Section 30: Temple Ordinances — The Load-Bearing Layer

The ordinances performed in the temple are the central mechanism of LDS salvation. The endowment is the gateway to celestial marriage. Celestial marriage is required for exaltation — the highest level of the celestial kingdom, the level at which the couple can become gods. Without celestial marriage, even the most faithful LDS member can receive only a lesser degree within the celestial kingdom.

Proxy ordinances — performed on behalf of deceased individuals — include baptism, confirmation, initiatory, endowment, and sealing. These are the driving purpose of LDS genealogical work. The church teaches that billions of souls in spirit prison are waiting for living members to perform these ordinances so that they have the opportunity to accept the fullness of the gospel.

The secrecy surrounding temple ordinances — enforced by institutional covenant, not merely cultural expectation — creates a significant asymmetry in LDS evangelism. A person investigating the LDS church is warmly welcomed into Sacrament Meeting and taught about family values, Jesus's love, and the restoration of the gospel. What they will not be told, until after baptism and after building sufficient commitment to be recommended for the endowment, is the full content of what the temple involves. This sequencing is a structural feature of the system, not an accidental omission.

ERROR IDENTIFIED: Informed consent is a basic ethical principle. A person considering LDS membership is being asked to make a commitment to a system whose central requirements — the temple ordinances, the endowment covenants, the token-and-sign requirements — are deliberately withheld until they are already committed enough to be trusted with them. The disciple engaging an LDS investigator or recent convert can ask, gently: "Do you know what happens in the temple? Have you been told what you'll be agreeing to?" Not as a gotcha, but as genuine care for a person being asked to make life-defining commitments without full information.