Temple garment
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a few other sects of Mormonism, the temple garment (formally the Garment of the Holy Priesthood or informally, the garment or garments) is an article of sacred underwear worn by male and female Latter-day Saints who have taken part in the washing and anointing ceremony in Latter-day Saint temples.The garment symbolizes the "coats of skins" which Yahweh (Jehovah) made for Adam and Eve before casting them out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:21). Latter-day Saints who have been washed and anointed are expected to wear the garment both day and night throughout their life. It is thought to be a spiritual "shield and protection" against the powers of evil, and some Latter-day Saints ascribe to it supernatural powers of physical protection.
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The garment as a shield
When a person is given the garment, he or she is told that the garment "will be a shield and a protection to you against the power of the destroyer until you have finished your work here on earth." [1]. In general, Latter-day Saints view the garment as a symbolic and spiritual sheild against the powers of evil.
Some Latter-day Saints, however, believe that the garment provides the wearer with supernatural powers of physical protection. In an April 1996 interview with Mike Wallace on the show 60 Minutes, Bill Marriott, the prominent Latter-day Saint owner of Marriott International, Inc, stated that he believed that his garments protected him from being burned during a boating accident.
Unauthorized sale and use
Church leaders have publicly discussed the above principles and beliefs since the mid-1840s, however, because of the secrecy surrounding temple rites and the garment, some outspoken critics of the Latter-day Saints have utilized it as a source of humor and parody. Due to the considerable number of temple garmets in existence, several atheist, pagan, and ex-Mormon individuals have distributed photographs of models wearing temple garments in an irreverent fashion.
For example, a model wearing a temple garment was published in a popular adult magazine during the 1940s and in another adult periodical in the 1960s. Garments are featured in a book about undergarments published in the 1990s, and also in various anti-Mormon books during the 1980s. In 2004, photos of people wearing garments engaged in sexual acts were showcased in a Salt Lake area art display, which incited its violent removal by a college student.
With the advent of the Internet, there are additional sites that publish photographs of garments for educational, parody or other use. A more recent controversy surrounds the open sales of temple garments on the eBay auction web site multiple times since 2000. Typically the garments are removed for a violation of eBay policy unrelated to its religious context.
During the October 2003 General Conference of the Church, some anti-Mormon demonstrators wore garments around their necks and defaced them in ways that were extraordinarily offensive to those in attendance. In light of the violence that resulted during the 2003 Conference, the municipality of Salt Lake City is planning stronger enforcement of fighting words and hate speech laws for the April 2004 Conference in Salt Lake City with new protest buffer zones (see http://www.religionnewsblog.com/6478-SLC_to_create_buffer_zones_at_conference.html).
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