Darrick Answers the Tanners (Part 2)

DARRICK: I never made any such telephone call to Decker, nor did I 'put' somebody up to In my opinion, it is more likely Decker trying to scare the Tanners. This threat was right in the middle of the most heated contention between Decker (and his supporters) and the Tanners and their supporters. Of course, this is speculation on my part. I remember that day that Sandra asked me to leave. We had a pleasant conversation, and I asked her if any Mormons had ever threatened them (the Tanners), and she replied some 'Fundamentalists' have but no members of the Mormon Church had to her knowledge. I told her that threats from Fundamentalists (polygamists) had to be "taken seriously" (this was after I had read Prophet of Blood about the murderous Fundamentalist group Church of the Lamb of God. I was asked to leave because a customer in Sandra's store was (as usual) starting to disrespect me when they found I was refuting their arguments.

TANNERS: The Tanners quote the back-cover of New Age Messiah Identified which says that my life was threatened, I had been physically attacked, and a victim of a high-speed car chase because the New Age agents didn't want me coming out with the book, and that Randall Bear was "mysteriously killed".

DARRICK: The back cover of the book (plus about 40% of the final published draft) was written by Mark Trosclair of Huntington House. He had questioned me over the telephone on a number of occassions about incidents in my life. I thought he was doing this out of curiousity, or because he wanted to 'bond' with me. I told him many incidents. I was 'physically attacked', but this had NOTHING to do with the book or the New Age. He once asked me if anything strange had happened while I was doing research for the book. I told him that somebody once tried to run me off the road, but I didn't think it had anything to do with my research..."But you never know!" (we both laughed). He USED all these to try to spice-up the book. He did the same thing to Randall Bear; who later died in a traffic accident. He did it to other people as well. Several of them sued him and Huntington House. We got in to many telephone arguments because of it.

TANNERS: "Some of the Latter-day Saints we talked to about Darrick Evenson were concerned about his violent outbursts and even apologized for his behavior. At least two Mormons felt that he could be dangerous to others."

DARRICK: I DO have a temper when people show me disrespect. I ALWAYS show people respect, even those I disagree with strongly, but WHEN they show me disrespect, I'm no longer bound to show them respect. When I weighed 150 pounds I was threatened and assaulted by anti-Mormons and Evangelical "Christians" many, many times. I always showed respect. But they always felt they had to try to humuliate me. After age 34 I grew to about 265 pounds; with little fat. For whatever reason, I have been unable to keep turning my cheek as I did as a young man.

TANNERS: Finally, the Tanners quote an article by Eric Pement of Cornerstone magazine. In that article ("Troy Lawrence Identified") :

"In his article in Cornerstone magazine, page 24, Eric Pement observed: 'We think his excuse for these Trojan Horse methods falls flat for several reasons: First and foremost, it is unbiblical...God's people have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, but have laid aside all guile and hypcrisy (1 Peter 2:1)..if Evenson is doing undercover work in Mormonism, Masonry, the Watchtower, etc., he is making false professions and giving false testimony in the process.'"

DARRICK: Eric Pement, the editor-in-chief of Cornerstone Magazine is a HYPOCRITE. This is proved because in Cornerstone Issue #94 (mine was #95) he PRAISED a born-again Christian organization that deceptively rented a booth at a New Age Conference, and 'Trojan Horse' -like distributed anti-New Age tracts inside. The Conference was supposed to be for New Agers. Pement wrote:

"There's one than one way to reach out to those involved in the occult. A Montreal hosted a semiannual occult fair. YWAM [Youth With A Mission] members set up a booth along side the other 160 exhibitors including crystal readers, numerologists, palm readers, and UFO trackers. YWAM passed out five thousand specially produced tracts in French and English, showing Jesus was "The Mystery of God Revealed." Kudos to Canadian Chrisitans--let's take a tip and get creative with our witnessing! (Cornerstone, Vol. 19, Issue 94, p.3)

Pement was given "congrats" to a group of Evangelical Christians who DECEITFULLY had entered a NEW AGE fair for the purpose of 'witnessing' to New Agers. Pement says "Kudos" which means "at a boy" or "good for you". He calls what they did "creative witnessing" (and I agree!):

In his article on me ("Troy Lawrence Identified") Pement has a HUGE quote which reads:

"CURSED IS HE WHO DOES THE WORK OF THE LORD DECEITFULLY." (Cornerstone, Vol. 20, Issue 95, p.24)

In his expose' of me (Issue 95) Pement called 'Trojan Horse' methods "hypocrisy", but in Issue 94 he calls the YWAM 'Trojan Horse' method at the New Age convention "Kudos".

ALSO in his expose' of me Pement claims that he spoke with me, and that I told him I "was a Mormon, and a Mason, and a Baha'i, and a Jehovah's Witness" and I was getting baptized into the Jehovah's Witnesses soon. BOGUS!!! Eric asked me if I was still a Mormon, and I told him that while my records were still in the Church I was not a Mormon, but I believed that Mormonism contained much truth, and that all religions had truth. There was truth in the Masons, in Roman Catholicism, in the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Baha'is. I told him that I was a Seeker of Truth, and that I was 'thinking' about becoming a Baha'i. Either Pement has a bad memory of our conversation, or he REALLY misundestood 'what I was saying.

Or....he deliberately LIED.

But...I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

In Summary:

Here are the charges against me:

1) I put myself forth as 'Troy Lawrence'--escapee from the New Age--when in fact I was 'Darrick Evenson'--thus I pretended to be someone I wasn't, and thus a fraud.

Everyone knew (even those reading the book) that 'Troy Lawrence' was a pseudonym. When the book said that I 'infiltrated' the Tara Center, this is true. I did. I told them, "I want to write a book on Maitreya and Benjamin Creme'. At no time did I let them believe that I was a New Ager. I told them I was an investigative journalist (which is true...I am). Mark Trosclair wrote things in the book and on the back cover which are untrue. His first rewrite was MUCH WORSE, and included some great conspiracy-James Bond-like adventrue. The final draft was a compromise. Lawrence is the name of another person who I had met and who asked me to write the book. On radio shows, I was supposed to tell _his_ story; even though I was the author (ghostwriter). Ghostwriters write in other people's names all the time. That is OK...if you have the person's permission. Granted, no ghostwriters I know of have taken that persona 'on air' as I did; because of the fact I had the time and he (a father with a career) did not.

2) I denied being a Mormon, but this was a LIE because I was (in 1990).

Technically I 'was' a Mormon because my records were still in the Church. But for this to be true then you must also say that hundreds of thousands of Mormon are 'really' Catholics and Methodists and Presbyterians; since after they were baptized into the Church they never removed their names from previous religious organizations. I WAS NOT A MORMON in 1990. I did not call myself a 'Mormon' after 1989; because I no longer believed that the Church was run by Prophets, Seers, and Revelators. I still held my belief in Joseph Smith; as I do today.

3) I LIED when I said I was converted to the New Age Movement from reading Constance Cumbey's book.

I DID NOT WRITE THAT!!!! Mark Trosclair did in his attempt to 'advertise' their best-seller in New Age Messiah Identified. Cumbey will be dealt with in a moment.

4) I LIED when I said that I was converted to Christianity by Gods of the New Age.

This is a FALSE statement. Caryl Matriciana never said I told her that. I WORKED for Pat and Caryl in 1992; after the expose's came out.

5) I WROTE that I only pretended to be a Mormon in order to write an expose of it.

PURE BULL!!!! This was Mark Trosclairs 'letter' that he sent out in an effort to 'clear' and protect Huntington House. Mark is a LIAR, the letter is a fraud, and I challenge anyone to produce such a letter (with my signature).

6) I tried to DEFRAUD people by a tax-exempt organization that wasn't tax-exempt.

I'm SURE the Tanners spent hours contacting the IRS and the Offices of Attorney General in Washington, Utah, and probably every other Western State in order to find 'anything' on this. They would have included it you can be sure. They found NOTHING. If I could have started that Journal, I would have filed.

7) I have a hot temper and may be dangerous to others.

I DO have a hot temper when I show respect to people and anti-Mormons and self-righteous Mormons wish to show me disrespect. I've challenged people to fights; unless they were women or smaller than I, at which time I merely insulted them back. I ALWAYS treat people with respect; even when I disagree with them. But when they feel they need to disrespect me, and attack ME personally, then I can't understand that.

8) Even if my intent was good, to infiltrate the Tara Center, or other organizations in an effort to get information, is against Biblical standards.

BULL!!! Investigator journalists do it DAILY. Al Kresta (with Cumbey) used such methods to 'set me up on his radio show. The Tanners use such methods all the time (as we shall see). Anti-Mormons use such methods all the time; including pretending to be faithful LDS temple-worshippers but carrying hidden tape-recorders, or pretending to be faithful Church members but making photocopies of materials and sending them to the Tanners (who then publish them). It is pure HYPOCRISY to accuse me of being a LIAR when they themselves use the same methods.

The Witnesses Against Me

Here's a brief discussion of the witnesses against me:

JERALD AND SANDRA TANNER

They claim to be heroic Christian researchers who are SO FAR above deception of any kind. THIS IS PURE BULL!!! Where do you think the Tanners get all those documents which the Church 'suppresses'? They get it from 'Mormons' who work for the Church, but don't believe it. These SPYS in the historical department and other LDS departments make copies of things for the Tanners, and the Tanners publish them. I once asked Sandra is this was ethical on their part. She replied:

"Oh..well, we DON'T ASK THEM to do this for us! We get lots of things in the mail...all anonymous...with no return addresses...People send us stuff all the time. Sure, it may be unethical for them to do it, but, we feel that the material is important and needs to be published."

Do YOU believe that? Do you believe that the Tanners don't have "agents" in the Church offices who look for stuff they need? Do you BELIEVE that the Tanners don't ask for any of this, and that they just publish stuff they "anonymously" receive in the mail?

Really! DO YOU BELIEVE IT? If you do, I got a nice bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you....TWICE! ;)

I didn't let Sandra off the hook. I asked her a follow up:

"Sandra, you say you think it's unethical for them to pretend to be good members of the Church, copy this material, and mail it to you? Why don't you put something out in your newsletter telling these 'unknown' people to stop sending you material? Why don't you tell the post office to stop giving you letters with no return addresses? Why not Sandra if you are so concerned about the ethics?

She looked away (no eye-contact) and said,

"Well...that's THEIR problem!! We feel it's important to get the information out!"

Jerald and Sandra present themselves as ABOVE DECEPTION in any form, yet, in Jerald Tanner's own "Testimony" we read how he went to a Mormon bank in order to get a loan so he could buy an expensive printer to distribute anti-Mormon literature:

"The only bank we had established credit at was Zions Bank through the purchase of the mimeograph machine. Although it seemed like a rather gloomy prospect, we decided to apply for the loan. I met with one of the vice-presidents at the Mormon bank. Fortunately, he seemed to be totally unaware of our activities with regard to Mormonism. Although I never mentioned anything about the contents of the documents I would be printing, I explained to him how the microfilm process could be combined with a printing press to provide rapid reproduction of material at a price much below that charged by those by those who used the traditional method. I knew that if he ever asked the question that could have sunked the project.. In fact, he became very excited about the plan." (Jerald Tanner's Testimony, p.13)

So, the Mormon bank vice-president simply "never asked" 'Hey...what are you printing?' Do you believe that? Possible, but not probable. Jerald goes later for another loan:

"I decided to approach Zions Bank again and ask for a loan. The same vice president who had granted the other loan listened to my plea. Like before, he indicated that we were way over extended, but because he believed in the idea he would go along with the loan. He mentioned he drove past our house every evening on the way home from work and that he intended to stop by and see exactly how the operation was working out. For some reason, he never made it, which was, of course, a great relief to me. As I look back on it, it is certainly ironic that our operation was launched by the Church's own bank!" (Jerald Tanner's Testimony, p.14)

If Jerald's claim is TRUE, then the Mormon bank v.p. never bothered to ask him what he was printing! Jerald deliberately "forgot to mention" what it was; because he feared he wouldn't get the loan. So, in order to get the loan, he DELIBERATELY WITHHELD INFORMATION from the bank which may have made them reconsider the loan. Any bankers out there? Is this legal? Jerald, this may have been fraud. Do you have any EVIDENCE that shows it wasn't?

Jerald is ADMITTING deceit here. He is saying 'Ha! Ha! I fooled the Mormon bank into financing my anti-Mormon business! Hehehehe!'

The Tanners, of course--as any Mormon Apologist knows--use MASSIVE amounts of deception in their work. It's just subtle deception. All Mormon Apologists know this as fact. This can be DOCUMENTED, and it has. Robert and Rosemary Brown are coming out with an expose on the use of deception by the Tanners titled They Lie In Wait To Deceive, Vol. 5. I can't say when it will be published, but there is a website below that will announce the date the book will be available. It will be more than 500 pages, and the Browns are using only perhaps 10% of the deception they've found (and others have found on the Tanners). I encourage everyone to get a copy once it is in LDS bookstores.

The Tanner's "expose" of me is very similar to their "expose" of Joseph Smith. He was a fraud and occultist. Who says? SOMEBODY does. And if somebody says it, it must be true. They use Ed Decker, Constance Cumbey, a statement purportedly from me that nobdy can find, and mysterious unknown and unnamed 'associates' of mine who I never 'associated' with. It's BOGUS folks. The only thing they PROVED it that I was stupid enough to go along with Mark Trosclair after he butchered and embossed my manuscript. I'm guilty of that. I didn't want all that time and effort (and money) to go to waste. I thought it the price to pay for 'doing business' (i.e. becoming a published author).

CONSTANCE CUMBEY

If one believes Constance Cumbey, then I LIED when I said that she told me that Walter Martin and Moody Monthly were 'Mormon fronts' and I LIED when I said that she told me that Pat Robertson was "the Antichrist". The Tanners simply quote Cumbey as denying these things (laughing while she did it), and continue to call me a 'deceiver'.

But wait!

Months BEFORE their expose' of me, the Tanners published a booklet called Serious Charges Against The Tanners. Lo and behold! They mention "Constance Cumbey" in it! Read on....

"An important book by Bob and Gretchen Passantino has recently come out which deals with the type of attack that has been made against our ministry. It is published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. and is entitled, Witch Hunt. The Passantinos point out that faithful Christian workers are sometimes accused of being under the power of Satan and part of a conspiracy by over zealous believers with whom they disagree. The Passantinos note that Christians can 'easily slip into thinking that anyone who disagrees with yo uust be in a conspiracy against you. This is the impression that Constance Cumbey gave to Christianity Today when they asked her about her critics: 'Cumbey responds to her critics by claiming that either they have not done enough research or they themselves part of the conspiracy.'" (Witch Hunt, p.115).***
The Passantinos note that Walter Martin and CRI were not exempt from serious charges of being in league with the enemy: 'The aggregate of Cumbey's repeated references to the late Walter Martin, CRI, and Elliot Miller...are that they are--perhaps deliberately--suppressing information about and responses to the New Age Movement. In some way, shape, or form, they operate more as agents of the New Age Movement than as cult apologists....As our earlier citation from Christianity Today stated, Cumbey tends to come across as someone who assumes anyone who disagrees with her must be an agent of the enemy.'" (Serious Charges Against The Tanners, p.6)

The Tanners forgot to mention this about Cumbey in their expose of me. They could argue that their expose of me had 'nothing to do' with Cumbey. However, they used her testimony as EVIDENCE against me. Why do you think they 'forgot' to mention what they had wrote only a few months earlier? They didn't want Cumbey to appear as a NUT. They needed her 'testimony' against me.

I also claimed that during a telephone interview Constance Cumbey told me that she thought that Pat Robertson (head of the Christian Broadcasting Network) was "the Antichrist". I discovered that Cumbey was saying this after CBN refused to have her on the 700 Club program.

Who's telling the truth here, me or Cumbey?

Here are several witnesses (names provided) that say Cumbey said that Pat Robertson was the Anti-Christ:

Conrad F. Goeringer of American Atheists:

"I believe that an End-Times writer named Constance Cumbey even accused Pat Robertson of being the Anti-Christ." (Meeting of the Tennessee American Atheists, Sept. 26, 1999, p.1 online)

Robert L Brush (Evangelical Christian writer in his article "A Biblical Concept of a Just God"):

"Constance Cumbey had earlier given up a seven year effort to expose a conspiracy to introduce the Antichrist. At one point she claimed it might even be Pat Robertson." (The Arminian Magazine, Spring, 1990, p.11 online)

Cumbey once claimed that she was denied entry to an "Evangelical Ministries to New Religions" conference, and they even hired security guards to prevend her from attending. The following is from Bob Passantino, a highly respected Evangelical counter-cult author and former senior researcher at the Christian Research Institute:

"Have you heard the story that EMNR banned Constance Cumbey from its last conference (in Denver in 1985) and even hired security guards to keep her out? Here is what Cumbey said:

"Walter Martin and a number of others got together and organized a conference in Denver in 1985. I was the only person in the country who was not invited. They hired security guards to keep me away.

Passantino quotes in his article Elliot Miller of CRI:

"Dr. Martin was a speaker there, but...he was not involved in the conference planning and organization.... It's true that Mrs. Cumbey was not invited to speak (which is no more strange than Walter Martin not being invited to speak at certain end-time prophecy conferences where Cumbey is a featured attraction). However, she was more than welcome to attend. The claim that there were security guards hired to keep her out is both false (whis writer was there) and preposterous. (Ibid., p.19 online)

Miller was at the conference, and writes that Cumbey's claims are FALSE.

Cumbey LIED.

Now, Cumbey probably has a slight case of PARANOIA. She told me that Martin 'may be' a Mormon front when we spoke over the phone in 1990. She told others he was a "New Age agent". Anyone who disagrees with her is a conspirator. But mental illness isn't hypocrisy. Huntington House tried to save their investment in the book by telling all radio interviewers to NOT talk about 'Darrick Evenson'. Al Kresta AGREED, and then got with Cumbey and she agreed to 'call in', and thus Kresta was 'free' to discuss it. They USED DECEPTION in order to EXPOSE DECEPTION. So did I. What makes them hypocrites is THEY claim to NOT use it, and I claim TO use it. That's the only difference, folks.

What GETS me is that anti-Mormons and the types such as Cumbey and Kresta claim that YOU CAN'T USE DECEPTION and be a "Christian", and then go ahead and USE DECEPTION!!!

Can you spell H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y?

ED DECKER

Decker is a CON-MAN. Mormons AND many anti-Mormons know this. He makes OUTRAGEOUS claims that has caused him to alienate his former associate Dick Bear, the Southern Baptist Convention, and even many other professional Anti-Mormons. Here are a few of his claims::

1) There is a exact replica of the Oval Office in the Washington D.C. Temple from which the Mormon Prophet will rule when Mormons take control of the U.S.

2) Mormons are commanded to store a 2-year suppy of food, guns, and ammunition, so that when the Mormon Prophet says "Go!" they can take over the U.S. government.

3) Mormons promise to literally have their throats cut IF they reveal the Temple rituals.

4) The Mormon leaders still use assassination squads and hit me, and he (Decker) was almost killed by a Mormon bullet in 1982 (he shows everyone the bullet hold in his windown and ceiling at his home outside of Issaquah, Washington), and they tried to kill him again when he went to Scotland.

5) While his son was a missionary in Chile in 1981 Decker visited the country and told everyone who would listen that Mormon missionaries were "really CIA agents". In the next 5 years 6 missionaries were to be assassinated by Communist terrorists (for being CIA agents), and LDS chapels in Chile have been damanged by bombs over 100 times (this is no exaggeration).

6) Decker dawned a skull-cap (worn by Orthodox Jews) and went to Israel in 1984 and told everyone that the BYU Jeruslam-Center was "really just a front for a Mormon Missionary Training Center". Orthodox Jews rioted to try to get the Center closed, and the Church's attorney in Israel was later blown-up in his car (he died).

7) Mormons SAY they worship Jesus Christ, but they REALLY worship Joseph Smith as their Savior, but they keep this a secret and just pretent to worship Jesus Christ so they can fool Christians into joining the Church.

8) The Mormon Church assassinated an ex-Mormon woman because she appeared in "The God Makers" Part Two (film).[ Police say she committed suicide. The women had been a member of the LeBaron polygamist group, and was in fact speaking against THEM and not the LDS Church. The LeBaron group did in fact murder 24 people, and had plans to assassinate LDS Church leaders. The woman's last name was LeBaron.]

9) Decker came out of Mormonism because at a Pentecostal church he went to with his Christian wife the elders there healed his son Jason who was deaf. Decker knew then that his Priesthood had no power, etc. [His son Jason was HEALED by medical specialists at the University of Washington Medical Center].

10) Decker's Mormon wife divorced him because he became a Christian and was told to do so by the Church [she divorced him for repeated adultery-A CLAIM WHICH HE DID NOT CHALLENGE during the divorce].

It goes on and on and on and on! I suggest all readers to get a copy of They Lie In Wait To Deceive Vol. 4 where the Brown's DOCUMENT many deceptions and outright LIES by Ed Decker. Decker is NOW claiming that it was HIS MORMON WIFE who committed adultery against him. Yet, the court records show otherwise. Decker has told a few that the all-powerful 'Mormon Church' has switched the real court records with manufactured ones!!!

The entire purpose of writing Serious Charges Against the Tanners was to refute the allegation--by other anti-Mormons--that the Tanners were "secret agents" working for the Mormon Church as a way to 'control' research and criticism against it. Such charges were made by Loftes Tryke, James Spencer, William Snoebelen, and Ed Decker. Decker now claimed that one of his 'staff' published that claim while he was out of town, and that he didn't know about it, and that he never believed that. Yet, the Tanners write:

"We are dealing with an ongoing problem which continued to escalate after Ed Decker and William Schnoebelen printed an attack on us in December 1987, Nov. 1987, April 1988, Sept. 1988, July 1990 [this was the same month that Decker claimed to receive a telephone call from a Mormon assassin which said that Jerald Tanner was marked for death] and Novemember 1990. " (Serious Charges, p.7) This all happened when the Tanners started publishing negative reviews of Mormonism's Temple of Doom a book by Bill Schnoebelen (associate of Decker and former Assistant Director of Saints Alive/ Ex-Mormons for Jesus) and James Spencer (ex-Mormon and anti-Mormon author). The book showed some Masonic/Mormon parallels, but then it tried to 'prove' that Mormonism came from Satanism because of the 'shape' of the Temple, it's architecture, etc.

Schnobelen also wrote that a Mormon Apostle taught his wife that Mormons really worshipped Lucifer, and that the three Hebrew words in the Mormon Temple ceremony means "O Wonderful Lucifer". The Tanners did a little research and they discovered the printed the following:

1) William Schnoebelen made numerous false claims that takes a book 90-pages long (doubled-columned) just to list and refute (The Lucifer-God Doctrine). Schnobelen is a TOTAL fraud.

2) Schoebelen's claims that the Mormon Endowment came from Witchcraft and Satanism is FALSE (the Tanners say it came from Freemasonry).

3) The three Hebrew words used in the Temple (before 1990) do NOT say "O Wonderful Lucifer" (as Decker claimed) but in fact "O Wonderful God".

After these revelations, Decker and others began saying that the Tanners were "demon possessed" and perhaps secret agents FOR the Mormon Church (see Serious Charges Against the Tanners p.1ff)

In Serious Charges Against the Tanners they deny being agents for the Mormon Church, and then go ON THE ATTACK by proving (with documentation they include in the booklet) that Decker LIED on two serious issues:

1) He LIED when he wrote that the Mormon Church had lost 4,000,000 converts because of The God Makers. Decker had quoted from an article in the Provo Herald which the Tanners reproduce. They call this chapter "Losing Credibility?" and another "Decker off by 4,000,000".

2) Decker was in Scotland preaching against the Masons (Decker is also an anti-Mason) when he claimed the Masons (or the Mormons...he uses both, and which one he uses at any time depends on whether he is speaking at the time against Freemasonry or against Mormonism) tried to KILL HIM by poisoning him with arsenic while at a pizza restaurant in Scotland. The Tanners PROVE (with documentation) that this claim was FALSE (and Decker knew it). Decker would later write that the Tanners were "bald-faced liars!" (Saints Alive Newsletter, March-April 1993).

Continued in Part 3....

Articles of Interest

Darrick Answers (Part 3)
Covering Up Syn (Tanners)
Fantasies, Legends, and Heroes (Passantino)