In JS-H 1:28, we read:
During the space of
time which intervened between the time I had the vision and the year eighteen
hundred and twenty-three having been forbidden to join any of the religious
sects of the day, and being of very tender years, and persecuted by those who
ought to have been my friends and to have treated me kindly, and if they
supposed me to be deluded to have endeavored in a proper and affectionate
manner to have reclaimed me I was left to all kinds of temptations; and,
mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many foolish errors,
and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature; which, I
am sorry to say, led me into divers temptations, offensive in the sight of God.
In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or
malignant sins. A disposition to commit such was never in my nature. But I was
guilty of levity, and sometimes associated with jovial company, etc., not
consistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was
called of God as I had been. But this will not seem very strange to any one who
recollects my youth, and is acquainted with my native cheery temperament.
Commenting on this and various issues raised by critics, Matthew B.
Brown in Historical
or Hysterical: Anti-Mormons and Documentary Sources wrote:
Next, there
is the anti-Mormon accusation that Joseph Smith’s behavior was so scandalous
during his youth that Church leaders changed his official history after he died
in order to cover up his misdeeds and ‘purify’ his character. The evidence
offered in support of this claim is the history that is now published in the
Pearl of Great Price, which can be seen on the left-hand portion of this slide.
It is claimed that the words highlighted in red were fraudulently added to the
text. These words, as the critics are eager to point out, were not in the 1842
version of the Church history as printed in the Times and Seasons.[9] But what
they fail to mention is that the portion in red was written on 2 December 1842
(while Joseph Smith was still alive and kicking and just months after his
official history had been printed). In addition, they fail to acknowledge that
these words are in the handwriting of Willard Richards, who served as the
Prophet’s private clerk and scribe. It should also be noted that this material
is written in the first person, which means that Joseph Smith is most likely
the source of these words.
But critics
take the charge of tampering with this text even further. They point out that
the word “foibles” was inserted into the original manuscript as a replacement
for the word “corruption” and the phrase “to the gratification of many
appetites”–though present in the original manuscript–has been completely
deleted in the Pearl of Great Price. I would respond that if these editorial
adjustments were really meant to cover up embarrassing facts about the
Prophet’s youth then the perpetrators did a very poor job of it since the
original manuscript version was, in fact, published before the world in 1842
(both in the United States and in England) and reprinted in various pro-Mormon
publications in 1878, 1882, 1883, and 1909.[10] Tampering? Not hardly.
Cover-up? The evidence refutes such an idea.
Some
anti-Mormons have gone so far as to interpret some wording that is found in the
1842 published history to mean that when Joseph Smith was between ten and
twenty-one years of age he “abandoned himself freely to a variety of youthful
vices.”[11] But this view is directly challenged by a letter that was published
by Joseph Smith in December 1834. In this document–which is reproduced here on
this slide–the Prophet acknowledges that between the ages of ten and twenty-one
he “fell into many vices and follies.” But he refutes accusations of engaging
in “gross and outrageous violations of the peace and good order of the
community.” He also denies charges of “wrongdoing” and declares himself
innocent of “injuring any man or society of men.” So what exactly were his
“vices and follies”? He states quite clearly in this letter that he had a
“light and too often vain mind,” an “uncircumspect walk,” and participated in
“foolish and trifling conversation.”[12] This doesn’t exactly sound like young
Joseph was the appalling reprobate that anti-Mormons make him out to be. It
sounds much more like a typical teenage boy who doesn’t take heed to the
consequences of his actions or to the appropriateness of some of his verbal
expressions.
Notes for the Above
9 Jerald and
Sandra Tanner, Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? (Salt
Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), chapter 7.
10 See Times and Seasons, vol. 3, no. 11, 1 April 1842, 749; Millennial Star, vol. 3, no. 2, June 1842, 22-23;
Edward W. Tullidge, Life of Joseph the Prophet (New
York: Tullidge and Crandall, 1878), 7-8; Juvenile Instructor, vol.
17, no. 19, 1 October 1882, 300 (by George Reynolds); George Reynolds, The Myth of the Manuscript Found (Salt Lake City:
Juvenile Instructor Office, 1883), 55-56; Brigham H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God (Salt Lake City: Deseret News
Press, 1909), 1:181.
