Video of Mormon temple using a hidden camera going viral

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

39. OK, that's some weird shit.

Looks more like a fraternity initiation (without the liquor) than a religious ceremony, and the "Celestial Room" resembles a hotel lobby.

I will grant you that most religions have some rituals and beliefs that, viewed objectively, seem kind of weird. Most of us are so familiar with traditional Christianity that we hardly notice the weird parts any more. But I can understand why some Christians might consider the LDS church cultic and heretical, especially the belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are actually separate, individual gods, and there's all that goofy stuff with secret handshakes and veils they stole from the Freemasons. And the planet Kolob. You've got to be kidding me, Mormons. A planet?

They actually have a hymn about the planet Kolob in their hymnal:

#!

It's actually quite beautiful - it's set to a lovely English folk song, Dives and Lazarus. But the lyrics are seriously strange:

If you could hie to Kolob In the twinkling of an eye,
And then continue onward With that same speed to fly,
Do you think that you could ever, Through all eternity,
Find out the generation Where Gods began to be?

Or see the grand beginning, Where space did not extend?
Or view the last creation, Where Gods and matter end?
Me thinks the Spirit whispers, “No man has found ‘pure space,’
Nor seen the outside curtains, Where nothing has a place.”

The works of God continue, And worlds and lives abound;
Improvement and progression Have one eternal round.
There is no end to matter; There is no end to space;
There is no end to spirit; There is no end to grace.

There is no end to virtue; There is no end to might;
There is no end to wisdom; There is no end to light.
There is no end to union; There is no end to youth;
There is no end to priesthood; There is no end to truth.

There is no end to glory; There is no end to love;
There is no end to being; There is no death above.
There is no end to glory; There is no end to love;
There is no end to being; There is no death above.