What is the purpose of a building?
The summer I turned 14, I was so excited to go to EFY. A summer baby, I was a year behind all my friends who despite being in the same grade, got to go one year earlier. I was excited to learn the dances, flirt with the boys. My parents tried to make it happen. My mom spent many hours on the phone, arguing her way up as far as she could go within CES.
She was told my presence simply would ruin the experience for the other youth.
You see, I use a wheelchair and need considerable help getting in and out of bed, dressed, showering etc. Once I’m up, I’m pretty independent, needing help with things like opening packaging or picking something up off the floor; tasks a campus full of LDS youth could have handled.
They went round and round, my mom trying to make concessions. They’d pay double for a caregiver to come with me, literally to sleep there and leave during the day. I’d stay at a hotel and just come during the day. Nothing worked. I never went to EFY. This is still a problem to this day (although a problem we are working on).
That year, at my public high school, I asked that the student section at the football stadium be moved to the side with the wheelchair accessible seating, so I could sit with my friends. I was told no because it would be too confusing.
I have been told my entire life, especially within the church, that other people, buildings, money, tradition are all more important than my ability to participate.
These last few weeks, I have read many pieces about the renovation of the Salt Lake Temple. Many people are very distraught over the removal of murals and the change in the live sessions. And I do truly feel for people as they grieve that loss. But I hope you can also understand some of my perspective as well.
I welcome changes that allow more people to access the temple. More instruction rooms will allow more people to attend the temple, especially people visiting from out of town. Staying in one room the entire time, instead of moving room to room keeps people with mobility issues safer and saves them the discomfort, and embarrassment of moving again and again, potentially holding up the group. A video presentation allows people who do not speak english or are Deaf or hard of hearing can now attend a session that fits in their schedule, instead of contorting their schedule to fit the temple’s.
There’s a saying in historical preservation that if the Coloseum can be accessible without damaging the integrity of the building, so can everything else. But we have to remember, it’s not acting as a Coloseum. If it were, it would be largely inaccessible. It’s a museum, a reminder of the past, not a vehicle to move work forward here and now. A temple is a building designed for us to do the work for our ancestors and to grow closer to our Heavenly Parents. It is not a museum, a shrine to our ancestors—who are ancestors to really only a small part of our worldwide church body. The Israelites worshipped in a portable Tabernacle for decades, in order to meet the needs of the people right then.
I worry when we start putting the preservation of a building, when we put the feelings of long-deceased, famous artists over the very real needs of real people right here and now, people largely anonymous and disconnected from the everyday experiences of largely white, American, able-bodied, middle class people along the Wasatch Front.
Many of the changes to the Salt Lake temple will not make temple worship easier for me personally. It will still be very difficult. But as someone who is already kept out and left out of many places—homes, camps, church buildings—I believe we should not put more barriers to the work going on in the House of the Lord and welcome changes that serve some of the most marginalized among us.
Shelby Hintze is a news producer in Salt Lake City. She grew up in the Seattle area and then went to BYU. You can find her on Twitter @shelbyhintze
