Religion News Service columnist Jana Riess on the life of Joseph F. Smith, sixth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Loving, devoted prophet or rage-prone abuser? Yes to both, says a new biography of the faith’s sixth president.By Jana Riess | Religion News ServiceIn 2000 and 2001, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints focused its worldwide curriculum on the, a nephew of the founding prophet, Joseph Smith Jr. JFS was the faith’s sixth president.
JFS is on record for beating a neighbor almost to death in 1873. There were other stories, too, with less clear evidence, including a possible beating of his little sister’s teacher when he was still in his early teens. JFS was a turbulent man who acknowledged that his temper was the worst part of him and that the only man on earth he ever feared was himself.But the tender side was there as well, especially toward children.
Another response was Joseph F. Smith’s unwavering, even fundamentalist, religiosity. In the face of ongoing trauma and poverty, he came to see the church as a holy refuge to be protected at all costs. “He’s unapologetically dualistic in the way he views the world,” Taysom said. “He sees everything as either building up the kingdom or destroying it. He sees the world as this dangerous place that kills righteous things.
Taysom was impressed by JFS’ fierce commitment to education. Because of his parents’ deaths and his ensuing extreme poverty, he received little formal schooling. When he arrived in Hawaii, his letters home showed he was “barely literate.” But he worked at it constantly, reading everything he could and mastering the English language as well as Hawaiian.
His craving for tidy systems forever changed the previously more haphazard administration of the church. He brought the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles together in purpose — the power struggles between those two bodies are an interesting thread in the book — and foreclosed for all time the possibility of a succession crisis of the sort that had occurred after the death of Joseph Smith Jr. and to a lesser extent after the deaths of Brigham Young and John Taylor.
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