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Show 7t>2 It wasn't that I had apostatized. I knew that I owed . . . . +0 -foe p r i n c i p l e and that by consequence, I was my i n s •Mornon' in the same i n d e l i b l e way that a Negro is black ^1 a Jew is Jewish. Mormonism was my reason for being as well as my ethnic and s p i r i t u a l heritage. S t i l l, jtouldn't reconcile the logic and emotion of i t . I wasn't overly concerned with doctrine, nor with the validity of Joseph Smith's t r a n s l a t i o n . Although others claimed he . C h a r l a t a n or a prophet, I could find v a l i d i ty scewhere between the two extremes. Even if he had made UP & Book^oJT Mormon - rather than t r a n s l a t i n g i t from plates of gold - the book contained t r u t h . I knew from „ own writing t h a t the process of s e t t i n g down thoughts m words, of developing story l i n e s and characters and themes, •produced! a condensed t r u t h that was as important in i ts way as the dehydrated t r u t h of history. Joseph Smith - P - ^ i+ » and I knew that had said, 'Truth is where you find i t, truth could exist in both f i c t i o n and scripture, however disparate the reference points might be. Both were made of the stuff of l i f e - w h e r e a t was ^ s p i r i t of trut that counted , more than the l e t t e r, . +~ +hP fibers of my neaj. i. * r e l i g i o n was deeply woven i ^ ^ ^ and the h a r p - s t r i n g s of my brain. ^ ^ the three w h i t e s , of remarkable healmg a ^ ^ salvations affected my being with hope » d r ^ ^ ^ ^ in an otherwise s p i r i t u a l l y - d e s o l a e • ^ ^ ^ - - - - - : ; :::;;;iTe ^ a in the Bible, for the great old #Botlon^ and mental spiritual evolution, a resolution of |
