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Response to One Nation Under Gods

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

Becoming Gods

Sub-articles

One Nation Under Gods by Richard Abanes

Summary: 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. 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—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.

Overview

...after seven years, FAIR has been able to raise only twenty-seven objections to a book weighing in at 651 pages (471 pages of main text + nearly 150 pages of endnotes + bibliography + indexes). Particularly interesting is how most these so-called errors-mistakes (minus the ones too petty to even address) have all been resolved in the paperback version.

—The author, posted on his website "ERRATA FOR ONE NATION UNDER GODS" (Dec. 2008 - web page has since been removed. This link goes to the web archive for the page)

∗       ∗       ∗

Page-by-page responses to claims made in One Nation Under Gods

Summary: FairMormon's original review of One Nation Under Gods was of the original 2002 hardback edition. The author has responded that there were editorial problems with this edition. We acknowledge that corrections were made in the paperback edition released in 2003 in response to some of the original reviews. Consequently, all previous FairMormon reviews have been edited for accuracy and tone, and the paperback edition of this work has been evaluated on its own merits. (It should be noted that the corrected paperback edition bears no markings indicating that it is a second edition or an updated edition; it simply appears as a paperback edition of the original.) This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses. An effort has been made to provide the author's original sources where possible. In the subarticles linked below the hardback edition is represented by "HB" and the paperback edition by "PB."

Jump to details:

• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Introduction: A Thread of Prophecy"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 1: Vagabond Visionaries"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 3: From Profit to Prophet"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 4: Smith's Golden Book"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 5: People of Zion"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 6: No Rest for the Righteous"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 7: Woe In Ohio"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 8: Big Trouble In Little Missouri"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 9: March to Martyrdom"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 10: A New Beginning"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 11: Bloody Brigham"
• Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 12: Wars and Rumors of Wars"

Claim Evaluation

One Nation Under Gods

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Introduction: A Thread of Prophecy"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: xv, 477n2 (HB) ix, 475n2 (PB) - The author asserts that histories produced by the LDS church the "least reliable" of all
• Response to claim: xvii (HB) - The "White Horse" prophecy predicts that the U.S. government will become a "Mormon-ruled theocracy"
• Response to claim: xviii, 475n5 (HB) - The "White Horse" prophecy is a "dominant element" of Latter-day Saint belief
• Response to claim: xix (HB) - The author claims that various Church leaders have reiterated the "White Horse" prophecy over the years
• Response to claim: xx, 479n10 (HB) xiv, 477n10 (PB) - Mormonism was perceived as a "radical, immoral, and un-American band of religious zealots"
• Response to claim: xx, 479n17 (HB) - Everyone in the world will be forced to recognize "Mormonism" as "the one true" religion
• Response to claim: xxi (HB); xiv (PB) - Did Joseph claim in History of the Church that other governments and religions "must eventually be destroyed from the earth"?
• Response to claim: xxiv (HB) - The Church refuses to divulge "routine" financial data that other religions are "happy to provide over the phone"
• Response to claim: xxiv (HB) xviii (PB) - Latter-day Saints believe that they are "morally, ethically, and spiritually superior" to non-members

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 1: Vagabond Visionaries"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 6 - Did "most" of Joseph Smith's contemporaries consider him "a charlatan from a family of illiterate wanderers"?
• Response to claim: 9-11 - The Smith family eventually gave up on any sort of "legitimate" employment to become lazy money-diggers
• Response to claim: 15 - Do local newspapers show that no revival occurred in 1820 in the area of Palmyra-Manchester, New York?
• Response to claim: 15 - Did Joseph incorporate a documented 1824 revival into his First Vision story?
• Response to claim: 15 - Why does Joseph's 1832 First Vision account state that he was 15 rather than 14 years old?
• Response to claim: 15 - Why does Joseph's 1832 account state that he only saw Jesus without mentioning God the Father?
• Response to claim: 15 - The main message of the 1832 account was the forgiveness of Joseph's sins
• Response to claim: 15 - The 1832 account omits information about "God condemning Christian churches as corrupt"
• Response to claim: 16 - Did LDS leaders only begin teaching that Joseph saw both Jesus and God the Father in the 1870s-80s?
• Response to claim: 16-17 - Orson Pratt said that the two personages that appeared to Joseph in the First Vision were angels
• Response to claim: 17 - Church historian Andrew Jenson said that "The angel again forbade Joseph to join any of these churches"
• Response to claim: 18 - Did the 1824 revival cause Joseph's mother, sister and two brothers to join the Presbyterian church?
• Response to claim: 18, 487n62-63 (PB) - Did the 1824 revival actually cause Joseph to join a Baptist church, contrary to his instructions in the First Vision?
• Response to claim: 18 - No publications from the Palmyra or Manchester areas in the 1830s mentioned Joseph's vision
• Response to claim: 22, 490 n.78 (HB) - Didn't Lucy Mack Smith say that the first vision was that of a "holy Angel"?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 2: Moroni, Magic, and Masonry"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 23 (HB) - The author states that "LDS documents" are "strangely silent" about Joseph Smith's activities between 1820 and 1823
• Response to claim: 25 - The author states that Moroni claimed that the golden plates were "buried in the hill Cumorah, just outside the village of Manchester"
• Response to claim: 25 - The author states that the angel that appeared to Joseph was originally named "Nephi" instead of "Moroni"
• Response to claim: 25, 492n17 (HB) 490n17 (PB) - "Obviously, if the angel in Smith's room spoke about Moroni, then he certainly could not have been Moroni"
• Response to claim: 26, 492n19-20 (HB) - Oliver Cowdery said that the First Vision took place in 1823 when Joseph was in his 17th year
• Response to claim: 26, 492n21 (HB) - Joseph's brother William associated Moroni's visit with a revival
• Response to claim: 27, 493n23 (HB) - George A. Smith merged the First Vision and Moroni's visit
• Response to claim: 27, 493n24 (HB) - Lucy Mack Smith, Joseph's mother, said that the First Vision was of the angel in 1823
• Response to claim: 27 (HB) - The author claims that Joseph engaged in "ritual magic and divination"
• Response to claim: 28 (HB) - Joseph Smith was a "money digger"
• Response to claim: 28 (HB) - Joseph used a "peep stone" to search for buried treasure
• Response to claim: 29, 494n30 (HB) - Joseph's father was a "firm believer" in witchcraft and the supernatural
• Response to claim: 29, 494-5n33-34 (HB) - Martin Harris said that Joseph was associated with a company of money diggers
• Response to claim: 29, 495n36 (HB) - Joshua Stafford said that Joseph's family "told marvelous stories about ghosts, hob-goblins, caverns, and various other mysterious matters"
• Response to claim: 30, 495n38 (HB) - William Stafford stated that Joseph used a seer stone to see "the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothed in ancient dress"
• Response to claim: 30, 495n40 (HB) - Joseph Capron stated that Joseph encouraged others to participate in money digging in order to obtain wealth
• Response to claim: 31, 495n42 (HB) - William Stafford stated that Joseph believed that the state of the moon determined the best time to obtain treasures
• Response to claim: 33, 495n48 (HB) - Joshua Stafford said that Joseph showed him a piece of wood from a box of money that had "mysteriously moved back into the hill"
• Response to claim: 36 (HB) - The author states that Joseph Smith adapted Masonic rituals for the temple endowment
• Response to claim: 40 (HB) - Does the Book of Mormon denounce Freemasonry by condemning "secret combinations," "secret signs," and "secret oaths"?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 3: From Profit to Prophet"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 41, 500 n2-4 (HB) - Joseph used at least two seer stones
• Response to claim: 42, 500n7 (HB) - Isaac Hale, Emma's father, disapproved of Joseph because of his money digging activities
• Response to claim: 44 - Joseph was pronounced "guilty" of performing illegal activities with his seer stone
• Response to claim: 46, 503 n.18 - Regarding Joseph's "trial," Hugh Nibley said, "If this court record is authentic, it is the most damning evidence in existence against Joseph Smith"
• Response to claim: 47, 503n22 (HB) - Did Joseph realize that money-digging was only earning him $14 a month, and that this was "not nearly enough to support a family"?
• Response to claim: 47, 503n23 (HB) - Is it true that Joseph initially "attached no religious significance" to the "golden book" that he told people he would be retrieving?
• Response to claim: 48, 503n25 (HB) - Did Joseph decide to convert his book into a saga about America's ancient inhabitants as a money making scheme?
• Response to claim: 503n25 (HB) - Joseph tried to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon in Canada
• Response to claim: 48, 503-4n29-32 (HB) - Was one of Joseph's early descriptions of Moroni that of a "bloody ghost" with his throat cut?
• Response to claim: 50-51, n34-36 (HB) - Did a "toad-like" creature which "assumed the appearance of a man" and struck Joseph on the side of his head, prevent him from retrieving the gold plates?
• Response to claim: 51 (HB) - The author refers to "a subsequent version of Smith's ever-changing tale..."
• Response to claim: 51 (HB) - Was it "widely understood" in the 1800s the Joseph located the plates by using his seer stone to see where they had been deposited?
• Response to claim: 51 (HB) - It is claimed that "all of the religious aspects" of Joseph's story were added later
• Response to claim: 52 (HB) - Did Joseph Smith claim that the moon was inhabited?
• Response to claim: 52 (HB) - Did Joseph teach the notion that "Blacks, Indians, and other people of color are cursed spirits"?
• Response to claim: 53, 505-506n47 (HB) 53, 503-504n47 (PB) - The author states: "After all, no one had actually seen the plates, nor would anyone ever see them"
• Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did the witnesses only see the plates through "visionary experiences"?
• Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did the eight witnesses only "see" the plates as long as they were covered with a cloth of some kind?
• Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did Martin Harris say that none of the eight witnesses ever saw the plates, and that he only handled them in a box or under a cloth?
• Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Joseph Smith claimed that the Three Witnesses saw the plates in a vision
• Response to claim: 505n47 (HB) - Did David Whitmer say that none of the Three Witnesses ever actually physically saw or handled the plates?
• Response to claim: 508n59 (HB) - Latter-day Saint try to discredit statements of Charles Anthon
• Response to claim: 55, 508n60 (HB) 55, 506n60 (PB) - Have scholars have declared that there is no language called "Reformed Egyptian"?
• Response to claim: 55, 508n62 (HB) - Did Joseph use his "peep stone" to translate the Book of Mormon?
• Response to claim: 56, 508n63-65 (HB) - Did Emma Smith and David Whitmer confirm that Joseph translated using his seer stone in a hat?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 4: Smith's Golden Book"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 62 (HB,PB) - Were the Lamanites were cursed with a "skin of blackness"?
• Response to claim: 62 (HB,PB) - Were the "so-called American Indians" considered a "filthy, and a loathsome people"?
• Response to claim: 63, 510n15 (HB); 508n15 (PB) - Was a "dark-skinned appearance" actually a curse traceable to a failure to follow God?
• Response to claim: 63 (HB,PB) - Was Joseph inspired by the "mound builders" to write the Book of Mormon?
• Response to claim: 64, 511n24 (HB); 509n24 (PB) - Did Joseph's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, say that Joseph "skillfully composed yarns about Native Americans"
• Response to claim: 66, 511n31 (HB); 509n31 (PB) - According to Alexander Campbell, the Book of Mormon "commented on nearly 'every error and almost every truth discussed in New York for the last ten years.'"
• Response to claim: 68, 512n41-43 (HB); 510n41-43 (PB) - Joseph copied text from other contemporary works into the Book of Mormon, such as Josiah Priest's The Wonders of Nature and Providence Displayed
• Response to claim: 68-70, 512n44-45 (HB); 510n44-45 (PB) - The Book of Mormon contains parallels to Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews?
• Response to claim: 70-71 (HB,PB) - Joseph Smith plagiarized the Apocrypha
• Response to claim: 70, 513n52 (HB); 511n52 (PB) - Were several Bible stories reworked for the Book of Mormon?
• Response to claim: 72, 514n61 (HB); 512n61 (PB) - Could the "wicked character" named "Lemuel" have been derived from the name of the Smith's landlord, Lemuel Durfee?
• Response to claim: 73, 514n62 (HB) 512n62 (PB) - The names "Moroni" and "Cumorah" could have been taken from the "Comoros" Islands off the coast of Africa
• Response to claim: 73, 514n66 (HB); 512n66 (PB) - The 1830 Book of Mormon contains many grammatical errors
• Response to claim: 74 (HB,PB) - Is the name "Sam" in the Book of Mormon "out-of-place"?
• Response to claim: 74, 514n67 - Is the French word "adieu" out-of-place in the Book of Mormon?
• Response to claim: 74, 514n69 (HB); 512n69 (PB) - Why has the Book of Mormon had "nearly 4,000" textual changes despite being declared by Joseph Smith to be the "most correct of any book on earth"?
• Response to claim: 74, 514n70-71 (HB); 512n70-71 (PB) - The Book of Mormon mentions synagoges "after the manner of the Jews," despite Lehi's group leaving Jerusalem before the Babylonian captivity
• Response to claim: 74 (HB, PB) - The fact is that Arabia has never had bountiful supplies of either fruit or honey"
• Response to claim: 74, 514n72(HB); 512n72(PB) - How could the Book of Mormon mention a "continually flowing" river that runs to the Red Sea, when there is no such river in Arabia?
• Response to claim: 74, 514n73 (HB); 512n73 (PB) - Why does the Book of Mormon mention animals such as cows, oxen, asses, horses, and goats as existing in the New World 600 years before Christ
• Response to claim: 514n73 (HB); 512n73 (PB) - "Mormon apologist John Sorenson has suggested that Smith mistranslated numerous words from the Book of Mormon"
• Response to claim: 75, 514n75 (HB); 512n75 (PB) - Is there no archaeological evidence to support the Book of Mormon?
• Response to claim: 75, 515n77 (HB); 512n77 (PB) - The Smithsonian Institution issued a statement refuting "any claims of BOM historicity"
• Response to claim: 75, 515n78 - Is is true that "Mormon scholars, such as Dee F. Green," have admitted that Book of Mormon archaeology does not exist?
• Response to claim: 75, 515n79 - Did a lack of Book of Mormon archaeological evidence cause B.H. Roberts and Thomas Stuart Ferguson to "abandon their faith in the Book of Mormon"?
• Response to claim: 75 - Thomas Stuart Ferguson was an "icon" of Latter-day Saint scholarship
• Response to claim: 76, 515-6n81-84 - B.H. Roberts concluded that Joseph Smith was inspired by Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews
• Response to claim: 77-80, 516n88-90 (HB) 514n88-90 (PB) - Thomas Stuart Ferguson wrote a letter stating "Perhaps you and I have been spoofed by Joseph Smith..."

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 5: People of Zion"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 83, 517n2 (HB) - The book states that the "Mormon church" was formally organized in New York
• Response to claim: 517n2 (HB) - The official name of the Church's changed from The Church of Christ to The Church of the Latter Day Saints and then to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Response to claim: 86, n22-23 (HB) - Did "anti-Christendom" become a "defining feature of Mormonism?"
• Response to claim: 86, n24-25 - Does the Church teach that "Satan sits in the place of God in Christianity"?
• Response to claim: 87, 517n26 - "Smith's long association with occultism also helped draw spiritual 'seekers' into Mormonism"
• Response to claim: 89, 518n47 - A revelation changed to conceal Oliver Cowdery's use of a divining rod
• Response to claim: 89, 518n49 - Did Joseph give Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball divining rods "as a symbol of gratitude for their loyalty"?
• Response to claim: 89 - Did Joseph's family own a "magic dagger"?
• Response to claim: 89-90, 519n53-57 - Did Joseph's family own "three homemade magical parchments"?
• Response to claim: 89 - Did Joseph have a "Jupiter talisman" with him the day he died?
• Response to claim: 519n58 (PB) - The author states: In 1998, Apostle David B. Haight "reinvoked the astrological principle that people should 'do nothing without the assistance of the moon'"
• Response to claim: 92 - There is "no question" that Mormonism began as a "doomsday sect led by an end-time prophet"
• Response to claim: 95, 522n74 (HB) - Did Martin Harris claim that "all temporal and spiritual power would be given over to The Prophet Joseph Smith"?
• Response to claim: 99, 521n97 - Joseph claimed that his revision of the Bible..."re-inserted a great deal of material that supposedly had been excised from it by corrupt and evil men"
• Response to claim: 99, n100 - "Mormon high priests possessed the authority to bestow salvation"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 6: No Rest for the Righteous"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 104 - "Mormons, who commonly rejected analytical thought in favor of supernatural experience"
• Response to claim: 521n2 - A distorted version of the Three Degrees of Glory
• Response to claim: 105, 522n12 - Was the Latter-day Saint periodical The Evening and the Morning Star "haranguing" non-Mormons by threatening them with "imminent destruction" if they did not repent?
• Response to claim: 105, 522n13 - Did Joseph Smith define the "wicked" as anyone who rejected Latter-day Saint beliefs?
• Response to claim: 108, 523n26 - Did Latter-day Saints alter their perception as being "adopted into Israel" to being "literal" descendants of Israel because they "were going to end up second-class Israelites"?
• Response to claim: 108-109, 523n27-29 - Do Latter-day Saint claim today that they are literal descendants of Israel?
• Response to claim: 110, 523n33 - Were missionaries sent to preach only to "other Caucasians"?
• Response to claim: 110, 524n35 - Was the Latter-day Saint periodical The Evening and Morning Star claiming that Missouri "rightfully belonged to Mormons?"
• Response to claim: 116 - In the revelation that Joseph received on August 2, 1833, was it evident that "God also was unaware of the Missouri tragedy"?
• Response to claim: 116, 525n63-64 - Did Joseph receive a revelation which "commanded Mormons to disobey secular law and civil leaders not conforming to the commandments of God"?
• Response to claim: 117 - "Their only comfort was the hope that Christ would soon deliver them"
• Response to claim: 122, 526n87 - Did Joseph receive a revelation that Zion would be redeemed by September 1836?
• Response to claim: 123, 526n91 - Did Joseph restore ceremonies found in ancient Judaism and early Christianity in order to "distance" the Church from "corrupt Christendom"?
• Response to claim: 123 - "Joseph knew that nothing short of a spectacular closing to the dedication week would be acceptable to the crowds..."
• Response to claim: 124, 526n100 - Did Joseph believe that the ten lost tribes were at the North Pole?
• Response to claim: 124, 526n101 - Did Joseph believe that the ten lost tribes were located on a planet by the North Star?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 7: Woe In Ohio"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 127 epigraph, 527n1 (PB) - David Whitmer said that Joseph Smith claimed that "some revelations are of God: some revelations are of man: and some revelations are of the devil"
• Response to claim: 127-8, 528n5 (PB) - Did Joseph say that "Fifty-six years should wind up the scene" before the second coming of Jesus Christ?
• Response to claim: 128-9, 528n10 (PB) - Were the revelations published in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants "amended, added to, excised, and in some cases assigned different historical settings"?
• Response to claim: 129, 529n14-15, n17 (PB) - Did Joseph Smith break Ohio law by performing marriages?
• Response to claim: 129, 529n16 (PB) - Was Kirtland, as Fawn Brodie claimed, "full of converts who had left behind them spouses who could not be persuaded to join the church"?
• Response to claim: 529n16 (PB) - "LDS leaders/counselors commonly encourage divorce when the spouse of a faithful Mormon forsakes the faith"
• Response to claim: 130, 530n22 (PB) - Did Levi Lewis claim that Joseph tried to seduce Eliza Winters in 1830?
• Response to claim: 131, 530n23-24 (PB) - Were Latter-day Saint men encouraged to take plural wives "of the Lamanites and Nephites" in order to make them "white, delightsome and just"?
• Response to claim: 132 (PB) - "Although Smith never took any Lamanites as wives, he did begin establishing what would gradually become a fairly large harem of young girls and women"
• Response to claim: 132, 530-531n29-36 (PB) - Joseph's first polyamous marriage was with Fanny Alger
• Response to claim: 133, 531n37-40 (PB) - Did William McLellin report that Joseph and Fanny were found "in the barn together alone...?
• Response to claim: 133, n42 (PB) - Was the inclusion of the statement on marriage in the 1835 D&C was "an attempt to cover-up the Smith-Alger affair" as the author claims?
• Response to claim: 135, 531n45 (PB) - Did land specuation in Kirtland "consume" the "thoughts of nearly every Saint, including Smith"?
• Response to claim: 135, 531n46-48 (PB) - Joseph is claimed to have owned one hundred and forty acres of land near the Kirtland temple lot in addition to four acres of business property
• Response to claim: 531n48 (PB) - Was Isaac McWithy brought before the church's High Council on charges of "insolence" after refusing to sell his land to Joseph Smith for $3000?
• Response to claim: 135 (PB) - "Smith decided to solve his economic dilemma by establishing a bank for the purpose of land speculation"
• Response to claim: 136, 532n51 (PB) - Did Joseph Smith claim that "God told him" to establish the bank in Kirtland?
• Response to claim: 136, 532n54 (PB) - Was the Kirtland anti-bank backed only by boxes "filled with 'sand,lead, old iron, stone, and combustibles" as claimed by Fawn Brodie?
• Response to claim: 136, 532n56 (PB) - Is it true that "everyone's pockets bulged with bills" in Kirtland after the bank was established as asserted by Fawn Brodie?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 8: Big Trouble In Little Missouri"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 150, 535n18 (PB) - Did Oliver Cowdery accuse Joseph of having a "dirty, nasty, filthy affair" with Fanny Alger?
• Response to claim: 151, 537n29-33 (PB) - Did Joseph allow the formation of the Danites?
• Response to claim: 151, 537n35-36 (PB) - Did Sidney Rigdon give public approval to the Danites during a speech he delivered on June 17, 1838?
• Response to claim: 537n30 (PB) - "Such historical revisionism is typical of Mormon historians, who must at all costs, preserve the integrity of early Mormon leaders"
• Response to claim: 152, 538n39 (PB) - Did Joseph write in his private journal that he was aware of the Danite's purpose?
• Response to claim: 155 - "The Missourians actually seemed committed to continuing their pursuit of a peaceful co-existence with the Mormons"
• Response to claim: 156 - Did Latter-day Saints plan to "take over" by voting?
• Response to claim: 156-157, 539n61 (PB) - the Saints were "horse thieves, liars, counterfeiters, and dupes"
• Response to claim: 159 - According to the author, after driving the Saints from their homes, Bogart started to threaten the Saints "in their own territory"
• Response to claim: 167 - "the evidence clearly revealed that Joseph had directed most, if not all, of the illegal activities in which the Saints had been engaged"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 9: March to Martyrdom"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 171 epigraph, 542n1 (HB) 540n1 (PB) - Joseph Smith said ""I combat the errors of the ages..."
• Response to claim: 172 - "intellectual reasoning and logical thought never had played more than a minor role in their belief system"
• Response to claim: 174, 541n17 (PB) - Did Brigham Young actually say that Joseph Smith's character "was easily on par" with Jesus Christ's?
• Response to claim: 175, 543n21 (HB) 541n21 (PB) - The author claims that Joseph Smith is considered as important to Latter-day Saints' spirituality as Jesus Christ
• Response to claim: 175, 541n23 (PB) - Did Brigham Young "twist" John 4:3 in order to apply it to Joseph?
• Response to claim: 175, 542n24 (PB) - The author claims that Joseph suffered from narcissism
• Response to claim: 176, 542n26-28 (PB) - Joseph claimed that he was "nearly equal to" or "as good as" Jesus Christ
• Response to claim: 177, 544n29 (HB) 542n29 (PB) - Joseph Smith boasted: "I am the only man that has been able to keep the whole church together....Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it"?
• Response to claim: 178, 544n34 (HB) 542n34 (PB) - The author claims that Joseph Smith boasted of his "violent deeds"
• Response to claim: 179, 544n36 (HB) 542n36 (PB) - The author claims that Joseph boasted of his fighting skill and his strength
• Response to claim: 178, 544n39 (HB) 542n39 (PB) - Did Jedediah Grant say that Joseph hit a Baptist preacher and and then throw him to the ground?
• Response to claim: 181-182 - The author claims that the commissioned officers in the Nauvoo Legion were granted "law-making powers"
• Response to claim: 182, 542n46 - Was the Nauvoo Legion simply a "resurrection" of the Danites?
• Response to claim: 183 - "Where were all those rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence?"
• Response to claim: 186-187, 544n70 (PB) - Joseph set up a "shadow-government" called the "Council of Fifty"
• Response to claim: 188, 544n78 - Did the Council of Fifty ordain Joseph to be "King and Ruler over Israel"?
• Response to claim: 189, 545n83 - The author claims that Latter-day Saints believe that "the only acceptable government" would have to be in the form of a global theocracy
• Response to claim: 189 - Was Joseph Smith crowned "king of the world"?
• Response to claim: 191 - The author claims that Joseph sent Orrin Porter Rockwell to kill ex-Governor Boggs
• Response to claim: 191 - The author claims that D&C 98:31 justifies the murder of personal enemies
• Response to claim: 192, 546n98 (PB) - The author claims that Porter Rockwell admitted that he had tried to kill Lilburn Boggs
• Response to claim: 192, 546n99 (PB) - The author claims that Joseph Smith escaped both times after he was arrested twice for his alleged role in Boggs' assassination attempt
• Response to claim: 192 - "Not until 1841 in Nauvoo...was Smith's seemingly insatiable lust for women and young girls unleashed"
• Response to claim: 193 - Did Joseph Smith advocate the practice of polyandry?
• Response to claim: 193 - "The wives continued to live with their husbands after marrying Smith, but would have conjugal visits from Joseph whenever it served his needs"
• Response to claim: 194 - Joseph violated a Biblical prohibition on marrying a mother and daughter or two sisters
• Response to claim: 195, 547n117 (PB) - Did Joseph denounce polygamy as sinful and state that "monogamy was God's perfect design?
• Response to claim: 196, 549n119 (HB) 547n119 (PB) - "Apostates...preached against the evils thriving in Joseph's city of debauchery and despotism"
• Response to claim: 197, 547n122 (PB) - Did Joseph destroy the Nauvoo Expositor because his "entire plan to rule the world" was about to be exposed?
• Response to claim: 197, 547n124 (PB) - The Nauvoo Expositor told of women who "under penalty of death," were told that they were to be sealed to him as "spiritual wives"
• Response to claim: 198 - Did Joseph decide not to flee to Iowa because of guilt or fear?
• Response to claim: 199, 547-548n131-132 (PB) - Did Joseph Smith write a note to Jonathan Dunham telling him to bring the Nauvoo Legion and "break the jail, and save him at all costs"?
• Response to claim: 199, 548n133 (PB) - The author asserts that Jonathan Dunham never brought the Nauvoo Legion because "perhaps he was secretly dissatisfied with Smith's leadership"
• Response to claim: 199, 548n133 - Is it true, as Brodie claims, that nobody in Nauvoo other than Jonathan Dunham "knew of the prophet's peril"?
• Response to claim: 199 - The author states that Joseph had been "smuggled a six-shooter"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 10: A New Beginning"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 205 (HB,PB) - "Unrepentant abandonment to the 'lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life' (1 John 2:16) had caused Joseph's ruin; nothing more, nothing less"
• Response to claim: 207, 548n12 (PB) - Did Willard Richards have Samuel Smith murdered?
• Response to claim: 207, 548n13 (PB) - Polygamy was "being enjoyed" by certain members of the Twelve Apostles at the time of Joseph's death
• Response to claim: 211, 549n28 (PB) - Did Joseph Smith tell Porter Rockwell that "it was right to steal"?
• Response to claim: 211, 549n29 (PB) - Did Orson Hyde say that it was OK to "steal & be influenced by the spirit of the Lord to do it" as long as it was against non-Mormons?
• Response to claim: 211, 549n31-34 (PB) - The author claims that the Nauvoo police committed "many murders, vicious beatings, and intimidating assaults" against people that they thought to be enemies of the Church
• Response to claim: 212, 549n35-37 (PB) - "Although the exact number of murders committed by Mormons between 1844 and 1846 remains unknown, it is certain that a majority of them were handled by Danites"
• Response to claim: 213, 549n38 (PB) - The author claims that Heber C. Kimball and Orson Hyde ordered Nauvoo's police force to kill an apostate named Lambert Symes, who "subsequently disappeared without a trace"
• Response to claim: 213, 550n41-43 - "Mormon dissenter" Irvine Hodge was "presumably" murdered by Nauvoo policemen
• Response to claim: 213, 550n44-45 (PB) - The author asserts that members of the Council of Fifty responsible for committing murders
• Response to claim: 213, 550n44 (PB) - Was Jonathan Dunham killed because he had "ignored the prophet's direct order to lead the Nauvoo Legion in a rescue at Carthage Jail"?
• Response to claim: 214, 550n46 - The author asserts that Nauvoo Police Chief Hosea Stout have three men flogged because they "were not in good fellowship"
• Response to claim: 214, 550n49-51 - The author states that outsiders who were not "murdered or severely beaten" instead "whittled" out of town by Brigham's 'Whistling and Whittling Brigade'"
• Response to claim: 216-217, 552n62-65 (HB) 550n62-65 (PB) - The author claims that government records indicate that some apostles were involved in counterfeiting
• Response to claim: 217 - The author claims that Brigham chose to start the exodus westward early because he was faced with the possibility of counterfeiting charges
• Response to claim: 220, 553n77 (HB) - Brigham "proudly admitted" "'I have been your dictator for twenty-seven years--over a quarter of a century I have dictated this people'"
• Response to claim: 221-222, 551n84-87 - The author claims that Latter-day Saints believe that "they were the only ones with a legitimate right to be stewards of the Lord's property"
• Response to claim: 222, 554n88 (HB) - Did Brigham claim that God's kingdom had already come when he said: "that Kingdom is actually organized, and the inhabitants of earth do not know it"?
• Response to claim: 222, 554n89 (HB) - Brigham said: "We will roll on the Kingdom of our God...and establish the Kingdom of God to bear rule over all the earth"
• Response to claim: 223, 552n94 - Salvation depends upon obedience to Brigham Young
• Response to claim: 223, 552n95 - Did Brigham Young believe that one day he "would himself become president of the United States, or dictate who should be president"?
• Response to claim: 223, 552n96 (PB) - John Taylor said "We used to have a difference between Church and State, but it is all one now..."
• Response to claim: 223, 552n97 (PB) - "Mormon leaders ruled via a ruthlessly oppressive theocracy wherein they kept followers in line through violence and intimidation"
• Response to claim: 224, 552n98 (PB) - Were there "numerous murders" committed at the request of Brigham Young and other Church leaders?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 11: Bloody Brigham"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 225 epigraph, 553-558n1 (PB) - A letter from Aaron DeWitt talks about murder and plunder in Utah
• Response to claim: 227-228 - Broughton D. Harris, Lemuel G. Brandebury and Justice Perry Brocchus and other federal officials fled Utah because they feared for their lives
• Response to claim: 228, 559n16-18 - David H. Burr reported that "Mr. Troskolowski," had been "assaulted and severely beaten by three men under the direction of one Hickman, a noted member of the so-called Danite Band"
• Response to claim: 231 - The author claims that the "Mormon reformation" a period of subjugation and brutal acts of violence designed to purge the Church
• Response to claim: 232, 559n32 - Who were Brigham Young's "Destroying Angels"?
• Response to claim: 233, n36-39 - Brigham taught "blood atonement"
• Response to claim: 233, 560n37 - Did Brigham use the term "cutting off" from the earth as a "euphemism for killing"?
• Response to claim: 234, 560n43 - Did Jedediah Grant create a list of "highly intrusive" questions so that he could probe members' personal lives?
• Response to claim: 234-235, 560n45-46 - Did Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball encourage murder out of "love" in order to save people's souls?
• Response to claim: 235, 560n47 - The author states that Heber C. Kimball claimed that the apostles killed Judas
• Response to claim: 235, 560-561n50 - Did 19th century Utah have a long list of crimes that were worthy of death?
• Response to claim: 235 - "Blood began to flow profusely in Utah not long after the reformation was launched"
• Response to claim: 236, n52 - Brigham said: "I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife"
• Response to claim: 236-237, 563n53 (HB) - "every reprobate received the same penalty. As Brigham instructed his flock: 'If any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats'"
• Response to claim: 237, 561n54 (PB) - Did Brigham not care what the U.S. thought about "killing evil doers"?
• Response to claim: 237, 562n55-56 (PB) - The author claims that Brigham Young had a man named Alonzo Bowman killed simply for "innocently asking about LDS beliefs and the facts behind the Saints' troubles"
• Response to claim: 238, 562n57-59 - The author claims that Orson Hyde ordered Jesse Hartly shot and killed for the crime of "falling in love with, and marrying, a Mormon"
• Response to claim: 238, 562n60 (PB) - Were William Parrish and his son murdered as they attempted to leave Utah because leaving Utah was "forbidden"?
• Response to claim: 239, 563n63-64 - The author asserts that Richard Yates was killed for the sin of "trading with government personnel"
• Response to claim: 241, 563n65-66 - Were Henry Jones and his mother murdered by Nathaniel Case, Porter Rockwell and "other church officials"?
• Response to claim: 242-243, n67-71 - Were "innumerable crimes" committed because of the speeches of Brigham Young and other LDS leaders?
• Response to claim: 244-245, 566n82 (HB) 564n82 (PB) - Did a prohibition of selling supplies to the Fancher party lead to the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
• Response to claim: 245 - "The emigrants could not have known that two of the sins worthy of blood atonement were condemning Joseph Smith and/or consenting to his death"
• Response to claim: 245, 564n86 (PB) - "The prophet...already had decided the fate of the Baker-Fancher party...at a secret meeting in Salt Lake City with several Indian chiefs"
• Response to claim: 245, 564n87 - Did Brigham promise the Indians that they could have all the cattle in the Fancher wagon-train "if they would do away with the entire company"?
• Response to claim: 251, 565n103 - When Brigham Young visited the Mountain Meadows site in 1860 and saw the monument, did he order it to be demolished?
• Response to claim: 252, 565n109 (PB) - The author states that John D. Lee's "constant companion throughout his trial" was a Methodist minister, "even though Lee had been taught all his life that Christendom's ministers were satanically-inspired and corrupt"
• Response to claim: 252, 565n111 (PB) - "To this day Mormons revere Young's destroying angels as well as the Danites"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 12: Wars and Rumors of Wars"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 256 - Was Brigham considered a "king" over the territory?
• Response to claim: 257 - "At the outset of their confrontation with America, the Mormons clearly had an advantage"
• Response to claim: 260, 569 (HB) 567n16 (PB) - Did Brigham Young call for blood atonement in order to punish Washington politicians?
• Response to claim: 266, 570n39 (HB) 568n38 (PB) - Did Heber C. Kimball promise that after the Civil War ended, that Latter-day Saints would become the "sole rulers over every other government"?
• Response to claim: 267, 570-1n39-47 (HB) 568-9n39-47 (PB) - Was Joseph Smith's "Civil War prophecy" a false prophecy since "in 1832 a civil war beginning with South Carolina would have surprised no one"?
• Response to claim: 269, 571n48-49 (HB) 569n48-49 (PB) - If the Civil War prophecy is true, then why is it that war was not brought to "all nations" as Joseph said it would be?
• Response to claim: 269, 571n50 (HB) 569n50 (PB) - The Civil War did not result in slaves rising up against their masters as the prophecy predicts
• Response to claim: 270, 571n51 (HB) 569n51 (PB) - Sandra Tanner said that the prophecy "was probably inspired by the fact that South Carolina had already rebelled before the revelation was given"
• Response to claim: 270 - "Because the Saints saw the Civil War as a fulfillment of prophecy, its horrors actually brought them some degree of emotional satisfaction and comfort"
• Response to claim: 270, 571n52 (HB) 569n52 (PB) - Why did Orson Hyde say: "Do I believe that the United States will be divided? yes, I do; and the prayers of all the Saints throughout the world should be to that effect"?
• Response to claim: 271 - Was the death of "Col. Johnston," in the Civil War (of "Johnston's army" in Utah) on April 6 interpreted by Latter-day Saints as a sign of divine judgment?
• Response to claim: 271, 572n54 (HB) 570n54 (PB) - Was Utah's second governor, John W. Dawson, who replaced Governor Cummings in 1861 beaten by Latter-day Saints?
• Response to claim: 271, 572n55 (HB) 570n55 (PB) - Did Brigham Young state that too much education would be damaging to children?
• Response to claim: 273, 572n59 (HB) 570n59 (PB) - Did Heber C. Kimball say that the United States government was "dead, thank God, dead"?
• Response to claim: 276 - The author states that when the Civil War ended, "the Mormons...had not sent a single soldier into the conflict, but instead had prayed for Christ's return and the establishment of Zion"
• Response to claim: 278 - "Blacks were emancipated (1860s), which in less than a hundred years would result in a backlash against Mormonism's racist spirituality"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 13: Unholy Matrimony"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 282, 572n8 (PB) - Joseph approved a "pretend marriage" between his plural wife Sarah Ann Whitney and Joseph Kingsbury
• Response to claim: 282, 572n8 (PB) - Joseph wrote a "revealing letter" to Sarah Ann Whitney's parents in which he invited them "to bring their daughter to visit him"
• Response to claim: 283, 572n11 (PB) - Joseph stated: "What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one"
• Response to claim: 284 (PB) - Many of Joseph's plural wives teenagers
• Response to claim: 285, 575n21 (HB) 573n21 (PB) - "Elohim and Heavenly Mother made countless spirit babies via celestial sex"
• Response to claim: 285, 574n25 (PB) - "Earth, by the way, in this Mormon scenario, was fashioned as part of a joint creative project supervised by the most faithful of Heavenly Father's spiritual progeny"
• Response to claim: 286, 574n26 (PB) - Latter-day Saints believe that God the Father is a "polygamous god"
• Response to claim: 286 (PB) - Do Latter-day Saints believe that God the Father is "the god of this planet"?
• Response to claim: 286, 575n29 (PB) - Latter-day Saints believe that our mortal life is similar to what God the Father had to go through in order to become God
• Response to claim: 287 (PB) - "More spirit children means more power, which in turn pushes a Mormon male further up the hierarchical ladder of gods in our universe"
• Response to claim: 287, 575n38(PB) - Latter-day Saints do not believe that Jesus Christ was not "conceived in any way that might be considered supernatural"
• Response to claim: 287-8, 575n39 (PB) - Do Latter-day Saints believe that God the Father visited the earth to conceive Jesus Christ through Mary after "making her his wife"?
• Response to claim: 288, 576n42-43 (PB) - Latter-day Saints believe that Jesus became a polygamist just like His Father
• Response to claim: 288, 576n44 - The author states that the "road to godhood" for others is "far more difficult and takes considerably longer" than the route taken by Jesus Christ
• Response to claim: 289, 578n51 (HB) 576n51 (PB) - "many "'influential' Mormons and LDS religion teachers still saw women as mere 'birth machines'"
• Response to claim: 290, 577n56-57 (PB) - Ann Eliza Young in her 1875 book Wife No. 19 stated the polygamy in Utah was not an option, but a command
• Response to claim: 295, 579n77 - Latter-day Saint men treated women as "livestock or property"
• Response to claim: 295, 582n81-82 (HB) 580n81-82 (PB) - The author claims that "wife swapping" was "acceptable"
• Response to claim: 297, 581n88-89 (PB) - Missionaries were instructed to not select converted women as wives before they were brought back to Utah
• Response to claim: 297, 581n90-95 (PB) - If missionaries chose not to "heed Kimball's warning" about selecting wives before bringing them to Utah, they were castrated
• Response to claim: 299, 581n95 (PB) - Brigham Young said that "the only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy"
• Response to claim: 301, 582n106 (PB) - Orson Pratt taught that anyone not entering into plural marriage "will be damned"
• Response to claim: 301 (PB) - "Monogamy was equated with a failure to obey God, which not only displeased the Almighty, but endangered one's eternal destiny"
• Response to claim: 301-2, 582n108 (PB) - Did Brigham actually say that monogamy was the "source of prostitution and whoredom" throughout all Christendom?
• Response to claim: 302, 582n109 (PB) - Was failure to acquire plural wives considered a crime worthy of death?
• Response to claim: 302 (PB) - The author claims that single or monogamous men "mocked and ridiculed as practically impotent"
• Response to claim: 303, 582n111 (PB) - LDS women were told that they could only be saved through their husbands, who would provide them with salvation
• Response to claim: 304, 583n114 (PB) - Brigham said: "It is for you to bear children..."
• Response to claim: 305 (PB) - The author claims that the Bible not sanction or command polygamy
• Response to claim: 306 (PB) - The author claims that the Hebrews never considered polygamy a standard practice
• Response to claim: 307, 583-4n123-5 (PB) - Did Joseph Smith and Brigham Young believe that the New Testament teaches polygamy and that Jesus and his apostles were actually polygamists?
• Response to claim: 308 (PB) - The Book of Mormon condemns polygamy

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 14: The Politics of Compromise"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 313 - "prosecuting polygamy would be virtually impossible given Mormon leadership’s willingness to lie under oath"
• Response to claim: 313, 585n10 (PB) - "Such admissions, rather than coming from any sincere desire on Cannon’s part to be forthright, likely resulted from the excessive publicity engendered by the controversy"
• Response to claim: 315, 585n12 (PB) - The First Presidency statement “They who fight against Zion shall be destroyed; and the pit which has been digged shall be filled by those who digged it" is contrary to the command in D&C 58:21 to obey the laws of the land
• Response to claim: 316, 587n15 (HB) 585n15 (PB) - Did John Taylor receive a revelation on September 27, 1886 that promised that “polygamy would never be abandoned"?
• Response to claim: 317, 587n25 (PB) - Brigham said that “the only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy"
• Response to claim: 319, 588n35-36(PB) - Did Joseph Smith promise in 1835 that most of the Saints then living would see Jesus’ return by 1890?
• Response to claim: 320, 588n40 (PB) - Did Wilford Woodruff demolish the Church’s Endowment House in response to agreement with the U.S. to “cease practicing plural marriage"?
• Response to claim: 323, 589n51-52 (PB) - The Manifesto was not a revelation because it was re-written and edited many times before it was released
• Response to claim; 324-325, 589n53 (PB) - Did the Manifesto included "blatantly false statements" since over 200 plural marriages were performed after the Manifesto was issued?
• Response to claim: 325, 591n54 (HB) 589n54 (PB) - Brigham Young said "I live above the law, and so do this people"
• Response to claim: 325, 589n55 (PB) - Did "countless" plural marriages occur in Utah, Canada, and Mexico after the Manifesto, as the author claims?
• Response to claim: 326, 590n58-59 (PB) - "Lying, either to bring about a 'greater good' or to protect the church, has always been an acceptable practice within Mormonism"
• Response to claim: 326, 590n60 (PB) - Did Joseph F. Smith defy the Manifesto?
• Response to claim: 327, 590n62 (PB) - The author states that polygamy continued to "thrive" when Lorenzo Snow became Church president in 1898
• Response to claim: 328, 591n67 (PB) - "These were but a small portion of the documented 262 post-Manifesto marriages between October 1890 and December 1910 involving 22 different Mormon men"
• Response to claim: 328 - "Smith, of course, like every other LDS president before him, would continue utilizing cunning prevarications to conceal his personal activities"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 15: Making the Transition"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 331, 591n2 (PB) - Did the number of plural marriages jump "nearly five-fold" immediately after Utah gained statehood?
• Response to claim: 332 - Did Reed Smoot take an oath of vengeance against the United States because of their failure to come to the aid of the Saints when they were being persecuted?
• Response to claim: 334 - Did the concept of revenge play a "very prominent role" in early Latter-day Saints' beliefs?
• Response to claim: 334, 592n10 (PB) - In the 1800s, did Latter-day Saints "glorify vengeance" through the singing of hymns?
• Response to claim: 335 - Were Latter-day Saints who served in positions in the U.S. government hindered by having taken an "oath of vengeance"?
• Response to claim: 335-336 - Did the "oath of vengeance" require the Latter-day Saints instruct their descendants to take vengeance upon the U.S. government?
• Response to claim: 336 - Do LDS church authorities believe that "non-Mormons are unfit to rule" and that Latter-day Saints are the only ones fit to rule the world?
• Response to claim: 336, 593n17 - Did Church president Joseph F. Smith defend his "illegal cohabitation with five wives" during Senate testimony?
• Response to claim: 337, 593n20 - Did Joseph F. Smith authorize polygamous marriages in Mexico and request that the records stay there so that they wouldn't be found during a search by U.S. officials?
• Response to claim: 339, 593n32 - Did Joseph F. Smith admit that he had broken the laws of the land and the laws of God?
• Response to claim: 343, 594n54 - What was the "Second Manifesto" issued by Joseph F. Smith?
• Response to claim: 351, n91 - Does the Church teach the the current practice of monogamy is only temporary and that polygamy will be reinstated when Christ returns?
• Response to claim: 353 - Do Latter-day Saints have "underlying white supremacist beliefs"?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 16: Mormon Racism: Black Is Not Beautiful"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 355 epigraph, 597n1 - Joseph Smith said in History of the Church: "Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species..."
• Response to claim: 356, 597n5 - "Mormonism and racism have for many years been synonymous terms to persons well acquainted with Latter-day Saint beliefs"
• Response to claim: 356 - "the granting of the priesthood to blacks in 1978 failed to "eradicate the previous 148 years of Mormon racist/white supremacist teachings"
• Response to claim: 356, n6 - The author claims that Latter-day Saints traditionally believe that everyone's place in the world was determined by how they behaved in the pre-mortal world
• Response to claim: 357, 597n7, 9-11 - "These admirable spirits served God well, followed his commands, and did the most with their talents before coming to earth. Consequently, they...are born as Mormons in America"
• Response to claim: 358, 597n13 - Were those who were "less valiant" born as blacks?
• Response to claim: 358, 597n14-15 - Brigham Young and Bruce R. McConkie claimed that blacks were of the lineage of Cain
• Response to claim: 360, 598n23-26 - Bruce R. McConkie said..."The negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned"
• Response to claim: 361, 598n27 - "As a white Mormon, I proudly accepted the teaching that my fair skin and Mormon parentage signified that I had been one of God's most intelligent and obedient born-in-heaven spirit children"
• Response to claim: 361, 598n28, 31 - Interracial marriage was condemned by Brigham Young as "one of the most heinous of deeds"
• Response to claim: 362, 598n29-30 - Mark E. Petersen said that segregation was acceptable, and that interracial marriage "posed a danger"
• Response to claim; 364, 599n40 - Wallace Turner claims that Latter-day Saints did not support the Civil Rights movement because they had "strong feelings of racial superiority infused into them by years of white supremacist teachings"
• Response to claim: 366 - David O. McKay was "blocked" from granting Blacks the priesthood by Ezra Taft Benson, Harold B. Lee, and Joseph Fielding Smith
• Response to claim: 367 - When George Wallace asked President David O. McKay if Ezra Taft Benson could be his vice-presidential running mate, this request was denied
• Response to claim: 368 - By the time Spencer W. Kimball took over as Church president "the church had been enduring non-stop pressure to conform with America's realization that racial inequality had to end"
• Response to claim: 369, 599n57 - President Kimball was forced to change the priesthood restriction because of the new temple in Brazil
• Response to claim: 370 - "Mormons, by and large, were pleased that God had changed his mind at such a convenient time in history"
• Response to claim: 370 - The author claims that the lifting of the priesthood ban caused "millions of dollars" to begin "flowing into the church's coffers"
• Response to claim: 370, 599n59 - Brigham Young said that Blacks would not receive the priesthood until after the resurrection of the dead
• Response to claim: 371, 600n63 - Is the idea that the words of a living prophet are more important than the teachings of a dead prophet a "illogical belief"?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 17: Is Mormonism Christian"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 375 epigraph (PB) - Gordon B. Hinckley is listed as "President, Mormon Church"
• Response to claim: 375, n3 (PB) - The author presents his second significant reason that people join the Church as "the long-held Mormon notion that Latter-day Saints are innately better than non-Mormons"
• Response to claim: 376 (PB) - Early LDS leaders took a "staunchly anti-Christian stance"
• Response to claim: 377, n8(PB) - Did Joseph actually say that all the churches of Christendom "were all wrong" and that Christian ministers "were all corrupt"?
• Response to claim: 377 (PB) - The author asserts that Joseph claimed that all other churches were founded by Satan and part of the "satanic world system"
• Response to claim: 377, 600n11-14 (PB) - Did LDS leaders spend 150 years calling Christians "derogatory names" and insulting them?
• Response to claim: 378, 601n18-21 (PB) - The book presents a table contrasting "Mormon Beliefs About Jesus" with "Christian Beliefs About Jesus"
• Response to claim: 379 601n22(PB) - Did President Hinckley actually "confess" that Latter-day Saint do not believe in the same 'Jesus' in which non-LDS Christians believe?
• Response to claim: 379-380 603n23 (HB) 601n23 (PB) - Did Bruce R. McConkie discourage people from attempting to form a "personal relationship" with Christ?
• Response to claim: 380 - Is the "LDS teaching" that there exists more than one god refuted by the Bible?
• Response to claim: 380 - If the Bible says that "God will share His glory with no one," then how could one hope to become like Him?
• Response to claim: 380, 603n25 (HB) 601n25 (PB) - Paul said in the Bible that "the natural (or physical) comes first, then comes the spiritual." Why then, did Brigham Young say that people are "made first spiritual, and afterwards temporal"?
• Response to claim: 381, 603n26 (HB) 601n26 (PB) - "The Christian gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus...The Latter-day Saint gospel...'evolution of man until he shall become a god'"
• Response to claim: 383, 601n29 - The author claims that Latter-day Saints dismiss the Bible's teachings "whenever they contradict official LDS beliefs"
• Response to claim: 383-4, 601n31 - Did 19th century LDS leaders repeatedly condemn the Bible?
• Response to claim: 385 - Did the Church present itself as a "Christian organization" only by restricting accurate information about LDS beliefs?
• Response to claim: 385, 601n37-38 - The author claims that a "faithful Mormon" was excommunicated for "accurately" explaining "Mormon doctrines and history"
• Response to claim: 388 - Did Gordon B. Hinckely answer questions about LDS doctrine evasively?
• Response to claim: 389 - "The masking of Mormonism has continued unabated...Mormonism's smoke-screen of words has served to greatly confuse observers..."
• Response to claim: 391, n53 - The author claims that Latter-day Saints attempted to "infiltrate" Christian churches in order to convert entire congregations
• Response to claim: 393-400 - Is the LDS Church really a "cult"?
• Response to claim: 400 - The author states that LDS leaders will have to "completely sever its ties with Christianity" in order not to be called a "cult" and gain "legitimacy"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Chapter 18: Cover-Ups, Conspiracies, and Controversies"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 402 (PB) - Does the Mormon Tabernacle Choir "proselytize unsuspecting music lovers"?
• Response to claim: 403 - "The general public, especially outside America, still possesses little knowledge of the unsavory nature of Mormonism"
• Response to claim: 403, 605n9 (PB) - Baptisms for the dead were performed for Nazis, including Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun
• Response to claim: 403 - Baptisms for the dead are incompatible with Christianity
• Response to claim: 404 - "It is possible that many readers of this book have had their deceased relatives baptized by proxy into Mormonism"
• Response to claim: 404, 605n14 (PB) - Latter-day Saints performed vicarious baptisms for Jews who had died in the Holocaust
• Response to claim: 405, 605n18-19 (PB) - Do LDS leaders suppress access to Church archives?
• Response to claim: 405, 607n21 (HB) 605n21 (PB) - "LDS leaders re-write historical documents, deny that other documents exist, create fictitious historical data..."
• Response to claim: 406, 605n22 (PB) - The History of the Church was mostly written after his death, but reads as if he wrote it himself
• Response to claim: 406 - Was writing the History of the Church as if Joseph himself wrote it a "flagrant breach of standard protocol for persons producing historical works" as the book claims?
• Response to claim: 406, 608n23 (HB) 606n23 (PB) - Was a "forged prediction" added to the history that a "mighty people" that would dwell "in the midst of the Rocky Mountains"?
• Response to claim: 406, 606n23 (PB) - Was a "forged prediction" added to the history of the Church regarding the future political career of Senator Stephen A. Douglas?
• Response to claim: 407, 606n26 (PB) - LDS leaders claim that the "official history" is "the most accurate history in all the world"
• Response to claim: 407 - The minutes of a conference dealing with Sidney Rigdon discussed in Volume six of the History of the Church differs from the minutes originally printed in the Times and Seasons
• Response to claim: 412 - The book claims that there is "academic dishonesty foisted upon church members by LDS scholars"
• Response to claim: 412 - "Mormonism has been an emotion-based religion opposed to intellectual, rational thought"
• Response to claim: 412 - Latter-day Saints are supposed to only rely on the "burning in the bosom" even if they are "faced with irrefutable facts that undermine the LDS church"
• Response to claim: 412, 609n34 (HB) 607n34 (PB) - Latter-day Saints are instructed to "simply not think and obey church authorities"
• Response to claim: 413-414, 609-610n39 (HB) 607n39 (PB) - Did Ezra Taft Benson's talk about "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet" speech eliminate the possibility of Latter-day Saints exercising independent thought?
• Response to claim: 414, 610n42 (HB) 608n42 (PB) - N. Eldon Tanner said, "When the prophet has spoken, the debate is over"
• Response to claim: 415, 608-609n43-57 (PB) - Did the Church excommunicate a number of "dissidents"?
• Response to claim: 418, 611n58 (HB) 609n58 (PB) - President Hinckley said that "dissidents" that were excommunicated got what they deserved "as cursed servants of Satan"
• Response to claim: 418, 611n59-60 (HB) 609n59-60 (PB) - Is the "Strengthening Church Members Committee" is a group used to spy on members of the Church?
• Response to claim: 419 - The 1997 Relief Society manual makes it sound as if Brigham Young only had one wife and six children
• Response to claim: 420, 611n63 (HB) 609n63 (PB) - Gordon B. Hinckley tried to cover up the Church's polygamous past when he appeared on Larry King Live and said that only two to five percent of the early LDS practiced it
• Response to claim: 420, 612n68-71 (HB) 610n68-71 (PB) - Does the Book of Mormon claim that Native Americans will miraculously turn "white-skinned" by accepting "Mormon beliefs"?
• Response to claim: 422, 612n75 (HB) 610n75 (PB) - Did the Church acquire the Hofmann documents (later discovered to be forgeries) in order to suppress them?
• Response to claim: 424 - "Mormon leaders also blocked efforts by police to see exactly what documents were in LDS church vaults"
• Response to claim: 424, 612n78 (HB) 610n78 (PB) - LDS leaders should have been capable of detecting the Hofmann deception
• Response to claim: 427 - "The Mormon habit of sometimes taking detours around truth to protect the church has not always led to murder"
• Response to claim: 428, n85 - Paul H. Dunn defended his embellishments in order to "illustrate his theological and moral points"
• Response to claim: 430-433 - Was the Salt Lake Olympic bribery scandal the fault of the Church?
• Response to claim: 434, 614n117-127 - Do Latter-day Saints believe they will rescue the Constitution from ruin, thus allowing "Mormonism" to take over the world?

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Postscript" (paperback only)

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 437, n2 - "all marriages continued in heaven will involve participation in plural marriage"
• Response to claim: 438 - "More than a few Mormons, although they had never actually read my book, declared without hesitation that it was rife with errors"
• Response to claim: 441, n10 - Boyd K. Packer said: "I have a hard time with historians because they idolize the truth"
• Response to claim: 442, n14 - "Some of the harshest criticism I received from Mormons came from those who were irate over my depiction of Brigham Young"
• Response to claim: 442 - Did Will Bagley demonstrate that LDS leaders, and particularly Brigham Young, "probably" planned and executed the Mountain Meadows Massacre?
• Response to claim: 442 - "Mormons...consider it their religious right to kill antagonistic outsiders, common criminals, LDS apostates, and even faithful Mormons who committed sins worthy of death"
• Response to claim: 443 - Did Will Bagley "prove the charge often dismissed by faithful LDS church members" that Latter-day Saints refused to sell any provisions to the Fancher party?
• Response to claim: 443 - "Blood of the Prophets once and for all dispelled the long-standing Mormon myth that members of the doomed company poisoned an important cattle stream, thereby almost deserving their fate"
• Response to claim: 443, 615n15 (PB) - Bagley states "In their desire to exonerate Brigham Young of any guilt, official Mormon accounts of the crime laid the blame on victims and Indians, a tradition that is alive and well today"
• Response to claim: 443, 615n16-18 - Brigham Young said: "When a man is found to be a thief, he will be a thief no longer, cut his throat, & thro' him in the River"
• Response to claim: 444-446, n23-24 - Did past LDS leaders hold and expound racist views?
• Response to claim: 447, 616n31 - Did Gordon B. Hinckley "admit" in April 2002 that Latter-day Saints do not believe in the same 'Jesus' as non-LDS Christians?
• Response to claim: 448, 616n34 - The author claims that Dallin Oaks told Latter-day Saints in 1995 "that so-called Christianity sees God as an entirely different kind of being"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Appendix A: Abraham's Book?"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 449 - "Surely Smith would be able to translate the writings, thereby proving his God-given abilities"
• Response to claim: 449 - Joseph "was positive" that he could translate the Book of Abraham scrolls because "the inscriptions were so similar to those on the Book of Mormon golden plates..."
• Response to claim: 450 - The book claims that "modern Mormons" believe that the Book of Abraham "proves" Joseph Smith's "powers of translation"
• Response to claim: 450 - "The ancient documents Smith acquired were only copies of common Egyptian funeral texts"
• Response to claim: 450-451 - Joseph's interpretations of the facsimilies has been rejected by Egyptologists
• Response to claim: 451 - The book reproduces a reconstruction of what Facsimile 1 is alleged to have looked like from Charles M. Larson's book By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
• Response to claim: 455 - The author completely omits the fact that the Church published an article in the Improvement Era soon after the discovery of the papyrus fragments that acknowledged that they were from the Book of Breathings
• Response to claim: 455 - The scrolls were written approximately 2000 years after Abraham's death, and were therefore could not have been written by his hand as Joseph claimed
• Response to claim: 456-457 - The Book of Abraham was "translated" by expanding single Egyptian characters into entire paragraphs of text

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Appendix B: Failed Joseph Smith Prophecies"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 459, 616n1 - Moroni told Joseph that Isaiah 11:6-11 was "about to be fulfilled"
• Response to claim: 459, 616n2 - Joseph was to go to Canada and sell the Book of Mormon copyright
• Response to claim: 459, 616n3 - The book claims that the elect were to be gathered "against the day when tribulation and desolation are sent forth upon the wicked"
• Response to claim: 460, 616n8 - A temple in Missouri would be built "in this generation"
• Response to claim: 461 - The author claims that the Civil War prophecy was false
• Response to claim: 461, 616n10 - The wicked "of this generation" would be swept from the face of the land and the Lost Ten tribes would be gathered within Joseph Smith's generation
• Response to claim: 461, 617n12 - The Latter-day Saints should retain their Missouri lands and seek legal redress. If they did not obtain it, then God would avenge them and destroy their adversaries
• Response to claim: 462, 617n14 - The United Order was claimed through revelation to be "everlasting," "immutable and unchangeable" until Jesus comes
• Response to claim: 462, 617n15 - Joseph Smith prophesied that the Lord said: "I will fight your battles..." The author claims that this is a failed prophecy
• Response to claim: 462, 617n16 - September 11, 1836 was "the appointed time for the redemption of Zion." The author claims that this is a failed prophecy
• Response to claim: 462, 617n17 - Joseph said that "The coming of the Lord, which is nigh—even fifty-six years should wind up the scene"
• Response to claim: 463, 617n18 - The author comments that Hyde "did nothing to facilitate the gathering of the Jews, which did not occur until over 100 years later"
• Response to claim: 463, 617n19 - Joseph was sent to Salem, Massachusetts to receive "its wealth pertaining to gold and silver"
• Response to claim: 463, 617n20 - Joseph Smith gave a "failed prophecy" when he said that Thomas B. Marsh would be "exalted," and that he would preach "unto the ends of the earth"
• Response to claim: 463, 617n21 - Joseph Smith prophesied that David W. Patten would go on a mission "next spring...to testify of my name and bear glad tidings unto all the world"
• Response to claim: 464, 617n24 - On Jan. 20, 1843 Joseph Smith "prophesies that he and Orson Hyde will drink wine together in Palestine"
• Response to claim: 464, 617n25-26 - "the Son of Man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty-five years old"
• Response to claim; 464, 617n27 - "There are those of the rising generation who shall not taste death till Christ comes"
• Response to claim: 464, 617n28 - Joseph Smith said "in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted"
• Response to claim: 465, 617n30 - Joseph Smith prophesied "that 5 years would not roll round before the company would all be able to live without cooking"

Response to claims made in One Nation Under Gods, "Appendix C: Recommended Resources"

Jump to details:

• Response to claim: 468 - "Studying Mormonism is a difficult task given the fact that much of the historical documents dealing with LDS history are extremely difficult to obtain"
• Response to claim: 468 - "websites by devout Mormons tend to be overtly biased and permeated with LDS propaganda"

Notes

Summary: Responses to claims made in "Notes" (473-617) (PB)

Source analysis

Summary: An examination and response to how the author of One Nation Under Gods interprets the sources used to support this work, indexed by page number.

Loaded and prejudicial language

Summary: An examination of how the author employs loaded and prejudicial language in this work in order to discredit Mormonism.

Absurd claims

Summary: Some of the claims made in this work are simply absurd. We list and respond to those claims here.

Presentism

Summary: “Presentism” is an analytical fallacy in which past behavior is evaluated by modern standards or mores. We examine some of our favorite examples of this fallacy in One Nation Under Gods.

Mind reading

Summary: The author often attempts to interpret what Joseph was thinking as a way to lead the reader to a predetermined conclusion regarding Joseph Smith.

Rewording secondary sources

Summary: A list of paragraphs which echo the prose of Fawn Brodie's No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith.

Sarcasm

Summary: The author of One Nation Under Gods uses sarcasm to belittle what he claims to be LDS beliefs and doctrine.

About this work

[M]ore than a few Mormons, although they had never actually read my book, declared without hesitation that it was rife with errors.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 438 (paperback edition)

We did indeed read the book (both the Hardback and the Paperback), thoroughly. They are, and continue to be, rife with errors.

Quotes from the author

[T]o be honest, your FAIR analysis of the hardbound is actually hurting you in some very interesting ways -- and you don't even know it. Suffice it to say, I have been enjoying the many times I've had the pleasure of point out to lots of Mormons (many of them now former Mormons) where FAIR has not been completely honest, and where FAIR has shown itself to be terrifically nit-picky and petty. I thank you.
—The author, commenting on FAIR's previous analysis of this work. Posted to Mormon Apologetics and Discussion Board, Nov. 21, 2008

...what ONUG [One Nation Under Gods] did was to provide needed information to non-Mormons, evangelicals, secularists, and from what I hear, even many Mormons (many of whom, thanks to ONUG, are no longer Mormons).
—The author, commenting on the value of his book. Posted to Mormon Apologetics and Discussion Board, Dec. 7, 2008

Props to FAIR for reacting so quickly to my responses to what they had kept up at their website for 5 years. After my refutation of their so-called critique of One Nation Under Gods was posted, it took them about 1-2 weeks to take everything down. Good job, FAIR!
—The author, responding to this "so-called" critique. The statement, however, is not accurate. The original 27 articles were taken off the FAIR website and moved here to the FAIR Wiki, where over 100 new articles were added. Posted to Mormon Apologetics and Discussion Board, May 14, 2009

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It should be noted that the author's response to the list of problems documented by FAIR is that the editing on the hardback edition of One Nation Under Gods (ONUG) was incomplete and that many of the problems were corrected in the paperback edition, published a year later. (This corrected paperback edition bears no markings indicating that it is a second edition or an updated edition; it simply appears as a paperback edition of the original.) This review primarily treats the paperback edition of this work, with an acknowledgment of corrections made by the author to the hardback edition.

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. [ONUG, 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—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.