The Temple Marriage

My youngest sister is getting married and since my younger sister is a practicing Mormon that means the ceremony will be in an LDS temple.

For anyone not familiar with a Mormon temple marriage I will tell you the little bit I know and bear in mind since I'm not one of the faithful, my understandings might not be spot on.  The most important thing to know is that as a non-member I cannot attend this wedding.  The only people allowed in the temple are those that have a temple recommend from their bishop.  One receives a temple recommend by living and observing the teachings of the LDS church.

As a Mormon this ceremony seals you and your husband  (and all the children of that marriage) together for all of eternity.  So it's a pretty big deal to the faithful.

I'm happy for my sister that she may have this ceremony that is so intimate a part of her faith.  But I won't be attending this part of the wedding.  Wait a sec, you are probably thinking, you just said you cannot go.  Well I can wait outside in the gardens with the other non-faithfuls.

So here is the scene.  My father and his wife and all their children who are forever sealed to them will go and take part of this beautiful and magical event.  Me, the illegitimate child who was abandoned before birth by my father, denied for the entirety of my childhood and keep a secret for 16 of my adult years, who than later was flat out rejected and slandered by half my paternal half-siblings, I can wait outside of the sacred building reserved only for the righteous.  Ouch...

It has always bothered me that my father carried on with his religious hypocrisy, even more so was the hurt knowing that not only was my physical being so easily discarded but this lack of regard for my spiritual well being.

Like I said before, I don't know or understand he teachings of the LDS church or the details of their sacred temple ceremonies.  But for the sake of following this through, imagine that everyone died before my fathers confession, where in the structure of the afterlife is the bastard child born out of the temple marriage?  Would my paternal siblings have flocked on the other side of the gates of heaven while I was barred entrance because I grew up with teachings of a different church?

My father talks of going to hell and perhaps that is true.  I don't believe it.  My religious teaching is that we are all equally undeserving, so my fathers transgressions in the eyes of God are no different than my transgressions.  So my view is we all go to heaven, end of story.  But if my father believes what he says he believes, how could he have done what he did?  And that is the question that will never be answered.

So no, I won't stand outside any gates or walls.  I will instead reserve my attendance for events that are all inclusive.