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As our moon to the Sun

As our moon to the Sun

Last updated on: December 23, 2025 at 9:41 pm by Dan Peterson

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As our moon to the Sun 2025-12-23T21:41:25-07:00 Dan Peterson

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A nativity by Sandro Botticelli
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Today marks the 220th anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

For the past several years, I’ve awakened every 23 December to the distant braying of donkeys. Cynically contemptuous of the Prophet Joseph Smith, they’re mocking “Smithmas,” an alleged Latter-day Saint holiday that they’ve invented as a vehicle for sneering not only at him but at those who respect him and accept him as a prophet.

The claim among a small handful of critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that Latter-day Saints celebrate the Prophet’s birthday with more enthusiasm and vigor than we celebrate the mainstream Christian holiday of Christmas. For many such unfortunates, I think it’s just a mirthless and rather bitter joke. A few, though, seem to take the claim seriously — or, at least, to want others to take it seriously. (It may simply be yet another irresistible opportunity for them to bear false witness.)

The overwhelmingly probably truth, of course, is that most Latter-day Saints don’t even remember that 23 December is the Prophet’s birthday, let alone celebrate it. The charge that “Smithmas” is our most beloved and revered holy day rests on an obscure blend of ill-humored joking and, perhaps, flat dishonesty.

Just to put the truth on the record, though, for those who might otherwise be innocently taken in by the claim, here are some things that I’ve written about it in previous years:

“Prophet’s birthday fits with season”

“‘Twas the last Sunday before ‘Smithmas’”

“Joseph Smith would be 210 years old today”

Joseph Smith’s First Vision
A 1913 stained glass by an unknown artist
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Do we honor and respect and, yes, praise Joseph Smith? Yes. Rather in the manner, I suppose, that many Christians in other traditions honor, respect, and praise the canonized saints. Please note, though, that we neither address prayers to Joseph Smith nor celebrate his “feast day.”

Many years ago, while living in Cairo, I had the great privilege of studying one-on-one with Father Georges Anawati, an Egyptian monk of the Dominican order who was an eminent scholar of Islamic philosophy. Father Anawati was a wonderful man. When I told him of the birth of our son Joseph, he asked “Is he named after St. Joseph the Carpenter?” No, I said. Not really. “Then, after Joseph Smith?” No, not that, either. “Well,” he asked, “you do pray to Joseph Smith, don’t you?” No, I told him. We venerate the Prophet and other good men, we respect them, but we don’t pray to them. He reflected for a few seconds and then said, as if to himself, “These heresies are all so bizarre!”

The image of Joseph Smith’s First Vision shown above will serve as clearly as anything, I suppose, to illustrate the view of actual believing Latter-day Saints regarding his position in our history and doctrine. It is clearly a subordinate one. The Father and the Son initiated that visit. Joseph didn’t. He was the (surprised and eventually altogether overwhelmed) petitioner. The Father and the Son are instructing him, not the other way around. He is kneeling before them. They are not kneeling before him.

Joseph’s is a reflected light. He doesn’t shine of himself, innately. Thanks to the sun, our planet teems with life on land, in the soil, in the air, and in the waters. The pale light of our moon cannot sustain life on its own. Earth would be sterile if lunar light were all we had. And, absent the sun, the moon itself would also be lost in utter darkness.

Christmas lights at the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith in Sharon, Vermont
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

Already this morning, I’ve seen History of the Church 6:408-409 deployed against Joseph. I suppose that such weaponization is intended to insinuate that, as Latter-day Saints supposedly do more generally, Joseph himself claimed superiority to the Savior or, at least, parity with Him. It’s part of an emerging quasi-liturgical pattern, I think, a kind of repetitive, ritualistic, and slanderous litany for those who love and make this particular lie. (See Revelation 22:15.) Here’s a column on the subject that I published in the Deseret News back on 4 September 2014:

Some critics like to use a quotation attributed to Joseph Smith as a weapon against him:

“I have more to boast of,” he’s reported to have said, “than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. . . . Neither Paul, John, Peter nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet” (History of the Church 6:408-409).

The comment seems arrogant, lacking the humility appropriate to a prophet or even an ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

But at least four points should be remembered when evaluating it. Much of what follows is taken from a personal message I wrote that became the basis of a FairMormon wiki post on the subject.

First, the context: Joseph was applying a passage from the apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 11-12) to his own perilous situation. The idea of “boasting” wasn’t Joseph’s; it was Paul’s. The critics typically forget that.

Second, Joseph seems actually to be praising his followers’ faithfulness, not himself.

Third, Joseph didn’t write the quotation; it was reconstructed after his death. Thus, it almost certainly doesn’t represent his precise words. Even History of the Church (often called the “Documentary History”) says that it rests upon a “synopsis” by Thomas Bullock.

Joseph delivered the sermon on May 26, 1844. A month later, he was dead. So did he supervise or approve this entry? No. Entries in the History of the Church for at least his last five years were actually made by others, after his assassination. Like other chroniclers of the period, they reconstructed his speeches from the notes and memories of those who’d heard them. (There were no recordings.) His well-intentioned scribes admired and missed him enormously, and they worked as accurately as they could, but it’s unreasonable to expect verbal exactness from their method.

This is vitally important to recall when trying to assess Joseph’s character, his moral and spiritual quality, via History of the Church. Even when he seems to be speaking in the first person, it may or may not be his actual voice.

Dean Jessee’s preface to his collection of The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith specifically addresses the seeming egotism that entered into Joseph’s later statements — an attitude quite foreign to the historical man himself. He didn’t suddenly become egotistical; the later voice is no longer his: it’s the work of disciples who felt comfortable “praising” Joseph, after his death, in ways he might not have endorsed.

Given the manner of its composition, the nuances, tone, and details of History of the Church should be treated with caution. Curiously, though, at least in this case, Joseph’s critics insist that the overall narrative of the History is incorrect (e.g. divine intervention, revelation, Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling, etc.) while expecting us to accept as precisely accurate its details of tone and mood — at least when those details seem to cast the Prophet in a bad light.

Fourth, Joseph’s authenticated personal statements plainly reveal him to have been a humble and sincere man, struggling to do the will of God as he understood it — and this particular statement should be placed in the context of his overall life and behavior. (See Mark McConkie’s Remembering Joseph: Personal Recollections of Those Who Knew the Prophet Joseph Smith.)

Consider, for example, the following excerpt from a private letter Joseph wrote to his wife, Emma, in June 1832: “I will try to be contented with my lot, knowing that God is my friend. In him I shall find comfort. I have given my life into his hands. I am prepared to go at his call. I desire to be with Christ. I count not my life dear to me (except) to do his will.”

These are scarcely the words of a man who believed himself better than Christ. Nor are these, which are taken from History of the Church 5:401:

“I do not think there have been many good men on the earth since the days of Adam; but there was one good man and his name was Jesus. Many persons think a prophet must be a great deal better than anybody else. … I do not want you to think that I am very righteous, for I am not.”

Joseph Smith saw himself as an instrument in the hands of God — no less, but also definitely no more.

A depiction of the First Vision by the Argentinian Latter-day Saint artist Jorge Cocco Santángelo.
I have, incidentally, made an effort to discover the copyright status of this image, but have been unable to be certain of it. I’m assuming that my employment of it here constitutes an example of “fair use.” Authoritative communications to the contrary would be welcomed. I would like Jorge Cocco’s work to be better known in the Latter-day Saint community.

There is, of course, absolutely no doctrinal requirement to think about Joseph Smith today, or to read about him. There is no such expectation. But, just in case you are inclined to give him a few minutes, here are a couple of brief but very recent items about him that I enjoyed. They’re both based upon accounts of people who actually knew him:

Marilynne Todd Linford, in Meridian Magazine: “If Joseph Smith Had a Birthday Party, Who Would Come?”
Jacob Hess, in the Deseret News: “Understanding Joseph Smith through the eyes of those who knew him: ‘A plain, sensible, strong-minded man’: The people who knew the Prophet best describe his goodness, integrity”

Sorry, but I do think this is funny: Feliz Navidad! (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

For today’s selection of Christmas music, I offer a wonderful Catalonian carol, performed by The King’s Singers in Salt Lake City’s Conference Center: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AyseeqSSlY

¿Qué le daremos al Niño chiquito
Con que se pueda reír y alegrar?
Un lindo ramo de hermosas naranjas
Con verdes hojas y flor de ahazar

Tan ta, ran tán
Que los higos son verdes
Tan ta, ran tán
Que ya maduraran

¿Qué le daremos, qué le daremos?
Frum, frum

¿Qué la daremos al Niño bonito
Qué le daremos major para Él?
Vamos a hacerle unas tortas muy dulces
De Blanca harina, de nueces y miel

¿Qué le daremos al Niño querido
Que sea bueno y le pueda gustar?
Vamos a darle una cesta de guindas
Para comerlas o para jugar.

And here it is, performed in English by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and accompanied by a very moving video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH9nK_9OBDg

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