LDS Temple ceremonies, for the most part are hidden from the outside world. In other words, if you want to know what goes on inside one of their temples, you'd have to become a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints, and after a year of service and showing yourself to be "worthy" be given a temple recommend. Outside of that, no active "true blue Mormon" is going to tell you the details of their ceremonies because these rituals are so "sacred" to them.
But, what I don't understand is WHY they refuse to admit that it was meant to be kept secet, and that the word "secret" is accurate in describing it.
First of all, any time a new temple is built, the general public is allowed to tour the temple during an open house. The San Diego temple had an open house that lasted for nearly two months because of the high traffic. Also, whenever a temple is renovated, there is a brief open house before the building is re-dedicated.
The temple, in the eyes of the LDS Member, is the most sacred place on earth. We build them as literal houses of God. As such, they are far more important than the average meetinghouse, which is always open to the public.
The ceremonies that take place in the temples deal with biblical doctrines. It's the setting and purpose of the ceremonies that make them special. As has been mentioned earlier, all the ceremonies can be found on the internet if that's what you really want to know. What you need to remember is that knowing the ceremonies will not give you a true picture of what takes place in a temple during the ceremony itself.
Most everyone knows what happens at a wedding, but participating in such a ceremony makes it special in a way that cannot be described merely by the process itself.
The reason we resent the word 'secret' is that it implies that we, as temple-going Mormons, don't want anyone else to know what's going on. Nothing could be further from the truth. The General Authorities have always said that it is every member's duty to be worthy of temple attendance. That doesn't sound like it's a well-kept secret, if the leaders want 13,000,000 people to know all about it. The fact that any member that's been worthy for a year since joining adds to that.
The temple is a special place, of course there are standards that must be met in order for attendance. Every religion on earth has minimum standards set for membership; are they being too exclusive? The LDS Church has stadards set for membership. It takes a higher standard to be worthy of entering the most sacred buildings in the LDS Church. It's only common sense.
