Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
Joseph Smith and humor

Joseph Smith and humor

Last updated on: October 29, 2017 at 1:55 pm by Dan Peterson

Joseph Smith and humor 2017-10-29T13:55:56-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, from the air. (Wikimedia CC)
The Church of All Nations and the Garden of Gethsemane can be seen in the background.

More notes from one of my manuscripts:

This was much the same impression that his contemporaries had of Joseph, even late in his career. “He is a man that you could not help liking as a man,” George W. Taggart wrote from Nauvoo to his three non-Mormon brothers in the fall of 1843, “setting aside the religious prejudice which the world has raised against him. . . . Neither is he puffed up with his greatness as many suppose but on the contrary is familiar with any decent man and is ready to talk upon any subject that anyone wishes.”[1] The perceptive and highly intelligent George Q. Cannon remembered him as “always gentle and good-natured,” “considerate and just.”[2] In 1843, Joseph Smith was head of a large and rapidly growing church, lieutenant general in the Illinois militia, and the dominant figure in what may at the time have been the state’s largest city. Yet he was wholly unpretentious. “When we all had a social chat,” Jonah Ball wrote earlier that year, “I found Joseph familiar in conversation, easy, and unassuming. I found no sycophancy.” And the Prophet evidently did not demand formality in his presence, tolerating behavior by others that, by the standards of the time, could have been taken as disrespectful to him. “There are those,” Ball said, “that came in or went out not even taking their hats or caps off their heads.” Concluding, Ball reported that “he is what the Mormons represent him to be and the stories about him are false.”[3]

Humor is in short supply among fanatics, and is something carefully avoided by most pretenders to sanctity. Yet George Q. Cannon remembered Joseph’s “sense of gentle humor.”[4] Likewise, his modern biographer Robert Remini, a preeminent scholar of Jacksonian America and a non-Mormon, writes that he “came to like the man very much,” not only because he possessed “compelling charisma, charm, persuasiveness,” but partly because Joseph Smith was “joyously funny.” “I like them when they’re funny. Andrew Jackson was not funny.”[5]

There is perhaps even a trace of humor apparent in his mother’s recollection of his return home after his First Vision. Leaning against the fireplace, he answers his mother’s concerned question about what is wrong: “I have learned for myself,” she recalls him saying, “that Presbyterianism is not true.”[6] Rather an understatement of what had just occurred. But, notes Professor King, “We have to remember that his mother had joined the Presbyterian Church shortly before this. How do you assess that as a conversation between a fourteen-year-old and his mother? All mothers know that sort of thing really happens to them with their teenagers.”[7] Nonetheless, Joseph’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith, remembered him at the age of fourteen as “a remarkably quiet, well disposed child,” although she insists that, prior to that age, there was nothing unusual in his childhood.[8]

[1] Susannah Taggart and George W. Taggart, letter of 6 September and 10 September 1843 to Albert Taggart, Samuel W. Taggart, and Henry C. Taggart. The relevant text is given on pages 171 and 173 of Ronald O. Barney, “’A Man That You Could Not Help Likeing’: Joseph Smith and Nauvoo Portrayed in a Letter by Susannah and George W. Taggart,” BYU Studies 40/2 (2001): 165-179. I have standardized the spelling and punctuation.

[2] Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 343.

[3] Jonah Randolph Ball, letter of 15 January 1843 to “Dear Brother [Harvey Howard] and Sister.” Cited in Barney, “’A Man That You Could Not Help Likeing,’” 178 note 41. I have standardized the spelling and punctuation.

[4] Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 342.

[5] As quoted by Dennis Lythgoe, “Writer finds ‘his Joseph,’” Salt Lake City Deseret News (13 October 2002), E10.

[6] Joseph Smith – History 1:20.

[7] King, “Joseph Smith as a Writer,” 291.

[8] Lucy’s Book, 329.

***

“A Mormon guy told me that Mormon church pastors and elders don’t get salaries. Is it true? If it is, then where do they spend all the money of people’s tithe?”

You can read the very well done answer to this question here:

https://www.quora.com/A-Mormon-guy-told-me-that-Mormon-church-pastors-and-elders-dont-get-salaries-Is-it-true-If-it-is-then-where-do-they-spend-all-the-money-of-people’s-tithe/answer/David-C-Maness?share=7542d012&srid=hy6aK

***

From Taylor Halverson and Doug Witney:

“2 Things Distracting Us from Hearing the Voice of God in Our Lives + How to Tune Them Out”

***

“Elder Christofferson applauds journalists as ambassadors of freedom”

Posted from Jerusalem, Israel

Uncategorized

Previous Post

October 29, 2017

Atheism and Evolution

Next Post

October 30, 2017 Is atheism irrational?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jacob Aaron God Moses