1. Along these lines, LDS sociologist Armand Mauss has written:

"[T]here is no real reason that even devout Church members could not talk more about the temple ceremonies than they do, with appropriate discretion about time and place, since the oaths of secrecy attach only to the new names, signs, tokens, and penalties. Indeed, more open talk about the temple would not only facilitate understanding among both Mormons and non-Mormons in certain historical and scholarly respects, but would also infinitely improve the preparedness of initiates, almost all of whom now enter the temple with only the vaguest idea of what to expect or of the obligations they will be asked to assume."

Mauss also writes, "Nor is anyone likely to be mollified by the facile 'explanation' so often heard that the temple ceremonies are 'sacred, not secret,' a semantic word play ignoring the fact that to Mormons the ceremonies are obviously both." See Armand L. Mauss, "Culture, Charisma, and Change: Reflections on Mormon Temple Worship," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 20.4 (Winter 1987): 77-78.