Sandra and Jerald Tanner's quest fit the times: They were fumbling into adulthood in the early '60s, brash and full of big ideas.
They weren't war protesters or hippies, though; the Tanners' rebellion was more personal.Pioneer descendants, Sandra and Jerald - 18 and 20 when they met in 1959 - believed that the church's 19th century founder, Joseph Smith Jr., was a fraud and the religion he created a sham.
And the firebrands began broadcasting their convictions, first in mimeographed handouts to dismayed family members and eventually around the world through a newsletter, pamphlets and more than 40 books.
At the same time, they began ferreting out and publishing early church documents, newspapers, diaries and books they believed proved their case.
More than 30 years later, the evangelical Christian Tanners are recognized for their trove of documents. They're loved by those trafficking in anti-Mormon literature and grudgingly respected by many Latter-day Saint scholars for their painstaking and accurate research, if not for their interpretations.
Their Utah Lighthouse Ministry and its bookstore have become a chief resource for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are interested in early church history as well as members who are disillusioned and looking to get out.
"The Tanners, pound for pound, year after year, have been the most successful opponents of the church," said Daniel C. Peterson, professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University. "I don't mean it as a compliment."
Source for `The Mormon Puzzle'
Sandra Tanner, the spokesperson of the duo, was one of the experts the Southern Baptists turned to last year to explain The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To help them do this, the Tanners created a video, "The Mormon Puzzle."
She also will present a workshop about the church for Southern Baptists when some 10,000 come here next month for their annual meeting.
"As far as LDS history goes, there's no one out there who has the documents mastered as they do," said Peterson, chairman of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies at BYU. "They occasionally have forced us (LDS Church defenders) to sharpen a line of reasoning or come up with a line of reasoning."
"The Tanners have caused a lot of Mormon historians to do better homework," said Elbert Peck, editor of the periodical Sunstone.
Yet, Peck notes, the Tanners' evangelical agenda colors their interpretation of history.
"They're one-sided in their approach. They believe the Mormon Church is wrong, and they are doing research to prove it's wrong."
Sandra puts it this way: "Historians see us as self-righteous simpletons."
She and Jerald, however, see it quite differently.
"It was like God had given us a burden to share with them that they had been misled and betrayed," says Sandra, a great-great granddaughter of Brigham Young, the second prophet of the LDS Church. "The church isn't worthy of their devotion."
The Tanners came to that conclusion fairly young.
Early questions
The Tanners met in the spring of 1959, when Sandra, raised in Southern California, was visiting her grandmother in Salt Lake City. She'd already strained her reputation by asking cheeky questions in religion classes, and found Tanner - obsessed with his growing knowledge of early church history - fascinating.
He had been on a loner's pilgrimage to Independence, Mo., where he talked to members of offshoot religions and became convinced that Joseph Smith and later prophets were corrupt.
The two married in June of that year and were excommunicated within a couple of years of asking that their names be stricken from LDS Church membership rolls.
The young Tanners tangled with church apostles over matters of history, by letter and once in person.
"Hardly anyone challenged the brethren on anything," recalls Sandra. "To have two young whippersnappers do it was the height of impudence."
When the couple printed up copies of their reasons for disbelieving, family members, including those who harbored their own doubts, were angry. "There was a feeling we had gone too far," Sandra says.
Jerald was surprised by the rejection.
"I thought it would be easy. I had very good evidence. I soon realized how hard it would be."
When the couple shed their last tie to the church in 1962 - a belief in the veracity of the Book of Mormon - it was a turning point. They turned to the Christian Missionary Alliance, where they remain active today.
They also launched their own ministry - to put on microfilm and later into print obscure historical documents. Within two years, Jerald gave up his full-time machinist's job.
"We had three little babies. They were meager years," recalls Sandra.
They bought a home in 1964 in a down-and-out Salt Lake neighborhood, and operated the bookstore from their front parlor until expanding next door three years ago.
Collecting documents
Historian Michael Quinn says the Tanners' contribution of early documents is often overlooked.
While academics could study such materials through universities and church archives, others had no way to read them. "For people who are just curious about Mormon history, that has been a tremendous contribution," Quinn said.
Reaching the common LDS Church member, Jerald says, has been his goal all along. He brushes off criticism from researchers, who find his underlining and use of word capitalization annoying and even comical.
"I wasn't trying to write for scholars. I've tried not to use big words that confuse people," says Jerald, who volunteers several hours each day at the Rescue Mission downtown.
Wayne Jensen of Ogden, a former LDS stake mission president, said he left the church "kicking and screaming" after his wife, Carol Jensen, concluded it was not the "one true church." It was the Tanners' research that pointed the Jensens to hundreds of church documents from which they drew their own conclusions, Carol Jensen said.
"I expected them to be these great big, eat-you-alive people," she says of the Tanners. "You couldn't meet two kinder, gentler people in the world."
One episode in the mid-1980s, more than any other, changed how the Tanners were perceived by intellectuals in the church.
`Salamander letter' labeled forged
Jerald concluded that the so-called "white salamander letter" was a forgery while other historians, including some employed by the church, considered it an authentic historical document.
After Mark Hofmann killed two people with pipe bombs in 1985 in a failed attempt to cover that and others of his forgeries, Jerald and Sandra helped investigators and reporters piece together the case.
The fact that the Tanners debunked a document that could have hurt the church showed their integrity, said Peterson.
"There are some anti-Mormons out there that I hold in contempt. They're demagogic. They spread hatred and strife and disharmony. I don't see the Tanners in that way," he said.
Yet Peterson doubts the Tanners have pulled as many Latter-day Saints from the fold as they'd like.
In the years since the couple began their ministry, the church has grown from 2 million to 10 million members.
Sandra Tanner says their impact can't be quantified. But she estimates thousands have left the church, including the Tanners' parents and most of their siblings.
The Tanners themselves have divided their work over the years. Jerald, an almost painfully shy introvert, does the research. Sandra runs the bookstore and is the public speaker.
"Either one of us would have had a hard time doing this," says Sandra. "We're two halves of one whole."