Secret or Sacred?

Although LDS critics have placed the LDS Temple ordinances all over the Internet, written about them or portrayed them in video in an attempt to ridicule and mock LDS beliefs; still LDS members do not discuss these scared ordinances outside the Temple even among themselves. It is out of reverence that LDS members strive to keep the Temple ordinances of a spiritual nature and protect them from becoming common and profaned.

On the MADB (Mormon Apologetics and Discussion Board) one LDS poster by the screen name, ldsmom explained it:

Just as the Muslims can not profane the image of Mohamed because it is a law of God; We can not profane the temple or it's ceremonies because it is God's law.
When God first gave the tabernacle to the Israelites, he commanded that only those who belonged to the covenant could enter into the outer area where ordinances were performed. Only the priests could enter the portion of the temple where the sacred vessels were stored. And only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies.
When the first and second temples were built, the same law applied.
When the nation of Ephraim was restored in the form of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," temples were also restored.
The same laws that applied to the temples of our ancestors, apply to the temples of the latter-days.
We do not profane the temple or it's ceremonies because it is God's law.

The scriptures contain several accounts of Jesus instructing his disciples to keep things "secret." For example, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Lord told His disciples to "tell the vision to no man" (Matthew 17:9) until it became appropriate to do so.
An entire body of knowledge was known in the Ancient Church, which came to be called gnosis, which the Lord imparted to His disciples after His resurrection during this forty day period. Not too many years later, as the ancient Christian church began splitting up into sects, each of them claimed to have this gnosis, or "secret knowledge," which the Lord had taught to only a select few. Hugh Nibley quotes Clement and comments:

"To James the Just and to John and Peter after the resurrection the Lord conveyed the gnosis, these handed it on to the rest of the Apostles and in turn to the Seventy." So we have a true gnosis, a certain knowledge, entrusted to the general authorities of the church after the resurrection and, as far as we know, to no one else. This was precisely the knowledge which the so-called Gnostics later claimed to have. From the titles and contents of recently found Gnostic writings it is plain that their special boast was to possess "What Christ taught to the Apostles after the Resurrection."(Nibley, Hugh. 'The World and the Prophets'. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company. 1988. pp.65-66.)

As late as the fourth century, Basil of Caesarea reported that there was still a strong unwritten and secret tradition that he believed originated with the Apostles:

"Of the beliefs and practices whether generally accepted or publicly enjoined which are preserved in the Church some we possess derived from written teaching; others we have received delivered to us "in a mystery" by the tradition of the apostles...." (Basil of Caesarea, Treatise De Spiritu Sancto 27, in NPNF Series 2, 8:40-41.)
"In the same manner the Apostles and Fathers who laid down laws for the Church from the beginning thus guarded the awful dignity of the mysteries in secrecy and silence, for what is bruited abroad random among the common folk is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our tradition of unwritten precepts and practices, that the knowledge of our dogmas may not become neglected and contemned by the multitude through familiarity. "Dogma" [doctrine] and "Kerugma" [preaching] are two distinct things; the former is observed in silence; the latter is proclaimed to all the world. One form of this silence is the obscurity employed in Scripture, which makes the meaning of "dogmas" difficult to be understood for the very advantage of the reader...." (Basil of Caesarea, Treatise De Spiritu Sancto 27, in NPNF Series 2, 8:42.)

Also, in the fourth century, Athanasius spoke of this tradition of secrecy and referred to these rites as "the mysteries":

"We ought not then to parade the holy mysteries before the uninitiated, lest the heathen in their ignorance deride them, and the Catechumens being over-curious be offended." (Athanasius, Defense Against the Arians 1:11, in NPNF Series 2, 4:106.)

In the Two Books of Jeu a charge was given to keep the mysteries secret:

"These mysteries which I shall give you, preserve, and give them to no man except he be worthy of them. Give them not to father nor to mother, to brother or to sister or to kinsman, neither for food nor for drink, nor for woman-kind, neither for gold nor for silver, nor for anything at all of this world. Preserve them, and give them to no one whatsoever for the sake of the good of this whole world."( The Two Books of Jeu, NTA 1:263.)

Also see:
Secretive Mormonism?
LIST–Secrecy in the New Testament