Robert Grimmer’s Reviews > Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet > Status Update

I'm surprised to see you reading this. I'm listening to a podcast series with the author about this book, and imo, it is enough to take down a testimony of Joseph Smith.

It's pretty well written. Honestly, I don't share the same opinion. I think that someone who already has a prejudice against Joseph, or the Church, will find damning evidence. The opposite is also true, one who has a testimony of him as a prophet can take it for face value. I don't feel like anything that's been revealed has shaken my testimony.

If I were to give my opinion on it, I think I'd say that a prophet can't be measured by the standard of Christ. No one can measure up to Him. Look at old testament prophets, Jonah was clearly racist (or some form of prejudiced against the people of Nineveh), Abraham gained all his wealth from deceit and manipulation. Lots of God's "chosen" were possibly disreputable people with huge flaws. They were also not well documented.

So, in my view, a "latter-day" prophet would be under high scrutiny and well documented. The author takes some liberties on how he interprets Joseph's motives here and there. I don't actually think he has a huge bias, but probably more against him than in support, obviously.

History is also recorded and reported by a variety of people. Just like Amazon reviews, how many people had good experiences and opinions of a product that don't report it? It's more likely that if someone has a negative experience, they will report it. Joseph's enemies reported things in their own words.

So, some things are probably true, some embellished, some false. Any way it's told, I think he still could be a divinely called prophet in spite of his many sins. We are all evil and wicked. I'd hate for myself to become famous, I'm sure all sorts of my mistakes and sins would come to the surface and the media would paint me as a horrible person as well. Would those things be true, embellished, false? Yeah, sure, all of them. IDK.

Hopefully that makes sense. Not trying to convince you one way or another, just sharing my perspective that it's not black and white.

And sorry for the late response, I was on a cruise and had no service. Just got back today.

A cruise is way more important than goodreads! Haha! Hope you had fun!

I'm open to the idea that we can read the same facts about Joseph Smith and draw different conclusions. For me, I'd have to do too many mental gymnastics to believe he was a prophet called of the God I believed in as a Mormon, and at the same time made some of the choices he did. I would probably have to land in the camp that he was a fallen prophet. But as it turns out, I just can't see him as a prophet ever, at all. I can't wrap my head around the details of his practice of polygamy. I just can't. Maybe I can see past the Kirkland Bank Society fiasco, or mishandling of other close relationships. But the polygamy is a hard no for me.

We all come at the facts from a personal context, though. I respect yours is different from mine. I just sometimes see people I think are active Mormon reading or listening to information that broke apart my belief structure and think, "Uh-oh..." Sometimes I'm surprised though. I'm glad I am here.

Love to you and your family. ❤️