Was Joseph Smith a Disorderly Person?

[Furrowed Brow]

There is evidence and documents to show Joseph Smith faced trail for being a disorderly person in 1826 and 1830. At the time “disorderly person� was a catch-all term used for vagrants, con-men and undesirables. A little Googling shows LDS sources dispute the evidence there was a trial in 1826, and dispute the proceedings of the 1830 trial. Their defence seems to be that the accounts of the trials issue from people who harbour anti-Mormon sentiment and therefore have an axe to grind. This may be correct, but there seems no good reason to presume the friends of Smith will be as equally biased in their own direction as his enemies would be in the other. So we have to look at each witness and source individually to have a measure of who claims what?

Questions: Was Joseph Smith a disorderly person? Was Smith an orderly person?

[dianaiad]

JS' and later prophets and leaders of the church were adamantly in favor of education, women's rights (surprise!) and science in all its forms. For that alone their contemporaries figured that they were 'disorderly.'

Would that we were all that sort of disorderly.

First off, Happy Birthday young lady!! I am now raising a glass of Coke with an extra-injection boost of caffeine in your honor - and I might have more than one!

My take on JS, Brigham, and the whole lot might be a bit different than yours. JS was quite the young, uneducated, high energy fellow. It does not surprise me in the least that he may have said and done things legitimately considered a bit disorderly. Remember, we're talking 19th Century wild west. Missouri was a pit full of malcontents who's behaviors far exceeded ole' Joe. Despite whatever progressive beliefs they may have had about women's rights and such, I suspect I would not be able to countenance how they went about on a daily basis interacting with and/or speaking of women. They, just like everyone else, were very much a product to their times mixed, in their case, with a little "supernatural mandate" for good measure.

For me, this issue is more about what we mean when we speak of what a prophet is and should be like. I suspect the thread could use a little refinning on that point.

Why, thank you (hoisting a diet coke in return)!

And your take isn't all that different from mine.

One thing I noticed awhile ago; the only person in the bible who is depicted as perfect is Jesus. If any prophet got more than two or three verses assigned to him, imperfection definitely gets noted. Every single one of them were human, had flaws, and goofed up, from the sanctimonious Job to the reluctant Jonah, to Abraham, Moses...every single one of them. Peter, Paul..