“The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
(Letter to Frank Marshall White by Mark Twain dated May 31, 1897. Published in the New York Journal on June 2, 1897)
A meme has been circulating on Facebook claiming
“BELOVED KIRTLAND TEMPLE OF THE REORGANIZATION HAS BEEN SOLD TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS (LDS). COMMUNITY OF CHRIST LEADERS ARE IMPOSING A 2 YEAR GAGE [sic] ORDER SO AS NOT TO DISCLOSE THIS EVENT TO ITS MEMBERS.”
This claim pops up from time to time, so we thought that we at FairMormon should do a fact check for you.
The Kirtland Temple is located in Lake County Ohio. A quick review of the Lake County Reorders office records shows no change in the ownership status of the Kirtland Temple.
One of our friends contacted the Community of Christ to see if there was anything in the works. He has a good relationship with the Community of Christ (RLDS) leadership. He talked with some of their highest leaders and found there is nothing whatsoever to this claim. It is simply a rumor.
The Community of Christ is doing an exceptional job of caring for and maintaining the Kirtland Temple. They go out of their way to be welcoming to all faiths including members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I visited there just this summer and found their guides to be wonderful and quite helpful.
This claim is FALSE. So please don’t pass it on.
Note: The LDS Church did purchase the printer‘s manuscript of the Book of Mormon for $35 million, but not the temple.
Photo from http://ldschurchtemples.org
Annually, there is an annual race (Historic Kirtland 5K) that starts near the Newel K. Whitney store. We run up temple hill and around the Kirtland Temple. Then out to the Isaac Morley farm and back to the N.K. Whitney store. The CoC is nice enough to allow us to run up around the temple.
This is wonderful. I wonder if the LDS Church will use it as a meeting house, or as a fully operational temple. Bibilcal prophecy was filled in the Kirtland Temple. A number of glorious appearances.
I am not promoting this story at all but if you look at the statement made by the president of the Community of Christ’s President
http://www.cofchrist.org/Common/Cms/resources/Documents/20Sept2017-Time-to-Act-EN.pdf
You will see why the manuscript was sold (they need to make a lot of money for their pension fund) He also mentioned that in the near future that other historical documents and properties that are non-essential to the mission of the Community of Christ’s mission would be sold to help rebuild this fund. He even hints at restructuring that will occur before their next conference as a whole. If something happens like the sale of the temple I imagine it would be like the sale of the manuscript. It would be announced out of the blue. The printers manuscript sale was a huge thing and no-one heard a thing beforehand. There are whispers of the Kirkland Temple sale on the Community of Christ’s Facebook page.