SEVEN
(1812)
Although LDS members praise Joseph, even deify him, he was an ordinary boy and man—except for the special
mission he was called to perform. He neither appeared nor acted as the religious-minded might expect of a
“prophet of God.” Details of his leg operation and of his siblings, Hyrum and Catherine, are provided.The False Image of a “Prophet”
Ever since his death, LDS/Mormons have created a persona of Joseph that
essentially deifies him and raises him to the exalted stature of more than the real
human he was. Statues have been raised in his honor^1 and praises have been sung to
his name.^2 Nevertheless, if he were living as a mortal among us today, very few of
those who now claim to honor Joseph would have anything to do with him, any more
than a mainstream Christian would their Christ. A true LDS history would clearly
show that most of Joseph’s close associates eventually abandoned him.^3 Most lay LDS
members do not know this fact; they only know Joseph according to the image created
of him by historians and imitators posing as his successors—those who otherwise
coveted the title of “Prophet, Seer, and Revelator”^4 to their church.
The real truth was that Joseph did not present quite the imposing persona as one
might suppose a “Moses” to be, beginning, for example, with his somewhat high-
pitched, less-than-masculine voice.^5 This, combined with other afflictions he would
experience throughout his life, was orchestrated by unseen advanced humans to keep
him humble, and to create stumbling blocks for those who focus on the messenger more
than his message. While possessing the physical strength necessary to carry out his
mission, he was, ostensibly, more of a patchwork of characteristics somewhat
unbecoming of the image one might suppose of a great “prophet.”
Religion and media have done much to create the idea everyone has in his or her
own perception of what a true messenger (i.e., a prophet of God) should look like, sound
like, and act like. Although Joseph claimed to be the only contact between “God” and the
inhabitants of the earth, the person he presented to the world did not meet the
expectations of his claims.^6 In like manner, neither was the man Jesus what people
expected in his day,^7 being rejected by his own family and friends and by almost all
others with whom he associated.^8
Joseph’s Leg Operation
In another of his weaknesses and afflictions, Joseph often walked with a cane
because of a prominent limp caused by the aftermath of a disease that he caught in 1812.^9
Joseph didn’t talk much about what happened as a seven-year-old boy when he had an
operation to save his leg from amputation. The only account of the incident, given over
thirty years after it occurred by his mother,^10 has since been embellished to legendary status
showing Joseph’s bravery as a young boy and a pretense to advanced maturity of his time
by rejecting the “evil” of alcohol. Again, as in the record of Jesus’ day, it is one of few events