For a while now, HBO’s Big Love has marketed itself as a show about secrets. This became quite meta when the show’s writers decided to portray - quite accurately, it would seem - the most sacred and the most secret of all rituals in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Though it has been incorrectly identified as a “sealing ritual” in some articles, what the show actually portrayed was an “endowment.” In this ritual, members of the LDS church are anointed with a sort of priesthood (or priestesshood, as may be). Brigham Young said of the ritual:

Your endowment is to receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the keywords, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.

Some Mormon institutions, such as the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship at Brigham Young University, have previously expressed displeasure towards those who would make temple rituals public knowledge. Though the church has taken no official stance on the Big Love issue, many Mormons are deeply offended. The Salt Lake Tribune made the mistake of publishing a photo of Barb Henrickson, the character on the show who undergoes the endowment ritual, wearing her sacred temple robes. Although the design of these clothes is publicly available, many church members were angered. They wrote into the newspaper with comments like:

I am a member of the LDS Church and a daily subscriber to the Salt Lake Tribune . I was very disturbed that the Salt Lake Tribune would publish the image of a woman wearing full LDS Temple robes along with an article about the show ‘Big Love.’

It is the picture that has particularly upset me. Although at times I value the voice I get from the Tribune on various topics, I am discussing the value of our subscription with my wife and will likely be canceling our subscription over this article.

You have gone too far. You have crossed the line by showing something so sacred to so many of your constituents.

Other complaints include the fact that Barb, who, at this point in the show, is known to be living a polygamous lifestyle, would never be allowed to receive endowment in real life. On the show, in fact, she is in a rush to do so before she is excommunicated. It almost seems as if the show’s writers were scrambling for an excuse to portray the ceremony, even if it didn’t make sense.

These days, very few things can remain secret. Within the world of “Big Love” almost all secrets have been thrown into the light: Sarah’s ex-boyfriend knows about her miscarriage, the Henricksons know of Nicki’s betrayal by working at the DA’s office, and…it just goes on and on. That the show should unearth one of LDS’s deepest secrets is almost inevitable.

Personally, I felt the ritual fit perfectly into the show. It was almost crucial in portraying how important the church is to Barb; her complete rapture upon entering the temple was beautiful to behold. Not having been raised in Mormonism, I can’t possibly comprehend why a seemingly accurate and sensitive portrayal of this ritual could offend. Is it a little weird and creepy to watch? Of course it is. All rituals are. I’ve personally participated in the much-less-secretive ritual of standard-issue Protestant communion, right down to the “this bread is my body, this wine is my blood,” and that’s pretty freaking creepy too. It’s part of the point. You are supposed to feel the sacred weight of what you’re doing. To outsiders, out of context, it feels a little strange. But does that undermine the importance of the ritual to those who believe in it?

I’d like to think not. But then again, it’s not my place to decide.

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