I want a Simple Hero Essay

Mom, that’s an interesting essay. I am not sure that I feel as disappointed in ERS as some of the commenters there. She believed what was being taught in the church at that time–that the dark skinned people had been cursed. For her to have believed otherwise would have been to reject the teachings of the prophet. Just one, because I don’t think JS taught that.

All of us are flawed, and most of us are deeply flawed in one way or another. It seems that we should just stop “pedastalizing” people. (Someone else’s comment, not mine 😆 ). I think in this instance judging goes both ways. We can judge someone harshly for the things we see in them that are weaknesses, or we can judge them to be something better than mortal. Either judgement is unfair. We will be left thinking less of them than they deserve or set them up for disappointing us and perhaps others later. In the words of Avril Lavigne, “why did (we) have to go and make things so complicated?” 🙂

One last thought–maybe it’s time to stop judging people of the past by the morality of today? Our behaviors are based on the societal norms of our times; to place the expectations of today on people who lived a couple centuries ago is unfair. Just my two cents anyway.

I really liked that essay. I think it underpins many of the things we wrestle with here, especially regarding Joseph Smith. We want to peg people as heros and villians, put them neatly in a little category and not have to expend the mental, emotional, and physical energy to think about it anymore. But people are complex, their motives are complex and I think we can all do a little better at recognizing that complexity in our ourselves and others.

I think this is a natural human reaction. I recently was traveling and sat next to a young man in his early 20’s and he was a psychology major working on the field of figuring out how kids (and even animals) figure out who are those that they should trust and those they need to be weary of. It is a good instinct to have.