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Correspondence with a Returned Missionary
His First e-mail
Hi Mr. Decker,
I'll admit, it is pretty strange to actually be speaking with you. I have heard about you for years. I have read about you since I was 17 years old. I have watched God Makers 1 and 2 on my mission (2006-2008) with various investigators who wanted to ask questions about what was in the videos.
I don't have a desire to get into a bible battle as I'm sure that you have had hundreds, if not thousands of people try to debate you. I'd imagine the constant debate has become quite monotonous to you. I served my mission in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in what they call, "the Evangelical Vatican." Due to my mission, as well as my anti-LDS extended family, I have very thoroughly investigated anti-LDS writers and doctrine. I am LDS, however I am not your typical "close-minded" member of the church. I appreciate all opinions on religion and I'd imagine that you would have very strong opinions on certain matters.
Ed: I not now nor have I ever been a hate filled nut who couldn’t live the commandments. I was a Mormon in good standing when I left the church and only after I spent months of research into the doctrines, writings off JS and early leaders , speaking to church leaders, travelling to SLC for answers, did I decide to have my name removed. Well maybe I was a bit of a nut… More zealot than crazy.
Ed: I am husband of 41 years, father of 7, grandfather of 13 and great grand father of 4. A retired pastor and general old curmudgeon. And..have a number of good friends and family who are still LDS and love me anyhow.. me too them
I have heard many different stories about the reason for you leaving the LDS Church and choosing to speak out against the church. Although I disagree with some of what you say, out of respect, I'd hate to spread any type of false information about your time in the LDS church.
From what I understand, you have served as a stake president and were excommunicated because of adultery. After your time away from the church you regained your membership in the church and filmed the temple ceremony. After filming the ceremony, it is my understanding that you were excommunicated again. Is that accurate? (I am not trying to get too personal, however I really do not want to have false information)
Ed: Never was a Stake President.. only made it to bishopric. Was never ex’d for adultery. Never divorced for it, either. I asked for my name to be removed from the church after I became a born again Christian… see http://www.saintsalive.com/mormonism/ed-leaves-church.htm the actual church document is on file at the Ed Decker Collection [#210] at Utah State Univ. Special collections library. Logan Utah.
Ed: Never regained membership, never ex’d again.. That story is actually a warp of what happened to a man named Dick Baer.
Another rumor that I have heard is that you have had a meeting with members of the Quorum of the 12 apostles. During the meeting, I was told that you had been declared a "son of perdition" by one of the apostles Is that true?
Ed: I have met recently with LDS leadership in meetings dealing with “reconciliation” but we prayed and talked.. Mark E. Peterson called me a son of perdition at a stake conference in Bellevue WA a year or so after the film came out. But then, I said he was a false prophet and leader. So we were even.
I will have more I'd like to ask you, but I would like to first understand where you are coming from before we continue. I'd appreciate your answer to these questions to give me some sort of frame of reference into your upbringing in the LDS church. I was raised in the Anglican Church. Joined the LDS Church when I married a Mormon girl I went to High School with. See: http://www.saintsalive.com/mormonism/edstestimony.htm
Thank you for your response Mr. Decker. If I do not hear back from you for the next couple of days, Happy Thanksgiving.
Evan
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His Next e-mail
Hi Mr. Decker,
I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
Back to where we left off.. You joined the LDS Church because of your first wife is that right?
Ed: Actually, my wife was an inactive Mormon, joining the church at BYU and never attended after she returned home after one year there.
Would you say you believed the doctrine of the church at one point?
Ed: Yes, I believed it ‘ insofar as I knew the doctrine at that time. As a new member and in the mission field at that time, we didn’t get into much doctrine at church. Definitely nothing about becoming a god.
Or were you "living a lie" because you loved your wife?
Ed: Never
Were you married before or after you joined the church?
Ed: Before. We lived away from our families. I was a YMCA program ‘secretary’ as we were called in those days. Lonely and away from home. The missionaries found us going door to door and after we related that She was a member and I went to college in Logan, they were ‘on us.’ {also note that we were also married/sealed in the Los Angeles Temple}
Somewhere in here you missed my divorce. And my excommunication. Let me just say that I initiated the divorce after 14 years and numerous attempts to change certain things.. counseling at the Stake President level etc. The church recommended I divorce her and I did. We both later remarried, she in the church I outside the church. My wife and I have been married for 41 years. My ex has married 2 more times. I was ex’d at my own insistence.
After you decided to leave the church, what made you decide to go to such great lengths to go against the LDS church?
Ed: It was a process.. We had been attending a small neighborhood church and I was challenged there over some LDS doctrine that still hung on and I studied it out and determined the LDS doctrine was non-biblical. I questioned the bishop and other leaders and they had no answers but just got angry.. That set me on a quest to study it all out..and the answers did not draw me back to the church but further away.. The, some of my LDS friends began to ask me “why?” That opened a lot of doors to what I considered to be a “calling”.
Is it because you feel a calling to pull people from the church?
Ed: A calling to share biblical truth… It just isn’t the LDS..
Is it because of the money associated with book/video purchases?
Ed: That is funny.. ALL the $ from the books/films, offerings, honorariums, goes to the ministry and not to me personally. My wife and I are always in the top few donors to the ministry. We have sold property, land, buildings, stock, and given it to the ministry as well as mortgaging our home to pay for the film, the God Makers.
Did someone in the church offend you in a way that you have decided to seek revenge on the church as a whole?
Ed: I don’t call it revenge at all. And no one in the church offended me… and I still have good friends in the church. The Mormon people are generally very good and kind people.
The reason I ask is because it seems that whenever people leave the church, they go against it as much as possible. When people leave other churches, it seems that they leave relatively quietly.
Ed: That’s because the LDS teach it is the only true church on earth.. all the pastors hirelings of Satan.. right out of the temple ceremony when I was LDS..and was temple ‘worthy.’ Most Christian churches are within the central doctrines of Christianity. They don’t cast off someone who decides for some reason to attend the church down the street.
With the "false prophet : son of perdition" exchange with Elder Peterson, is there any part of you that wonders if you would be considered a Son of Perdition?
Ed: Not even my toe.
Now for a more doctrinally based question... I see on the Saints Alive website that your group believes in the triune nature of God. Again, I do not want to debate bible interpretation, but wouldn't you agree that the trinity was not a doctrine taught by Christ?
Ed: Not at all.. He spoke clearly on the subject. Read my article, The Trinity, http://www.saintsalive.com/resourcelibrary/mormonism/the-trinity--mormon-vs-the-bible-view
According to my studies, the trinity was introduced during the Council of Nicea... What is your opinion?
Last question for now.. After making the God Makers, the Tanners made a rebuttal book against your claims in The God Makers. Have you read their argument? What do you think of it?
Ed: Actually, they never did that. In Fact, they are in a good part of the God Makers film. Jerald Tanner did not like the film, The God Makers II. He took exception to a part of it that was extremely well documented. There was no book, just an article he wrote in his newsletter. Even though I strongly disagreed with him, I do not carry that video/DVD in my ministry. I am in that film as a narrator, and was filmed [ as is often the case in film work ] without context and had no control over its contents or the editing process, as I have had in other films…
I'll have you know, I am not using this discussion for a church lesson, book, or anything else. I am just interested in another point of view.
Thank you!
Evan
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His last e-mail January 4th, 2011
Hi Ed -
I want out!!!
How do I resign?
Thanks!
Evan
Ed: Good idea! Delighted to help. I wrote an article on the several ways to resign
and I suggest you look through it and choose the method best suited for you..
let me hear back...
http://www.saintsalive.com/resourcelibrary/mormonism/exodus-getting-out-the-right-way
Best to you!
Ed
Ed: The Council defined it.. but it was a core teaching of the early church and clearly expressed by the apostles. Read what I wrote on the nature of God at: http://www.saintsalive.com/general/character_of_god.htm
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