SENTINEL
You hit several nails on the head, and as evidenced by the (type of) responses generated from your understanding of the religious world you formerly inhabited, your knowledge of its secrets which exist for no sensible reason whatsoever is also spot on.
When any person could have normal Christianity, with assurance of salvation PROMISED ABSOLUTELY by G_d, as a gift from which He will not repent,
guaranteed by the once for all people, for all time sacrifice of His only Begotten Son who blessedly BECAME sin itself for us
- taking away all our burden and all our guilt...
Why would they want to willingly accept a lesser substitute which required (often unachievably) more from them with a lesser guarantee, more frustrations, more arcane rules imposed after the fact...
Why embrace something which withholds such a significant amount of (apparently needful) information from so many average and newly initiated members - as closely guarded secrets?
Although there are many passages of the Bible that are difficult to read and fully understand, the Lord has withheld NOTHING from us - now, or ever, which He deemed necessary for our salvation.
This is NOT the case with the doctrines of mormonism, replete with secret information, secret understandings stemming from that secret information, secret ceremonies grown from that information and the understanding of it - all of which CANNOT/MUST NOT be openly discussed, etc...
Under the guise of having been labeled “sacred”
The good Lord surely knew that there would be many among us of less than average intellectual means, and many who would through their earthly lives, lack power, wealth and influence sufficient to buy a perfect enough sacrificial animal in the temple courts, or acquire “hidden knowledge”.
And so He, in His wisdom - made certain that salvation was FREE, easy to grasp, and available to all - even children, and the “lowly” of society.
There is no trick, there are no secret doctrines that guarantee a higher level of heaven, and regardless of the agendas of men in ANY denomination, there has never been a colour or a gender barrier standard for salvation in Christ.
ANYONE who claims any differently does not speak G_d’s truth.
Why, therefore, would anyone want to have their daughter submit to the hand-applied oil anointing of “personal areas”, when it has no valid scriptural purpose?
The only proscriptions for anointing a person with oil are for physical healing from sickness (not the purpose in the unholy secret ceremony your document’s redacted passage alluded to) or as a symbol of the infilling of the Holy Spirit, for ordination in ministry - such as being made a legitimate prophet, bishop, minister, or teacher in service to the Lord.
Correct me if my investigations into LDS lore and tradition have misinformed me, but the anointing you sought to bar with your custody agreement had nothing to do with either of those specific kinds of anointing, right?!
I congratulate you for being astute enough to ensure your children are safeguarded against the invasiveness of privacy of worthless, non-biblical, unG_dly traditions cloaked in a veil of secrecy.
Ooooh-Rahhh! Job well-done, Marine!
A.A.C.
Thank you for your post and your support of Sentinel.
The "annointing" of oil in the temple is for none of the reasons you mention. It is done to girls as well as men. It is applied while you stand disrobed, on places normally covered with underwear.
Although it is watered down now, I think it was nothing more than a con by Joseph Smith in the beginning to see and touch young women on their wedding day. Reminds me of the "Prima Noctu" in the movie Braveheart....
Why would they want to willingly accept a lesser substitute which required (often unachievably) more from them with a lesser guarantee, more frustrations, more arcane rules imposed after the fact...
Why embrace something which withholds such a significant amount of (apparently needful) information from so many average and newly initiated members - as closely guarded secrets?
Why would they choose a lesser faith? Smug self-satisfaction. The feeling of “we are the ONLY TRUE CHURCH” and looking down upon others. The LDS will claim they are humble, but I have met few LDS that are truly humble, especially in UTAH. I am not saying there aren’t any, there are, but it was not the overall attitude I saw. The American concept of “rugged individualism” (that I admire and emulate) is taken to the extreme in the LDS Church. Even to the point of ‘earning’ salvation. That was one of the things that attracted me to the LDS.
Why not tell the whole story? As I was told in my “mission prep” class at BYU: “If we told the truth [to investigators], no one would join”