CNN takes audience on tour of new LDS temple in Kansas City

CNN takes viewers and readers on what it calls "a rare tour of a Mormon temple" in a story produced both for television and for cnn.com's Belief Blog.

The story features the new Kansas City Missouri Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is currently open for public tours prior to its scheduled dedication on May 6. The story notes that after the temple is dedicated, "the doors will close forever to the public."

"This is a sacred space, set apart for only those who are devout followers of the faith," said Elder William R. Walker of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy, executive director of the church's Temple Department.

Both the video and print CNN stories use pictures from the church to take viewers and readers inside what will be Mormonism's 137th temple in operation around the world. Both stories also explore briefly the recent controversy surrounding proxy baptisms for the dead, which take place in LDS temples.