Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Overview

FAIR Answers—back to home page

Overview: One Nation Under Gods

A FAIR Analysis of: One Nation Under Gods, a work by author: Richard Abanes

Index of claims

In early 2002 a new book entitled One Nation under Gods (ONUG) appeared on bookshelves, promising to tell the "real" history of the Mormon Church. In the words of its author,

It is beyond legitimate dispute that the Mormon church has for decades been painting for the general public a decidedly biased picture of the Latter-day Saint faith, especially with regard to the origins of the Book of Mormon. Fortunately, a more objective sketch of Mormonism's earliest years can be drawn using non-LDS witnesses, secular media articles, and private journals (Mormon and non-Mormon).

All of these sources will be used in this book to discover how Mormonism's founder--Joseph Smith--formed, controlled, and expanded his church, which today is one of the wealthiest and most influential religions in the world. [One Nation Under Gods, xvi]

With his thesis stated and his purpose laid bare, the author attempts to pull disparate sources together to paint a picture that, when compared to objective reality, more closely resembles a Picasso than a Rembrandt, skewed and distorted, while obscuring and maligning the actual doctrines and beliefs as understood and practiced by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for more than 150 years.

Of course, if you ask the author, he stands by his work and insists that it is competent and unbiased from a scholarly perspective. In his acknowledgments he thanks avowed professional anti-Mormons Sandra and Jerald Tanner for their publication of Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?, saying it was his "introduction to Mormonism more than a dozen years ago." [ONUG, xi] Further, Sandra Tanner wrote a glowing Foreword to the book, and provided a dust-jacket blurb that states (in part),

One Nation under Gods is a well-written and absorbing book that is ideal for anyone wanting a concise, accurate, and easy-to-understand history of Mormonism from its inception to the present.

Unfortunately, Sandra Tanner has a history of producing inaccurate facts about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (See, for example, They Lie In Wait to Deceive, Vol. 1 or Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Distorted View of Mormonism: A Response to Mormonism--Shadow or Reality.)

So we are now left with One Nation under Gods, with its 473 pages of prose and an additional 144 pages of endnotes. In a dust-jacket blurb, professional anti-Mormon Hank Hanegraaff (associated with the Christian Research Institute), praises the author's work by stating that "One Nation under Gods is documented as meticulously as any scholarly work." The author has been quick to point out, in various e-mails, that his book is well-documented and scholarly in its approach. This brings to mind a statement by Douglas E. Cowan, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Sociology at the University of Missouri:

My favorite example of questionable scholarship is the use made of the humble endnote. When the Christian Research Institute issued an official statement about fellow apologist Dave Hunt, and claimed that, although they considered him a "brother in Christ," they did not regard him as a credible scholar, Hunt was outraged. "I’m not a scholar? How is that defined? In spite of the more than 800 footnotes in A Woman Rides the Beast, I’m not thorough in my research?" (Hunt 1995: 3). Occult Invasion (1998) contains nearly fifteen hundred endnotes. That countercult apologists employ the apparatus of scholarship is, of course, not the issue; how those apparatus are employed is. What are the sources and are they reliable? Are they quoted fairly and correctly? The mere use of scholarly apparatus in no way ensures the reliability of the information provided.
—Douglas E. Cowan, "Reflections on Louisville: The Christian Countercult in Conversation," (Center for Studies on New Religions, June 2002).

Fortunately, the sources used in this work can be checked. After the release of the hardback edition of ONUG in 2002, FAIR began a detailed examination of some of the sources used by this author. The author responded to FAIR's original analysis by correcting some of the issues that were found in the hardback edition. In 2003, the author released a paperback edition containing these changes. In some cases, errors were corrected. In others, the author simply reworded things so that they made the same point that he had made in the hardback edition without actually addressing the real issue. Although the original set of articles was intended to be a work in progress, it was never pursued further for the next six years. In response to the author's more recent complaints in 2008 that FAIR's analysis only addressed the hardback edition, FAIR moved the original articles from the FAIR website into the FAIR Wiki. This allows multiple authors to update and correct the articles—something that was not easy to do when the articles were in their original form on the FAIR web site. In addition to editing the original articles for content and tone and updating them to reflect the information found in the 2003 paperback edition, we have continued the project originally begun in 2002 to more thoroughly examine the sources used by the author in this work. As a result, many additional articles have been created in an ongoing effort to examine these sources.

As you explore the information in the articles linked below, you will begin to recognize the "surrealist" aspects of this work, which does with words exactly what Picasso did with pigments—present a twisted and surreal view of reality. In this case, the reality of normal people living normal lives and seeking to worship and serve God to the best of their ability.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and volunteer members of FAIR, it is our hope that this work will help to "set the record straight" and clarify many of the distortions and misrepresentations accorded our doctrine and beliefs by One Nation under Gods. It is our desire to increase understanding and goodwill among all sincere seekers of truth; that you may gain greater insight into the Christ-centered principles and practices that have directed His Church since its restoration in 1830.

Quick navigation

• Overview—Index of claims—Use of sources—Loaded and prejudicial language—Absurd claims—Presentism—Mind reading—Rewording secondary sources—Sarcasm

Further reading

Template code	Inserts this reference	Click to edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: 8: The Mormon Proposition}}	To learn more box:responses to: 8: The Mormon Proposition	edit
{{To learn more box:''Under the Banner of Heaven''}}	To learn more about responses to: Under the Banner of Heaven	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Robert Price}}	To learn more about responses to: Robert Price	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ankerberg and Weldon}}	To learn more about responses to: Ankerberg and Weldon	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ashamed of Joseph}}	To learn more about responses to: Ashamed of Joseph	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Beckwith and Moser}}	To learn more about responses to: Beckwith and Moser	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Beckwith and Parrish}}	To learn more about responses to: Beckwith and Parrish	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Benjamin Park}}	To learn more about responses to: Benjamin Park	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bible versus Joseph Smith}}	To learn more about responses to: Bible versus Joseph Smith	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bible versus Book of Mormon}}	To learn more about responses to: Bible versus Book of Mormon	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: ''Big Love''}}	To learn more about responses to: Big Love	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Brett Metcalfe}}	To learn more about responses to: Brett Metcalfe	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bill Maher}}	To learn more about responses to: Bill Maher	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Bruce H. Porter}}	To learn more about responses to: Bruce H. Porter	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Carol Wang Shutter}}	To learn more about responses to: Carol Wang Shutter	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: CES Letter}}	To learn more about responses to: CES Letter	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Charles Larson}}	To learn more about responses to: Charles Larson	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Christopher Nemelka}}	To learn more about responses to: Christopher Nemelka	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Colby Townshed}}	To learn more about responses to: Colby Townshed	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Contender Ministries}}	To learn more about responses to: Contender Ministries	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Crane and Crane}}	To learn more about responses to: Crane and Crane	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: D. Michael Quinn}}	To learn more about responses to: D. Michael Quinn	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Dan Vogel}}	To learn more about responses to: Dan Vogel	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: David John Buerger}}	To learn more about responses to: David John Buerger	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: David Persuitte}}	To learn more about responses to: David Persuitte	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Denver Snuffer}}	To learn more about responses to: Denver Snuffer	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Duwayne R Anderson}}	To learn more about responses to: Duwayne R Anderson	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Earl Wunderli}}	To learn more about responses to: Earl Wunderli	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ed Decker}}	To learn more about responses to: Ed Decker	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Erikson and Giesler}}	To learn more about responses to: Erikson and Giesler	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ernest Taves}}	To learn more about responses to: Ernest Taves	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Fawn Brodie}}	To learn more about responses to: Fawn Brodie	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: George D Smith}}	To learn more about responses to: George D Smith	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Grant Palmer}}	To learn more about responses to: Grant Palmer	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Hank Hanegraaff}}	To learn more about responses to: Hank Hanegraaff	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Hurlbut-Howe}}	To learn more about responses to: Hurlbut-Howe	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: James Brooke}}	To learn more about responses to: James Brooke	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: James Spencer}}	To learn more about responses to: James Spencer	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: James White}}	To learn more about responses to: James White	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Jerald and Sandra Tanner}}	To learn more about responses to: Jerald and Sandra Tanner	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD}}	To learn more about responses to: Jesus Christ-Joseph Smith or Search for the Truth DVD	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: John Dehlin}}	To learn more about responses to: John Dehlin	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Jonathan Neville}}	To learn more about responses to: Jonathan Neville	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Kurt Van Gorden}}	To learn more about responses to: Kurt Van Gorden	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Laura King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery}}	To learn more about responses to: Laura King Newell and Valeen Tippetts Avery	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Loftes Tryk aka Lofte Payne}}	To learn more about responses to: Loftes Tryk aka Lofte Payne	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Luke WIlson}}	To learn more about responses to: Luke WIlson	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Marquardt and Walters}}	To learn more about responses to: Marquardt and Walters	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Martha Beck}}	To learn more about responses to: Martha Beck	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Mcgregor Ministries}}	To learn more about responses to: Mcgregor Ministries	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: McKeever and Johnson}}	To learn more about responses to: McKeever and Johnson	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: New Approaches}}	To learn more about responses to: New Approaches to the Book of Mormon	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Richard Abanes}}	To learn more about responses to: Richard Abanes	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Richard Van Wagoner}}	To learn more about responses to: Richard Van Wagoner	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Richard and Joan Ostling}}	To learn more about responses to: Richard and Joan Ostling	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Rick Grunger}}	To learn more about responses to: Rick Grunger	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Robert Ritner}}	To learn more about responses to: Robert Ritner	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Rod Meldrum}}	To learn more about responses to: Rod Meldrum	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Roger I Anderson}}	To learn more about responses to: Roger I Anderson	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Ronald V. Huggins}}	To learn more about responses to: Ronald V. Huggins	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Sally Denton}}	To learn more about responses to: Sally Denton	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Simon Southerton}}	To learn more about responses to: Simon Southerton	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Thomas Murphy}}	To learn more about responses to: Thomas Murphy	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Todd Compton}}	To learn more about responses to: Todd Compton	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Vernal Holley}}	To learn more about responses to: Vernal Holley	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Walter Martin}}	To learn more about responses to: Walter Martin	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Wesley Walters}}	To learn more about responses to: Wesley Walters	edit
{{To learn more box:responses to: Will Bagley}}	To learn more about responses to: Will Bagley	edit