Myth Myth
Posted on February 28th, 2007 by John Mansfield
Several weeks ago, I read an article by Robert Rees and published by Sunstone. A number of Mormon web sites have pointed to it, most recently Times and Seasons yesterday. The topic of the article is that Mormons spread phony stories amongst themselves in order to feel special. The article left me doubting that we do to any meaningful extent.
Of the various tales that Brother Rees mentioned, some were unrecognizable to me. Some I had heard as jokes. Others I had seen only in the context of someone debunking them. Finally, though, Rees got to one that had been passed on to me as a purportedly true, faith-promoting incident. That one is the story of a Utah National Guard unit serving in Iraq that has suffered no casualties. I was disappointed to learn it wasn’t so. Then Brother Rees repeats the many outlandish feats that have been attributed to that unit. But I had never heard of any of those feats; I only heard that none of them had been killed. Then Rees quotes the unit’s commander and chaplain that none of the amazing feats that I had never heard of are true, but the one that I had heard was a correct statement of facts: none of the unit’s soldiers was killed or seriously injured in combat.
This is not the first such article I’ve read about Mormon mythmaking. Given how my experience tracks with this article, I question whether Mormons do pass along these false stories to any meaningful extent. I am just one person, however, and my experience may not be typical. Is there anyone reading this who is often on the receiving end of these tales?
www.sunstoneonline.com/magazine/issues/144/16-25.pdf
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Eh, some Mormons will do anything to justify their support of an aggressive war. The more they can stretch a connection to the sons of Helaman, the better they feel about themselves and their support. It erases the doubt of reality, and they can continue living in their bubble fantasy world.
Dan, I have my doubt that is the reason. I suspect the people would come up with the same faith promoting rumors even if they hated the war. Look at the stories about the Mormon Battalion.
I think that looking for deep meanings though is kind of silly. Mormons simply want to hear about religion in practice. Miracles. It’s common in religion. I think trying to find explanations beyond that are problematic. That’s not to say they might not be there but I just don’t think you’d be able to discern them.
Dan, you are way off-topic. Knock it off. Do you have anything non-political to say about these tales that allegedly circulate among us?
You know, now that I live in NC, I hear less of these sorts of stories. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I heard something like what is referred to in the article. Perhaps there’s simply not enough Mormons out here to really let some story like that get so out of control. When I used to live in Utah, I would hear these crazy stories more often and when I was in the mission field I heard them every day. Missionaries seem to be particularly susceptible to believing and passing on these urban legends. I guess it’s because they’re scared and feel like they are on the “front lines” in the war against “The Adversary”. These kinds of myths help them feel better about themselves.
John,
I think it is a problem. I don’t think Mormons do this any more than anybody else, but it is still a problem. Consider this, from the church’s web site on November 1, 2000:
“Efforts to Discourage ‘Mormon Myths’ — Ricks Scroll Online
James Keller, dean of religious and family living at Ricks College, addressed concerns about “Mormon myths” that circulate on the Internet: “(Rumors) are like weeds. They just grow without anybody trying to water them.” The Church Educational System is trying to crack down on false stories and quotes, and put an end to the teaching of sensational material that is circulated throughout the Church in classes and sacrament meetings.”
The link goes to http://www.ricks.edu/scroll/pages/saints2.htm, but I can’t get it to work.
When the St. Louis temple was dedicated in 1997, there were rumors that people in the neighborhood surrounding the temple had seen flames on the building and had called the fire department. This was repeated in testimony meeting for months as fact, and a high councilor used it as the basis of his monthly talk. The church finally had to issue a statement knocking the rumor down. For a while the denunciation was on the church’s official website, but I can’t find it there now.
So, my experience has been that we LDS folk do occasionally trade in rumors and sensationalism. Sometimes we try to make the gospel truer than true.
Considering the existence of Snopes.com and other like-minded web sites, I’d say this is not so much a Mormon problem as it is a problem with human beings in general. We want to find corroborating evidence for things that we believe, so we are too willing to believe uncritically.
I get sent emails all the time from mainline Christian acquaintances pushing these precious little stories. It’s just a human thing. Storytelling is in our blood.
Now the author should have written an article about the propensity of Sunstone authors toward asserting that every observable quirk or defect common to the human race is somehow a uniquely “Mormon thing.”
LOL. Someone should do a Sunstone presentation on Sunstone myths and the underlying unconscious forces that they signify.
BTW - can I confess that while a student at BYU me and several friends would try to invent myths and see if we could get them propagating around campus? It was best the month prior to conference.
My total cynic is pushing me to say that the extensive use of faith-promoting stories in lesson manuals without any kind of supporting factual claims (names, dates, and so on) doesn’t help people gain the sort of “umm, maybe this isn’t true, I should research it…” cultural expectations that would keep them from spreading such stories to others. I recall the frustrations I felt as a 17 year old on an LDS mailing list, repeatedly sending out links to Snopes and Symantec to let people know that no, Bill Gates will NOT be sending you, the American Cancer Society, or anyone else a dollar per email you forward. After about two years of responding to every forwarded rumor like that, I started seeing other members of the list doing it before I got the chance. ^_^ You’ve no idea how happy the Primary_ST list tagline “REMEMBER: *NO Virus warnings” makes me.
On the other hand, this stuff breeds amongst all populations whenever it’s formulated in such a way to appeal to people’s prejudices and desires. We probably see more faith-promoting stories based on scriptural accounts (how easy it is to liken the Stripling Warriors unto the Utah National Guard!) than not, but I don’t think I’ve been in a group that didn’t have some rumor/community-building story function. I mean, office workers and secretaries have them, for crying out loud. And don’t get me started on what people who work at Disneyland say. At least our stories are usually about children seeing angels and not running into the street to get run over by a semi; things could be a lot worse.
(note also that spending a year and a half as a History major made me seriously hate ALL “true” stories without sufficient background and verifiability…)
It’s only the crowd that reads (and quotes in sacrament meeting talks) Especially for Mormons that believes all those nonsensical myths.
The rest of us are way too sophisticated.
Lets see, I’ve heard the following repeated in Sacrament meetings, either in testimonies or as marshmallows on talks.
The temple looking like it was on fire to outsiders.
A Utah National Guard unit (that was totally LDS) that suffered no casulties despite being in the most dangerous part of Baghdad and being involved in the capture of Saddam.
A catholic priest that for saw Joseph Smith and the restoration, telling his parish that he wished he could be alive at that time.
Blessings promising people would see the second coming/be called home from their mission because of WWIII
Various ‘proofs’ of Nephites in South and Central America.
etc,etc,etc.
I find all these stories annoying, and wonder why people feel like they need to lie to make their talk better. On the other hand, this is far from a Mormon thing, I think it’s similar to seeing the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast or tree trunk. It’s a stupid thing that people use to increase their faith.
I had heard a story similar to the one about the quad stopping all the bullets, but I think was in relation to the Korean war, and all the guy had was a triple and it only stopped one bullet. As I remember it, the tagline to the story was that not even an enemy bullet can make it through the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi.
Has anyone else heard the one about somebody’s cousin who receives his mission call? When he opens it, no mission is specified, but he is instructed to call an 800 number. The phone is answered by Gordon B. Hinckley, who tells the missionary to pack his bags for three years in China.
I’ve heard this one three times since Thanksgiving.
Mark IV,
That rumor was circulating around my mission in 1993.
We also had a much more fun rumor about a town called Karatsu in my mission that supposedly got shut down and “still isn’t open” because the missionaries there were running a whorehouse out of the missionary apartment.
Anyone heard the one about the attack on Pearl Harbor where a Japanese pilot was about to bomb the temple, when his bomb release mechanism “mysteriously malfunctioned?” Verification?
“I had heard a story similar to the one about the quad stopping all the bullets, but I think was in relation to the Korean war, and all the guy had was a triple and it only stopped one bullet. As I remember it, the tagline to the story was that not even an enemy bullet can make it through the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi.”
This is a common story and often takes the form of the small Bibles soldiers often carried. It actually did happen quite often and I’d not be at all surprised to find that it happened to Mormons.
The other common “myth” I’ve heard are people being protected from burns by garments. Once again though this is probably due to wearing tighter cotton garments and the nature of how fire burns. It does happen but has nothing to do with any miracle. A non-Mormon wearing underwear like that would have the same experience.
Mr. Marriot said (implied?) in a 60 Minutes interview that his garments protected him from burns that got the rest of his body (I believe it was a boat wreck on Lake (now puddle) Powell).
Clark, you write:
“LOL! Someone should do a Sunstone presentation on Sunstone myths and the underlying unconscious forces that they signify.”
You may be writing tongue in cheek, but it actually sounds interesting. August 8-11, mark your calendar and get on it!
Ah, yes. We heard that one alot in the MTC because we were learning Cantonese and most of the group was going to Hong Kong. There was much gnashing of teeth that we hadn’t made the cut to enter China, and were instead across the bay.
The garment one is pretty common, usually dealing with house fires or car fires.
How about the tennis rackets in the windows at BYU?
I’m fairly sure that one was true Ivan.
Clark Goble #15: The other common “myth” I’ve heard are people being protected from burns by garments.
I knew a member on my mission who was badly burned because he was wearing the garment. He as a handyman by trade and was working with a blowtorch one day when his wrist-length shirt sleeve caught fire. He had a wrist-length nylon mesh garment top that melted into the skin on his left forearm. He showed me the burn scars — they were pretty bad.
The garment is not a lucky rabbit’s foot. There’s nothing in the temple language that indicates physical protection if the garment is worn.
I don’t want to get into the particular wording of temple ordinances, but I’d hate to treat the Lord’s promises as though they’re coming from Macbeth’s witches, requiring careful scrutiny for the loopholes that invalidate straight-forward readings.
After seeing all the responses to my question, my mind is still divided. It appears that communication networks do exist that pass along tales, and I am not connected. Yet it also appears from the way most of you report receiving these tales, that you mostly hear about them in the context of mocking the stupid stories that some vague group circulates.
Sarah’s comment (#9) ended with an idea that connects to my concern with this issue: “(note also that spending a year and a half as a History major made me seriously hate ALL “true” stories without sufficient background and verifiability…)”
The overwhelming bulk of life that has passed is no longer historically verifiable, but it still happenned. I’ve heard many a first-hand story and even second-hand story with a short, clear chain of provenance that has been valuable to me in some fashion, sometimes even spiritually nourishing. Those that I trust, I am comfortable passing on. Since rigorous verifiability is usually not part of the propagation process, the value of such stories diminishes as they spread. That’s OK. The value of such things isn’t their amazing sensational content, but more that they happenned with someone I know, or someone known to people I know. New experience is continually generated about us. I worry, just a little, that mocking silly tales extends to shutting down people sharing what has happenned to them and their friends.
Mike, yes, loose nylon mesh will behave considerably differently from tight cotton. Also the nature of the burn will make a big difference as well.
Mike,
That’s depends on how much stock you put in the power of personal faith.
Here is a story that got into the Mormon rumor mill for a while that I was especially interested in because I was the source. Here is what really happened. At the opening of our first children’s exhibit at the Church Museum, Howard W. Hunter, the only sitting President of the Church to attend a public opening of an exhibit to date came. (He really was sitting since he was in a wheelchair.) He was at eye level with the children and many little hands reached out to him. As he moved through an especially congested area, a little boy, maybe about 4 years old ran right in front of me after Pres. Hunter and as he did he said, “Follow the Prophet”. I suppose in his literal child mind it was the first time he had actually seen the prophet and he was going to “follow.” It was a sweet moment that I shared with the Church News who were talking to our exhibit team about the exhibit. The story was published (accurately) as a sidebar in the Church News. However, for several years after I heard a number of iterations of the story (especially as to when and where it had happened) including from a GA who came to our stake for conference.
My quad story in Iraq is sad.
One of our counselors in our EQ brother in law was killed by an IED with his quad on his lap.
I agree that rumors and faith promoting stories are part of the religious community and not unique to the LDS. My evangelical co-workers tell me crazy faith promoting stories all the time. They sound just like the LDS ones.
The fact that Sunstone likes to run these types of stories shows merely that Sunstone’s contributors have a ax to grind.
Dan, I was afraid we’d killed your spirit. I can rest easy now.
Uh, John, sorry, it is SO so that a national guard unit from Utah suffered no casualties. It’s the 222nd and it’s from my town, also St.George and Beaver. Nobody died. I don’t recall that anyone even got hurt, or more than a scratch.
While the above is correct, they did have a couple of guys who were assigned to them from other units who were killed. I don’t know about the stories in the article. But nobody died. They were there a year. It’s easy to research since it’s all documented.
Also, the 222nd fought in the Korean War and no one was killed, either. I accepted a medal on behalf of my uncle who served there. My bishop was a colonel for the 222nd and he made a documentary called, “They All Came Back.” Indeed, then and now, they did. It is not a myth.
This isn’t about war, but Bill cut through his pants with a chain saw and didn’t get a scratch. We still have the pants.
Everything gets passed around us Mormons, not just orally transmitted stories, but paper copies of inspirational flyers or lesson hand-outs circulated just as easily, even long before e-mail…
When I was 14, I produced a complicated map on my IBM PCjr using BASIC programming and ASCII codes. When one was completed on the screen, I scrolled down and accidentally pushed ‘return’, this caused a fine, straight blank space or “straight-and-narrow” passageway to be created straight across, ruining my incredibly difficult maze. In a burst of inspiration, I printed it off with a caption that asked the reader to follow the straight and narrow path that Christ taught.
I showed it to my seminary teacher in St. George, Utah who made a copy. I have witnessed that paper resurface about 10 times in my life since, much to my delight: a few times in high school, then on my mission, then at institute at two different colleges in Utah, then a girl I once dated had it hanging on her dorm wall, later, I saw it among some youth at a former ward meeting I attended in Fresno, California, lastly, a visitor who just arrived from Canada who attended my ward one day had that paper fall out among some of her papers she had in her scriptures.
Each time I see it, someone has altered the caption or expanded the explanation footnote, but its always that same amazing maze I once accidentally created.
Maze, maze maze! I meant to write “complicated maze” not map in that last paragraph, hope it still made sense…
Kelton, that is just one more famous person I can say I met on the blog.
Anne, what I wrote agrees with you on that Utah National Guard unit. Rees claimed that there are all kinds of outlandish stories circulating about that unit, but then got around to verifying that the only thing I had ever heard about the unit, that none of its soldiers were hurt, is true.
Marjorie Condor and Kelton Baker, passing along a story from the newspaper or a maze doesn’t seem like quite the same thing as propagating a myth, but maybe the mechanism is the same. With the museum story, was there a core that survived mangled repititions? Did modifications trend in any particular direction?
John Mansfield,
I was just trying to describe the mechanism by which we LDS people seem to be able to share, propagate, and recycle content amongst ourselves, whether it be Three Nephite legends or a cute little parable disguised as a maze.
I am just amazed that my little maze paper (as an example) enjoyed so much circulation within Mormondom from Utah to Texas to California to Canada without ever being in any Church publication (that I know of) and before much of anyone was using e-mail.
I’m really not trying to congratulate myself on my teenage success in creating something that had widespread currency among young Latter-Day-Saints for a time, but I recognize that it had all the necessary appeal to be able to travel this mechanism of the mysterious LDS circuit that so many myths also seem to travel.
Annegb, I don’t understand are you teasing or are you being sincere by that last comment?
kelton -
with annegb, it’s likely both.
One of my closest friends is Mormon. I actually used go to his church with him every once in a while. Nothing really out of the ordinary there. Its a religion that is easy to make myths about because the amount of actual Mormons in our society is a small amount, which makes Mormons a minority, which will be dominated be the majority.
The funny thing about this whole story of the 222nd is it may actually be a true story that’s being used to reinforce a bigger myth. And that myth is the idea that the US military is actually defending America and its institutions.
I mean, how many times do I hear the lie that the American GI makes “sacrifices” so that I can enjoy the “freedom of speech”? Yet, if we look all around us, there’s no denying how much freedom we have actually lost in the last 6 years alone, and I haven’t seen any GI come to the fore to protect those freedoms.
#31–The core of the museum story that survived was a little child saying “follow the prophet” and then actually following the prophet. When and where and which prophet all got morphed in various accounts