Part Two: Lessons from Polish Pottery and the Past

Please read part one, if you haven't done so yet.

Part Two: What is going on with me on the inside?

     Recently, I read this post: http://www.denversnuffer.blogspot.com/search/label/Nauvoo%20Temple

about faith-promoting stories.  Some of it is quoted as follows from Denver Snuffer’s blog:

“For some reason, however, we aren't willing to retell their great sacrifices without fanciful embellishment. We insist on improving the story by adding a fake overlay about the women donating their best china to be ground up and put into the exterior plaster. LDS Church History researcher, employed by the Church History Department, Mark Staker researched the topic and found the story of the women donating china originated in the 1930's. The story was such good fodder for "faith promotion" that it soon found its way into official versions of Kirtland history.

There was china ground up into the exterior plaster, but it came from a community dump where such things were discarded. Kirtland, like all other communities, had a broken china dump from which the children retrieved scraps to use in the building process.”

    When I read this blog post, it really stunned me.  All of my Mormon life I had heard the story of the early Mormon women donating their finest china so it could be ground up and mixed in with the plaster that was on the façade of the Kirtland Temple. The china didn’t come from a landfill!  The china was donated, right? It made the walls sparkle like diamonds in the sunshine. In fact, here’s a link to a fictional story written in a church magazine in 1975 that I probably read: http://www.lds.org/friend/1975/03/sparkling-walls?lang=eng

     Needless to say, the idea of false faith-promoting stories has been in the back of my mind since I read Denver’s blog post.  What stories have I heard that are real?  Which ones are not?  Does it really matter?

Come back tomorrow for Part Three where I mix Parts One and Two, outside and inside..there will be crying, ranting and raving involved.  Don't miss it!