In the midst of the controversy surrounding the portrayal of the temple on HBO’s show Big Love, I stumbled upon this story from pioneerlocal.com about the firefighters who responded to the water leak at the LDS temple in the Chicago area:
When he arrived that morning, Robinson said firefighters, including Battalion Chief Ted Lancioni, had let themselves in by using the lock box on the front gate and had shut off the water. But they had not gone beyond the equipment room.
“They said, ‘We know that your temple is sacred. We didn’t want to go up there because we know you’d have to rededicate the temple,’ ” Robinson recalled.
A special thank you to the first responders who recognized and respected the sacred nature of the our temple. Hopefully others will recognize the sacred nature of these temples and also refrain from treading on sacred ground.
If you are so inclined, please join me in extending a special note of thanks to the personnel of the Glenview Fire Department who responded to the temple, by emailing Chief Wayne Globerger at wgloberger [at] glenview.il.us. Well done, Glenview FD!
I believe there is a special punishment in store for those who deliberately desecrate the sacred nature of any building or icon of just about any religion. I think the Lord does honor intentions as well as results — personally I think cynicism is especially offensive to him. So, well done to the Glenview Fire Department.
Thank you for your reminder that there are some professions that do respect our privacy.
You may be interested in my essay “Exposing sacred temple practice violations professional standards.”
Thanks Brian for the positive story. Most people are nice and respectful. It is the jerks who are so vocal.
Besides their consideration towards the Latter-day Saints, this also highlights the pro-active professionalism that this fire department was already familiar with a significant building in their area. I remember a fire department responsible for a small town that was working on specific plans for the major buildings they might respond to one day.
So, what would they have done if it had been a fire?
PDOE: The firefighters would have fought the fire offensively (internal attack) if safe to do so and defensively (external attack) if safety was an issue.
When the Mesa Temple calls for PD or FD, there are usually LDS members working on any given crew. Mesa public safety tries to respect the temple, but would send in a non-member in the event of an emergency.
If the inside of the Temple was on fire; they would have to rededicated it after the damage was repaired anyway.
Since the HBO producers said they research the sacred Temple ceremonies in every detail, they would have invariably come across the warnings that are built into the ceremony not to reveal them or they would call down the judgments of God. I would hate to think what kind of repercussions that might entail knowing that these things aren’t things to be trifled with and that God cannot stand idly by. If they truly understood what the ceremony is saying and that God has built into the ceremony a warning voice that these things aren’t to be spread outside the walls of the sacred temples, it certainly is evidence that these producers disregarded any attempt to keep them sacred and have blatantly come out against the very ceremonies themselves. They will have no one to blame for what is to come forth, for the judgments of God will surely come as is stated in the very ceremonies they researched and overtly depicted. I am so appalled at the total disregard by HBO of religious rites being blatantly displayed without any regard for their obvious sacredness.
Agreed Doug Boyd. I would not want to be in their shoes.
Emergency responders (such as ambulance workers) also aren’t kept out of a temple if there’s something like a medical emergency. I don’t know if a rededication is needed, but I’ve been told by a temple worker that the situation isn’t particularly unusual. Anyway, kudos to the firefighters for their professionalism.
I like Big Love and hope for many more seasons. Great show! But I wish they’d tone down the sex scenes so my youger kids could watch too.
Someone posted a link to this article on my blog today. Amidst all the other stuff, a really nice story. Kudos to those involved.
It’s nice to read of something like this.
Fwiw, it’s been interesting to me to see the reactions of non-members. Those who know and respect members are the ones who tend to understood how we feel about the temple – just like these wonderfully respectful firefighters.
What a wonderful article! Thank you! I live 15 minutes away from the Chicago Temple, and having it closed suddenly and for so long was quite painful indeed. After driving to Nauvoo twice, I greatly appreciate our members in WI (and elsewhere) who have to drive up to 4 hours to get to the Chicago Temple.
In any case, a wonderful article! Thank you for telling us about it!