Latter-Day transparency: A new age of openness for the LDS church?
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Story submitted by: Don McAreavy
June 22, 2026
By Timothy Nerozzi,
The sacred rituals of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints were once as secretive as the Skull and Bones. White-shirted missionaries knocked down doors across the Third World, Book of Mormon in hand, but the logistics of what came later were largely kept a mystery to outsiders.
Closed-door “endowments” with hands appearing behind veils. Handshakes and “tokens.” Mysterious garments worn under everyday clothes. It all occurs in temples with their doors firmly locked to those who were not initiated into the enigmatic religion.
On a recent trip to Salt Lake City, I learned first-hand that the era of secrecy is over. It ended partially by necessity and partially by choice. And while the doors still aren’t open, the church is cracking as many windows as possible.
The LDS church has accepted that in the age of the internet and the hidden camera, there is no way to be an organization that is both massive in membership and taciturn in its rites. If the world is prying into what we do, the church seems to think, we might as well set the record straight.
“Certainly, the temple has undergone a shift in how we talk about it,” Jasmine Rappleye, a prominent LDS influencer, told me in her office at the Ancient America Foundation. “There's some things we promise not to disclose, but everything else in the temple points to the Lord — and so we can talk about the general principles of and purposes of the temple. And the church has become more open about the temple for many, many years.”
Didn't both Paul and Jesus say they did everything in the open !!!
