DiscussMormonism.com

Here is a most unusual MAD Thread by Baurak Ale on Missionaries showering together and their artistic communal shower.

Homosexuality & Showering At The MTC., Is the MTC Shower the Tree of Life or the Tree of knowledge

Homosexuality is a difficult issue in the Church, with apparently no easy solutions. In light of this for some time I have wondered about the famed Communal Shower at the Provo Mission Training Center or M.T.C., affectionately named after the Biblical Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden. A Tree who's fruit gives everlasting life to whoever partakes. In this thread I will be heavily relying on those who have been to the Provo MTC and who have used this facility. I have seen photographs of the this stainless steel monstrosity from an Australian Missionary who trained in the Provo MTC.

Being Australian with a different culture and not being used to participating in public nudity this young Australian missionary was shocked to see hundreds of naked Mormon men (missionaries) showering together. Know doubt nothing more than cultural shock, so he sequestered himself in the only cubicle shower he could find intended for the disabled. Being Australian I presume from US TV I have seen, communal showering is common place in the US. So I presume its no big deal for Americans to shower naked with other Americans.

However in light of the struggles some Mormon young men and women missionaries have with homosexuality I am very surprised the Church designed a massive communal shower, where hundreds of young Mormon missionaries shower naked together. In light of this fact it appears its probably not the best showering facility for young missionaries with homosexual tendencies to be using before they are sent out in the field to live and room alone with another single male or female? I presume there is a Massive Tree of Life for the Sister Missionaries too?

The problem of homosexuality in LDS missionaries has gained enough notoriety apparently to have a stage show based on it.



I am as yet undecided on the issue of naked communal showering at the MTC, with regards to those who have had struggles previously with homosexuality. Feelings thoughts, suggestions most warmly welcomed.

You can find this Skylla closed thread at: http://www.mormonapologetics.org/index.php?showtopic=23285&st=0

I think this topic is really gay, if you'll excuse the pun. Any guy who didn't grow up in a cave or in Amish country has showered with other guys. Showers in High School, at my school, were communal in nature. In the barracks at Basic Training in the Army they were communal, at BYU they were communal, at every single gym except one that I've ever been to they've been communal, etc. To argue that there's something wrong, or homosexual, with guys showering around a central pillar with multiple shower heads sticking out from it is pretty dumb. At least until recently it's been pretty much the de facto standard across America for male locker rooms., and anyone who has a problem with that I think has an overdeveloped sense of body shame or something like that.

There is a lot to reproach the LDS church about. Male missionaries at the MTC seeing each others' wee-wees in the communal shower area is not one of them.

when I was there, the newest missionary dormitory had separate stalls. I think the idea behind the tree of life in the MTC is to prevent missionaries from masturbating, but I could be wrong.

LOL. The perils of creating a missionary workforce at their most virule, sexually awakening stage of life! You give them a cubicle, they masturbate. You give them communal showers you run the risk of awakening those latent homosexual feelings.

Maybe they should go for an all-senior citizen missionary force.

Can I clarify that it's commonplace for North American men to shower communally? In Australia our gyms in primary and high school always had separate shower cubicles.

Perhaps in Australia where Baurak is from, they don't like to show their willies to to the Sheilas or their mates.

moksha wrote:Perhaps in Australia where Baurak is from, they don't like to show their willies to to the Sheilas or their mates.

That is very likely. That sentiment prevails in all parts of Australia with which I'm familiar. There are strong cultural mores which discourage such behaviour, and the most important of them aren't even sexual.

Fortigurn wrote:Can I clarify that it's commonplace for North American men to shower communally?

It is indeed the case for public places such as swimming pools and gyms. On the other hand, there are no public baths such as in Japan. We don't bathe nude together (although occasionally scouts will go skinny dipping together).

Ok, well a good answer for an Australian asking about this is as follows: The MTC (at least the one in Provo) has similar showering arrangements as the overwhelming majority of public male showering arrangements at schools, gyms, etc. Most American men, who are the overwhelming majority of the Provo MTC attendees, grew up in this culture and are used to it, and it doesn't freak us out or turn us into flaming homosexuals. You get in, you take your shower, you get out, and you don't make a big effing deal about it.

As has been pointed out, there are lots of countries (lots of places in Asia for example) where male communal nudity in showering/bathing facilities is very much more common than it is the US. At any rate, the Provo, Utah, MTC's showering facilities are par for the North American course, not something unusual or suspect.

Interesting thread. I once posted a similar item on RfM, and DCP used it in order to get me banned from the ironically named FAIRboard.

Anyways, last I'd heard, they'd removed the so-called "Tree of Life" installations from the MTC, due to "perversity" taking place amongst some of the young elders. The person who told me this refused to get into specifics, but we all know that "boys will be boys," especially boys of that age.

moksha wrote:Perhaps in Australia where Baurak is from, they don't like to show their willies to the Sheilas or their mates.

Edited for one to too many, et tu?

Oh no, couldn't even edit right and simply reposted. I guess mistakes are the spice of life.