Temple Attending President: How would that work?

[_dartagnan]

This was posted by milkyway over at MADB in the politics folder:

Let's say Romney becomes President. As much as I keep hearing about this guy, I think it is safe to assume he regularly attends the temple.

So how the heck would the secret service work around that?

They are not supposed to allow the US President to enter any closed quarters without a thorough search beforehand.

Can you imagine how the media would run with this?

I mean you just know that this would result in a denigration of temple and the garments because everyone in the world would want to know just what exactly the most powerful man is doing inside the temple.

However unfortunate it might be, there will be images of Romney dressed up in temple attire plastered all over the web and quite possibly billboards. Intimate details about the temple proceedings will naturally follow.

The world will see him as a complete loon and the Church will be outraged. But it is the nature of the beast and won't be avoidable.

Why am I wrong to think this?

I'm surprised nobody else has raised this issue before.

[_The Nehor]

I've seen it raised (not online).

I think he won't go to the Temple during his time as President.

[_Who Knows]

I've posted this thought before.

The conclusion I came to was that he either would not attend the temple for 2 years, or his secret service agents would be LDS also. But then that raises the question of discrimination (ie., he hires secret service agents based on their religion).

[_Imwashingmypirate]

Im having a de ja vous. Is this the same as the one at MADB?

[_skippy the dead]

I've posted this thought before.

The conclusion I came to was that he either would not attend the temple for 2 years, or his secret service agents would be LDS also. But then that raises the question of discrimination (ie., he hires secret service agents based on their religion).

I would imagine that if he wanted to go to the temple, he could find SSAs that were temple worthy to accompany him. They wouldn't need to be on his staff full time, but just available for temple attendance. I think the more problematic area would be whether the SS would want to "clear" the co-attendees or have other temple folks go through security.

[_Who Knows]

he could find SSAs that were temple worthy to accompany him. They wouldn't need to be on his staff full time, but just available for temple attendance.

I'm pretty sure that would violate the law, as it stands. Unless the SSA's were 'off the clock' maybe. But I don't think that's likely.

[_skippy the dead]

he could find SSAs that were temple worthy to accompany him. They wouldn't need to be on his staff full time, but just available for temple attendance.

I'm pretty sure that would violate the law, as it stands. Unless the SSA's were 'off the clock' maybe. But I don't think that's likely.

It would probably be considered to be a BFOR (bona fide occupational requirement) - the SSA has a unique responsibility to protect the President. If that means that they put out a request for temple-recommend agents to accompany a Mormon president to the temple, that would not be discriminatory.

[_harmony]

I don't see this as a problem. He just doesn't attend the temple while he's in office.

Thing is, if he's elected, doesn't he still have SSAs assigned after he's out of office too?

[_skippy the dead]

I don't see this as a problem. He just doesn't attend the temple while he's in office.

Thing is, if he's elected, doesn't he still have SSAs assigned after he's out of office too?

He would have SSAs assigned after he's out of office, but it's certainly not the same level of protection. And the protection can be declined.

[_the road to hana]

This was posted by milkyway over at MADB in the politics folder:

Let's say Romney becomes President. As much as I keep hearing about this guy, I think it is safe to assume he regularly attends the temple.

So how the heck would the secret service work around that?

They are not supposed to allow the US President to enter any closed quarters without a thorough search beforehand.

Can you imagine how the media would run with this?

I mean you just know that this would result in a denigration of temple and the garments because everyone in the world would want to know just what exactly the most powerful man is doing inside the temple.

However unfortunate it might be, there will be images of Romney dressed up in temple attire plastered all over the web and quite possibly billboards. Intimate details about the temple proceedings will naturally follow.

The world will see him as a complete loon and the Church will be outraged. But it is the nature of the beast and won't be avoidable.

Why am I wrong to think this?

I'm surprised nobody else has raised this issue before.

Ask yourself first, for what purpose would he need to be in the temple?

To attend a wedding of a family member?

Or to do proxy ordinances?

It's highly unlikely he needs to be participating in proxy ordinance work during tenure as President.

Family wedding? That might be a different situation.

Going in without Secret Service would not be an option, so I'm with the camp that thinks it would be temple-worthy Secret Service agents accompanying, or an exception would be made.

Or, better yet, rules might be changed.