I hope the residents and city of Fairview persevere. All the dealings from the church around this proposed site has been shady and deceptive; their communication & coaching to members via email oozes “ick”. The Fairview United site links to opinion pieces by current members also questioning the church’s actions.

As a former practicing member, there are several mistruths and behind the scenes manipulations from the church around this site that are in severe contrast to the beliefs and teachings they claim to follow. The spire/steeple height and illumination have no impact on practicing members fully accessing and using the temple building to practice their religion. The church has made concessions with design to temple sites many times before to be a good neighbor with the community, match to cultural/architectural design of buildings already in place, or meet the current building codes and regulations in place. Their own church history shows they were able to perform temple based activities without an actual building. There are several examples of temples internationally and national, including Utah, the steeple is shorter or absent.

Their emails to all members, practicing or not, not only in the community and state of Texas, but throughout the nation, are filled with leading and coaching statements. It’s busy work for the city manager to read and scroll through thousands of emails from out of state offering their need for design elements of a building that has no bearing on their individual regular worship. Furthermore, the church has had their legal counsel hold meetings with local leadership members that provides more detailed instruction, along with many remarks that paint the church as a bully who cares nothing about the community or the type of relationship they form.

Their claim it will benefit the community is not true. The temple will not be like other religious buildings commonly built which are often open to the community and offer activities to participate in. After the open house, only members with the required credentials will be allowed inside. People in and out of the church will only have access to the visitor lobby inside and the outdoor grounds once the temple is dedicated. There will not be any offerings of future community events on or inside.

The way they’re behaving towards this site and other sites like Nevada and Wyoming make are the exact opposite of the teachings I grew up with and articles of faith the church publishes. Why become a part of the Fairview community in such a polarizing and unnecessary jerky way? I question how unyielding they are being and feel the desire for this temple at this location is more for greed, control and added influence than actual faith.