How do I show the publishing date instead of the creation date? When I create an article and I don't publish it, so I could edit the article later and publish it when it's finished, I notice Drupal shows the creation date, not the publishing date.

Is there a way to change it so the items on the front page show their publishing date and not the creation date? Is there a different field in the database for that functionality? 

I am using the Workbench module, which gives draft nodes. If nodes are not published, it will display them in a draft list.
I think that this module should be fine for Drupal 7:

Publication Date

It adds a field on every node that says Published on: and then the date.