With the rise of the internet, everyone has the means to learn whatever they like – but there are also a lot of rumors to deal with.
Today we’re going to address one of them, specifically ‘ Do Mormons wear special underwear?’.
Yes, although it’s not as odd as what you’re probably imagining right now. Mormon undergarments are referred to as ‘Temple Garments’ and they simply consist of a white shirt, tucked into long, white shorts.
Not much different than ‘long underwear’ that you might wear if you lived somewhere with a robust winter.
Now that you’re here, we’ll tell you a little more about this tradition so that you can replace what you’ve heard from the ‘rumor mill’ with simple, honest facts.
Mormons do wear special underwear, but if you read on then you might just find that it’s not such a ‘weird’ thing after all – it’s actually quite practical!
How did this practice come around?
The Temple garment tradition of the Church of Latter-Day Saints dates back roughly to around 1918. It took a little while to ‘catch on’, but by the 1930s ‘Temple Garments’ was a term that just about every Mormon was quite familiar with.
Unfortunately, ‘trolls are gonna troll’, as they say, so when non-Mormons got wind of the rumor that ‘special underwear’ was a Mormon requirement, offensive terms such as ‘magic underwear’ became a common taunt, although like most insults directed at any religion it was one created out of ignorance.
After all, most people tend to make fun of things that they don’t understand and let’s face it – the imagination tends to run wild whenever undergarments are the subject.
This led to non-Mormons imagining the equivalent of Papal robes, chastity belts, and probably quite a few more exotic mental choices, all at the natural thought of ‘what does that ‘special underwear look like?’.
It’s basically just long, white underwear, folks!
While we hate to disappoint you, Temple Garments are probably best quantified as ‘long, white underwear’, and it’s a pretty good way to describe them.
When a Latter Day Saint makes a commitment to their religion, chaste undergarments are really not such a strange thing at all.
Remember – if you are living a life of virtue, you aren’t going to be picking underwear in aggressive colors, such as red or black — people aren’t supposed to see your underwear until you’re married, after all!
To understand the power of a garment choice, think about Priests, Nuns, or even Buddhists – they all wear distinctive garments and it’s not an integral part of who they are.
For Mormons, undergarments are the same way – wearing long, white undergarments simply say that the wearer is serious about saving intimacy for marriage to someone special.
It’s really not much more complicated than that.
It’s actually quite practical from a spiritual standpoint
Wearing plain, white undergarments is a simply way that a Mormon reminds themselves of their compact with God.
One of the biggest temptations in life is sex before marriage and this is a definite ‘no-no’ for Mormons – as well as a number of religions around the world.
By wearing the Temple Garments night and day, a Mormon has a constant reminder to help keep temptation at bay, although before you think that this is prudish then we should probably point out one thing: Once vows have been made, sexual behavior is perfectly fine, even if it’s not being done to make children!
As far as affirmations go, it’s not a very difficult one when you think about it.
By always dressing in a non-provocative way underneath your regular clothes, you’re basically affirming your commitment to God and reminding yourself to keep it!
Some final words on Mormon temple garments
Today we’ve answered the question ‘Do Mormons wear special underwear?’ and the answer is a definitive ‘yes’.
Far from being some complicated or constricting undergarments, Temple garments simply consist of a white shirt, tucked into long, white shorts.
Most of us have worn ‘tidey-whitey’ underwear at some point in our life, so if you think it’s a little weird then thinking about that might make it a little less so.
It’s just long, white underwear when you really get down to it, but for a Mormon, it is also a spiritual commitment of respect for God, marriage, and for themselves!