Down the block from my house is a Mormon church which is very well attended on Sundays and certain evenings. I’ve driven past it thousands of times on my way to work and back and often wondered about this *objet d’art * installed on its front lawn;
It consists of three metal poles set into the ground less than a foot apart from each other in a triangular pattern. The two poles closest to the street are equal in height. The one closest to the church is taller and has a thinner pole affixed to it on the side facing the street. This pole extends downward past the tops of the two other poles and upward past all three. At the end of that pole is a small and thin pole no more than a foot or two long which is slightly angled in the direction of the church.
What is this thing? Is it a sculpture of some religious significance or symbolism? Abstract art? Did the church fathers just decide to build a cell phone tower in front and hope nobody would question it?
Just a steeple. It is fairly common for LDS church buildings to have steeples. Although many don’t. Sometime in the '70s it became common to have detached steeples. Why? I don’t know. But there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of wardhouses just like that with their funky little detached steeples all across North America. My childhood wardhouse had one. I much preferred it after a remodel where the steeple got moved to the top of the nave. But what do I know?
Mormons have used three or four prototype buildings in recent decades, so it’s pretty easy to spot an LDS church anywhere in the US. This happens to be the design they were using in the 60s-70s. Does the tripartite form have some liturgical significance? I don’t know. But it’s a distinctive “branding” element, not too different from Pizza Hut’s roofs.
IIRC there’s something in the lack of a cross element; from what I recall from Sunday school off-hand remarks, signs of the Crucifixion are seen as a little tacky or wrongheaded in emphasis, so the idea is that in these the emphasis is symbolically placed on the Resurrection instead (also a de-emphasis on Good Friday and more love given to Easter). Someone who has been active in the last 28 years can correct me if I’m off.
Standardized chapel designs are much more about efficiencies and cost savings than about branding. The LDS church builds hundreds of chapels a year; standardized designs save quite a bit of money.
No LDS ward, stake, or temple that I know of or have seen has a cross on it. In fact, in all of the official LDS architecture and artwork, the only crucifiction I’ve seen is in one of the Salt Lake City Visitor’s Centers, apparently to relate to the visiting non-LDS folk to give them a familisar point of reference. As noted above, LDS artwork de-emphasizes the crucifiction and pushes the Jesus in Glory image of a resurrected Christ. This is most striking in the giant statue of Christ inside a domed wall-painting in the North Visitor Center in Temple Square. I cal it the “Planetarium Jesus”.
I asked that question when I was a youth in the church. I was told, “If Jesus had been shot at sunrise, would you want to wear a little gun on your necklace?” So yes, the emphasis is placed on the resurrection, not the instrument of torture and death.
This was one of the unique mormon doctrinal points that actually made sense to me… Why would you worship the instrument of torture that caused your savior’s death? I found crucifixes creepy after that.
