If you ask the guides at the Joseph Smith birthplace (near Sharon, Vermont) whether the colored lights decorating the trees there are for “Smithmas,” they’ll look at you as if you’re nuts. They’ll feign puzzlement, pretending never even to have heard the term, and they’ll tell you “Of COURSE not! They’re for CHRISTMAS.” In other words, like every other Mormon everywhere, they’ll lie about it. Mormons are just that way. The fact that “Smithmas” is never mentioned in any Mormon publications and is never discussed except among and in connection with a few extremist critics of Mormonism demonstrates conclusively the lengths to which the fiendishly cunning Mormons have gone to conceal it.
I’d like to take a pause from the frenzied “Smithmas” festivities that are currently engulfing my family and, no doubt, Mormon families all around the world to remind my LDS readers that today is Joseph Smith’s birthday.
(In my family, thus far, we’ve marked the occasion by eating breakfast and taking the dogs for a walk, and, soon, we’re going shopping. I also intend to celebrate by grading some student papers, eating lunch, and eating dinner.)
Here are two Deseret News columns connected with Joseph Smith:
“Prophet’s birthday fits with season” (2010)
“The Collective Witness of Joseph Smith’s Family” (2013)
Posted from Richmond, Virginia
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