ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates one small element of those self-understandings, and look at a question that is certainly raised both by Filipino Catholics and American Latter-day Saints: the question of what is important about rituals. Although Latter-day Saints (LDS) attend regular Sunday School and Eucharistic services in their local meeting houses each week, these services are quite distinct from the special ceremonies which define the LDS religious imagination, namely the temple rituals Exterior images of the individual temples are much-loved by Latter-day Saints and appear in many forms, as screen savers, programme covers for church services and so on. Some people also enjoy, and collect, interior views, but these are treated with more reserve. One consequence of this taboo on the temple ritual is that it looms large in Mormonism’s image in the outside world. Those hostile to Mormonism sometimes use the temple ritual to claim that Mormonism is a ‘cult’.
