Joseph Smith/Character

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Joseph Smith's character

Summary: It is claimed that Joseph Smith was a disreputable person.

Audio/video published by Brigham Young University.

Jump to Subtopic:

• Was Joseph Smith, Jr. a "disreputable person?"
• The Hurlbut affidavits
• Was Joseph Smith simply telling "amusing recitals" and "tall tales"?
• Joseph Smith's personality and temperament

Joseph Smith's trustworthiness

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: Was Joseph Smith, Jr. known as a "disreputable person?"
• Question: Do Joseph Smith's personality and temperament indicate that he was not a true prophet of God?
• Stephen H. Webb: "Evidence That Demands Our Amazement... Joseph Smith was a remarkable person"
• Question: Did Joseph Smith engage in "land speculation" in Nauvoo?
• Question: Did Joseph Smith really tell Orrin Porter Rockwell 'it was right to steal'?
• Question: Was the young Joseph Smith a teller of "tall tales"?
• Question: Did B.H. Roberts state that it was possible for Joseph Smith to have come up with the Book of Mormon on his own?
• Brigham Young (1855): "he was an honorable man and dealt justly, we know his true character. But let his enemies give his character, and they will make him out one of the basest men that ever lived."
• B.H. Roberts: "Joseph Smith was a man of like passions with other men; struggling with the same weaknesses; subjected to the same temptations"
• Joseph Smith: "I frequently fell into many foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the foibles of human nature"
• Joseph Smith (1834): "during this time, as is common to most, or all youths, I fell into many vices and follies"
• Walker: In 1819 "Under New York law, being just thirteen, Joseph's testimony about the work he had performed was admissible only after the court found him competent"

The Hurlbut affidavits

Jump to Subtopic:

• Question: What are the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What do the Hurlbut affidavits claim about the Smith family's character and reliability?
• Question: What did Parley Chase claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What did Henry Harris claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What did Barton Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What did David Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What did Willard Chase claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What did Peter Ingersoll claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What did William Stafford claim about Joseph Smith in the Hurlbut affidavits?
• Question: What did the Hurlbut affidavits say about Martin Harris?
• Question: What do the Hurlbut affidavits say about Joseph Smith claiming that he was "as good as Jesus Christ"?
• Question: What do the Hurlbut affidavits say about the Spalding manuscript and the Book of Mormon?

Joseph Smith/"Amusing recitals" of ancient American inhabitants Joseph Smith/Personality and temperament