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About Richard Abanes
(Biography/History) |
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Richard Abanes (born 1961)—known as Richie Abanesduring
his days as a professional singer, dancer, and actor (c.
1976-1987)—is an award-winning American author/journalist
specializing
in the area of cults, the occult, world religions, pop culture, and the entertainment
industry.
Since 1994 he has authored/co-authored twenty books (as of 2008) covering a broad range of topics, including: near-death experiences, racism and hate crimes in America, children and video games, children's fantasy literature, Mormonism (both its history and doctrines), Easter, The Da Vinci Code, and the New Age Movement's as it relates to Oprah Winfrey/Eckhart Tolle. He also has written for several major Christian magazines including Christianity Today, New Man, Charisma, Moody Magazine, and Christian Research Journal. In 1997, Abanes won the "Higher Goals In Christian Journalism Award" from the Evangelical Press Association for his article on various non-Christian faiths that appeared in Moody Magazine. Also in 1997, he was awarded The Myers Center Award for the Study of Human Rights in North America for his work on intolerance in North America (as found in his book American Militias: Rebellion, Racism, and Religion). His bestselling volumes, according to Christian Booksellers Association listings, are Harry Potter and the Bible and The Truth Behind The DaVinci Code. As a lecturer on many religious topics, he has been a guest speaker at various institutions, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, CalTech, Mensa, California Baptist University, and Biola University. Abanes also has been interviewed on hundreds of radio/TV programs and networks including BBC, MSNBC, CNN, The 700 Club, Extra!, and The Bible Answer Man as an authority on cults/religion, pop culture, and the entertainment industry. Abanes is a lay minister at Saddleback Church (Lake Forest, California), pastored by Rick Warren (bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life). He served on staff as Saddleback's Creative Arts Director from 1998 to 2000. Abanes began his career as a professional singer, dancer, and actor (with Screen Actors Guild and Actors Equity Association) in local theater (Rockford, Illinois) at the age of thirteen. He began doing semi-professional theater within a year, and during his high school years he was featured in many productions throughout Northern Illinois including West Side Story, Fiddler On the Roof, and You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown. He also became a featured dancer in the Rockford Dance Company, while simultaneously studying dance in Chicago with professional companies such as The Hubbard Street Dancers and Joel Hall Studios.After graduating, Abanes moved to Nashville, where he worked as a featured performer at Opryland U.S.A. (eventually starring as George M. Cohan in For Me and My Gal). During the next two years, he also appeared as a dancer in several Nashville-based TV specials such as "Merry Christmas from the Grand Ole Opry" in 1980, "Opryland: Night of Superstars and Future Stars," and "The 14th Annual Music City News Country Music Awards." He was also a featured dancer for the weeklyNBC variety series Nashville Palace (1981). Abanes subsequently moved to New York, where he landed a role in the "International" and "Bus & Truck" companies of the 1983 Broadway hit musical A Chorus Line, (official revival site and original cast site) which became the longest running Broadway show of that era. Soon afterward, Abanes was given a featured dance role on Broadway in the musical Dreamgirls. While in New York, he continued his studies in dance with American Dance Machine, Alvin Ailey Dance Center, American Ballet Theater, Luigi's Jazz Center, Rick Atwell, and Ann Reinking. In the years that followed, Abanes was featured in national television commercials for Canada Dry, Wendy's, and Nissan. He also played the lead role in two ABC After School Specials, co-starred in the film Rappin', and starred in the Bill Moyers PBS special titled "The Constitution." Abanes left show business in 1987, and in 1989, began working as a mail clerk at the Christian Research Institute, a nonprofit
organization. In 1994, he left CRI to pursue a new career as a
full-time freelance journalist. His first book, co-authored with three
other writers, was Prophets of the Apocalypse: David Koresh and Other American Messiahs, published in 1994 (Baker Books). Contrary to the allegations of his critics, Abanes has never advocated book banning or censorship in relation to the Harry Potter novels. On the contrary, he has always been an outspoken critic of such extreme actions. His consistent position has been that the Harry Potter series may be problematic for some young children because the books present certain real-world occult practices, viewpoints, and lore in an appealing way (e.g. divination, alchemy, and spiritualism) and because he believes the series offers moral relativism as its ethical foundation. Abanes's first concern is that some children might become so curious about real-world occultism that they will seek to emulate the occult practices they see in Harry Potter. His views are based on child developmental studies and the patterns of copycat behavior that have been exhibited by children/teens in the past in response to popular books, films, and TV programs. Abanes's second concern is that some children might also begin to emulate the subjective morality he sees being exalted in the books by the "good" characters. According to Abanes, the unrelenting "bad" deeds of so-called good characters could be confusing to young children and ultimately set up an unclear sense of right and wrong for them. Abanes has also disagreed with claims made by other Christian writers (such as John Granger) that the Harry Potter series is actually a sort of Christian series of books akin to C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. (Abanes extensively covers this controversy in Harry Potter, Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings.) Abanes’s books were written as a resource for Christians
(particularly parents) who are researching the Harry Potter books and
their relationship to controversies associated with occult/pagan
content of some children's fantasy literature, and the influences of
witchcraft, Wicca, and similar religions that affect youth. - One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church (2002); and
- Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st Century Mormonism (2004), which was later re-titled in a subsequent printing as Inside Today's Mormonism. These works, particularly One Nation Under Gods, have been criticized by members of the Mormon Church for allegedly relying entirely on websites and anti-Mormon literature as primary sources of documentation. Abanes has additionally been criticized by defenders of Mormonism for and labeling any anti-Mormon source as "excellent," while calling pro-LDS sources "biased." In reality, however, these charges have been shown to be false. For example, with regard to the second allegation, this has been based almost entirely on a single statement made by Abanes in One Nation Under Gods, where he merely stated that the "scholarly sources" from one particular pro-LDS website run by an organization called FARMS (Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies) are not reliable. Abanes observed: "FARMS, under auspices of BYU,
a highly scholarly site, seeks to validate Mormonism on an
academic/intellectual level, [but is] highly biased, very unreliable,
can be confusing to the average reader due to the use of technical
terminology--often misleading due to its use of historical,
archaeological, and linguistic arguments unverifiable by persons not
possessing higher education."
As for the first accusation, One Nation Under Gods actually uses as its primary sources of documentation a wide array of official writings from the church (and unofficial Mormon writings) from well-respected leaders throughout LDS history. These sources are quoted extensively and form the bulk of references: Book of Mormon (original 1830 edition), Book of Mormon (modern edition), Articles of Faith, Book of Moses, Book of Abraham, Book of Commandments, Doctrine and Covenants, A Comprehensive History of the Church, Documentary History of the Church, Journal of Discourses, Millennial Star, The Latter-day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, Pearl of Great Price, and Times and Seasons. Internet sources cited in the endnotes of One Nation Under Gods are websites of the above resources that can be accessed by the general public. Becoming Gods (aka Inside Today's Mormonism) heavily cites many of these same sources used in One Nation Under Gods, but pays more attention to the doctrinal statements they contain. Becoming Gods
also includes hundreds of quotations from contemporary defenders of
Mormonism based at Brigham Young University (i.e. LDS scholars
connected to the FARMS organization) and lay Mormon apologists
connected to FAIR
(Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research). Abanes attempts
to interact from a theological perspective with the latest LDS
arguments that support Mormon theological views. The book's appendix
includes an essay written by one of Mormonism's most notable apologists
from BYU, Daniel Peterson (professor of Islamic Studies and Arabic), titled "Why I Am A Mormon." Plagiarism Charges In April 2003, the Christian Sentinel (published by Bill Alnor) alleged that Abanes, in his 1998 book Cults, New Religious Movements, and Your Family, had plagiarized approximately ninety words from researcher Kurt Van Gorden's chapter on Scientology in The Kingdom of the Cults. Alnor later offered Abanes an opportunity to respond to the charges in his publication, but Abanes declined. His various responses regarding Van Gorden's charges have appeared only on various Internet message boards. Noteworthy is the fact that no lawsuit was ever filed by Van Gorden against Abanes. Moreover, the publisher of Walter Martin's The Kingdom of the Cults is the very same publisher that has since released Abanes's book on Eckhart Tolle and Oprah Winfrey titled A New Earth, An Old Deception: Awakening to the Dangers of Eckhart Tolle's #1 Bestseller. Bibliography
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