honorentheos wrote:beefcalf wrote:... LDS Inc. stamps out Temple after McTemple whenever the tithe-paying saints get bored with their old one (the new temple being built in Gilbert, for example... whassat you say? the Mesa Temple was just too full? Not even.)
There is another temple being built in Phoenix, a Mctemple as you properly call them. All within about 30 miles max. of the Mesa temple. I'm not sure that attendance at the temple justifies this though I'm not in position to comment on that.
I do think it accomplishes a couple of other things, though.
First, it conveys the idea the church is growing and keeps the belief alive that the stone cut from the mountain is ever rolling forth.
Second, (and this is admitted just my own reflection on what I see as a local oddity of thinking) it reflects a fact I see here in the Phoenix area - Mesa, just 25 miles or so away from downtown Phoenix, is still seen as a day's journey by wagon.
To your first point: Exactly. Keeping up appearances. The church's active membership is shrinking, year-by-year, but we've been trumpeting that whole 'fastest growing church on earth' schtick for far too long to change course now... what would the Seventh-Day Adventists think? I haven't attended in more than four years, but my vivid memories of Ward- and Stake-Temple-Days remain. Gotta get them numbers up! The Temple prez wants more patrons... I'm quite certain the decision to build new temples in the Phoenix Metro area had absolutely nothing to do with an over-utilized Mesa temple.
To your second point, yes, the separation between Phoenix/West Valley and the East Valley (Mesa, Gilbert) is stark. I didn't even think there were any LDS on that side of town for the longest time.