Forbes recently published an excellent article about the effort to redesign the visitor experience at Temple Square, which launches the new “Inside a Temple” tour on Monday.
The article missed one important piece — Jesus Christ himself. Ironically, that was arguably the biggest reason for the makeover in the first place.
Consider that surveys show:
- 97% of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consider their faith a Christian religion.
- 54% of the general American public consider the church to be Christian.
That gap in understanding was actually much worse among past visitors to Temple Square, many of whom were from international tour groups. Some of those visitors saw the Seagull Monument and left with the impression that church members worshiped the bird, not Jesus Christ, according to volunteers who led VIP tours and had access to the survey data…