{"id":111110,"date":"2025-07-15T23:57:46","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T05:57:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=111110"},"modified":"2025-07-15T23:57:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T05:57:46","slug":"a-tale-of-two-temples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/07\/a-tale-of-two-temples.html","title":{"rendered":"A Tale of Two Temples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/a>
Scripture study, in a photographic image from LDS.org<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Come, Follow Me<\/em> \u2014 D&C Study and Teaching Helps (2025): Doctrine and Covenants 81\u201383: July 21 \u2013 27: Where \u201cMuch Is Given Much Is Required\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonn Claybaugh has contributed yet another concise set of helpful notes to the Interpreter Foundation for teachers and students of the Come, Follow Me<\/em> curriculum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Tabernacle<\/a>
A 2004 photo of the interior of the Salt Lake Tabernacle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I was surprised (though not really<\/em> surprised) to learn that Maurine Proctor, to whom I send my columns for Meridian Magazine \u2014 <\/em>she and her husband, Scot, co-founded Meridian<\/em> \u2014 wrote material each month for a decade and a half for the Tabernacle Choir\u2019s \u201cSpoken Word\u201d component. \u00a0I enjoyed reading her reflections on the experience: \u00a0\u201cI Wrote the Spoken Word for 15 Years.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
President Russell M. Nelson and his counselors in the First Presidency, President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring. Members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are President M. Russell Ballard, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Elder David A. Bednar, Elder Quentin L. Cook, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Elder Neil L. Andersen, Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Elder Gary E. Stevenson, Elder Dale G. Renlund, Elder Gerrit W. Gong and Elder Ulisses Soares. This iconic photograph was taken in 2019 in the Visitor Center on the grounds of the Rome Italy Temple. Since then, President Ballard has passed away and Elder Patrick Kearon, of the United Kingdom, has been added to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Some online MAGA types fault the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for failing to stand up to the Deep State, for cooperating on humanitarian efforts with Muslims and with agencies related to the United Nations, for accepting vaccination, and for expressing insufficient hostility to homosexuals.\u00a0 Some online anti-Trumpists criticize the leadership of the Church for failing to denounce DOGE and ICE and the strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

In some cases, they contrast the Church\u2019s leaders with the prophets of ancient Israel, who often spoke out on political issues.\u00a0 Of course, Israel was a religiously monolithic theocratic state, whereas America is religiously pluralistic with a tradition of the separation of church and state.\u00a0 If the Church were to take an overt stance against MAGA and the Trump administration, the folks of MAGA would (rightly) denounce it for having exceeded established American norms.\u00a0 If the Church were to take an express position in support of MAGA, opponents of Mr. Trump and his movement would (rightly) denounce it for having violated received American conventions regarding the proper role of religious organizations.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure why both sides demand that Church leaders direct its members on political issues.\u00a0 I, at least, feel perfectly capable of coming to my own opinions on such things.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t actually \u201csheeple,\u201d despite what some folks like to say about us.\u00a0 \u201cI teach them correct principles,\u201d said the Prophet Joseph Smith when asked how he governed so large and diverse a people, \u201cand \u00a0they govern themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Helena Montana Temple (Intellectual Reserve image [Fair Use, I hope])<\/figcaption><\/figure>Before leaving Helena today, we made a point of driving by the Helena Montana Temple<\/a>. \u00a0One of the smallest temples ever built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \u2014 it weighs in at just 9,974 square feet and 96.75 feet in height \u00a0\u2014 it was announced by President Russell M. Nelson on 4 April 2021 and dedicated by Elder Gary E. Stevenson just slightly more than two years later, on 18 June 2023. \u00a0So far as I\u2019m aware, it faced no significant opposition and needed to overcome no great obstacles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons that I wanted to see it is that it\u2019s pretty much the twin of the Cody Wyoming Temple<\/a>, which President Nelson announced just six months later, on 3 October 2021, but which, nearly four years later, owing to multiple legal challenges<\/a>, has only recently been framed to its highest eventual point<\/a>. \u00a0It will be slightly taller than the temple in Helena, Montana, at 101 feet, and slightly smaller, at 9,950 square feet.<\/p>\n

As you can see here<\/a>, the Helena Montana Temple sits in a residential neighborhood in the middle of town. \u00a0By way of contrast, the Cody Wyoming Temple appears \u2014 see here<\/a> \u2014 to sit on the edge of Cody, with very little around it. \u00a0And yet the complaints lodged against permitting the temple to be built in Cody \u2014 complaints that, as far as I know, had no parallel in Helena \u2014 claimed that it would overshadow the city and command all traffic approaches to it, dominate the Cody skyline, blot out the night sky, obscure views of the mountains, and blight the neighborhood. \u00a0It was, some insinuated, an imperialist attempt by the Church to claim Cody as a kind of Latter-day Saint \u201cdominion.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the beginning, I thought much of the opposition in Cody overwrought, if not altogether disingenuous. \u00a0(It may or may not be significant or relevant that a partially complete Latter-day Saint stake center in Cody was destroyed by an arson fire in 1980. \u00a0The crime remains unsolved.) \u00a0I still haven\u2019t come up with an excuse to visit Cody since the temple there was announced, but my brief visual inspection of the Helena Montana Temple and its neighborhood setting has done nothing, thus far, to change my impression.<\/p>\n

\"Sitting<\/a>
Deceptively Serene: The Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We headed briefly into Yellowstone National Park this evening after unloading our car at our lodgings in West Yellowstone. \u00a0It was the ideal time (or so we thought) for seeing wild animals. \u00a0They would be coming a little out of the woods, to the lakes and rivers for water, and so forth. \u00a0And, in fact, we saw a few deer and, at a considerable distance, a couple of elk. \u00a0But the fact is that this trip hasn\u2019t been a very successful one for spotting animals. \u00a0We\u2019ve sighted deer, of course, and elk, and a number of bison along the way, and, up near Canmore in Alberta, a black bear. \u00a0But it may be getting harder and harder to recruit wild animals for these locations: The problem, I think, is the lack of reliable internet access. \u00a0Modern wild animals aren\u2019t stupid.<\/p>\n

\"Wikimedia<\/a>
\u201cAt Yellowstone and some other volcanoes, some scientists theorize that the earth\u2019s crust fractures and cracks in a concentric or ring-fracture pattern. At some point these cracks reach the magma \u201creservoir,\u201d release the pressure, and the volcano explodes. The huge amount of material released causes the volcano to collapse into a huge crater\u2014a caldera.\u201d From nps.gov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My inclination is, when and if the Yellowstone super-volcano decides to explode, that I would rather be right next door and get things over with than to succumb slowly, downwind.\u00a0 Instant vaporization rather than a slow doom. \u00a0That\u2019s the way for me.\u00a0 Wish me luck!<\/p>\n

Posted from West Yellowstone, Montana<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Come, Follow Me \u2014 D&C Study and Teaching Helps (2025): Doctrine and Covenants 81\u201383: July 21 \u2013 27: Where \u201cMuch Is Given Much Is Required\u201d Jonn Claybaugh has contributed yet another concise set of helpful notes to the Interpreter Foundation for teachers and students of the Come, Follow Me curriculum of the Church of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":29817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36132,13754,2905,788,641,5946],"class_list":["post-111110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cody","tag-helena","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-temple","tag-yellowstone"],"yoast_head":"\nA Tale of Two Temples<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  Come, Follow Me \u2014 D&C Study and Teaching Helps (2025): Doctrine and Covenants 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