I think the Temple folk are definitely Others...just following Jacob's rules as Ben and everyone did. They might be more in tune with Jacob like Richard is or whatever, so my guess is the children were brought to the Temple for a purpose.

Now...evil Locke/Smokey wants off the Island. Could the Island, or the job of the others be to keep him on it forever so he can't open the gates to hell or escape from Hell or something along those lines? (vaguely recalling some mention of Cerberus on the Blast Shield door map back in the hatch from Season 2).