Because we flew into Kansas City, we decided to stop by Independence (about 20 minutes away) and see the LDS Visitor’s Center.  It was really nice and had great air conditioning so we stayed for about an hour, watching the videos and listening to the sister missionary.

The Community of Christ’s (formerly RLDS) Temple was just across the street, and they also have tours so we deliberated going there.  While discussing it, I had flashbacks of my family’s trip to Nauvoo when I was just thirteen, and we went through the Mansion House (Joseph’s Smith Jr.’s home) and the Red Brick Store, which are also sites owned by the Community of Christ.  Our guide through the home was a woman missionary with their church.  One of the other tourists was peppering her with questions throughout the tour.  It wasn’t in an “I’m curious about your beliefs” way, but more like “your church is so absurd, I can’t believe you think like that” sort of way.  I remembered being so embarrassed to be associated with this man who was obviously a member of the same church as I am.  Our church has such a history of being persecuted that one would think we would all be more tolerant of other viewpoints.  I’m not sure why this man felt like harassing this woman who seemed like such a nice person.  Did he think that he could ridicule her into thinking the way he does?

Needless to say, we didn’t take a tour of the Community of Christ’s Temple.  It would have been interesting, but I couldn’t shake uncomfortable feeling that the old memory dredged up.  Besides, knowing myself, I probably would have overcompensated and agreed to listen to their missionary discussions.

As a consolation, however, we did take this lovely picture of their temple from the safety of the LDS Visitor Center’s parking lot.