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When asked for specific rituals she considers bizarre, Erickson claims Romney and other Mormons take part in clandestine marriage ceremonies involving “outrageous” customs. Explaining her own Mormon wedding, she says she was forced to completely disrobe against her will.

“It was horrific,” she told WND. “There I was standing naked. They brought this bowl of water, and started washing my body down and whispering prayers over my body. They stopped over the right and left breast, the navel and knees and prayed specific prayers.”

To help ensure the general public did not learn details of the rituals, she says believers took a symbolic knife to feign their own murder if members spilled the beans of what really goes on behind closed doors.

“They actually had us slashing our guts open and our guts falling to the ground if we told people of the secret dogma of the ceremonies,” Erickson said.

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http://www.wnd.com/2011/10/354721/

A fascinating account of the kind of ceremony you won't likely find in any Baptist, Methodist or Pentecostal church in America!

[This message has been edited by UTExan (edited 7/20/2012 11:46a).]

Question for mormons:

Does this really happen?

We get it. You don't like Mormons

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we get it.... you don't like Christians

Actually, I don't like religion, especially verifiable false ones.

kind of surprised that WND hasn't started pulling articles like this from its website now that romney got the nod.

Verifiably false? Wee bit arrogant no?

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Verifiably false? Wee bit arrogant no?

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Not really when you guys assume a perfect all knowing all powerful god. Pretty easy to deconstruct that nonsense thanks to"god's" handy little book which narrates him doing all kinds of things that don't satisfy three requirements

Mormonism is verifiably false.

quote:

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Does this really happen?

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The Mormons aren't allowed to comment on their secret ceremonies so you probably won't get an answer from them. My understanding is that, while nudity used to be part of the service, now that it has been revealed to the general public, the nudity no longer occurs and they instead wear some sort of shear covering and the washing is more symbolic.

I dunno, I can see baptists and Pentecostals doing something like this. It's just one step removed from speaking in tongues and throwing up pea soup during an altar call.

I was raised Pentecostal, theirs is a different brand of crazy.

Nudity was not PART of the ceremony.

The marriage ceremony is across an altar with mirrors opposing each other.

Private counsel to the couple is given and then the sealing is conducted in a short ceremony where they are promised to live forever with their children.

I wish more could be disclosed to dispel silly stories such as this.

Now that person shows me that marrying her would be a nightmare if nudity is such an issue. Frankly, I would never want my bride to have a problem with private nudity.

We want to have a naked wedding!!

I'm certainly getting naked after mine.

It is rumored that some LDS women are prudish. Can't say if it's true.

Derrida,
You think that woman is being unreasonable? Women should be OK with going through that?

[This message has been edited by Captain Pablo (edited 7/20/2012 10:53p).]

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Nudity was not PART of the ceremony.

The marriage ceremony is across an altar with mirrors opposing each other.

Private counsel to the couple is given and then the sealing is conducted in a short ceremony where they are promised to live forever with their children.

I wish more could be disclosed to dispel silly stories such as this.

Now that person shows me that marrying her would be a nightmare if nudity is such an issue. Frankly, I would never want my bride to have a problem with private nudity.

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So why would she lie about an event like this? This is not the first time I have heard about this particular aspect of the temple wedding.

She is not honest. There has never been as part of the wedding ceremony any nudity.

I can simply and in straightforward fashion tell you what happens in the sealing ceremony.

In a room where other persons witness the sealing, "marriage", the husband and wife join hands over an altar. The temple worker "seals" them together for time and all eternity in a simple prayer sentence.

They receive counsel before and after the sealing and then greet their guests. There is nothing of the sort described by the woman in the marriage ceremony.

The scandalizing reports you read are exaggerations and distortions of a different ceremony that previously existed when it resembled masonic rites more closely. This was decades ago. But the reports of naked women running rampantly through the temple, are unfortunately not true. I would be more interested in attending if we had wild orgies and lots of indiscretions. Not really, ... I think.

I am also reminded that one should be careful of getting what one wishes for. Upon my first visit to a French beach, I was prepared to be dazzled by the naked bodies of French women strewn a la plage. To my surprise and disappointment, the French plages do not have age or beauty limitations one who can stroll down the beach half naked. For every one hot girl, you see dozens of women who should never be seen naked, in public or in private. I am uncertain my eyes have yet recovered from the shock of seeing how low certain appendages can sink.

[This message has been edited by Derrida (edited 7/21/2012 12:21a).]

Where I was married. We knelt at an alter and a prayer was offered.

Glad you had a good view because nothing else mattered.

It's an interesting thing...there are a lot of things that don't matter to me.

And, I don't bother with them.

I don't think about them.

I don't discuss them.

Because, they don't matter.

Aloha.

A good background is key when your religion has the depth of glee

I have a background.

You're still struggling.

Good luck.

The background for your pictures is great. The background for your religion is comedy hour. I'm glad you're happy even if you believe things no intelligent being would.

Well...based on my life experiences, if I were to choose otherwise I would consider myself stupid.

Good thing I don't measure myself against the intelligence of the world.

Good thing you don't measure yourself against the intelligence of my posts. You'd be a genius. Sorry, I was being a dewsh for no reason last night. Glad you got married in such a beautiful place and I hope you guys are joyously happy.

There is no purpose to anti-theism, tys, their beliefs don't affect you.

Valid point bobo. You are right.

Derrida, I suspect that she is in her mid/late forties if not older, so this was thirty or so years ago. Was this an earlier ceremony she was describing? Surely she is not going to benefit much if at all from lying about such a temple rite. And no, I have never heard about naked women cavorting through the temple, just the part she describes.

Then the first part of your selection is misleading. It says Romney and others take (present tense) in these bizarre ceremonies. It doesn't specifically say which ceremonies, but it clearly inferes he takes part in the naked wedding stuff.

Did she use the knife?

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Derrida, I suspect that she is in her mid/late forties if not older, so this was thirty or so years ago. Was this an earlier ceremony she was describing? Surely she is not going to benefit much if at all from lying about such a temple rite. And no, I have never heard about naked women cavorting through the temple, just the part she describes.

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There is and never was any part of the sealing ceremony involving nudity. End of story.

I am as familiar with the history of the sealing ceremony as you will find.

There are other ceremonies performed within the temple, but none of them involve "nudity".

There is baptism for the dead, and you change from street clothing into jumpsuits of white. One might feel that is disrobing through nudity, but it is not.

I could go on. The purpose of her story is to lay discredit to Romney, so her purpose is (a) gain notoriety and (b) harm Romney in a political fight. People lie in politics all the time.

I am personally familiar with the processes as far back as 1979, and before that through available materials. In the seventies and before, the earlier forms of other ceremonies contained some Masonic analogous rites, and some supposedly built upon Egyptian resembling concepts. These have been modified to conform with contemporary society. (a cynic may state they were manufactured out of 19th century mind of what masonic and other rituals conceived, be that as it may) But what she has lied about and distorted had nothing to do with the marriage ceremony. Not at all.

She takes matters out of context, exaggerates and distorts.

Derrida:

It seems to me that people may be mixing up half truths about different Mormon ceremonies.

From what I can tell, people may be confusing nudity with the touching of bare skin and the "shields" (garments open on both sides to allow touching of bare skin while still visually covering the body) that were involved in the endowment ceremony prior to 2005.

I agree with you that the original story clearly has political motivation, and so I'm not inclined to place to much weight behind it, but you can see why these types of stories gain traction.

If the Mormon church did not have this fear of transparency then people could know the truth and you wouldn't have to waste your time defending absurd stories.

http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon366.htm

http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon386.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_%28Mormonism%29#The_Initiatory