become one of his disciples.
Baptisms, regardless of one’s personal faith, are considered to be a time for family celebrations – a time to rejoice. But my baptism created just the opposite – it created a schism between me and my parents. They honestly believed I had been baptized into what they believed was a “cult church,” a church whose doctrines differed greatly from the doctrines of their ancestral church, the church I was raised in. But for me, an avid student of the Bible, then and now, the doctrines of my new church were in harmony with my King James Bible.
In spite of this schism this was an exciting time in my life. I was able, with the Lord’s help, to give up smoking, alcohol and caffeine laced drinks, nasty habits that were taking a heavy toll on my health. Eventually this schism was resolved as my parents began to see the spiritual growth in me and in my family members.
But as the schism began to heal they asked questions that caused me to realize they still did not realize the depth of my commitment to the Lord or to my leadership roles in helping lead a lay church. But with time they slowly accepted my new spiritual life style.
Another question dealt with my commitment to temple worship. I reviewed with my parents how Moses’ first major project after crossing the Red Sea was to build a Tabernacle – a temple if you will. I read with them the words of Moses of how the Lord came in a cloud to converse with him, the Lord’s prophet seer and revelator in that day, and how it was the place where the Levites were clothed in their priesthood robes and received the priesthood ordinances they needed to perform their priesthood duties.
But it was not until Joan and I were serving our senior mission in eastern Canada in 1994-95 that they began to understand the difference between our temple worship and our Sunday worship. Our assignment in Canada was to “build bridges of understanding” between our church and 46 other faith groups in Canada. One opportunity to build these bridges came when the Toronto Chinese community invited us to ‘the cleansing’ of their Buddhist Temple prior to its dedication. This invitation helped me more fully understand the wisdom of America’s Founding Father’s insistence that freedom of religion become a written amendment in the Constitution. Prior to America’s first amendment most nations acknowledged only one religion and the people were taxed to support that religion. Whether they agreed with its doctrines didn’t matter – that was just the way it was prior to 1791.
Our invitation to the Chinese Temple “Open House” helped me better understand how different the doctrines of different faith groups are and how important it is for a multicultural people to take every opportunity to better understand the beliefs of other faiths when they become available. Attending the Chinese Temple “Open House” didn’t destroy my Christian faith but it did help me better understand how God’s great gift of agency works, the gift to make choices – especially to chose one’s own religious belief.
Just as our Toronto Chinese friends invited their Christian friends to their ‘Chinese Temple Open House,’ so Joan and I are inviting all our Cherokee friends to visit our Atlanta Temple during its ‘Open House” at its site located at 6450 Barfield Road in Sandy Springs between April 9 and April 23, Sunday’s excluded. Following this ‘Open House’ the Atlanta Mormon Temple will be rededicated and then become accessible only to church members abiding Church standards.
Hopefully this Atlanta Mormon Temple Open House will provide an opportunity for our neighbors and friends to go and see for themselves (building bridges) that Mormon temples are not ‘secret,’ as some proclaim, but are simply a latter-day ‘Tabernacle’ where their Mormon neighbors will be performing ‘sacred’ ordinances following its dedication, the same ordinances Mormons believe to have been performed by Moses in his ancient Tabernacle and where the Levites obtained their priesthood ordinances.
Those interested in touring ‘a Mormon Temple’ prior to its dedication can go to www.ldschurchtemples.com/atlanta/gallery for directions to it in Sandy Springs and see a video of the Temple interior and make reservations at www.lds.org/reservations . Come see and build a bridge of understanding!