LDS temple open house represents 'a time of healing'

Related list: A complete list of Mormon temples

Drawing from the reaction of Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to his tour of the new Kansas City Missouri Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Michael Otterson of the church's Public Affairs Department expressed his hope for healing in his regular blog on the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog site.

According to Otterson's account, the governor referred "to the opening of the temple as symbolizing 'a time of healing,'" referring to the harsh persecution of Latter-day Saints that took place in Missouri in the 1800s.

Today, Otterson writes, "'healing' suggests not so much a debate on the rights and wrongs of history in which none of us had a part, as much as a willingness to set aside modern personal biases and engage in the kind of mutually respectful treatment befitting a nation that wears religious pluralism as a badge of honor."

While "we can always count on a minority to launch the verbal equivalents of Haun's Mill's bullets," Otterson continues, "I like to think that we have learned something in 170 years. Over the next few months, with the intensity of interest in Latter-day Saints as high as it is, we may find out how much."