Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Use of sources/The Anti-Mormon Articles of Faith

The LDS as Mindless Followers

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods A work by author: Richard Abanes

The Anti-Mormon Articles of Faith?

The Quote

One Nation under Gods, page 475 (hardback)

AOF: The Articles of Faith are thirteen statements that outline the more socially acceptable Mormon beliefs, usually discussed openly by Latter-day Saints when explaining Mormonism to potential converts. None of the articles deal with any doctrines that might be viewed as offensive or controversial to non-Mormons. The Articles of Faith are contained in modern LDS editions of the Pearl of Great Price, one of the Standard Works of the Mormon church. The AOF are on-line at http://www.exmormon.org/fourteen.htm.. A searchable text version of the Articles of Faith is online at http://www.concordance.com/mormon.htm, under the Pearl of Great Price.

One Nation under Gods, page 473 (paperback)

AOF: The Articles of Faith are thirteen statements that outline the more socially acceptable Mormon beliefs, usually discussed openly by Latter-day Saints when explaining Mormonism to potential converts. None of the articles deal with any doctrines that might be viewed as offensive or controversial to non-Mormons. The Articles of Faith are contained in modern LDS editions of the Pearl of Great Price, one of the Standard Works of the Mormon church. The AOF are on-line at http://scriptures.lds.org/a_of_f/1. A searchable text version of the Articles of Faith is online at http://www.concordance.com/mormon.htm, under the Pearl of Great Price.

The Reference

None

The Problems

The link

In the hardback version of the book (available in public libraries), the author provides a link for the Articles of Faith, but one doesn't find the Articles of Faith at that link. Readers who go to that Web site expecting to see the Articles of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will instead find a list of fourteen slanted and derogatory statements by a critic of the LDS faith. One would, of course, suspect the Web site that the author referenced, due to the domain name, "exmormon.org." Consequently, one ought not to be surprised when when you do not find the Articles of Faith, nor would you find a link to the Articles of Faith from that site. The author changed this link to point to the LDS site in the paperback edition.

Here are a few examples of the "Articles of Faith" one will find at the original link provided by the author. For those of you who are familiar with the real Articles of Faith, ask yourself if this seems a bit deceptive:

"We believe by manipulating statistics we can show we have a superior belief system. We disregard statistics which are embarrassing to our position such as the high divorce rate in Utah." (Article 13 from the exmormon.org Web site.)

"God was once a man who lived on another planet. This is the most important teaching of Mormonism. Nothing else comes close to it." (Article 1 from the exmormon.org Web site.)

"We will only read church approved materials." (Article 8 from the exmormon.org Web site.)

If you chuckled more than once while reading these three "articles," you aren't alone.

One could attempt to give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume he mistakenly put this childish, anti-Mormon, undocumented link there. Or perhaps the author purposely inserted this link to cause his readers to think that if they went there they would find the LDS Articles of Faith. According to the author himself, he provided a link "to an anti-Mo website that posted a paraphrased, expansion, editorialized version of what they viewed the articles to actually mean." ^[1]

In either case, this is incorrect and an example of dreadful use of sources and documentation.

The Articles of Faith

Of course, this says nothing of the author's incredibly subjective description of what the Articles of Faith are. Apparently the Articles of Faith don't go deep enough for the author, which is a silly expectation to begin with. Most religious organizations and churches, Christian and others, publish a simple list of "Articles of Faith," or "Statement of Faith," or "What We Believe." I've never seen a case where a religious organization's Articles of Faith are anything more than a very basic and brief list of rudimentary doctrinal statements. It is usually no more than a half-page in length. For anyone looking for a more detailed description of LDS doctrines, one would need to go to the scriptures and other official declarations of the Church. It is unreasonable to expect anything more than a simple list of basic beliefs from the Articles of Faith.

Condemning the LDS Articles of Faith, as the author does, is like condemning the phone book for a lack of plot. In other words, just as the phone book is not written with the purpose of having a plot, neither are the Articles of Faith intended to explain deep doctrine. It is what it is-a brief statement of basic beliefs-no more, no less.

Endnotes

1. [note] Richard Abanes, "Fourteen Articles of Faith", post to MADB, Dec. 12, 2008.

Further reading

FAIR Wiki

• Differing versions of the Articles of Faith

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FAIR web site

• Matthew B. Brown, "Accusations Against the Articles of Faith," FAIR Brochure, 2004. PDF link

External links

• John W. Welch and David J. Whittaker, "'We Believe....': Development of the Articles of Faith," Ensign (September 1979): 51.off-site
• David J. Whittaker, "Articles of Faith," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 1:68–69.