“Joseph Smith’s Character,” Topics and Questions (2025)
Church and Gospel Questions
Joseph Smith’s Character
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Overview
On the evening of September 21, 1823, three years after the First Vision, 17-year-old Joseph Smith prayed, asking the Lord for further knowledge and forgiveness. Joseph said he “often felt condemned for [his] weakness and imperfections.” He had not committed any great sins but wanted to be sure he was living consistently “with that character which ought to be maintained by one who was called of God.”
In answer to Joseph’s prayer, Moroni, a messenger sent by the Lord, appeared and assured Joseph that God had a work for him to do. Moroni also told Joseph that his “name should be had for good and evil among all nations.” This prophecy has been fulfilled in countless ways during the last 200 years.
Thousands of people who knew Joseph Smith testified that he was a prophet of God. And millions around the world today have received that same spiritual witness. Through translating the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God, restoring priesthood authority, and reestablishing the Lord’s Church on the earth, Joseph Smith helped people build faith in Jesus Christ and receive the blessings of His Atonement.
Others have accused Joseph of wrongdoing. Some of these allegations are slander or are based on false information. Some result from an incomplete grasp of historical sources or reflect a misunderstanding of the culture in which Joseph Smith lived. Others simply remind us that while Joseph was a remarkable prophet and a man of character, he was also human.
God has always worked through imperfect servants to accomplish His work, raising them up and strengthening them as they seek to do His will. This was certainly true of Joseph Smith. The Lord told Joseph: “Unto this end have I raised you up, that I might show forth my wisdom through the weak things of the earth.” As Joseph relied on the Lord, he developed many strengths and talents. He became a powerful spokesperson for the Lord and a beloved leader. And the revelations the Lord gave through him have helped millions come unto Jesus Christ and exercise faith in Him.
Throughout his life, Joseph regularly turned to the Lord for guidance, and the Lord was able to refine him because of his humility and faith. Just days before Joseph was killed by a mob, he stated, “I have a conscience void of offense towards God, and towards all men.” Joseph knew he had done his best to follow Jesus Christ and be true to his calling as prophet.
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Exploring Your Questions
What kind of person was Joseph Smith?
Joseph Smith was “a man of the frontier—young, emotional, dynamic, and so loved and approachable by his people that they often called him ‘Brother Joseph.’” He was hardworking, strong, and physically active. He was generally cheerful and had a ready sense of humor.
While he received little formal education, Joseph Smith was a deep thinker and remained committed to seeking knowledge throughout his life. He studied languages and tried to become familiar with law, politics, and other subjects.
Joseph was a man of faith. A close study of his papers reveals him to be sincere in his belief in Jesus Christ and in the revelations God gave him. He shaped his life around those revelations, courageously enduring many hardships as he sought to follow God’s direction.
Caring and generous, Joseph looked for ways to help those in need. He made great efforts to create communities where the needs of the poor were met. For example, he often opened his home to others and offered them food and shelter. He also stood up for the rights of others to practice their religion free of violence and discrimination.
Joseph was quick to trust others, though he learned through experience to be more cautious as time passed. He often sternly rebuked others when he felt they were in the wrong. He sometimes quarreled with people who mistreated him. Yet he was known to be quick to seek and offer forgiveness.
Joseph recognized his weaknesses and acknowledged them openly. He even published revelations in which God rebuked him for his mistakes and commanded him to repent. Joseph taught, “I never told you I was perfect—but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught.” Joseph recognized that the Lord was his strength and that he was an instrument in God’s hands.
What did Joseph’s contemporaries say about his character?
It is rare to find contemporary accounts of Joseph Smith that take a neutral position on the Prophet. Joseph Smith had vocal critics, but thousands of converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints praised Joseph’s character and admired him as a friend and a prophet. For example, Jane Manning James, a Black convert who immigrated to Nauvoo and was welcomed into Joseph and Emma Smith’s home, declared, “I did know the Prophet Joseph. … He was the finest man I ever saw on earth.” She testified, “I was certain he was a prophet because I knew it.”
New converts were often impressed with Joseph’s sincerity and lack of pretension. For example, George W. Taggart wrote, “[Joseph] does not pretend to be a man without failings and follies. … Neither is he puffed up with his greatness as many suppose but on the contrary is familiar with any decent man.” Similarly, convert Jonah Randolph Ball wrote, “I found Joseph familiar in conversation, easy and unassuming.”
Some who were not members of the Church also visited Joseph and left accounts of their impressions. New York journalist Matthew L. Davis wrote: “He is not an educated man; but he is a plain, sensible, strong-minded man. Everything he says is said in a manner to leave an impression that he is sincere. There is no levity—no fanaticism—no want of dignity in his deportment.” One of Joseph’s attorneys, Peter H. Burnett, wrote, “There was a kind, familiar look about him, that pleased you. He was very courteous in discussion, … and would not oppose you abruptly, but had due deference to your feelings.”
Joseph was beloved by most who knew him well. “The love the saints had for him was inexpressible,” wrote Mary Alice Cannon Lambert. Joseph Young exclaimed, “How kind and modest he was … but how determined and resolute in carrying out the will of the Lord.”
Can a person with flaws, as Joseph Smith had, still be a prophet?
Prophets are servants of God who testify of Jesus Christ. They are also human beings who are subject to mortal weaknesses and shortcomings. Joseph Smith is no exception. But as we see in the lives of Moses, Peter, and others, a prophet’s weaknesses do not disqualify him from being called of God. Joseph Smith turned to the Lord for direction, listened to the counsel he received, and grew from his mistakes. As he relied on the redeeming power of Jesus Christ and strove to carry out the revelations he received, he became the prophet the Lord needed him to be.
In assessing the weaknesses and imperfections of Joseph Smith, we should recall, as Elder David A. Bednar taught, “One of the greatest indicators of our own spiritual maturity is revealed in how we respond to the weaknesses, the inexperience, and the potentially offensive actions of others.”
Lorenzo Snow observed: “When I saw the weaknesses and imperfections in [Joseph Smith], I thanked God that He would put upon a man who had these imperfections the power and authority which He placed upon him. I respected [him] and I was pleased to see those weaknesses, for I knew I myself had weakness, and I thought there was a chance for me.”
Was Joseph Smith ever convicted of illegal activities?
Joseph Smith was the defendant in 21 known criminal cases. Many of these cases resulted from prejudice against the Latter-day Saints or false allegations against Joseph Smith. Almost all of them were dismissed due to lack of evidence or did not progress to trial. For example, when the Saints were driven from Missouri, Joseph Smith was imprisoned on unjust charges, while mob members who killed, beat, stole from, and harassed Church members were not prosecuted.
Existing records document only one unambiguous criminal conviction. In 1843, Joseph visited a city lot in Nauvoo that he believed had been unfairly seized by a county tax collector. The discussion between Joseph and the tax official escalated from verbal argument to a physical confrontation. Immediately afterward, Joseph Smith voluntarily submitted to a local justice of the peace, confessed his guilt, and paid a fine.
Did Joseph Smith pay his debts?
Joseph worked his entire life to provide for his family and the Church, and he worked diligently to repay his debts, but he sometimes lacked the means to do so. He succeeded in paying off many of his debts, but others were unresolved at the time of his murder at age 38.
Many of the Lord’s commandments to Joseph Smith—publishing scriptures, establishing settlements, and building temples—required financial resources. Joseph and other Church leaders sometimes took personal loans to support these efforts.
Joseph Smith took his financial responsibilities seriously, but repaying those loans was challenging. An international financial crisis in 1837 contributed to the collapse of the Kirtland Safety Society, a banking institution founded by Church leaders in Kirtland. This failure was financially devastating to many Latter-day Saints, including Joseph Smith. Joseph and other Church members also lost an enormous amount of property when they were driven from Missouri. And large numbers of converts who joined the Saints in their various gathering places needed financial assistance from Joseph and others.
At times, Joseph Smith and his agents sought to renegotiate the terms of his loans so that he might have more time to pay them. When the United States passed the nation’s first bankruptcy law in 1842, Joseph sought relief from his debts under this law. But accusations by his critics and disputes with his creditors delayed bankruptcy proceedings, and many of Joseph’s debts remained unsettled until after his death.
As part of the Joseph Smith Papers Project, the Church has published all of Joseph’s known financial and legal papers online so that scholars and others can study them.
Did Joseph Smith exercise undue political power in Nauvoo?
While living in Nauvoo in the early 1840s, Joseph Smith served as both mayor and Church President, and other Saints held most positions in city government. The Church’s critics in Illinois complained that this mingling of religious and civic authority was dangerous and un-American.
The Saints viewed the situation differently. They had often been persecuted and seen how local, state, and national governments had failed to protect their lives, property, and religious freedom. The Saints sought to use legal and political means to protect their right to worship and build a community of believers. Having learned from their bitter experience in Missouri, leaders obtained a charter for Nauvoo from the state that they felt would help them protect themselves from the kind of persecution they had faced in the past.
Under the United States’ Militia Act of 1792, all white male citizens between 18 and 45 were required to be part of a local militia unit. Under this system, Nauvoo established a state-sanctioned city militia, as had been done in many other American cities at the time.
Some of Joseph’s critics accused the Saints of stretching the Nauvoo charter’s provisions unfairly to protect Joseph from arrest during a time when there were attempts to extradite Joseph to Missouri to face false charges. The Saints viewed these actions as necessary to protect Joseph from unjust imprisonment or death at the hands of his enemies.
Facing increasing threats from his enemies, Joseph founded an organization called the Council of Fifty. The group met to consider other places in North America where the Saints could gather and eventually establish a new government in preparation for Christ’s return to earth. Joseph advocated that under such a government, all would enjoy religious liberty and live free from the harassment the Saints had often faced. The Saints under Joseph Smith did not organize such a government; rather, they looked for ways to work within existing legal frameworks to protect themselves. This included supporting Joseph Smith’s candidacy for president of the United States.
A few months later, a group of dissident Church members published a newspaper that made several charges against Joseph, including a claim that, among other things, he unlawfully combined religious and civic authority. The newspaper’s editors called for the repeal of Nauvoo’s city charter, which would limit the Saints’ abilities to protect themselves from their enemies. Fearing a repeat of the violence the Saints experienced in Missouri, the Nauvoo City Council and Joseph, acting in his role as mayor, ordered the destruction of the press. They believed they were acting legally to suppress what they felt was a public nuisance, though they may have exceeded their authority in destroying the press.
If they had done wrong, the proper legal remedy at the time was to pay for the press, which Joseph said they were happy to do. But some of his critics wanted a pretense for killing him and worked to have him arrested. He submitted, and his enemies murdered him in Carthage Jail.
How do I know that Joseph Smith really said the statements that are attributed to him?
Even with all the information that is available about Joseph Smith, sometimes it can be difficult to tell if a quote or teaching can be reliably attributed to him. Statements attributed to Joseph Smith have different levels of reliability, depending on when and under what circumstances they were recorded. The most reliable sources were created by Joseph himself or by people who were present when Joseph spoke and who recorded his words shortly after he said them. Statements recorded much later are more likely to be misremembered. In some instances, people purposefully misquote or exaggerate statements Joseph made.
The Joseph Smith Papers is an authoritative resource for finding sources for the words of Joseph Smith that were recorded during his lifetime.
How can I make sense of the conflicting views of Joseph Smith I find online?
It is difficult to get a balanced view of a topic as complex as Joseph Smith’s character in online forums. It is important to pursue a more complete perspective and not rely on Joseph’s critics to shape our understanding.
President Gordon B. Hinckley noted, “We have those critics who appear to wish to cull out of a vast panorama of information those items which demean and belittle some of the men and women of the past who worked so hard in laying the foundation of this great cause.” He continued: “To highlight the mistakes and gloss over the greater good is to draw a caricature. Caricatures are amusing, but they are often ugly and dishonest. A man may have a blemish on his cheek and still have a face of beauty and strength, but if the blemish is emphasized unduly in relation to his other features, the portrait is lacking in integrity.”
The work the Lord established through the Prophet Joseph Smith far outweighs Joseph’s imperfections. As his associates declared at the time of his death, “In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain.”
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