In 1856, believing in plural marriage helped you qualify for the Mormon temple. Later, advocating it could keep you out. Nearly 200 years of recommend questions show who decides what "worthy" means.
From Joseph Smith's 1842 Nauvoo endowment to a 2026 seminary lesson, this is the history of how the Mormon temple recommend went from a leader's judgment call to a standardized worthiness interview. You'll hear about the 1856 Endowment House criteria, the Mormon Reformation's 27-question catechism, Wilford Woodruff countersigning thousands of recommends, the 1922 uniform recommend book, the 1976 honesty question historian Edward Kimball ties to Utah's fraud reputation, Russell M. Nelson's 2019 "strive" rewrite, digital recommends in 2021, and the 2024 garment question. Worthy has meant something different in 1856, 1976, and 2024. A definition that keeps changing was never a measure of you.
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