See update:
Sandra Tanner Retiring
Utah Lighthouse Bookstore Closed
Utah Lighthouse Ministry (1964-2023) was a Christian non-profit organization providing humanitarian outreach to the Community, and printing critical research and documentation on the LDS Church.
Originally founded as Modern Microfilm Co. by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, the company was reorganized as a non-profit organization on January 1, 1983, and the name was changed to Utah Lighthouse Ministry.
Jerald and Sandra Tanner were raised in the LDS faith, both with a strong Mormon family history. Jerald is the great-great-grandson of John Tanner, well known for his sizeable financial contributions to Joseph Smith and the LDS church in 1835, when the church was deeply in debt. Sandra Tanner is a great-great-granddaughter of Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormon Church.
As teenagers, before they met, Jerald and Sandra were challenged by different people and events to examine the origins of Mormonism. Soon after their introduction, they jointly began researching Mormonism and became engaged. Both accepted Christ during these early years of study and have left the Mormon church. They have been active members of a local Christian church in Salt Lake City, where Sandra continues to attend after Jerald’s passing in 2006.
The Tanners are authors of over forty books on the subject of Mormonism, as well as over one hundred newsletters that chronicled their activity for nearly sixty years. They are well known for their extensive research into Mormon history and doctrine. The Utah Lighthouse Ministry provided these books and research, as well as photocopies and reprints of original Mormon documents, to the public through their Utah Lighthouse Ministry Bookstore, which are now preserved in digital format on this website.
The Utah Lighthouse Ministry Bookstore closed on February 28, 2023.
More Information:
- General Information FAQ
- Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Testimony
- Utah Lighthouse Ministry: Statement of Faith
- In Memoriam: Jerald Tanner
- Sandra Tanner Retiring — Utah Lighthouse Bookstore Closed
- (biography) Lighthouse: Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Despised and Beloved Critics of Mormonism, by Ronald V. Huggins (Signature Books, 2022)
- Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth Part 1
- Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth Part 2
- Jerald Tanner’s Quest for Truth Part 3
- Jerald Tanner’s Testimony (PDF)
- ‘We Left the Mormon Church’ (PDF)
- (Reprinted with permission from Moody magazine, June 1980)
- “The Bravest Woman in Utah” (PDF)
- (Reprinted with permission from Charisma & Christian Life, June, 2006. Copyright Strang Communications Co., USA. All rights reserved. http://www.charismamag.com)
- Top Stories of the Decades
- The Lighthouse Needs a Home!
- (short history of the UTLM bookstore’s origin)
- A Tanner Bibliography 1959–2022 (PDF), by H. Michael Marquardt (PDF)
