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Ann wrote:
I recognize that I’m on a hair trigger with issues about Joseph Smith’s credibility. But I really was very disappointed to read “Stand By My Servant Joseph” in the Ensign. Aside from a fairly perfunctory “no one’s perfect” paragraph, it’s about self-assessment and scoring where you stand on the loyalty scale – i.e., there is really nothing about Joseph that should hold anyone back from utter devotion. And if you’re not there yet, it’s your problem. I have to have psychological space to be a follower of Christ without profound admiration for Joseph Smith. And I honestly don’t understand the some of the connections he makes, like this one: “How grateful we should be that we are allowed to stand by Joseph with our own actions and testimonies of the Father and the Son.”
I hadn’t read this yet. Ugh…
Reminds me of a talk i heard in SM about how Joseph smith was like the Savior so we should emulate him too.
It’s all bunk to me….
In general I have good feelings towards Joseph Smith. I feel he was a seeker. I feel he was largely inspired. I believe God worked through him. I also think he made some huge mistakes… But so do I. It is this fallibility itself that actually makes him more accessible to me I think. I can understand his questions. It’s ironic that I feel most like Joseph Smith when I’m praying about whether or not the church he founded is true.
I think my favorite thing JS ever said was about not being limited by creeds. About how we should be ready to believe all truth wherever we find it. That was a principle that was really important to Joseph and is important to me. It’s also a principle that has been completely twisted–if not totally lost–in my experience. It’s become “look for truth wherever you can find it from these 15 guys”. Pure Mormonism to me equates the Father with truth and knowledge. So searching for truth and knowledge is a way of worshiping God to me. It shows that I desire to know who he is and understand him. Not just blindly follow leaders or emulate the examples of men.
But I guess from the author’s point of view and that of TBMs, Joseph’s colored past is true but not useful. For me it’s the opposite.
My love for my parents grew immensely when I realized that they weren’t perfect because I understood how hard they actually had to try to parent and do what was right. That’s how I feel about JS and a lot of the church in general. I can appreciate them so much more as imperfect people and an imperfect organization than I can as perfect ones. I only wish they’d stop the charade. And if they want people to stop calling the church a cult, they need to stop deifying Joseph Smith. I think we can remember and appreciate and study him without beatifying him.
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