Rating: 
Summary: He who breeds hate shall be hated........
Review: Some people never learn. Many of the positive reviews, including the ex-Mormon's, show an incredible lack of education in Church and world history.
This is a small portion of the review of this nonsense from FAIR (Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research. The entire review can be read at the FAIR website.
"Like nearly all other anti-Mormons, McKeever and Johnson constantly attempt to force their own version of LDS doctrine on their readers rather than letting "official" LDS doctrine speak for itself. For some reason it seems to bother our critics that certain LDS issues are either not fully defined (such as Book of Mormon geography, the translation process, or a host of other issues), or that LDS doctrines do not pigeonhole in their view of what LDS doctrine should be. Since official LDS beliefs are not such easy targets as they would like, they define LDS doctrine in ways that makes them easier to attack. This is known as the "straw man" argument. McKeever and Johnson frequently attempt to build straw man LDS doctrines by citing one or more LDS figures, as if such statements represent official LDS doctrine. What McKeever and Johnson fail to explain to the reader (and perhaps they fail to understand this themselves) is that not only do Mormons deny infallibility among their leadership, but we allow lay members and leaders alike, the free agency of publicly expressing personal opinions so long as they don't run counter to "official" LDS teachings.1 The three favorite tactics employed by McKeever and Johnson in their chapter on the Book of Mormon are: (1) "straw man" arguments, (2) "poisoning the well," and (3) repeating accusations which have already been answered."
Bill McKeever is one of the most duplicitous, whiny persons I have ever come in contact with. Recently he put out his bi-monthly hate letter in what he tried to disguise as something other than complaining about people having differences with him. The article on the front page was about 1 ½ pages long. In that letter, he had the unmitigated gall to say, "Mormons, as a rule, generally loathe criticism, no matter how accurate it might be." He has the gall to say that when most of his newsletter was complaining and whining about his work being criticized. Come on, Bill, grow up. His exact words in that newsletter were, "We decided that we ought to provide rejoinders to these critiques", meaning Mormon responses to his often ugly remarks. It's OK for him to have rejoinders, but when the Mormons do, they loathe criticism.
No one loathes criticism more than McKeever. I've talked to him once on the phone, and emailed him twice. He emailed me back the last time I emailed him complaining about my criticism of him and, in other words, not being nice to him, and asked me to stop. No one is more "NOT NICE" than Bill McKeever. I won't go into the years of insinuations, insults, lies, and misrepresentations he has indulged in, but I will give one example:
In his Nov/Dec. 2004 newsletter, after he says, "We decided that we ought to provide rejoinders to these critiques", he says, "Isn't this tossing pearl before swine?" These are his exact words, but what is really ironic, before that statement he says, "We feel that we did a good job of pointing out the nuances of Mormon thought without resorting to the name calling so often prevalent in the writings of Mormon apologists. So, there we have it, when Mormons call people names it's a very bad thing (I do happen to agree), but when McKeever and associates call Mormon "swine", that's OK. Now, do you see why I call him the most duplicitous, whining person I've ever had contact with?
But, that's not enough. He goes on to say, ".....not one of those responding claims to speak out on behalf of the Mormon Church. Well, duh, Mr. McKeever, that's because they have no right to speak out on behalf of the Church. It is personal opinion. But, then, you already know that, don't you? Well, maybe you don't. Let's see why I say that:
On page 3 of McKeever's four-page diatribe he quotes sayings he doesn't like from Church members. What's wrong with that, you might ask? McKeever, every Mormon-basher, and every member of the Church knows most of that isn't Church doctrine. This is just one more example of Bill McKeever misrepresenting things of the Church said as personal opinion. People's personal opinions, even those of General Authorities, are not necessarily Church doctrine, and, as personal opinion, they are sometimes not worth what they cost--nothing. McKeever knows that.
Do denominations negate the Christian faith? Here's another twist on Mormon practices. He rages against the Church because at the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah, "...the play has always begun by mocking the Christian faith for its many denominations." Wait a minute. Those people are not mocking the Christian faith. For one reason, they consider themselves Christian, even if McKeever doesn't. What they are doing is portraying Joseph Smith looking for the right Church and not being happy with any of those he attended. He was confused by the disagreements and arguing among the Protestant sects, even as they do today, and the hatred, superstition, and jealousy that drove them to persecute others for different believes. We all know about the Salem Witch Trials, and other atrocities performed by some who called themselves "Christian."
As they have done at the Miracle Pageant, over the years people like McKeever have gone into temples, recorded the events, taken pictures, and told stories on the internet, and in hate literature, using that information to dissuade people from the Mormon Church. In order for a Mormon to go to the temple, which is one source for the anti-Mormon's twist on Church doctrines, a person must be a full tithe payer. Tithe is one of the harder things to lie about because the Church has records, but it does happen. You must also declare you have engaged in no moral sins. NO cameras or recording devices are allowed in the Temple. These people lie to Bishops, lie to those in the Temple, break vows, and misrepresent the sacred events in the Temple in order to get into the temple so they can have "ammunition", as twisted as it may be, to write their anti-Mormon trash---and they do it all after vowing to keep the Church standards. Oh, yeah, they do it in the name of Jesus Christ, too. Bill McKeever may not have done this himself, but some of his sources of information have, and so have a lot of other people.
The basis of McKeever's anti-Mormon book is built on irrational hatred of the Church, using man-made doctrine, which was borrowed from the Catholic Church, who borrowed some ideas from Judaism, then modified the early teachings of Jesus with some Greek philosophy to create the sects of Protestantism. These Protestants are offshoots of other Protestant sects; each sect, at one time or another, treating the other sect as horribly as they did when they persecuted, shot, burned out, and murdered Mormons, and often under the leadership of Protestant ministers. It's no wonder Joseph Smith was so confused. What kinds of people act like this? "Orthodox" Christianity has 2000 years of history persecuting, burning, beating, bludgeoning, and killing dissenters. And McKeever wants to criticize Mormons for their behavior?
Ugly hatred, violent terrorist actions, and murder can start with the kind of ignorant writing in this book. Where does he think Islamic terrorists got their start? It was from years of "brainwashing" them while they were children being taught hatred of Jews and Christians. We can see what that turns into. Why doesn't McKeever understand that this kind of behavior is a big reason why so much of the world hates Christianity? They judge all Christians by the likes of McKeever and his ilk.
Christianity is now only one-half, or maybe less, of America's population. This kind of junk is one of the reasons. We can not keep counting on "Evangelical Christians" to hold back the tide of hatred, ignorance and immorality in this country. We have just had an election in which the country was divided just about in half. The election was not "saved" by evangelical Christians alone. Many other religious people of other beliefs hold the same moral values as Christians. But if we keep beating up on each other, we (meaning all religious people) will soon be in the minority. The average person hates this stuff. No one cares if these guys don't like "Mormonism", but they do wonder why they are so full of hate, arrogance, and ignorance that they devote so much of their life to writing this when they could be preaching a positive gospel to those who really need it.
If you like hate, persecution, ignorance,downright lies, and the fracturing of American society, read this book. But, after you do, please read some of the books of the opposite opinions that readers have recommended. At least be fair to yourself. Hate is an ugly, festering, damaging attitude; both to yourself and whatever, or whomever, it is you hate just because they are different than you.
Rating:
Summary: He who breeds hate shall be hated........
Review: Some people never learn. Many of the positive reviews, including the ex-Mormon's, show an incredible lack of education in Church and world history. The basis of McKeever's anit-Mormon book is built on ignorance,using man-made doctrine (apostasy) borrowed from the Catholic Church, who borrowed some ideas from Judasim, then modified the early teachings of Jesus (Christianity didn't exist yet) along with some Greek philosophy to create the sects of Protantism, who, in turn, are offshoots of other Protestant sects---each sect, at one time or another, treating the other sect as horribly as they persecuted, shot, burned out, and murdered Mormons, and in many other ways took ignorance and hate like McKeever's to it's ultimate climax. Ugly hatred, violent terrorists actions, and murder can start with this kind of verbal ignorance. Where does he think Islamic terrorists got their start? It was from years of "brainwashing" them while they were children being taught hatred of Jews and Christians. And, we can see what that turns into. If the so-called ex-Mormon who says he went to BYU is telling the truth, I would sure like to know what he majored in, and why he didn't stay awake during class. His comments not only show astounding ignorance, some of them are outright lies, at best. I have never met an ex-Mormon yet whose difficulties with the Church weren't his own fault. There isn't an organization on earth that doesn't have it's former-member detractors--mostly because they defied the guidlines of the organization. It's not easy to be a Mormon. People expect a lot from you. It's far easier to hide in the crowds of other religions. I think any reader knows what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: Opinion
Review: The excerpt (in "look inside this book") says it all. One is only reading the author's opinion. What Kimball means in that excerpt is that many Christians assume God is bodiless, passionless, and without form because they haven't been taught differently. Mormons believe people are like God in that they are his children and that as our Father we look like him. He has a body - a perfect body that is. This doesn't mean that his perfect qualities aren't venerated.
Rating: 
Summary: This is one of the Best.
Review: This book is excellent. I am confused as to why some of the reviews here say the authors are hiding some secret agenda. These detractors use semantics challenging the validity of the title of the book, and then proceed to build their argument on baseless accusations and name-calling. Don't be swayed by these straw men. The authors are neither ignorant nor dishonest. In fact, they use straightforward and coherent examples of the differences between Christianity and Mormonism - which is precisely what the book purports to do. They use quotes from well-known Mormon leaders and compare their words with the Bible. These are not obscure, hard to find, word-of-mouth excerpts, but easily accessible Mormon works, speeches, etc. (which are listed in the Notes and Bibliography sections at the back of the book).I read parts of the rebuttal on the FAIR web site. I thought their analogous use of Bible passages was specious. But, unlike these people, I would encourage reading the opposing views. It is obvious that McKeever and Johnson have done their homework. I would encourage anyone to read Mormonism 101.
Rating:
Summary: More thoughtless propaganda?
Review: What can reasonably be said about this book, in the scope of one of these reviews, has been said here by others. In short, this book is really nothing more than yet another of the many works of thoughtless propaganda written by ignorant and dishonest fools. A complete response to this book is in the works, and what has been completed of it so far may be viewed at this URL: http://www.fairlds.org/apol/morm201/
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