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<\/a>
\nhandle\u2019s recent and excellent post<\/a> on architecture raises some connected issues that I\u2019ve been struggling with lately: To what extent should the church reflect local culture, flavor, etc. and to what extent should it be Mormon? I know this is quite broad, and diahman and others have posted on related questions. The one I want to ask is more specific to architectural and temple traditions.<\/p>\n

Are we more invested when we pay for and design our own meetinghouses? And do we understand the temple better and become more engaged with it when we are the ones doing the acting and not actors on a screen? Does a cookie-cutter temple or ceremony imply cookie-cutter practice? Is this what God wants? I am profoundly convinced that architecture (and active participation in ritual) alters the spirit.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In my hometown recently a world-famous architect designed a pedestrian bridge that cost far too much for a small town to afford, and many were justifiably angry about it (although the project was almost entirely funded by private donors). Once it was built, though, it became a focus for the community, a gathering place, and for the first time in my life I felt like there was<\/span> a community.<\/p>\n

I grew up going to a completely non-standard meetinghouse and temple. In other areas of the country I\u2019ve attended regularly the cookie-cutter types (with one embarrassing story about going in the wrong bathroom because the position of male\/female restrooms was one thing they decided to vary.) Now I\u2019m back to a non-standard meetinghouse that sometimes drives me crazy, but it drives me crazy in all the ways the area I live in drives me crazy. In this building the local customs, flavor, attitudes, people are expressed, and in the end it enhances my worship experience. One would have to say the same thing about the \u201ccookie cutter\u201d buildings\u2013not that the people are monotonous in their attitudes, but that their values (frugality, willingness to accept authority, perhaps even desire for unity) are expressed through this architecture. Maybe it says more about me\u2013in both positive and negative ways\u2013that I prefer atypical architecture.<\/p>\n