SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Mormon leader urged members Saturday during a church conference not to be timid about defending church founder Joseph Smith's story and role as the faith's first prophet despite "erroneous" beliefs spread about him.
Mormons should remember the many benefits that have come in the nearly 200 years since Smith, then a teenager, says he had a vision of God and Jesus Christ in the woods of upstate New York that led to the formation of the church 10 years later, said Craig Christensen, a member of the faith's second-tier worldwide leadership council called the Quorum of the Seventy.
"To any who may be questioning their testimony of Joseph Smith or are struggling with erroneous, misleading, or superficial information about his life and ministry, I invite you to consider the fruits - the many blessings that have come to us through the miraculous mission of Joseph Smith, the prophet of the restoration," Christensen said.
Christensen didn't reference any specific misinformation about Smith, but pointed out that battle over Smith is not new, with "antagonists" long fighting furiously against him and his cause.
Critics of The Church of Jesus Christs of Latter-day Saints have questioned Smith's accounts of his visions and his account that God helped him translate gold plates engraved with writing in ancient Egyptian into the Book of Mormon.
Smith's polygamous practices have also fueled criticism. The Mormon church acknowledged in 2014 in an essay that Smith had a teenage bride and was married to other men's wives during the faith's early polygamous days, a recognition of an unflattering part of its roots that historians had chronicled for years.
The essay was part of a push in recent years for greater transparency about the faith's history, tenets and beliefs that is designed to peel back layers of secrecy and fill a void on the internet for accurate information as curiosity increased while church membership tripled to 15 million over the past three decades.
The religion has published a series of journals and writings from Smith's vault as part of the drive. Last year, the church published for the first time pictures of a small sacred stone it believes Smith used to help translate the Book of Mormon.
Christensen harkened back to Smith's experience as a call to modern-day members to use revelation as a way to guide their lives.
"Joseph's life stands as a testimony that if any of us lack wisdom, we can ask God in faith and receive answers-sometimes from heavenly beings, but more often by the power of the Holy Ghost, who speaks to us through inspired thoughts and feelings," Christensen said.
The faith believes church presidents are prophets of God, as Abraham, Moses and Isiah were, and receive continuing revelation from God. That has led to fundamental changes. In 1890, the church president at the time said he received a revelation to end the practice of polygamous marriages that were part of the first 60 years of the church.
Rank-and-file Mormons are also encouraged to use revelation through prayers to help guide them in their decisions.
Christensen's speech came at a 20,000-seat conference center near church headquarters during a twice-yearly conference in which leaders give speeches of spiritual guidance and sometimes announce new church initiatives. More than 100,000 members of the faith are expected to attend five speeches that span Saturday and Sunday.
Thousands more will listen or watch in nearly 100 languages around the world on television, radio, satellite and internet broadcasts.
