Lavish Materials

Years ago, I attended the Draper, Utah temple dedication. The tour guide led us through the ornate building, describing various elements of the temple. The lavish wood panels, doors, and moldings are imported African cherry wood. The limestone coverings on the floor are imported from France. The white granite building exterior is from China.¹ In modern Mormonism it is understood that expensive and ornate finishings are required in order for a temple to be acceptable to God. Church members were taught in the October 2012 General Conference that no expense is spared in ensuring that every aspect of the building—visible or not—is as perfect as possible with the example of an entire expensive stained glass panel that was replaced because a single small square was off by an eighth of an inch.²

Perhaps to the surprise of many members, this perspective is very much an innovation. In 2015 dollars, the Kirtland temple cost $68 per sqft.,³ the St. George temple cost $165 per sqft.,⁴ the Manti temple cost $247 per sqft.,⁵ and the Salt Lake temple cost $364 per sqft.⁶ Meanwhile, modern temples cost at least $1,400 per square foot.⁷ Clearly, there has been a change. When and how did it occur?

David O. McKay, who began the modern temple building program, was very intent on building inexpensive buildings. He wrote in his diary,

It is not contemplated that an expensive edifice would be erected but that temples be built that would accommodate the people under a new plan whereby temple ceremonies can be presented in one room without moving from one room to another....It is felt that such a building could be erected and adequately equipped for about the cost of one of our present meeting houses, namely, two hundred or two hundred fifty thousand dollars. (Diary of David O. McKay, April 17, 1952.)

The change to expensive temples did not occur in the McKay administration. As near as can be seen, it did not happen all at once. The DC temple (1974 at $507 per sqft. in 2015 dollars⁸ ) and the San Diego temple (1993 at $553 per sqft. in 2015 dollars⁹ ) serve as trend points along the march to current temple costs. This tradition developed slowly over time. There was no one point where the church suddenly jumped from temples with the same cost of chapels (David O. McKay’s ideal) to what they cost today. Instead, it seems that the gradual building of more expensive temples predicated the development of a tradition that they had to be expensive. As that tradition developed, temples necessarily became more expensive. Thus we can contrast the inexpensive fake marble on the outside of the D.C. temple with the imported granite façade of the Draper temple.

With all this in mind, there are two problems with modern temple construction. First, there is absolutely no justified reason for such expensive construction materials and methods. If LDS temples from an equally wealthy church were acceptable to God at a much lower price tag in former years, why would they not be acceptable to him today, particularly when the difference could be used to help the poor? Second, given the tenuous historical support for post-martyrdom temple worship, the many modifications to Brigham’s ordinances, and the lack of any revelation from God commanding any post-Nauvoo temple to be built, can any new construction at all be justified?

These feelings seem to be echoed in prophetic scripture. It is easy for modern Mormons to condemn wicked King Noah. However, in doing so they unwittingly condemn themselves. When stripped of the defense of “the Lord wants us to build ornate temples,” it becomes apparent that modern Mormons also

...buil[d] many elegant and spacious buildings...ornament[ing] them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of brass, and of ziff, and of copper...caus[ing] that his workmen should work all manner of fine work within the walls of the temple, of fine wood, and of copper, and of brass. (Mosiah 11:8, 10.)

Of course, we also ornament our temples with gold leaf, exquisite furnishings, highest end carpet, Chinese granite, and African wood.

God accepted Nephi’s temple, though it was humble, and rejected Noahs, though it was elegant and spacious. God accepted the humble Kirtland temple, yet has not provided experiences in today’s lavish temples. Moroni’s words undoubtedly apply to today’s temple-building Mormons:

For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ?...Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?...Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer. (Mormon 8:37-41.)