Bill McKeever just forwarded this notice from the Deseret News. Look innocuous? It isn’t. Notice this line, “Along with his wife, Sandra, Mr. Tanner received public criticism after studying the authenticity of the Salamander Letter, which was later determined to be a forgery by Mark Hofmann containing facts about the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith.” I don’t know about you, but it sounds like this writer is trying to say the Tanners promoted the Salamander Letter and its authenticity. The Tanners were the ones who did not trust the letter. They were suspicious of it from the start, and they stood firm even when the LDS Church leadership and numerous other sources were proclaiming it authentic! My own ministry avoided jumping on the “White Salamander Letter” bandwagon because we trusted the Tanners and their gut instincts. And, of course, they were proven correct.
To put such a line in an article about Jerald’s death is simply wrong. I would love to believe this was just a major mistake, but it is hard to see how it could be.
Alpha and Omega Ministries is a Christian apologetics organization based in Phoenix, Arizona. James White, director, is a professor, having taught Greek, Systematic Theology, and various topics in the field of apologetics for numerous schools.
