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One
Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes Rating: ••• (Recommended) |
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Saints Revealed I first became aware of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) as a teenager in the mid-1960s when I
visited (often) the Mormon Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. I even
conned one of the earnest docents out of a free copy of the Book of Mormon,
promising that I would read it. I fulfilled the promise, read it, and thought
it was bogus. In the intervening years, I haven’t read much about the Mormon
Church, but I’ve certainly noticed increases in their membership and
visibility. Over the years, I’ve come to know many Mormons, and universally
have found them to be a pleasure to spend time with: friendly, warm and open.
I don’t expect that any of my Mormon acquaintances will be reading Richard
Abanes new book, One
Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church. It most likely appears
on their Index of Forbidden Books. Abanes presents almost 600 pages of
history, including helpful appendices. Readers learn of the start of the
church in New York State by Joseph Smith, and the journey West, to Ohio,
Illinois, Missouri and finally Utah. Abanes tackles divine revelation to the
Mormon prophets, plural marriage, lack of cooperation with government
authorities, racism, and secrecy. If you’ve wondered whether or not Mormonism
is Christian, Abanes answers clearly that it is not. The title refers to the
expectation that faithful Mormons will become gods. Through Abanes’ presentation of church
documents, changed over time, a story becomes clear that the LDS church has
been and continues to be, willing to change their theology, prophecy and
version of revelation to fit better into different cultures and societies. I
came away from the book with the sense that lying is a Mormon virtue. The
foundation of this religion appears to be a scam, involving scrolls that
could never have ended up buried in upstate New York. Here’s an excerpt from
the chapter “Unholy Matrimony” (p. 286-7): “Countless souls,
say LDS leaders, have already attained godhead, Orson Pratt theorized: ‘If we
should take a million of worlds like this and number their particles, we
should find that there are more Gods than there are particles of matter in
those worlds.’ Brigham Young, much less willing to calculate the number of
gods, admitted: ‘How many Gods there are, I do not know. But there never was
a time when there were not Gods.’ These teachings inspired the popular Mormon
couplet: ‘As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.’ Abanes tells readers that the Mormon
interest in genealogy is to seal ancestors, or anyone, to help them achieve
godhood in the afterlife. Some overly exuberant Mormons decided to seal Hitler
and Eva Braun. To maintain a unified front, the LDS church routinely purges
members to are critical, even if their criticism is factual. Readers of One
Nation Under Gods conclude that the LDS church is a cult that presents a
smiley face to the world, but maintains beliefs and practices that are deeply
disturbing. If after reading this book, you worry about what’s happening in
Utah and elsewhere, Abanes will probably feel he has done his job in bring
light to the shadows of a dark religion. Steve Hopkins, January 7, 2003 |
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ã 2003 Hopkins and Company, LLC The
recommendation rating for this book appeared in the February 2003
issue of Executive
Times URL
for this review: http://www.hopkinsandcompany.com/Books/One
Nation Under Gods.htm For
Reprint Permission, Contact: Hopkins
& Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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