{"id":64244,"date":"2018-08-26T21:10:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T03:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=64244"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:52:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T15:52:45","slug":"the-parthenon-of-the-south-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/08\/the-parthenon-of-the-south-pacific.html","title":{"rendered":"The Parthenon of the South Pacific?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The classical Greek Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearly a year ago, an article appeared in Time<\/em> about New Zealand\u2019s then-new and quite young ex-Mormon prime minister, the politically progressive Jacinda Ardern:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJacinda Ardern, New Zealand\u2019s 37-Year-Old Leader, Rolls Up Her Sleeves\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I missed that article when it was first published. \u00a0However, a\u00a0reader of this blog in New Zealand who goes by the moniker of Kiwi57 \u2014 I\u2019ve met him, been in his home, and know his actual name, but I don\u2019t feel authorized to use it here \u2014 called it to my attention today.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Specifically, he noted a passage in the article, which was plainly very admiring of Ms. Ardern and correspondingly contemptuous of the unfashionable and regressive Latter-day Saints, that described the Hamilton New Zealand Temple as looking \u201clike a Parthenon reimagined by Stalinist architects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m fascinated by such things. \u00a0So that you yourself can compare it to the photograph of the Parthenon, above, here\u2019s a photograph of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Aotearoa's<\/a>
The Hamilton New Zealand Temple \u00a0 \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Kiwi57 observes, \u201cI suppose that apart from the fact that the Parthenon is made of stone, has gable ends, columns, no spire and no windows, while the Hamilton NZ Temple is made of concrete, has no gables and no columns, a spire and windows, the two might look exactly alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve contemplated such silliness over the years. \u00a0Why is it, I\u2019ve wondered, that certain authors seem to feel absolutely no obligation to get even basic facts correct when writing about the Latter-day Saints?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Multiple times, for instance, I\u2019ve read the flat declaration that nobody else was ever able to see the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated; Joseph Smith, you see, refused to show<\/em> the plates to anybody<\/em>. \u00a0But shouldn\u2019t there be at least some slight nod in the direction of the testimonies of the Three and Eight Witnesses, which have appeared in every edition of the Book of Mormon, in every language, since its first publication in 1830?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my favorite examples of the gross carelessness that often characterizes journalistic and other writing about the Mormons<\/a> comes from a mystery, set in Utah, that I once thumbed through in an airport bookstore. \u00a0(I may be mistaken, but I think it may have been\u00a0Bone Hunter<\/em>, a novel published in 2000 by Sarah Andrews.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In it, the heroine of the novel is trying to figure out what it is about the Salt Lake Temple that she finds so horribly creepy. \u00a0And then it hits her: \u00a0It\u2019s the fact that the temple has absolutely no windows!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Plainly, the Salt Lake Temple is completely devoid of windows. It is, in fact, essentially a solid block of unbroken, windowless granite. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s also Peter Bart\u2019s<\/a> excruciatingly awful 1981 novel Thy Kingdom Come<\/em>. \u00a0A friend and I had dinner with Bart one night; he could not understand why Latter-day Saints hadn\u2019t warmed up to his portrayal of them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The classic Mormon-related mystery, though, is certainly Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s A Study in Scarlet<\/em>, which deals, among other things, with the Church\u2019s presiding Council of Four.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Honestly, I just don\u2019t understand why people write such things, or how such things survive the editorial process and reach publication.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Nearly a year ago, an article appeared in Time about New Zealand\u2019s then-new and quite young ex-Mormon prime minister, the politically progressive Jacinda Ardern: \u00a0 \u201cJacinda Ardern, New Zealand\u2019s 37-Year-Old Leader, Rolls Up Her Sleeves\u201d \u00a0 I missed that article when it was first published. \u00a0However, a\u00a0reader of this blog in New Zealand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2216,55,1667,2208,2206,2210,2212,2214,641,1676],"class_list":["post-64244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jacinda-ardern","tag-mormonism","tag-mormons","tag-new-zealand","tag-popular-culture","tag-salt-lake","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-study-in-scarlet","tag-temple","tag-temples"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Parthenon of the South 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