By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
In the last issue of the Salt Lake City Messenger we announced that we had sold over 10,000 copies of our major work Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? We are now happy to report that almost 15,000 copies have been sold. Mormon leaders seem to feel that it is best to ignore this book. This silent treatment, however, has proved to be completely ineffective and our sales have continued to increase at a rapid rate. As a result many people are leaving the Mormon Church, and many others are beginning to wonder if the Church has any answers to the serious charges contained in this book. One woman wrote us the following:
I am a convert to the LDS Church, joining when I was 19 years old . . . My husband joined the church a year later, in 1961. I have been a member of the Church now for 15 years and I am presently a visiting teacher and Primary secretary.
Over those 15 years I have had to admit to a lot of unhappiness and lack of fulfillment. There were, of course, weeks at a time when I felt close to the Lord and got a lot out of Church; but for the most part I have to admit to a growing restlessness and a feeling of frustration.
In 1966 _____ and I were sealed in the Oakland temple, along with our three daughters. I was disappointed in the temple ceremonies and left with a throbbing headache, several hours later. I have been to the temple four or five times since then . . .
One year ago a couple moved next door to us, . . . She was very religious and as we talked I expressed to her my prayer failure and general frustration at not being able to have the real power of the New Testiment church in my life. And, yet I knew that I had the true church. This led to more frustration and confusion.
I went a few times with her to her church, . . . I loved their worship and saw how much they really did love the Lord.
Sitting in our own meetings, especially Sacramento Meeting, hearing talks of food storage, travelogs, etc., but never hardly hearing the word of God preached made me feel even worse. My neighbors had gone . . . for five months on a job . . .
Then, our neighbors returned . . . Again, I saw the glow in her face and wished that I could have what she had. Why did she have such happiness, and extraordinary answers to her prayers, etc. Here I had the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and she didn’t and she was getting all the blessings. I felt cold and dead inside.
I started going with her to her servi[c]es again once in a while. It was then that I really got desperate. I wanted to be happy so badly. I prayed to God that he would reveal the truth to me, reveal his will, in a manner that I could not mistake. I didn’t care how much it cost me or where the chips fell. I just wanted to be on His side, no matter what . . .
Nothing particular happened for about a week. I kept telling myself that I wasn’t going to worry about it because the Lord would take care of my problem. I kept telling myself that I had to learn to “wait patiently on the Lord.” Well, then my neighbor borrowed your book, “Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?” from a friend of hers in her church, and I saw it laying on her bedroom bureau. She was embarrassed and said she wasn’t trying to offend me but just wanted to find out more about my religion. I told her she wasn’t going to find out much reading anti-Mormon books.
But, I did agree that I would be happy to discuss any of our religious doctrine with her husband. I knew I could ably defend my religion as I was well versed in it. I wasn’t worried at all. I decided to debate on a particular subject and started doing research. Then I decided I’d better know what the opposition was so I borrowed the book from her.
Well, I spent almost three days and nights reading. The adjectives used in the back of your book such as “devast[at]ing” and “utterly crushed” were so true!! My husband and I spent days discussing what the book had brought to light, at first not believing, then not wanting to believe. Could it be possible that we had been deceived? How could it? I asked the Lord to confirm that this was, in fact, an answer to my prayer. . . . Within an hour, I received an unmistakable confirmation from a completely different source. I was scared and yet happy . . .
We are now in the position of having to face reality, but not knowing exactly what to do about it. I have resigned as Primary Secretary and both of us have thrown our garments away . . . We know in our heart that what you have written is true.
I, of course, checked in all the books which we have in our home, on the correctness of your quotations. They were all correct. . . .
In the preface of your book, you quote a letter received from a member of the Church in Arizona dated July 28, 1965. He states that your book . . . would do more harm to the church than any other volume published in the last 50 to 75 years and that it could tear the church apart. We have to agree. We have read anti-Mormon books before without it having any effect on us. They were written by non-Mormons who obviously didn’t have anything going for them but opinions and statements from people who were enemies to the LDS church in its early history. Big deal! But . . . your book condemns the church by using our own history and statements from our own presidents . . . It is truly a startling revelation!
Please write and help us. We need to share with someone who’s been there. We know we must go and ask the Bishop to remove our names from the Chu[r]ch rolls. And, our children are with us in that thinking. . . . (Letter dated October 29, 1975)
Originally appeared in: