There’s this ridiculous push in the LDS church. It seems every time there’s a flexible lesson day, it goes back to temples, garments, covenants. But even when lessons aren’t flexible, half the time it’s about these things anyway! (Because most conference talks are about temples and covenants, gathering Israel, and all this other special LDS lingo that’s not in the actual scriptures anywhere.)
So if keeping our covenants gives us “greater access to God’s power” which is President Nelson’s latest catchphrase, I would still be entitled to this.
There was never a covenant to stay active in the LDS church. Temple recommend requirement, yes but covenant, no.
I still keep all my covenants.
Let’s take a look.
According to the LDS church, baptism was a covenant to be a disciple of Christ. To obey him, keep His commandments, devote my life to him. I renew this intention each week at my new church when I pray for Him to “change me, make me new” and put my future in His hands.
Then we have the five endowment covenants:
(1) Obedience. Yes, same thing as baptism again. (I mean, technically I covenanted to obey my husband, but that’s another post.)
(2) Holiness (or “the law of the gospel.”) I swear, I have never laughed loudly ever since I covenanted not to, 20 years ago. I only talk loudly. Evil speaking of the Lord’s anointed? I keep my evil remarks to thoughts and Facebook comments only. No evil speaking here.
I’m being sassy, sorry. But now that I think about it, I think there’s only one blog post here picking on President Nelson, or picking at his latest conference talk to be precise. And I really don’t mention him on Facebook much. Most of my church commentary is about the founding narratives and the doctrine that contradicts the Bible. So I think I’m safe to say I keep this covenant.
(Why this is called the law of the gospel, I don’t know. It’s basically a random accumulation of things they wanted to get you to not do, and wrap it all up with the umbrella term “holiness.”)
(3) Sacrifices. Currently in process of sacrificing only everything I’ve ever held dear in order to give my life to Christ. My reputation as a Mormon is in shambles. My business —where the majority of my clients are LDS— may very well soon follow. So, yes, I follow this one as well.
(4) Chastity. I have never cheated on my husband. Not since flirting with that mailman in 2010. Just kidding. I only have sexual relations with one person, thank you very much.
(5) Consecration. My favorite. I never took this one literally—nobody does. We are not actually required to give all our property and turn over our bank accounts to the LDS church like it says in the temple. Just ten percent. I still pay 10% of my money to God and church, just not the LDS church.
But what consecration actually means is giving my life to God — my will, my heart, my habits, my future, my identity even.
But this doesn’t require a special temple covenant. It’s just the basic principle of being born again. We devote our lives to Jesus. We are bought with a price and we live for Him now.
In fact, none of these require a special, elite temple ceremony. These are basic commandments found in the Bible that every Christian knows about, and every Christian strives to attain through the Holy Spirit acting in us.
So yes, I (and every Christian I know) am keeping my covenants.
(The sixth temple covenant is the sealing covenant, which is pretty much the typical marital vow. Except I think there’s a part about honoring the husband as he presides over me 🤣… but apparently I covenanted to “observe and keep all the laws, rites, and ordinances pertaining to this holy order of matrimony.” What in the world does that even mean?? What are the laws and rites of matrimony?? And ordinances of matriminy? This is it. Is there another one? Is this all polygamy speak? What in the world?)
Ah well. I will keep the 5. But I won’t be a polygamist.
All I Possess 