Rating: 
Summary: Stunned By The Truth
Review: I watched the Olympics this year and wondered what Mormonism was all about since it was made to appear so All-American, Christian, and to be honest, the perfect spiritual way to go. So I got this history to see how Mormonism became what it is today -- I was SHOCKED!Abanes' ONE NATION UNDER GODS is the ultimate 60 Minutes-like expose on a religious organization that, in my opinion, has somehow managed to get the media to pump it up as just one more Christian church. The facts, show otherwise. As for the exact contents of Abanes' book, it ranges from cold hard facts pulled from various Americana history books, to obscure aspects of Mormonism recorded in rare and almost impossible to find private diaries and journals of Mormon pioneers who where there when the church got started. Most, if not all of this information, has been suppressed by Mormon leaders--it's all too outrageous to believe. But Abanes documents it with mass of endnotes no one could argue with. Technically, the book is well-written, broken up into 4 main sections covering 1805-1830, 1831-1844, 1845-1901, and finally 1902-2002 for a total of 18 chapters. It makes for very easy and understandable reading to see Mormon history broken up into these segments. The writing is even, relaxed, and clear. It really does, like the endorsements say, read like a movie. I'd love to see it made by Hollywood. Great photos, helpful charts, good appendices. I was very impressed and all will enjoy it, IMHO, especially people who have friends/family in Mormonism.
Rating:
Summary: FASCINATING, ILLUMINATING, DISTURBING
Review: Richard Abanes organizes his book well. The first 450 pages are a narrative of events in LDS history, their significance, and the author's conclusions. It's a non-stop read.
The second part of the book contains appendices and exhaustive notes -- equally as interesting as the first part, but wisely separate so as not to interrupt the flow of the main narrative.
The result is what devout Mormons will doubtless damn as heavily biased. I call it honest journalism.
Abanes's research reveals the snake-oil-salesman bedrock upon which the religion was founded, and the tireless efforts of Mormon leaders -- who were not above murder -- over the past century and a half to keep the truth hidden.
Abanes doesn't tackle the reasons for the continued acceptance of the fanciful inventions of Joseph Smith -- that is more properly the realm of a psychologist than a journalist -- but he documents the phenomenon so thoroughly that one can only shake one's head with wonder at the capacity of so many people for self-delusion.
The most disturbing aspect of the story is its reminder that despite our Constitutional prohibition of government-sponsored religion, the state of Utah remains a virtual theocracy.
The book won't stop me from enjoying my next ski trip, but it will make me look twice at those friendly faces welcoming me to the free tour of Temple Square.
Rating:
Summary: F I N A L L Y !!
Review: I had been looking for quite a while for a book that would once and for all explain the history of Mormonism in a way that not only made sense, but in a way that could be documented through reliable historical sources (instead of sensationalistic opinion). Abanes has done it -- and in a big way (650 pages). I especially like the flow of the book that goes from 1805 (birth of Joseph Smith) up to just before the Olympics of 2002. I finally got some straight annswers about polygamy, a really nasty doctrine called "blood atonement." whether or not Mormonism is "Christian," and why in the world Mormonism is often called a "cult." That title, in my opinion, seems to now fit given what I have read. The media PR about Mormonism and how that is used by the LDS church to further its goals is absoutely frightening (I'm talking Larry King, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather for gosh sakes). Interestingly, the endorsements for this volume include Hank Hannegraaff (an fairly well-known evangelical Christian) and Michael Shermer (an absolute agnostic who publishes Skeptic magazine). Abanes seems to have done something right in this book. A seriously great buy.
Rating: 
Summary: Corrupt and misleading scholarship
Review: Many people believe in authenticity the Shroud of Turin. I knew a person once who would waver in their belief of the authenticity of the shroud. I once asked them about their own belief that it was a possiblilty that Jesus may have hung on the cross with both a nail in his wrist and also in his hands--and that there is only one nail that appears to be evidient in the shroud (and that is in the hand). I also asked about the scriptures stating that when Jesus was wrapped for burial His face was covered by a napkin; and that how this fact is so clearly noted in the scriptures that when the women viewed the empty tomb, and saw the burial linens, the napkin was folded and placed separately from the rest of the burial clothing. Yet the shroud is all one piece. The insistence of maintaining a belief in something that is historically contrary has its origins in foolishness and the refusal to deal with one's personal doubts and fears. It is this kind of stuff--the exploitation of ignorance and the desire to feel a sense of certainty--by not insisting on having a knowledge of the truth--but rather a willingness to set truth aside, that feeds and distinguishes this kind and type of authorship as being highly misleading and viciously deceptive. There are just some things that a person has to make up their own mind about, face up to on their own, and not permit themselves to be led and swayed by the appearance of sound arguments that are in fact at best--in their most fundamental sense--nothing more than insididious sophistries. In this case, the caveat "Buyer beware" is solely the most important and essential truth relating to this book that dares to exude the most clearly from its pages.
Rating:
Summary: Can a religion from God be Based on Lies, Murder and Treason
Review: Although reading history ususally puts me to sleep, Mr. Abanes has gathered such compelling historical data, backed up thoroughly with documentation, that I found it difficult to categorize this as just another man's view of the history of the Mormon Church. Indeed, I have read numerous other books on Mormonism, including portions of the Book of Mormon, and am convinced that his research is accurate. One Nation Under Gods starts with a biography of the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, and paints a picture of a brilliant, but uneducated man with a need for praise and adulation from others and found lacking in his dysfunctional home life.
Smith's family dealt with folk magic and occult practices that preyed on the greed and desires of others to fulfill their own needs to find God, wealth, and respectability. Abanes points out that Smith's desire to control others, especially to exploit women through polygamy, was easier to justify in the minds of his followers if the practice was ordained by God. In fact, just about every deviation from traditional Judeo-Christian teaching found in early Mormon doctrine was declared to be of devine origin by revelatiion through the Church's living prophet. This "end justifies the means" philosophy is used by LDS leaders to condone lying, deceipt, revisionist history, editing and rewriting divine scripture, polygamy, blood atonement, murder, and treason. One can only conclude that the LDS church is not from God, but of Satanic origin. Where there is divisiveness and evil, there can be nothing from God.
Abanes takes the history up into modern times, discusses modern LDS practices of disfellowshipment, and excommunication. Strikingly, social pressures have brought about new revelations from God which have nullified previous revelations on such matters as polygamy and racial bigotry (as though God somehow was confused and got it wrong the first time). However, even as recent as the Olympics of 2002, LDS leaders in their zeal for proselytizing opportunities, justified bribery and lies to secure the Olympics in Salt Lake City. Nothing has changed but the superficial veneer of family values and clean living. Abanes then discusses whether Mormonism is just another Christian denomination, and points out the many differences.
I was struck by the painstaking detail of his documentation and references. This is a book that every Mormon should read, and one that every Christian should use as a reference when confronted by the two guys in white shirts and black ties at the door.
Rating:
Summary: Voila! La cinquième colonne...
Review: One Nation Under Gods, by Richard Abanes, recapitulates the purpose behind the all too obvious and tiresome Mormon chicaneries. Historically, it has been the worldly ambition of Church leaders to dominate American society, both economically and politically. Whereas early Mormonism failed through military and verbal bluster, modern Mormonism has adopted a chameleon's disguise. Richard Abanes has succeeded in clarifying this dichotomy of purpose and modern propaganda in a wonderfully easy to read history of the Church. Even our 12-year old became engrossed in it.
Standard works of history restate past circumstances leaving the audience to infer their importance to current trends and issues. In a departure from the norm, Abanes is compelled to go beyond the point of inference by making several disparaging deductions about the Church. Understandably, Abanes faces the same problem by which all honest historians of the "Saints" are confronted; i.e., many Mormon missionaries, elders, priesthood holders and faithful family members are active, unapologetic, and fervent dupes for the Church. They must believe that their immediate deceitfulness is justified by keeping faith with the Church's self-prophesied destiny.
No doubt Mormons' continual efforts to recast Church history are of great concern to the author. While our family is grateful to our local library for purchasing this book, because the author editorializes, it is categorized as "controversial literature" rather than as history. Nonetheless, from all of the chocolate-colored finger-smudges on other of the library's controversial Mormon literature, I am sure that this one too will get a thorough perusal by numerous soon-to-be ex-Mormons.
As a Scripture-reading ex-Catholic, I take issue with the shortcomings of the comparative religion analyses employed throughout. However, I was only able to pick out two Mormon-related inaccuracies. Firstly, Abanes misinforms and unnecessarily alarms readers by regurgitating Church propaganda about having 11 million members. Not true! Being extremely generous, there is only half that number of Mormons. The LDS Church has one of the highest attrition rates of any religion. To save face, the hierarchy never takes the disgruntled and inactive off their rolls unless they successfully negotiate an onerous, formal appeal process.
Secondly, Abanes chides the Prophet for swearing that "he would soon drink wine in Jerusalem", noting that drinking wine contradicts his own Word of Wisdom (WoW). Not so! Abanes knows Mormons' predilection for evolving to suit circumstances. So, he should be aware that the application of the WoW is also subject to continual alteration. The WoW prohibits "strong [meaning distilled] drink". Nineteenth century Mormons regularly drank wine, especially as part of communion. Now of course, all alcohol has been forbidden and communion has become meaningless water.
Having been lured into vacationing with a Mormon family, we can assure the author that he could have written a small chapter on the evolution, mythology, and selective application of the WoW. Mormon parents we vacationed with had no inclination to discipline their children's reactions to the legitimate customs of non-Mormons. The children regularly derided us for drinking coffee, cola, and alcoholic beverages, specifically inventing the word "disgustable" to our dishonor. None of our gifts, or good works, or time-shared, or reasoning could ever allow their little hearts to forgive these great sins.
Yet, to our amazement Mormon families are addicted to (caffeine-containing) chocolate, which they eat daily, by the slab. Hopefully, we inquired that since they ate chocolate, then caffeine must be okay. Wrong. We were told, "the prohibition is really for 'hot drinks', not against caffeine." Then we reasoned, cold cola drinks should be alright since they're not hot. Oops, wrong again, "they contain caffeine". Our heads spinning, there at every breakfast stop our Mormons treated themselves to literally pailfulls of hot chocolate. It's hot, it's a drink and it has caffeine! "No problem, coffee and tea were the hot drinks of Smith's day, so other hot drinks such as herbal [non-caffeinated] tea and hot chocolate are allowed." Abanes should also take note that the BYU campus flows in rivers of hot chocolate, but nary a cold cola. Clearly, Mormons do not judge themselves by the same standards they use to feel superior, and by which they insult and think evil of others.
Since our vacation, this Mormon family has been fractured and hastily reconstituted to twice its former size, in the process being revealed as disgustable by any standard. In the meantime, two other Mormon families (of substantial local rank) have exposed themselves to us as liars and cheats. Objecting to these miscreants didn't result in rectification, contrition, or restitution, but it did earn us the icy silence and glares of every Mormon in town. We often wonder if our neighbors and former friends are at all capable of self-reflection and self-reproach. As our family sat reading aloud excerpts of 'One Nation under Gods' to each other, alternately laughing and being shocked, we realized that it would be impossible to be a Mormon and to remain thoughtful and considerate of other people.
We now know that we should have guarded the bitter warning given about Mormons when we first immigrated to America. Even for the good-hearted, this church is so full of busy-work and spying eyes, so full of deceptions and conundrums that there is simply nothing left at the end of the day to give to others. It seems reasonable to us that any good-hearted, thoughtful Mormon person must be enduring a terrible trial by fire in one of this world's most fierce furnaces of Babylon. As the author intimates, by necessity the Church rids itself of the thoughtful and inquisitive, treasuring for itself the easily flattered and unthinking.
Given what Richard Abanes has offered us, can anyone seriously believe that this bunch has the character and fortitude to save America from itself? By inference, isn't it more likely that another frustrated, delusional Mormon prophet or apostle will seek to engineer the calamity by which their doctrine assures handsome profit? Yikes! Just thought about the year's worth of food and other provisions that Mormons squirrel away for themselves...
Rating: 
Summary: I am a Mormon, and, yes, this book is mostly accurate.
Review: I have been an active, (temple recommended holding) Mormon for over forty years. I have also studied Mormon history quite extensively. I find this book to be mostly accurate albeit a little subjective and biased at times.
Most Mormons have a very limited understanding of their own church's history. The LDS church goes to great lengths to suppress any history of their religion that is not "faith promoting" and have even "changed" history to make it less troubling. They discourage members from reading material they deem inappropriate. Because of these policies most church members are taught a very simplified, sanitized and inaccurate version of history. Then when they read a book such as this that exposes some of what really happened, they lash out by exclaiming they are "lies" and "anti-Mormon" propaganda and they give the book a poor rating. If you look at the one star ratings of this book, you will notice that they are almost all by Mormons who feel the history of their church has been wrongly depicted.
One of the other things you will notice from Mormons who are upset about what is written is that they will never say exactly WHAT is inaccurate. They will never be specific. Whenever I ask an active LDS to be specific about the "lies," they will usually just say "everything." Others will admit that they never really read the book, but they "heard" it was anti-Mormon propaganda.
This type of angry terse response is understandable, however, considering the indoctrinization that they have gone through. Having a belief system challenged is very unsettling. Many Mormons, however, have learned and accepted some of the "shady" history of the Mormon church and are still active, believing members - with a somewhat different perspective.
As a member of the LDS church who studies history, there is one thing that is very apparent, however. The history depicted by the LDS church has been so sanitized, suppressed, and changed, that is it is about 70% fiction. There is no way to get an accurate historical picture from LDS sources. That is why it is so ridiculous to state that the only accurate information is from the LDS church itself. In truth, that is about as far away as you can get.
On the other hand, "anti-Mormon" sources are very biased as well. So the trick is to find as "neutral and objective" sources as possible. That is why my research usually involves tracking down original documents and sources that have not gone through the "LDS purification" process and to find sources from observers who were neither friend nor foe of the LDS religion.
One Nation Under Gods utilizes sources that, in my estimation, are mostly objective and accurate (yes, there are some that are not). This is much better than what would be obtained from an LDS source. A perfect history is an impossibility. But Abanes does a pretty good job with this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good factual narrative, but also a (not hidden) agenda
Review: This really consists of two books. The first is a narrative history of the Mormon Church. The second book consists of a debunking of various Mormon tenets and of Joseph Smith's status as a prophet. Unfortunately, the second necessarily colors one's evaluation of the first, which would fare very well on its own.
The narrative chapters are well-researched, clearly written, and easy to read. Abanes' narrative flows very well. He places Joseph Smith in his historical context of Joseph Smith in upstate New York, in a cultural environment that had space for folk magic and occult practices, scam artists, and at a more elevated level, freemasonry. He is fair-minded in discussing the hostility that the Mormons faced in Missouri and Illinois, and assigns blame to both sides as appropriate.
Despite its strengths, Abanes' narrative doesn't demonstrate the kind of critical use of sources or grounding in historiographical debates that you would expect from a professional historian. Abanes classifies himself as a journalist, and the book reads that way. It is not really a work of academic history and would fall short of those standards. It also needs a final round of proofreading as there are too many dumb spelling errors scattered throughout.
The second book inside this book is the debunking of Mormonism. Abanes wants to show that Smith was a false prophet who counterfeited key documents and "translations." Abanes does a very good job tracking down (and documenting) the blatant lies of the LDS leadership, perjury in the Reed Smoot hearings, and current publicity in mainstream outlets that deny central Mormon doctrines and teachings in order to come across as a mainstream Christian denomination. He also spends a chapter arguing that Mormonism is a "sect," though it was not clear to me why pinning that label on the church is important.
This debunking is mostly useful material but Abanes should have come clean about his own agenda in presenting it. As you can see from his website, Abanes is an evangelical Christian who has written on sects and on topics such as magic in Harry Potter and Tolkien. He doesn't make clear why the LDS Church should draw his fire, but it's not too hard to make some educated guesses. I just wish that he had made his agenda more explicit in the book itself. I don't mind agendas when they're stated openly, but Abanes didn't do this.
Finally, this agenda probably comes across as "anti-Mormon" to many people. The LDS Church is so polarizing that you really have to know where someone is coming from before you can evaluate their writing. Being more open about his agenda would have strengthened the credibility of his narrative, which I found to be the most interesting parts of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Turning off the Spin Cycle
Review: Tell the truth for once!
Most people who one-starred this book are mormons! I am a former Mormon. With that in mind, read on ...
Abanes pulls no punches and holds no cow sacred in tearing aside the veil from Mormon history and getting to the truth. This book is thoroughly researched and annotated. It uses many solid historical sources to obtain a full picture of the events described. It tells a gripping tale of how a young man (Joseph Smith) created what is now one of the most controversial relious groups in the world today.
Official Mormon publications seek to cover up many of the historical facts found in this book, resorting to distortions of what is said in the book and attacks on the character of the author to cast doubt on the accuracy of what is written. It's too bad that when the official version of events the Mormon church prefers to tell gets challenged, they go into full spin mode and try to discredit the work.
This book is great for those who are interested in learning about Mormonism because they have some sort of tie to Mormonism, but if you are not a Mormon, and you are trying to understand Mormons, this is not the book for you, as it does not adequately explain what the Mormon mindset and historical belief is. This book is exhaustive in its own way, but would have far more impact if it better explained "accepted" Mormon thought alongside the truth.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-written but biased
Review: I am not a Mormon. In fact I practice another faith. My interest in Mormonism is purely academic. However, I am troubled by the extreme anti-Mormon bias that is expressed in nearly every chapter of this book. Abanes writes well and the book is well-researched. He exposes the true history of Mormonism and in that sense the book is valuable. However, he has an extreme bias against Mormonism and seems to believe that since the Mormon faith has changed over the past century and a half, it is illegitimate. The Mormon's violent and polygamous past renders the current family-values version of Mormonism, a faith which considers itself a version of Christianity to be an invalid faith. This is not a necessary conclusion. We could indeed praise the Mormons for developing their faith and for finding mechanisms within their tradition with which to adopt a modern ethos which is far less violent than all of humanity was in the beginning the 20th century. The fact that current revelations may contradict earlier ones is portrayed by Abanes as hypocrisy, but in my opinion could be just as easily praised as advancement. If the Mormons wish to claim themselves as Christians, I don't see why they do not have a right to do so, even if in previous generations they claimed that other Christians were heretical. In short, the book is a good read but any reader should be careful not to be duped into Abanes extreme bias against the Mormons. If only other faiths would also contain mechanisms by which to bring their faiths more in-line with the modern world.
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