Re:Why? (Score 1)

That's not quite accurate. The morman church does keep their temple ordinances secret, but in my experience no one denies this. In fact, it's common knowledge and taught in Sunday school that these ordinances exist and that every member is expected to go through them as part of their preparation for adulthood and marriage. This isn't dependant on climbing some hierarchy. All you need to do is be in good standing with the church (which isn't difficult) and be old enough. BTW, any mormon who wears garments (the "magic underwear") has gone through the temple ordinances.

I disagree with the practice of keeping these a secret, and think it's one of the holdouts from when the mormon church was a lot more cultish than it is today, but this isn't some big secret that the church denies.

That is, unless you were talking about something other than the temple ordinances. If so please provide more information.

Disclaimer: I grew up in the LDS church but became atheist before I was old enough to go through the temple stuff.