Jerald and Sandra Tanner are long-time Utah-resident critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS Church).

The Tanners, both of whom were practicing Mormons before becoming born-again Christians, run the Utah Lighthouse Ministry, whose stated mission is to "document problems with the claims of Mormonism and compare LDS doctrines with Christianity." They have done this by reprinting original versions of early Mormon writings and scripture, highlighting supposed changes in doctrine that have emerged over the years, such as the rejection of Brigham Young's "Adam-God theory." Documents that they have published include:

  • Mormonism: Shadow or Reality, a long, densely-written work full of reproductions of early Mormon documents accompanied by commentary written by the Tanners. This has subsequently been revised and is the basis for their later (and more readable) book, titled The Changing World of Mormonism.
  • The original version of the Book of Mormon, in which the Tanners highlight numerous changes in spelling, punctuation and wording. Most of these changes are trivial and have been defended by supporters of Mormonism as typographical rather than substantive alterations. A few changes, however, have doctrinal significance. Until recently, for example, the Book of Mormon referred frequently to righteous people as "white and delightsome," a phrase whose racial implications were interpreted by many Mormons as support for its practice of denying the priesthood to African-Americans. After this so-called "Negro doctrine" was abandoned in 1979, the phrase "white and delightsome" was revised to "pure and delightsome. (this same change was made by Joseph Smith in early edited editions of the Book of Mormon, and appears in some pre-publication manuscripts). Thus, A Brief Explanation About the Book of Mormon in the beginning of the Book of Mormon states: "Some minor errors in the text have been perpetuated in past editions of the Book of Mormon. This edition contains corrections that seem appropriate to bring the material into conformity with prepublication manuscripts and early editions edited by the Prophet Joseph Smith."
  • Changing versions of the LDS Church's temple ceremony, which originally contained language and rituals that some people found lurid and offensive. From the point of LDS members, however, the most offensive aspect of the Tanners' decision to publish the ceremony is that it exposes to public scrutiny practices that members consider sacred and private.

The Tanners are not professional scholars, and their work has sometimes been criticized as tendentious and polemical. However, they have on occasion shown historical insight and intellectual integrity. They were among the first public skeptics, for example, of the Salamander Letter, a notorious hoax against Mormonism perpetrated by one of its own members, Mark Hofmann. Based on their familiarity with early anti-Mormon literature, the Tanners stated that they thought Hofmann's Salamander letter was a hoax at a time when many members regarded it as genuine and the LDS Church itself purchased the document for its historical archives. The Tanners have also debunked false claims circulated by a Christian evangelist filmmaker who claimed that LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley had engaged in sex with prostitutes and young boys. [1] [1]. The Tanners have also criticized Ed Decker's The Godmakers for its misrepresentation of the LDS Church.

Related articles

Controversies regarding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism and Christianity

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