Why does the church spend so much money on temples?

This morning at breakfast, my husband asked me if I thought temples were too extravagant. He’d been reading on various temples that were being remodeled or under construction and had noted that a great deal of money goes into these buildings. I’d noticed the same thing.

Is this right, he asked when there are so many that suffer from poverty? How can the church justify putting so many resources into temples? What is going on with all of this buying of gold leaving and expensive armchairs?

Here are a few thoughts we discussed.

First, humankind will always be shooting for something huge to attain as a group. Last night my son showed me a video of Jeff Bezos's vision for the future. Jeff, not only the founder of Amazon, also aspires to space travel and the design of an ideal future for humankind. In this recent presentation, Jeff promotes man-made world creation, so that we could support a trillion people outside of planet earth without having to resort to colonizing Mars. This project of man-made worlds would span generations and cost, of course, untold fortunes to realize. The great cathedrals of Europe and pyramids of Egypt (as well as the tower of Babel) all attest to the fact that people WILL always be shooting for something large and bold. It won’t be taken out of their DNA. So, if we, as religious and worshipful humans, aim high by building beautiful temples to God, that is something that people have always done in a way: dream big, put forth their best effort, and create something inspirational and worth preserving as a product of cooperation, innovation, and at times, worship. We’re going to do some majorly expensive collaborative work because we’re wired to do so. Isn’t putting our best work in the direction of worshiping God a good use of this inherent drive we have to make big, grand structures and embark on ambitious projects? I think so. If we don’t put it into temples, we’ll put it elsewhere. It would not be human to neglect the dreaming that is inherent in our existence.

The next thing we discussed was something I’d learned recently while reading about Joseph Smith’s history. After he introduced the temple endowment (many years into the church’s formation), the saints anchored their beliefs on that endowment ritual along with the promises and covenants found therein. But this was a new thing. In the earlier days of the church, before the temple rituals were in place, the saints relied on more sensational and unpredictable (who knows when they’d happen) outpourings of the spirit to bind them together and to God. These miraculous events took the form of meetings where members spoke in tongues or saw visions. Or they took the form of Joseph revealing grand new doctrines. But…. As one religious historian noted, a religious movement cannot last when it is based on sensational experiences such as the above. If ANY movement is to endure, it must eventually have consistent rituals that bind the people to the ideas and goals associated with the movement. The temple endowment did just that. And the temple, as the grand symbol of the divine, embodies the hopes and dreams for a future life with God. It's hard to have a temple embody such noble heights without putting our best efforts into the building since symbolically, the “best” we have symbolizes the “best” we can give and receive from God. In short, making temples beautiful is a powerful symbol, and the temple rituals are ALL about symbols.

The last thing we talked about is how the church has a lot of competing demands to balance. Just like we do. I mean, we must balance when to pinch the budget and when to say, “what the heck, we’re going out to eat tonight.” That’s because we, as people, are designed to do more than just pay the bills. And the church is designed to do more than just care for the poor. Caring for the poor is one of the imperatives, but even Christ, when he was criticized for allowing the woman to anoint his feet with expensive ointment (he “should” have had the ointment sold and the money was given to the poor) replied that the woman’s deed would be an honorable memorial to her. Basically, taking care of the poor is not the only thing that there is to do. The church has three main missions: Proclaim the gospel (missionary work), perfect the saints (teach and minister to people) and redeem the dead (temple work). All three need to be attended to. If all we did was attend to the poor with our resources, we could not put enough into our teaching. And teaching is what helps people no longer be miserable. Give a man a fish vs teach a man to fish. And as we, as a people, learn and grow, we need something more and more to aim for. The temple is the symbol and the focus of our aims. It gives us something collectively to work towards as we grow. “Thee left me, and I’ll lift thee, and we’ll ascent together.”

Keep in mind is that the church never takes money - it is donated. Also, its fair. For those who donate, it's 10% for everyone. It's proportional. Poor people pay much less than rich people. AND…. If a poor person can’t meet their bills after paying their tithing, they can get help from the church in the form of support, education, encouragement, actual job-hunting assistance, education assistance, even training in starting a business, and when necessary, actual cash to help with bills. The church’s welfare system has been lauded for decades as a model of efficiency and compassion. So, no, the temples are not built on the backs of the poor. Far from it.

They give all of us, rich and poor alike, a common symbol of transcendence.

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