Carolyn and I tuned into Discovery Channel’s 100 Greatest Americans show this Sunday. Joseph Smith was listed as one of the top 100, so we were interested in seeing where he ended up.

To start off, there were some pretty questionable entries – John Edwards at #98? Football player Brett Favre? Dr. Phil?

Anyway, JS ended up at #43. The little segment on him was pretty crappy. Lots of talk about polygamy, and not to mention that they called the Church “The Church of Latter Day Saints” sheesh.

I was looking at some of the message boards on discovery.com, and there was lots of back and forth between antis and pro-LDS folks. I just thought that was somewhat interesting, and in some ways a testament to his greatness. Kind of like Moroni’s quote about his name being had for good and evil. Also saw a quote that is somewhat similar, from Josiah Quincy, who was the mayor of Boston in the mid 1800s

“It is by no means improbable that some future textbook, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. And the reply, absurd as it doubtless seems to most men now living, may be an obvious commonplace to their descendants.”