Traumatized by the 'washing and anointing' ritual in a Mormon temple #ldstemple #mormon #lds

[mormonstories]

Watch the entire episode on our YouTube channel! Episode 1761.

[lifetaketwo]

I’ve been speaking up about this on social media for z3 years at great personal cost. I lost my family in large part because I talk about the washing and anointing trauma I experienced as a 20 year old girl. It was horrifying to me.

[sirdidymus]

I was born into the church and no one prepared me for the temple. I went when I was 19 before I got married (shockingly we’re still together 20+ years later and have been out of the church for years) and it was traumatizing. So traumatizing. But, I was desperate to marry the love of my life so I just hung in there and ignored the betrayal and trauma and exposure to things I wasn’t prepared for. Hell, how do you prepare for THAT?! That’s why everyone’s hands are tied and they cannot talk about it because it’s “sacred not secret.” 😡 If you walk in a room and they say you’ll be condemned for all eternity if you don’t keep the covenants … and you don’t even what the covenants are yet … YOU’RE IN A CULT. Plus, they hook you in and let you know your family and all the generations after you are at stake if you don’t go along with these bizarre, tacky, dishonest, disgusting rituals. Utterly vile what this “church” puts people through.

[dannidunn]

The washing and anointing was so creepy that I never went back to the temple again. I left the church shortly after.

[wyzolma]

He described ritual ABUSE....nothing else.
SHUT DOWN THIS EVIL😡😡😡

[MG-xrdt]

The entire Temple experience absolutely blew me away. I was a convert too and the goal is always to enter the Temple so you throw yourself into being the “best you can be” by Mormon standards. Then you get there and are like… what the hell is this??

Then everyone looks at you knowing it’s your first time like they know how weird it is too and are looking for you to conform. I’m uncomfortable just thinking about those little pews and the chairs behind multiple “veils”. No thanks.

[SilentThundersnow]

None of us knew what to expect. It's like a creepy ride on the Mormon Haunted Mansion, in Cinderella's Palace. You know it's secret, but you figure the ride creators had some regulations they were held to, and you trusted there were people overseeing things.
There weren't.
Joseph Smith set this stuff up and that rickety old ride hasn't been checked since then. With minor duct taped parts to keep it together and running.
Hang on!

[scf]

Just an another perverse thing about this cult. And it IS a cult.

[lyssimon]

No wonder they dont want people to talk about the temple.

[SantoAtheos]

My TBM mother is still freaked out by this 50 years later. I remember her hinting about what happened and wanting to talk about it more in detail many times with someone so she could process what happened to her. Of course she thought she couldn't't because it was supposedly sacred. The temple became a place for me to fear and dread as a teen, not peaceful.

[HikariMagic]

Wow, I guess I dodged that bullet since I ended up being given an ultimatum at 15 by my bishop. I could either change my behavior (stop being gay) or be excommunicated. I didn't have to think about that decision. I don't think my father or the bishop expected me to choose so quickly and not return.

[kristyo]

Apparently you are not naked under a shield anymore and they don't touch you anymore, just hoover their hands over the areas.
I found out it had changed when a friend went thru in 2014 and I let her know what to expect right before she went in, so she'd be more comfortable and then it didn't happen that way. 😂 😅 Edit to add: I was embarrassed telling her, but thought she would like to know, since she was a convert and no family member was going to be there. I was glad someone told me, before I went thru it.

[jansilloway]

My sweet nephew became a Mormon in high school when he fell in love with a Mormon girl. I shudder to think about him going through this.

[ashleyhansen]

I'm young enough to have just missed all this part of washing and annointing. However, my first time going through was a huge shock. The church makes it seem like the temple is so wonderful and holy and... It's NOT!

[jamiemathews]

This is the first time I've heard anyone else talking about this. I was so upset about the temple anointing; NO ONE prepared me and the old woman was so angry with me for recoiling. The kicker was having to "promise to be obedient to my husband" I kept waiting for him to swear to be obedient or at least held accountable to me, but it never came!!! Because I was raised by an Institute teacher I was taken immediately to the temple president (friend of my father), who shamed me and reiterated what my parents had been saying for years, which was that I didnt have the right to ask and needed more faith.

I'm so grateful for your podcast after a lifetime of abuse by Mormon parents.

[mikeytoes]

It is kinda like how many Jehovah’s Witnesses have no idea that they are just part of a huge publishing company that calls it’s self the Watchtower and Tract Society.

[bhendy]

I felt the same way after growing up in that church. Nothing that they told me prepared me for that. The only thing that keplt me there was that I had a mission call.

[bobolson]

Ditto, same experience for me. I remember coming out of the washing and annointing cubicle and telling another missionary walking out of his "That was weird" and he looked at me like I was the devil.

[Sheepdog]

It’s just the philosophies of a young treasure seeking boy from the early 1800’s mingled with scripture.

[Deliah_]

My questioning about this church started at the temple. Going to mission opened my eyes to the reality and how the information given to the people is manipulated. I walked away on 2009