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Nov. 2004
Thank you for your November 2004 Messenger; as usual, I read it from cover to cover. Thanks to your ministry, a young woman whom my son dated a few years ago renounced Mormonism, started attending our church (University Christian), and married a fine Christian man.
Nov. 2004
It is unfortunate that you have been so easily deceived Sandra. That same spirit you felt as you sang the song Oh it is wonderful resides in all aspects of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including but not limited to His Prophets, I know the LDS faith is True. The Rock on which Christ established his Church was not Peter nor any man, but revelation and God revealse his truths to his Prophets.
Nov. 2004
You are both so full of sh**. Always, always, always follow the prophet. Even when it is not in your interest. Once you start doubting the prophet(s) you fall. [We edited his four-letter word.]
Nov. 2004
I have always enjoyed researching Mormon history. I thank God that I did not complete the baptism that was scheduled for me into the Mormon Church in 1976, . . . The reason I did not join the church was due to my reading of Fawn Brodie’s famous book [No Man Knows My History], as well as a book called, “Why I am Not a Mormon.” Since that time, I have been fascinated with Mormon history.
Nov. 2004
how dare you. if you were born into the church why put such slander for everyone to read, why be false prophets to everyone. many have done research and many things stated on this site were false, why slander someone if u are not telling the truth. . . . joseph smith was a prophet of god, he NEVER in his life said such things, u of all ppl should know this. u grew up being taught this.
Dec. 2004
I read the whole “Mormonism, Shadow or Reality” 11 yrs ago (took almost a yr. to read) and several other of your works. It has been valuable over the years in keeping me informed, and I have derailed the conversion to Mormonism of family members. Also I’ve planted seeds of doubt I hope in a young group of missionaries at my door. Anyways God bless you & your loved ones- always!
Dec. 2004
I find it interesting in reading the emails from others that many mormon members are angry and accuse you of being hateful and evil. I believe this is the first step in their own realization that something is wrong. I pray these people will receive guidance to continue to learn the truth and develop a closer relationship with Jesus. Thank YOU!!
Dec. 2004
My wife is a former member of the LDS church. Years ago, much of your research helped free her from the oppressive doctrines after which she gave her life to Christ. Thank you and may God continue to bless you and the Utah Lighthouse Ministry.
Dec. 2004
Hello, I am a 24 year old italian member of the LDS Church. I was surfing the net looking for stuff and new ideas for my lessons in the church when I found your web site. I’ve been through it and I was at first shocked, and then disgusted. You are not having any idea of what you are doing; if you would, you’d stop immediately. . . .
Dec. 2004
I want to thank you for the wealth of information that you have on your website. I am a 26 year old male returned missionary for The LDS church. I have recently started a study of the history of the LDS church. I started the study in hopes of finding answers to lifelong questions I have had about the church, and the practice of polygamy. I have read some of your works, and they raise some very good arguments against the LDS church. I am not sure who to believe anymore so I want to check everything out for myself.
Jan. 2005
I have always respected the work of Utah Lighthouse Ministry and the Tanners, even when I was in the LDS Church and didn’t always agree with their conclusions at the time; NOW I realize that what I disagreed with the Tanners in the past I am now having to agree with (hey-how can anyone successfully argue with the truth?).
Jan. 2005
Get a life buddy and quit worrying about everyone elses.
Jan. 2005
I am near ready to prepare my letter to the Bishop to have my membership removed from the church records. I appreciate the information on your website to help me do this. Understand, this is difficult for me (I am a High Priest) but having met and talked with Sandra, and having now had the time to review a lot of material and cross-referencing this material to my own library (Journals of Discourses, History of the Church, etc.), it has become obvious that I can no longer live the lie.
Jan. 2005
I check out the Letters to the Editor every month and I am totally blown away by the questions that you get from Mormons. They “don’t get it” or, as we here in AZ say, they are “a taco short of a combination plate”. They have no problem sending missionaries all over the world to try to convert the unsuspecting and uneducated (religiously speaking) and yet they have a problem with your website posting information that is not only verifiable, it’s often from their own church!
Jan. 2005
Now of course you will . . . give me a bunch of bull crap about your reasons for being antimormon. But it’s okay. I am not expecting you to tell me the truth.(In fact, your whole website is a bunch of lies). Now I could go through all of your lies and have comebacks for all of them. But it wouldn’t do any good. I have tried that enough times with you liars that I have realized that whenever I try to ask a strait up question, you always find a way to sneak around the question without answering it because you have no answer for it.
Feb. 2005
I joined the church at the young age of twenty-three while I was in the service. After 40 years in the church I began to see things that bothered me and it wasn’t until my wife and I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, that we began to search out what’s what in earnest.
Your website has been a great source . . . Like you, I am concerned about the members most of whom are really great people. But, it is obvious that we all have been lied to over the years and this makes me very angry at the church leaders. . . . I appreciate all the information you have made available and the links to other websites which have been a great source of information. I have been studying like crazy and have learned a lot of information, some of which has made me sick to my stomach! . . .
Feb. 2005
I am LDS and Proud of it, I am not the one to judge anyone, but how can you stray away from it is really the truth about your ancestors and become part of a church that will never show you the truth and the light. . . . Please do not disappoint you ancestor’s By doing what you are doing now go back to the LDS faith and seek the true meaning of the gospel that was sent here before us through Joseph’s Smiths Eyes.
Feb. 2005
All of the reading I have done about Joseph Smith Jr. and all of his writings including the book of Mormon sound phony to me. I cannot see any reason to believe anything he says. It all sounds like plagiarism and lies to me. Feb. 2005. Are you LDS? If not, how could you possibly know the answers to questions people may have concerning this religion?! Because I AM LDS . . . I am so sick to death of people putting down a religion they know so little about. Please for all LDS peoples sake, knock it off.
Mar. 2005
Why are you trying to publicly defame the Mormons? What did they ever do to you? It seems the Mormons are the only church not interested in ridiculing the beliefs of other churches. That truly is sad.
April 2005
I recently received the letter of freebies, which though hurtful, I am grateful to know the truth about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I am very grateful for the Tanners’ honest look into Mormonism’s past, and re-emphasis and the most important theme I cling to as a Mormon, and that is my personal relationship with the Lord. After an honest look at what they’ve presented, it becomes very evident that our Mormon prophets are just men, sinners like the rest of us with a sometimes unclear understanding of history and God’s universe.
I don’t know if this compliment from a Mormon is meaningless or not, but the Tanners’ have followed the Lord’s command to know the truth, and to make sure their brother does not stumble in error, two clear exhortations in the New Testament. As such, I firmly believe they will attain a higher degree of glory than many of us Mormons, and I am glad to see such an honest pursuit of truth. God loves the work your ministry is doing.
April 2005
I’m a former Mormon who came to know the Lord in 1972 while I was a player in the NFL through the ministry of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. The Mormon Church does such a good job of obscuring its theological positions and the changing of its historical positions that it took me five years before I realized that I couldn’t be both a Mormon and a Christian. The materials I obtained through Utah Lighthouse Ministry were incredibly helpful to me in turning the light on. I finally found the peace that I’d been looking for and my life hasn’t been the same since!
April 2005
After 30 years as a “convert” to the LDS Church, I and my wife (she is still struggling with this) have walked away from the church. I’ve always thought of folks like you as spreaders of poison and followed church leaders advice to avoid “anit-mormon” literature.
Recently, and I don’t know why, I chose to take a look at the challenge put forth about the Book of Abraham and found the evidence compelling. I’ve even read the FARMS and FAIR responses and found them to be pretty lame.
Since then I’ve read a ton of stuff that I won’t list here but has convinced me that the things that I’ve held sacred all these years are no more than smoke and mirrors created by Brother Joe. I’m angry and disappointed that I’ve been lied to all these years. . . . Thanks to folks like you truth that would not otherwise come forth is available now for those who are seeking the real truth. Thanks for what you do.
April 2005
I am a former Mormon who was able to excommunicate himself from the Mormon Church over 10 years ago with the help of your ministry. My younger sister, brother-in-law, and I have since embraced traditional Christianity.
Originally appeared in:
“Excerpts From Letters and Emails,” Salt Lake City Messenger, no. 104, June 2005, 10-11.