Well before any period of disaffection took place in my mind I was well aware of Jerald and Sandra Tanner and their very “anti-Mormon” messages they preached. If you are unaware, they founded the Utah Lighthouse Ministry in Salt Lake which has a bookstore spreading “evil rumors” about the LDS church. In my research I have always wanted to search for information form original historical sources and I have tried to avoid the likes of Ed Decker and the Tanners due to their perceived bias. Since my study from original source material has already kicked me well into my crisis of faith, I thought it might be interesting to dive into some of that biased material. What do I have to lose at this point?
I have recently been reading the Tanner’s book The Changing World of Mormonism (available free online) and I have been shocked to see that the bulk of what they present is fair and accurate. I am the first to admit that they are very biased against the church and have their own Christian objectives. They have been criticized for making some leaps and connections without historical references but the points that they are making leaps between are still accurate and historically factual. One thing I have enjoyed about this book is the included copies of actual historical documents that they refer to. I believe that they are (and were in Jerald’s case) good people trying to help people find truth. Although I am not too interested in their Christian views at this point, I think their information is still useful. I wouldn’t recommend their stuff if you are just starting to research the truth about the LDS church (remember milk before meat, right?) but they do present some good information that I found to be informative and useful.
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