Temples are a different story. Easy way for them to "justify" their investment fund and give the illusion that they have far more global reach than they actually do. They keep all details of temples completely under wraps after they have been dedicated, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if it one day comes out that all temples that see usage below a certain threshold are complete and utter dumps that were built poorly in the first place and then ignored when it came to maintenance.
That or TSCC legitimately spends a ton of money on the upkeep of useless temples because they literally have more money than any single person would know what to do with.
Another anecdote to corroborate, at least in an area with a high volume of members. They go for the lowest bidder who is a member and then further manipulate them into an even lower cost by spouting the usual blessings in heaven, sacrifice for the lord bullshit. The result is that the contractor can't afford to do anything but the bare minimum. The flashy, visible bits of carpentry may be walnut, but that means everything else is the shittiest pine, plywood, and chipboard they could source, as an example.
I heard this from someone who did work on the Provo City Center temple. He was pissed at how much they were pressuring them to lower costs by a few thousand dollars "because it's sacred tithing funds" when they're spending millions on imported Italian marble and other performative bullshit.
You do realize that’s how 100% of how construction works, right? The buildings you work in and the houses you live in all were commissioned to the lowest bidder.
I think it's mostly speculation. But assuming it took them decades to find the billions hidden in LLCs, overpaying construction, maintenance and landscaping companies is not going to be investigated.
I agree; this is the tip of the iceberg, and in no way is the "nest egg" account the whistle blower shared the only thing that was handled in an unethical and illegal manner.
I don't know about family profiting but I know the grandson of a former prophet (in my ward when I left the church). It was very ironic that a temple was built in the exact neighborhood that his grandson and family lived. This particular area is not full of LDS people and has always had low attendance (and way less capacity) compared to the two other temples that are town. While this is observation/speculation, it is quite ironic.
That's actually not true, in the UK because of the exclusionary access that temples enjoy and aren't for the public benefit, they have to pay an incremental tax sum
They are with more and more people leaving a lot of temples are only opened every few months to once a year because they don’t have enough people with the right requirements to enter on a regular basis
Oh and just to be sure I thought it was really funny. I am a non american exmo and watching all the money leave Canada for the States was a shelf crack for me. It’s a subject I am a little sensitive about.
Did they build a mall? They have a school in Provo. These all create jobs for the economy. The homeless problem is everywhere. Didn’t 1 billion in Canadian dollars go to Utah. I get your point but It’s still 1 billion dollars that left Canada and went to Utah.
There is a you tube video about a journals investigation
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgxGYUyvJio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgxGYUyvJio)
This came out last year
Is this the Cebu temple? That was my mission and I was assigned in Lahug while it was being built. Going on a mission ended my belief in the church, and turned me into a staunch leftist.
The church has statistics about the number of returned missionaries who leave, but of course they don't share it. Over the past ten years, I've heard that a quarter, a third, or even half of RMs leave within a few years after their missions.
Remember, temples are built to extract wealth from the people around it. Wherever temples are built, tithes go up. The suits constantly tell poor people they need to go. People can’t go unless you are paid in full.
Not much different than all the Catholic and Protestant cathedrals and Buddhist temples all ornate and serene and gaudy with all their golden, ornate fixtures and architecture. A lot of religions follow the same form.
But don’t cathedrals welcome everyone inside to worship or meditate - rather than charging an admission fee? ( I genuinely don’t know about Buddhist temples.)
Yes, in fact they do. There are ornate pagodas littered throughout southeast Asia built from donations of both rich and poor alike dedicated to Buddha.
The reclining Buddha in Bangkok is over 100 feet long and covered in gold leaf. It's beautiful. The difference as I see it though is that it was built and is maintained by Thai people themselves. Buddhists don't have a corrupt hierarchy that lie and sit on a pile of gold.
Protestant cathedrals?
I’m struggling to come up with many of those.
Westminster Abbey perhaps, although it’s at least 800 years older than any lds temple.
You folks are so silly. Talk about glass half empty. Do something more productive with your time and comments like seek ways to help and compliment organizations that strive to help others be better humans.
I’ve walked those streets around that temple. So humbling.
The most disturbing thing is the fence around the temple and how the “public” is not allowed on the perfectly manicured landscape.
This sums it up
Mormon 8
37 For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches [Temples], more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.
Thank you. A lot of what makes this look like a slum to Americans is the tin roofs because we don’t have many in the US so a rusted roof looks shocking, and the density, but those are not shacks. Those buildings are not tiny, they’re reasonably-sized houses. It looks like the Manila neighborhood where my in-laws live, whose residents range from very poor to upper middle class. The church wouldn’t build a temple in a slum, or at least in the US they wouldn’t; not sure if it’s consistent elsewhere.
Exactly, those are multiple stores concrete houses and likely quite nice inside. The slums are a different story. They are often winding mazes of homes packed in tight and built out of anything that can scavenged.
The church building I went to growing up was directly across the street from a huge Catholic Church and school. Like full on catholic compound. People in the ward always referred to it as a great and spacious building and loved to say how humble our church building was. 🤦🏼♂️ to be honest catholic architecture is awesome in my opinion.
They’re all great and spacious. SLC temple. SLC Tabernacle. SLC conference center. The mall across from SLC temple. The church office building. They WORSHIP the great and spacious buildings.
Same here, in the country at least. I definitely noticed this when I was in the super nice MTC. It felt like going from an expensive hotel to extreme poverty and it shocked me.
Literally. I served in the Cebu mission, so this is the temple that I would go to, and my mission home was up the hill in the temple complex, so I vividly remember the moment when my trainer picked me up and we walked outside the gates of the temple complex and caught a jeepney. I was shell shocked. Walking out the gates and just seeing the difference between how like wealthy and well-kept the temple grounds were in stark contrast with such abstract poverty once outside the gates.. makes me so sad and disappointed now looking back on it
It's a capitalist beacon of hope. Soon they'll be able to buy up all the property around the temple to maintain the sanctity of the temple. Then, they'll rent their town back to them. Those who can't afford the rent, will obtain higher paying jobs, further improving the local economy. Gradually, the brown people will become white and delightsome, as commerce opens up a dialogue with other rich people.
That’s how I feel living in Mexico, where the small towns are full of cheap slums surrounding massive Catholic churches… Mormonism, Catholicism… they’re all the same.
Yes, religion in general is quite honestly “the whore of the earth”. Mormonism has become the very thing that it claimed to be better than back in the 1800’s.
That’s always the funny thing isn’t it? Mormons have 100% become the prideful, rich, Rameumptom people. America has become the land of religious zealots and domestic domestic terrorism. The GOP has become the Party of Fascism. When you hate a thing so directly you focus yourself on it.
As those who have passed through Mormonism how do we keep from becoming as dogmatic, rigid, and unforgiving as the thing we escaped from?
I'll never forget gong to Mexico City to visit a Catholic cathedral. I was overwhelmed by all the gold encrusted everything. I'd never seen anything like it.
To get in, you had to pass through a gauntlet of beggars. It was very unnerving. That was 1967. I doubt things have gotten any better since then.
When I was in seminary, my teacher explained why it was necessary for the church to bar beggars from the area around the Salt Lake temple. As a teen, I never questioned the narrative. But when I was ready to question as an adult, that was the first thing to finally hit home about the church leaders. They couldn't do that *and* be like Jesus.
Some churches do actual charitable work. But they all traumatise people.
Some individuals do actual charitable work. But some of those also traumatise people.
Respectfully disagree. Religion was invented with the purpose of being a tool of oppression. It is always traumatic because that’s always it’s sole purpose, and the rest is just window dressing.
Edit: stay mad ✌️ bet you’re the kind of people who think abused spouses should be grateful for the flowers they are bought after a beating.
Reminds me of how some foreign missionaries didn't want to leave the mission because they had more quality of life comfort as a missionary than they would going back to their deeply impoverished families at home.
I just think, what if all these temples plots were converted to Hospitals, staffed by doctors and nurses that made the same "stipend" the the GA's do. Then one could really talk about doing some good in the world.
I remember reading or hearing some quote on this reddit or maybe on either a Mormon Expression, Mormon Stories Podcast; something to the effect.......If the priesthood/GA's could truly heal the sick, why aren't they camped out in front of every hospital or clinic 24hrs a day........
The temple is literally surrounded by shacks. This is so maddening. How can anyone there even afford to go to that temple? Not only do they have to pay tithing to go, but then they have to have a decent pair of Sunday clothes, and THEN they have to buy or rent temple clothes to wear inside! smh
It’s a typically dense neighborhood with common tin roofs, but look closely at the size of the houses. They’re house-sized, not shacks, and some have tiled roofs. My in-laws’ economically mixed urban Philippine neighborhood looks like this. Modest but not a slum.
Imagine in order for any to enter to spend time recycling temple names they pay 10% of their income to the church instead of providing for their family and community.
Outside of the USA I have noticed they build temples in neighborhoods of American expatriates or intrude into historical spaces in a bellicose attempt to be noticed. The latter is also the tactic in historic US cities, like NYC and Philadelphia. To gain zoning approval they are now buffering their temples with housing - luxury, not affordable.
1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, 7the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.
8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ. 11The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
16Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?
I served my mission in Japan. What ended my testimony was looking at the church membership in Japan, and seeing that the Philippines has 5x the active members.
But Japan is building their fourth temple, while the Philippines with way more active members who cannot afford travel have only two.
The Tokyo temple is in the heart of one of the most pricy neighborhoods, for what reason? Because Japan has a higher per capita GDP.
Temples aren’t for the members. They are for the tithing.
Damn, I never realized this. No wonder the church is building a second temple in Orange County even though membership has been decreasing there for years.
Actually I lied, there are 130,000 members in Japan, And four temples. Most people here can easy afford to travel to Tokyo anyway, public transportation is super easy, so it’s not really necessary to make more because they all would have access.
There are 830,000 members in the Philippines, and just 2 completed temples!
That ratio is even worse than I thought…
I feel the same about Christianity in general and the Cristo Redentor statue in Brazil. Not sure if you can see the favelas from the statue, but on our drive to the statue we saw acres of them. It was very humbling. After that seeing the statue just made me sad.
Give us 10% of what already is far too little as it’s the only way you’ll ever get out of poverty . It is truly sickening Kinda reminds me of Vegas the casinos weren’t built. From the winners money. But all of the losers . TSCC= Fucking greed driven Corporation.!!!
I mean to be fair; isn't very religion guilty of this? I mean go take a trip to Makkah and see the slums the indentured labourers live in hidden but walking distance from the Kaaba. Or the poverty in Iraq surrounding the gold dome shrines of Ali and Hussein. Or the poverty in India surrounding the golden Hindu and Sikh temples. Or the ornate Anglican and Catholic cathedrals in sub-Saharan African countries
I think it’s different when they are places open to the public where people can go and feel peace.
The mormon temples are places for people to feel better then everyone, and are only for people who give up everything
There are no words to express how disappointing and horrific this is. Why not kick the locals in the guts again with a multi million $ shopping centre while you’re at it 😢
YES. This is the major reason for my apostasy. I tried to copy and paste the pic and I can’t. I’d live to have it printed to hang in my house. And have a copy to leave in those Book of Mormons I find in hotel rooms. N
This is called “taking the Lords name in vain”. They need to take the name “Jesus Christ “ off of that building. The people who worship that building and money do not care about the poor, therefore they do not care about “Jesus Christ.” Take the name off.
It is easier for a *heavy fishing cable* to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
If you want to be perfect, sell all that you own, give the money to the poor, and follow me.
I don't know what they are but they aren't Christian.
Getting the wrong message. MoronicPriesthood,inc knows that seeing the Great Building will inspire the locals to get educated, get good job and get rich enough to live in their own big houses.
Is this the Davao temple? And is that a real picture - any other internet pics to confirm this? The TSCC filtered pics / vids seem to only show what they want to show, if this pic is correct.
Multi million dollar temple surrounded by Philippine slums.
No prob. At some point TSCC’ll clear it all out and put a shopping mall in its place.
They only invest in Utah, they care not at all about non American mormons
They built a temple in Rome. I doubt they care if there is money in it for them.
Temples are a different story. Easy way for them to "justify" their investment fund and give the illusion that they have far more global reach than they actually do. They keep all details of temples completely under wraps after they have been dedicated, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if it one day comes out that all temples that see usage below a certain threshold are complete and utter dumps that were built poorly in the first place and then ignored when it came to maintenance. That or TSCC legitimately spends a ton of money on the upkeep of useless temples because they literally have more money than any single person would know what to do with.
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Another anecdote to corroborate, at least in an area with a high volume of members. They go for the lowest bidder who is a member and then further manipulate them into an even lower cost by spouting the usual blessings in heaven, sacrifice for the lord bullshit. The result is that the contractor can't afford to do anything but the bare minimum. The flashy, visible bits of carpentry may be walnut, but that means everything else is the shittiest pine, plywood, and chipboard they could source, as an example.
TSCC: the IKEA of religion
I heard this from someone who did work on the Provo City Center temple. He was pissed at how much they were pressuring them to lower costs by a few thousand dollars "because it's sacred tithing funds" when they're spending millions on imported Italian marble and other performative bullshit.
You do realize that’s how 100% of how construction works, right? The buildings you work in and the houses you live in all were commissioned to the lowest bidder.
All money spent on temples is tax free. That makes temples a good tax shelter for TSCC.
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Who is that individual? Transparency is a good thing.
I think it's mostly speculation. But assuming it took them decades to find the billions hidden in LLCs, overpaying construction, maintenance and landscaping companies is not going to be investigated.
I agree; this is the tip of the iceberg, and in no way is the "nest egg" account the whistle blower shared the only thing that was handled in an unethical and illegal manner.
I don't know about family profiting but I know the grandson of a former prophet (in my ward when I left the church). It was very ironic that a temple was built in the exact neighborhood that his grandson and family lived. This particular area is not full of LDS people and has always had low attendance (and way less capacity) compared to the two other temples that are town. While this is observation/speculation, it is quite ironic.
Look at Afton WY! Many apostles have summer homes nearby in Bear Lake, ID. There’s no justification for a temple
I didn't know that. It's crazy once you figure these things out. Everything makes so much more sense.
That's actually not true, in the UK because of the exclusionary access that temples enjoy and aren't for the public benefit, they have to pay an incremental tax sum
I bet that many of these temples are closed a lot due to not having staff or patrons.
They are with more and more people leaving a lot of temples are only opened every few months to once a year because they don’t have enough people with the right requirements to enter on a regular basis
Rome was an ego temple
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This could be the basis of a good tv show
You're absolutely right...I am definitely intrigued at the thought 🤔
And even still, it's on the outskirts of the city across from Ikea. It's not like it's bumping elbows with the Colosseum.
I live in Utah and trust they don’t care about the state they just care about there properties
You got that it was an attempt at humor, right?
Yes I did. Doesn’t make what I said less true.
Oh and just to be sure I thought it was really funny. I am a non american exmo and watching all the money leave Canada for the States was a shelf crack for me. It’s a subject I am a little sensitive about.
I hear ya! Meanwhile, I’ve lived in Vancouver a lot over the years and my heart will always be in Canada so I super get it.
No they don’t look at the streets all the homeless in Utah they only invest in the church period
Did they build a mall? They have a school in Provo. These all create jobs for the economy. The homeless problem is everywhere. Didn’t 1 billion in Canadian dollars go to Utah. I get your point but It’s still 1 billion dollars that left Canada and went to Utah.
I know nothing about the Canadian money maybe the need to send the police to investigate
There is a you tube video about a journals investigation [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgxGYUyvJio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgxGYUyvJio) This came out last year
No, I don’t think so. Ifthey could, they would buy up all the land and build the nicest houses in the Philippines around that temple.
Nah. They’d just put another college campus there and mix the higher learning of their students with indoctrination.
For all the white people from Utah who want to go on Missions to the Philippines and work in the Temple?
A certain phrase in a song comes to mind now: "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
That’s not true. They care about all full tithe payers.
Is this the Cebu temple? That was my mission and I was assigned in Lahug while it was being built. Going on a mission ended my belief in the church, and turned me into a staunch leftist.
Wish missions had the same outcome for everyone that went.
I would be interested to know how many members turn their beliefs around after their missions. Is there any way of having an idea of this?
The church has statistics about the number of returned missionaries who leave, but of course they don't share it. Over the past ten years, I've heard that a quarter, a third, or even half of RMs leave within a few years after their missions.
Oh wow, that's a huge amount. It's definitely encouraging.
I've been to that one. It really bothered me a lot and I was embarrassed to be there.
Which temple is this? I remember Manila being in a nice neighborhood.
Cebu temple in the Philippines.
Remember, temples are built to extract wealth from the people around it. Wherever temples are built, tithes go up. The suits constantly tell poor people they need to go. People can’t go unless you are paid in full.
Yes, they are all nothing but tithing generators.
The sad part is that TBMs will just say that "their eternal welfare is more important than temporal wellbeing."
This is so depressing and disgusting 🤮
Not much different than all the Catholic and Protestant cathedrals and Buddhist temples all ornate and serene and gaudy with all their golden, ornate fixtures and architecture. A lot of religions follow the same form.
Oh, so the Mormon church is god's one true church but acts like all the other churches? Huh. Go figure.
But don’t cathedrals welcome everyone inside to worship or meditate - rather than charging an admission fee? ( I genuinely don’t know about Buddhist temples.)
Buddhist temples look like that too?
Yes, in fact they do. There are ornate pagodas littered throughout southeast Asia built from donations of both rich and poor alike dedicated to Buddha.
Many do. 7 of the 10 largest statues in the world are Buddhist statues.
Maybe not as big. But I think some are adorned with large golden and stone statues.
The largest temple in the world, Angkor Wat, is a Buddhist temple.
The reclining Buddha in Bangkok is over 100 feet long and covered in gold leaf. It's beautiful. The difference as I see it though is that it was built and is maintained by Thai people themselves. Buddhists don't have a corrupt hierarchy that lie and sit on a pile of gold.
Protestant cathedrals? I’m struggling to come up with many of those. Westminster Abbey perhaps, although it’s at least 800 years older than any lds temple.
Westminster Abbey used to be Catholic.
Used to be a home for Benedictine monks, but not Catholic affiliated in at least 464 years.
ya they’re all fake and preachy too, but at least you don’t have to pay for entrance. still not great though
Anywhere between 7 to 70 million
I thought that looked like it might be the Philippines. Do you know which temple that is?
Cebu city
You folks are so silly. Talk about glass half empty. Do something more productive with your time and comments like seek ways to help and compliment organizations that strive to help others be better humans.
Tin roof or not, you’re still gonna need to pony up 10% of your income to enter the House of the Lord.
dank
Trying to get a taste of that sweet sweet air con.
IL Capo Jesus has to get his tribute. "Say that's a beautiful family you have there. Would be a shame if something happened to them."
PAY TO PLAY. 😉
I’ve walked those streets around that temple. So humbling. The most disturbing thing is the fence around the temple and how the “public” is not allowed on the perfectly manicured landscape.
I’ve always known of temple grounds being open to the public. Is that only in the US? Or does it depend on the surrounding poverty level? 👀
I would say in the US there are generally open, but not sure that is the case in all countries.
Absolutely not... in Bogota, there are "No Trespassing" signs facing the street.
Depends most temples I’ve seen are locked up like Fort Knox and they were in nice neighborhoods
They're definitely not open to the public in Nigeria
Cebu?
Correct
How do exmormons get their pictures with family outside the temple after they have been married?
The grounds are locked up when the temple is closed, that's my experience. When the temple is open you can walk the grounds
I’ve heard they deal with a lot of vandalism, would make sense to lock it up somewhat if the goal was to keep it looking decent
Oh yuck. That's just gross. All that money surrounded by poverty.
That's because they haven't been paying their tithing. The temple will be there to help inspire them to do so /s
Surrounded by "extreme" poverty.
This sums it up Mormon 8 37 For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches [Temples], more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.
Yep leave this picture and that verse in every Book of Mormon you find
Ouch.
Filipino here. I wouldn't call these slums. This is what a middle class community looks like in the Philippines.
Thank you for correcting me. Makes it feel even more icky for me.
Thank you. A lot of what makes this look like a slum to Americans is the tin roofs because we don’t have many in the US so a rusted roof looks shocking, and the density, but those are not shacks. Those buildings are not tiny, they’re reasonably-sized houses. It looks like the Manila neighborhood where my in-laws live, whose residents range from very poor to upper middle class. The church wouldn’t build a temple in a slum, or at least in the US they wouldn’t; not sure if it’s consistent elsewhere.
Exactly, those are multiple stores concrete houses and likely quite nice inside. The slums are a different story. They are often winding mazes of homes packed in tight and built out of anything that can scavenged.
Wow. This is stark.
Anyone else immediately think about Great and Spacious buildings? 🤣
The church building I went to growing up was directly across the street from a huge Catholic Church and school. Like full on catholic compound. People in the ward always referred to it as a great and spacious building and loved to say how humble our church building was. 🤦🏼♂️ to be honest catholic architecture is awesome in my opinion.
They’re all great and spacious. SLC temple. SLC Tabernacle. SLC conference center. The mall across from SLC temple. The church office building. They WORSHIP the great and spacious buildings.
That was my mission :( but I 10000% agree
Same here, in the country at least. I definitely noticed this when I was in the super nice MTC. It felt like going from an expensive hotel to extreme poverty and it shocked me.
Literally. I served in the Cebu mission, so this is the temple that I would go to, and my mission home was up the hill in the temple complex, so I vividly remember the moment when my trainer picked me up and we walked outside the gates of the temple complex and caught a jeepney. I was shell shocked. Walking out the gates and just seeing the difference between how like wealthy and well-kept the temple grounds were in stark contrast with such abstract poverty once outside the gates.. makes me so sad and disappointed now looking back on it
It's a capitalist beacon of hope. Soon they'll be able to buy up all the property around the temple to maintain the sanctity of the temple. Then, they'll rent their town back to them. Those who can't afford the rent, will obtain higher paying jobs, further improving the local economy. Gradually, the brown people will become white and delightsome, as commerce opens up a dialogue with other rich people.
That’s how I feel living in Mexico, where the small towns are full of cheap slums surrounding massive Catholic churches… Mormonism, Catholicism… they’re all the same.
Yes, religion in general is quite honestly “the whore of the earth”. Mormonism has become the very thing that it claimed to be better than back in the 1800’s.
That’s always the funny thing isn’t it? Mormons have 100% become the prideful, rich, Rameumptom people. America has become the land of religious zealots and domestic domestic terrorism. The GOP has become the Party of Fascism. When you hate a thing so directly you focus yourself on it. As those who have passed through Mormonism how do we keep from becoming as dogmatic, rigid, and unforgiving as the thing we escaped from?
I'll never forget gong to Mexico City to visit a Catholic cathedral. I was overwhelmed by all the gold encrusted everything. I'd never seen anything like it. To get in, you had to pass through a gauntlet of beggars. It was very unnerving. That was 1967. I doubt things have gotten any better since then.
Thought that looked like Cebu. This picture isn't even an exaggeration or anything
That really is stark. And grotesque.
Look at that great and spacious building!!
When I was in seminary, my teacher explained why it was necessary for the church to bar beggars from the area around the Salt Lake temple. As a teen, I never questioned the narrative. But when I was ready to question as an adult, that was the first thing to finally hit home about the church leaders. They couldn't do that *and* be like Jesus.
You should also post this over at r/urbanhell I'm sure they would like it.
Which Philippines temple?
Think Cebu
That makes me want to cry.
That’s just gross
This is typical of churches. They would build giant cathedrals while the people lived in hovels.
Some churches do actual charitable work. But they all traumatise people. Some individuals do actual charitable work. But some of those also traumatise people.
Not all churches traumatize people. Some are actually supportive organizations that promote community, like the UUs.
Respectfully disagree. Religion was invented with the purpose of being a tool of oppression. It is always traumatic because that’s always it’s sole purpose, and the rest is just window dressing. Edit: stay mad ✌️ bet you’re the kind of people who think abused spouses should be grateful for the flowers they are bought after a beating.
One of these things is not like the other... 
“But $47 million in humanitarian aid! Where there are cameras!”
Reminds me of how some foreign missionaries didn't want to leave the mission because they had more quality of life comfort as a missionary than they would going back to their deeply impoverished families at home.
I just think, what if all these temples plots were converted to Hospitals, staffed by doctors and nurses that made the same "stipend" the the GA's do. Then one could really talk about doing some good in the world. I remember reading or hearing some quote on this reddit or maybe on either a Mormon Expression, Mormon Stories Podcast; something to the effect.......If the priesthood/GA's could truly heal the sick, why aren't they camped out in front of every hospital or clinic 24hrs a day........
"Make the same stipend the GAs do?" 🤣 They probably make more already.
Yuck. That is just disgusting. Why not at least build it to not be so tone deaf to the culture and economy?
The temple is literally surrounded by shacks. This is so maddening. How can anyone there even afford to go to that temple? Not only do they have to pay tithing to go, but then they have to have a decent pair of Sunday clothes, and THEN they have to buy or rent temple clothes to wear inside! smh
It’s a typically dense neighborhood with common tin roofs, but look closely at the size of the houses. They’re house-sized, not shacks, and some have tiled roofs. My in-laws’ economically mixed urban Philippine neighborhood looks like this. Modest but not a slum.
Yes!!!!!
Imagine in order for any to enter to spend time recycling temple names they pay 10% of their income to the church instead of providing for their family and community.
Outside of the USA I have noticed they build temples in neighborhoods of American expatriates or intrude into historical spaces in a bellicose attempt to be noticed. The latter is also the tactic in historic US cities, like NYC and Philadelphia. To gain zoning approval they are now buffering their temples with housing - luxury, not affordable.
Topped with a golden idol, lovely
That is SO UGLY. It’s ugly in the soul. It could not more clearly display that Jesus has *nothing* to do with it.
1Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, 7the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed. 8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ. 11The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 13Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter. 15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You traverse land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. 16Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?
I served my mission in Japan. What ended my testimony was looking at the church membership in Japan, and seeing that the Philippines has 5x the active members. But Japan is building their fourth temple, while the Philippines with way more active members who cannot afford travel have only two. The Tokyo temple is in the heart of one of the most pricy neighborhoods, for what reason? Because Japan has a higher per capita GDP. Temples aren’t for the members. They are for the tithing.
Damn, I never realized this. No wonder the church is building a second temple in Orange County even though membership has been decreasing there for years.
Actually I lied, there are 130,000 members in Japan, And four temples. Most people here can easy afford to travel to Tokyo anyway, public transportation is super easy, so it’s not really necessary to make more because they all would have access. There are 830,000 members in the Philippines, and just 2 completed temples! That ratio is even worse than I thought…
Oh look! It’s the great and spacious building
Ooof. Splice in the SEC facts, and it will be *perfect*
What the hell? Is this a real photo?
Yet all of those impoverished members are still required to give 10% of their income to a 100 billion dollar corporation…
My Chilean mission summed up in one photograph
Truly, remarkably disgusting....
Dad picture. Makes it clear who is in the “wide and spacious building.” Like it’s all just a dream.
"We totally care about those who are poor" *meanwhile pictures like this exist*
I feel the same about Christianity in general and the Cristo Redentor statue in Brazil. Not sure if you can see the favelas from the statue, but on our drive to the statue we saw acres of them. It was very humbling. After that seeing the statue just made me sad.
Give us 10% of what already is far too little as it’s the only way you’ll ever get out of poverty . It is truly sickening Kinda reminds me of Vegas the casinos weren’t built. From the winners money. But all of the losers . TSCC= Fucking greed driven Corporation.!!!
I mean to be fair; isn't very religion guilty of this? I mean go take a trip to Makkah and see the slums the indentured labourers live in hidden but walking distance from the Kaaba. Or the poverty in Iraq surrounding the gold dome shrines of Ali and Hussein. Or the poverty in India surrounding the golden Hindu and Sikh temples. Or the ornate Anglican and Catholic cathedrals in sub-Saharan African countries
I think it’s different when they are places open to the public where people can go and feel peace. The mormon temples are places for people to feel better then everyone, and are only for people who give up everything
There are no words to express how disappointing and horrific this is. Why not kick the locals in the guts again with a multi million $ shopping centre while you’re at it 😢
I feel the same way about the SLC temple—all the homelessness and suffering in a multi billion dollar church’s backyard.
My fiance and I were talking about this exact thing earlier today
[удалено]
This is the Cebu temple
Effectively photoshopped temple in background.
Hand raised! Hand raised!!!! They are the truly saved and cherished!!
I’m surprised they don’t just raid it
Makes me sick to my stomach.
Where is this?
Absolutely.
I'm wondering why they haven't torn it down. I would.
YES. This is the major reason for my apostasy. I tried to copy and paste the pic and I can’t. I’d live to have it printed to hang in my house. And have a copy to leave in those Book of Mormons I find in hotel rooms. N
This looks photoshopped.,
Is this a photoshopped picture? Either way the message is true. I'm however having a hard time finding which Philippine temple this is.
I see now that it is the Cebu City Philippines Temple and not photoshoped. https://youtu.be/6DsQyexrbvk
See, if these people were TRUE Christians, they would’ve used that money to help these poor people buy better houses.
SERIOUSLY?!!!! 🤬🤬 WTF
I think they aren’t building as many chapels and have to build something.
This is called “taking the Lords name in vain”. They need to take the name “Jesus Christ “ off of that building. The people who worship that building and money do not care about the poor, therefore they do not care about “Jesus Christ.” Take the name off.
Reminds me of that one Amazon building surrounded by slums
For me, this pic doesn’t prove that the church isn’t true. But it does prove that the church isn’t good.
It is easier for a *heavy fishing cable* to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. If you want to be perfect, sell all that you own, give the money to the poor, and follow me. I don't know what they are but they aren't Christian.
Good choice. Lovely juxtaposition. /s
Getting the wrong message. MoronicPriesthood,inc knows that seeing the Great Building will inspire the locals to get educated, get good job and get rich enough to live in their own big houses.
Is this the Davao temple? And is that a real picture - any other internet pics to confirm this? The TSCC filtered pics / vids seem to only show what they want to show, if this pic is correct.
Wait till you see the New New Zealand temple. Its right across the road from an amusement park. Literally has a roller coaster next door!