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Jerald and Sandra Tanner
Jerald Dee Tanner (June 1, 1938 – October 1, 2006) and Sandra McGee Tanner (born January 14, 1941) are American writers and researchers who publish archival and evidential materials about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The Tanners founded the Utah Lighthouse Ministry (UTLM), whose stated mission is "to document problems with the claims of Mormonism and compare LDS doctrines with Christianity". As of 2025 Sandra Tanner continues to operate the ministry after Jerald's death in 2006. The physical Lighthouse Ministry bookstore closed in 2023.
The Tanners, who are ex-Mormon, printed original versions of early Mormon writings and scripture in which they annotated and highlighted doctrinal changes, such as the rejection of Brigham Young's "Adam–God doctrine". They jointly published more than 40 books about many aspects of the LDS Church, primarily its history.
Jerald Tanner was born in Provo, Utah, and was a fifth-generation Mormon. He studied at the University of Utah and received a degree from Salt Lake Trade Technical Institute. His great-great-grandfather, John Tanner, gave large donations to church founder Joseph Smith when the fledgling church was deeply in debt.
Like her husband, Sandra was a fifth-generation Mormon. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Brigham Young, the LDS Church's second president. Both families had longstanding ties to the Mormon community.
They met in the spring of 1959, in Salt Lake City, at a religious meeting of Pauline Hancock's Church of Christ (Lukeite), Soon after they were introduced, Jerald and Sandra began jointly researching the subject of Mormonism. Each had been raised as Latter-day Saints, but discovered that they had each begun questioning the church in their teenage years.
Jerald and Sandra Tanner were married by a Protestant minister in Mission Hills, California, on June 14, 1959. The following year, both resigned from the LDS Church. In 1964, they began an outreach to Mormons at their house in Salt Lake City, which grew into UTLM. They had two daughters and a son together. After 47 years of marriage, Jerald died in Salt Lake City on October 1, 2006, as a result of complications arising from Alzheimer's disease. He had retired a few months before his death.
The physical location of the Utah Lighthouse Ministry, located near Smith's Ballpark, served as a bookstore for the Tanners' publications and was frequently visited by questioning Mormons and national journalists looking for information on Mormon history. It closed in March 2023. Sandra Tanner attributed the closure to rising crime in the area, including a robbery of the store itself, and described it as a retirement from ministry work.
The Salt Lake City Messenger was a biannual newsletter they published from 1964 to 2022 containing copies of primary documents and discussion critical of LDS history.
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Jerald and Sandra Tanner
Jerald Dee Tanner (June 1, 1938 – October 1, 2006) and Sandra McGee Tanner (born January 14, 1941) are American writers and researchers who publish archival and evidential materials about the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The Tanners founded the Utah Lighthouse Ministry (UTLM), whose stated mission is "to document problems with the claims of Mormonism and compare LDS doctrines with Christianity". As of 2025 Sandra Tanner continues to operate the ministry after Jerald's death in 2006. The physical Lighthouse Ministry bookstore closed in 2023.
The Tanners, who are ex-Mormon, printed original versions of early Mormon writings and scripture in which they annotated and highlighted doctrinal changes, such as the rejection of Brigham Young's "Adam–God doctrine". They jointly published more than 40 books about many aspects of the LDS Church, primarily its history.
Jerald Tanner was born in Provo, Utah, and was a fifth-generation Mormon. He studied at the University of Utah and received a degree from Salt Lake Trade Technical Institute. His great-great-grandfather, John Tanner, gave large donations to church founder Joseph Smith when the fledgling church was deeply in debt.
Like her husband, Sandra was a fifth-generation Mormon. She is a great-great-granddaughter of Brigham Young, the LDS Church's second president. Both families had longstanding ties to the Mormon community.
They met in the spring of 1959, in Salt Lake City, at a religious meeting of Pauline Hancock's Church of Christ (Lukeite), Soon after they were introduced, Jerald and Sandra began jointly researching the subject of Mormonism. Each had been raised as Latter-day Saints, but discovered that they had each begun questioning the church in their teenage years.
Jerald and Sandra Tanner were married by a Protestant minister in Mission Hills, California, on June 14, 1959. The following year, both resigned from the LDS Church. In 1964, they began an outreach to Mormons at their house in Salt Lake City, which grew into UTLM. They had two daughters and a son together. After 47 years of marriage, Jerald died in Salt Lake City on October 1, 2006, as a result of complications arising from Alzheimer's disease. He had retired a few months before his death.
The physical location of the Utah Lighthouse Ministry, located near Smith's Ballpark, served as a bookstore for the Tanners' publications and was frequently visited by questioning Mormons and national journalists looking for information on Mormon history. It closed in March 2023. Sandra Tanner attributed the closure to rising crime in the area, including a robbery of the store itself, and described it as a retirement from ministry work.
The Salt Lake City Messenger was a biannual newsletter they published from 1964 to 2022 containing copies of primary documents and discussion critical of LDS history.