Why would anyone want to spread false rumors about Darrick Evenson online?
I will tell you "why".
Back in 1981, Robert and Rosemary Brown, two Mormons living in Arizona, attending an Anti-Mormon lecture by "Dr. Dee Jay Nelson", who claimed to have been commissioned by the Mormon Church to translate some Egyptian papyrus that Joseph Smith once had in his posession, and claimed to be the Book of Abraham (a book of Mormon scripture). According to "Dr. Nelson" he did so, and discovered that the papyrus was from the Egyptian book of the dead, not the Book of Abraham, so Joseph Smith was a fraud, and Mormonism had to be false. "Dr. Nelson" preached for over 20 years before Evangelical Christian churches all throughout the country; at about $500 per lecture.
"Dr. Nelson" was promoted by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, the founders of Utah Lighthouse Ministry, a pre-eminent Anti-Mormon organization in Salt Lake City, Utah. In fact, 13% of their book "Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?" was about "Prof" and "Dr." Dee Jay Nelson.
Robert and Rosemary Brown decided to "check the credentials" of "Dr." and "Prof." Dee Jay Nelson. They did over a year of research, and discovered:
*Dee Jay Nelson had not attended a Mormon Church since he was 12 years old.
*Dee Jay Nelson was a high-school drop-out and had no earned degrees of any kind.
*Dee Jay Nelson got his college diplomas from Pacific Northwest University--a diploma mill that sold bogus diplomas for a few hundred dollars.
*Dee Jay Nelson was NOT a "Professor of Egyptology" at Rocky Mountain College (that had no dept. of ancient studies and was in fact a small community college with a student population of about 400), but Nelson did give lectures about Egypt for the colleges "Travel and Tourism" program as a guest-lecturer.
Robert and Rosemary Brown then took all their documents proving "Prof. Nelson" to be a complete fraud, and put them into a book called "They Lie In Wait To Deceive". You can see for yourself the documents about "Dr. Nelson" at:
http://www.fairlds.org/Lie_in_Wait_to_Deceive/v1/V1P01f.pdf
Anyway, I read the first edition and was quite pleased with it! I had joined the Mormon Church in 1979, but soon left it because of Anti-Mormon propaganda, and I remember being seriously upset when I read about Dr. and Prof. Nelson and his work on the Book of Abraham. I wrote a letter to the Browns thanking them for the book, and offering to help them do more research exposing the backgrounds of more professional Anti-Mormons. The Browns published my letter in the second edition of Volume One of They Lie In Wait To Deceive.
Of course, Jerald Tanner, who had promoted "Dr. Nelson" as "the world's greatest Egyptologist" for twenty years, was quite upset! Over 13% of his book "MORMONISM: Shadow or Reality?" was about "Dr. Nelson". The Browns had told everyone that they were going to publish similar books about other professional Anti-Mormons; including Jerald Tanner.
Jerald Tanner claims that when he was 19 he read an anti-Mormon book, could not get good answers, and left Mormonism and became a born-again Christian, then he founded what later was to become known as "Utah Lighthouse Ministry". He died in 2008, but at one time he had a readership of over 30,000 people; most of them financial contributors to his "ministry". His Anti-Mormon books have sold in the hundreds of thousands, and his periodical "The Salt Lake City Messenger" has a readership of over 20,000 today. His widow now runs Utah Lighthouse Ministry.
Robert and Rosemary Brown then started researching on the claims of "Dr. Walter Martin"--who wrote "Kingdom of the Cults" and "The Maze of Mormonism". They discovered that Martin's bachelor degree was phoney, and his "Ph.D" was "California Coast University" was also bogus. They discovered many other things in Martin's life that did not "square" with his own claims. For example, Martin loved to claim that he was the great-great-great-great grandson of Brigham Young. The Browns proved that was false. Many claims Martin had given over the years, and hundreds of claims he made in "The Maze of Mormonism", was proved FALSE! You can read for yourself documentation about Martin's deceptions at:
http://www.fairlds.org/Lie_in_Wait_to_Deceive
Martin is exposed as a fraud and liar in Volume Two.
Decker is exposed as a fraud and liar in Volume Four.
The Browns then did a book about "Ed Decker" (John Edward Decker Jr.), the founder of Saints Alive in Jesus (Ex-Mormons for Jesus), and the author of the MASSIVELY popular films and books titled "THE GOD MAKERS". His "God Makers" film was shown to over 12 million Evangelical Christians in the U.S. alone, and his "God Makers" books have sold over 15 million worldwide!
Decker claims to have been a good Mormon for 19 years, but he became a Christian after his son was born witout ears. Mormon Elders could not heal his son (Jason), so Decker took Jason to some "Christian" Elders, who healed him immediately in the name of Jesus! So, Decker realized that the Mormon god had no power, but the Christian god did. So, he became a born-again Christian. Then, according to Decker, his Mormon bishop told is wife that she had to "divorce" Decker because he was a Christian and no longer a Mormon. Then, according to Decker, the Church also took his children away from him. Why? Because he left the Church and became a Christian. And tens of millions of Evangelicals around the world believe every word Decker tells them!
The TRUTH about Decker is somewhat different:
*His son Jason was not born until years after Decker resigned from the Church in 1972--he was the son of his second Christian wife, not his first Mormon wife. Decker lied.
*Jason was never "healed" but after many surgeries from the University of Washington, he was able to gain "some" hearing. Decker lied.
*According to Phyllis Decker, Decker's first and only Mormon wife, she divorced him because he cheated on her with other women for many years, including at least two baby-sitters.
The list goes on. Decker has made outrageous claims over the years, such as:
*Mormons only pretend to be Christians--they really see Joseph Smith as their Savior.
*Mormons have sex during the Mormon temple secret ritual.
*Mormons store two years of food and guns and ammunition because the Mormon Leaders want to take over the United States and force everyone to become Mormon, or be killed.
*There is an "exact replica" of the White House Oval Office in the Washington D.C. Mormon Temple, so that when the Mormons take over the U.S. the Mormon "Prophet" can rule the country from the Washington D.C. Temple.
*There is a super-secret Mormon ritual that Mormon leaders go through that involves the use of blood, skulls, black-rattlers (snakes), and the genitals of the wives of Mormon leaders being deformed.
*The list goes on! And YES...MILLIONS of Evangelicals around the world and the U.S. believe every single word that Decker tells them!
If you read the Anti-Baha'i propaganda of the Hojjatieh (Anti-Baha'i Society) of Iran, you'll find many "striking" similarities between what Decker and other Anti-Mormons tell people, and what the Hojjatieh tell people in Iran. And they are, for the most part....BIG LIES! And these big lies are believed by millions!
Anyway, between 1979 and 1981 I travelled around the country meeting these anti-Mormons. I knew Decker, and Walter Martin, and Jerald Tanner, and others. I was considering becoming an Anti-Mormon, if I found what they said was true. However, gradually, I began to see that the Anti-Mormons were using LIES, and they justified these lies by saying, "Look, Mormonism is of the Devil right? So, what's the problem? You gotta fight a lie by using lies...you gotta fight fire with fire!" I replied,"No! You fight fire with water not more fire! Christians are supposed to lie!" Anyway, they dismissed me as "possesses with a demon" because I insisted that you can't fight Mormonism with lies.
By 1981, I was back in the Mormon Church. I saw too many lies used by Anti-Mormons. Then I discovered "They Lie In Wait To Deceive" by Robert and Rosemary Brown, and I wrote a letter offering to do research for them, for free. They accepted.
Of course, the Anti-Mormon also read "They Lie In Wait To Deceive" and they became quite concerned! They did not wish to be exposed as frauds. So, they resorted to "dirty tricks"! They would fight the TRUTHS about them in the series "THEY LIE IN WAIT TO DECEIVE" by using LIES....and more LIES...and more LIES....and dirty tricks! And they were quite successful.
I will give you "one" example of a "dirty trick" they used against Robert and Rosemary Brown.
During the time the Browns were researching a book on the Decker and the Tanners and Walter Martin, Rosemary Brown's mother, who was 94 years old, "disappeared" from their home! They contacted police. Several months later, at the "Capstone Conference" in Salt Lake City (an annual conference of Anti-Mormon groups), a man read an affidavit from Rosemary Brown's mother, which said, in part, that the Browns had kept her against her will, were stealing her money, were trying to kill her, and that she wanted nothing more to do with them. This was read before about 500 people, and the cassette tape was later sold by various Anti-Mormon organizations. This affidavit, from Rosemary Brown's own mother, was PROOF that the Browns were liars, frauds, and just plain "evil".
At the time, the Browns still had no idea what happened to this woman, or where she was.
Anyway, about two weeks later, they get a telephone call form Rosemary Brown's mother, saying: "Come get me! Help me!" They have an operator trace the call to an address only about 10 miles away. They call the police, and rush over to the address, and find a woman with Rosemary Brown's mother (who is 94), in a small dirty apartment. Rosemary Brown's mother looks horrible; like she has not washed in a month. They arrest the woman, who tells her she was the girlfriend of Ray Samora, who police know well, a gangster. They take Rosemary Brown's mother to the hospital, and the Browns video tape her; where she tells police that the woman had come to her door several months before, and told her, "Your grandson was in an accident, you need to come with me!" She was taken to this dirty apartment, and help against her will. She was told to sign things or not eat. She was threatened alot and beaten several times by Samora (whom police believe fled to Mexico). Well, the Browns got a court order to get the telephone bills for that small dirty apartment, and on the bill they found dozens of very short telephone calls to the unlisted home numbers of Walter Martin and Ed Decker (both of whom knew each other)! What were the unlisted home phone-numbers, with calls lasting up to 2 minutes, on the apartment phone of the kidnapper of Rosemary Brown's mother?
The police video-tape of Rosemary Brown's mother is still available. In it, she says she loved living with the Browns, they never tried to steal her money, and that she never read anything they gave her to sign. They told her to sign things or not eat. She says that "Ray" took her out to the desert one day and dug a hole, and told her to get into the hole, but the woman begged him not to kill her, and Ray relented and took both of them back to the apartment.
Ray Samora was never caught, but the Maricopa County D.A. put out a warrant against him, and no charges were ever filed against Walter Martin or Ed Decker. The night before Martin was supposed to speak to police about why the telephone calls, he died of a heart attack, while sitting on his toilet, in his home in La Mirada, California; according to the official police report of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. His organization, the Christian Research Institute (CRI), and his radio show, "The Bible-Answer Man" (over 10 million listeners), later reported that "Rev. Martin died peacefully in his home, next to his bed, while kneeling in prayer".
Ed Decker was never charged. I do not know if police ever questioned him as to why calls to his home number (unlisted) were on Ray Samora's telephone bill.
Decker later claimed that while he was preaching against Mormonism in Scotland, somebody slipped "12 times the lethal dose of arsenic" into his coke, and that he had to be rushed to the hospital, but survived." Later, the man who was with Decker at the Pizza Parlour, wrote an affidavit saying that the incident never occurred, and in fact Decker never went to any hospital but preached against Freemasonry that evening; appearing to be in perfect health.
Decker also claimed that Mormon assassins have tried to assisinate him on many occassions, and that once he found a "gunman in camoflague" outside his home, and Decker had, for many years, a bullet hole in his window that he proudly showed to visitors. Decker never explained what he did to the gunman in camoflague, and there is no evidence he ever called police to report such assassination attemtps.
Later, after Rosemary Brown's mother returned to live with them, one day a man got into the car of one of Rosemary Brown's daughters, put a knife to her throat, and said: "DRIVE!" She slammed on the accelerator, turned the wheel to the left, and then slammed on the brake. The man with the knife FLEW out of the car, got up and ran! Police did not find him. Was this simply a rapist? Or....did the Anti-Mormons have something to do with it?
Anyway, all the professional Anti-Mormons (Walter Martin, Jerald Tanner, Ed Decker, etc.), knew me! They knew I did not like them using deception. They knew that I had returned to the Mormon Church. They knew that I was helping Robert and Rosemary Brown "expose" them as frauds and liars. They felt they "had" to "do" something.
WHY do the Anti-Mormons do this? Because, these men have made MILLIONS OF DOLLARS from their Anti-Mormon books, videos, literature, and lectures. I mean that. Millions upon millions! Their "literature" is bought (literally) by millions of Evangelical Christians; who believe every single word!
Question: If you are a dishonest politician and want to be elected, then HOW do you make your opponent UNpopular?
Answer: YOU LIE!
Simple as that. The Anti-Mormon had nothing against the Browns, so they had to "invent" something. They would do the same thing against me, but in a differnet way.
Troy Lawrence/Darrick Evenson
In 1989, I had decided to leave the Mormon Church. Why? Simple:
*I could no longer believe that Mormon leaders were "Prophets". They did not prophesy. I knew they lied about things, and changed Mormon history.
*90% of the single Mormon men I knew did NOT obey Church rules regarding no sex of any kind before marriage.
*My research was showing me that the Church claim that American Indians are of Jewish descent was in fact false.
*The Church taught for 130 years (1848-1978) that "Negroes" were the "cursed children of Cain" but by the mid-1980s the Church was trying to cover up "the Curse of Cain legacy" by saying: "Oh, the Church never taught that, sure, some Members of the Church may have believed that, but it was never Church Doctrine!" That was a lie...it was Church doctrine, from the top-down, for 130 years. The Church was lying and trying to cover-up its past racist teachings (and still is to this day).
*Joseph Smith prophesied that the "Son of Man" would appear on Mount Carmel in the year 1891 in red apparel (Baha'u'llah did this), but the Church was now saying that this was "a true prophecy" but "never fulfilled" because "the Members of the Church weren't ready". I knew this was a lame and poor excuse! Either the Son of Man came in 1891, or Joseph Smith was a fraud!
I discovered that while the Anti-Mormons were lying, Mormon Church leaders were also lying! Simple as that. I knew I could not accept Mormon leaders as "Prophets" and to remain a Mormon one had to do that. I just couldn't do that anymore.
I had "toyed" with the idea of becoming a Baha'i for years! I studied the Faith in 1980-81, and almost became a Baha'i then. But Baha'is told me, "Jesus was never raised from the dead, and the Gospels are historical up until he dies, but after that they are myths or parables--non-historical!" I just couldn't "buy" that. I could not accept the "Metaphor-Only" View of Jesus' resurrection. I knew it wasn't true. So, instead of becoming a Baha'i, I returned to the Mormon Church and served an 18-month mission for the Church in San Jose and San Francisco California (1983-85).
After returning from my mission, I wrote a book in answer to "The God Makers" film (by Decker) which was called "The Gainsayers". I wrote that in 1985, but it was not published until 1989. Ironically, the book was not published until three months before I decided to leave the Church, for the reasons given above.
In 1989, I also decided to become a writer. I eventually did become a "ghost-writer"; meaning a person who writes books in the "name" of others. Most celebrities have "ghost-writers". They don't/can't write, so they use a "ghost-writer" instead. The ghost-writer spends many hours with them, taking notes, recording conversations, writes a book, the "real" author reviews it, changes it, then it is published in the name of the "person" but not the ghost-writer. I've done this a number of times. In several cases full books, but in most cases "parts" of books. In most cases, more of a contributor/researcher than a ghost-writer.
But, in 1989, I wrote several books; one on the New Age Movement. I wrote a book called "New Age Messiah Identified" about "Lord Maitreya" (a New Age Messiah) and his promoter Benjamin Creme. You probably never heard of them, but they are very popular in "New Age" circles. There are about 15 million "New Agers" in the U.S. Anyway, my book was going to be a "critique" of them both. I wrote the book, and sent the book to over 100 publishers. All rejected it! I then sent the book to over 50 "Christian" publishers; because I knew that Christians were very critical of the New Age Movement. One publisher in Louisiana, Huntington House Publishers, accepted the book "on condition" that Mark Trosclair re-writes the book and includes a story about a New Ager/Becomes a Christian in the book. I said "OK" but my name would not be on it; since it was not to be my story. Trosclair agreed! The "story" would be about a man named Lawrence Langston. So, it was agreed that the book would retain the title "New Age Messiah Identified" but the "author" would be "Troy Lawrence"; which is my middle name (Troy) and the first name of Lawrence Langston (Lawrence). Everything was agreed. And I even went on Christian radio promoting the book, because, I was told, Langston was an Engineer and could not go on the road.
Anyway, Mark Trosclair told another Huntington House author, Constance Cumbey, that the ghost-writer of the book was "Darrick Evenson". She recognized my name as the author of "The Gainsayers"; a pro-Mormon book. She told Trosclair I was a Mormon. Trosclair asked me if I was Mormon. I told him, "I was for many years, but I am not any longer, although I have not formally resigned from the Church!" He was quite upset, and insisted that I go on Christian radio denouncing Joseph Smith and Mormonism. I told him while I no longer believed in Mormon leaders, I still believed Joseph Smith may have been inspired of God, and I would not renounce him. Mark Troclair said, "Fine!" Later, he wrote a letter in my name (later quoted by Anti-Mormons) and sent that out to inquirers.
Constance Cumbey told Ed Decker (a friend of hers), and Decker told other Anti-Mormons that the author of "New Age Messiah Identified" was "Darrick Evenson, a Mormon who does research for the Browns". Jerald Tanner discovered this, and decided to "expose" Darrick Evenson in an issue of his "Salt Lake City Messenger" wherein he said:
*Darrick Evenson is a liar and fraud, because while the author of "New Age Messiah Identified" says he was a New Ager in 1984, Darrick was in fact on a Mormon mission in 1984.
COMMENT: Larry Langston was a New Ager in 1984...not me!
*Darrick Evenson may be involved in fraud, because in the back of the book there is an offer for a World Crusade Journal, but the State of Washington has no tax record of such an organization!
COMMENT: The World Crusade Journal was NOT my publication!
*Certain unnammed friends and associates of Darrick Evenson in the Mormon Church tell us (Jerald and Sandra Tanner), that Darrick is scary, threatening, and dishonest, but we cannot mention their names because they are afraid of what Darrick may do to them.
COMMENT: Who are these unnamed "friends and associates"? Being a loner, I had maybe "5" friends and associates while a Mormon, and not one of them were ever consulted by the Tanners. And HOW would Jerald Taner "find" my "friends and associates" in the Church anyway?
Anyway, Jerald Tanner produced this "expose'" in an issue of "The Salt Lake City Messenger". And, thereafter, another article was produced by Eric Pement, based upon the Tanner article, in "Cornerstone Magazine"; an Evangelcial "anti-cult" magazine out of Chicago.
I answer both articles in:
https://www.angelfire.com/mo/baha/trojan.html
Simply put: Jerald Tanner LIED! He lied BIG! He always lies. He lied for decades. He told everyone he was a born-again Christian, when in fact I and others know he is an Atheist. He must "pretend" to be a born-again Christian so that Evangelicals will purchase his books and articles (over 100,000 have). Eric Pement simply followed the lies of Jerald Tanner, and then the "Director" of the Baha'i Office in Evanston, simply "accepted" the lies of Tanner and Pement, and then sent out a letter to Baha'i LSAs saying: "Beware of Darrick Evenson!" which caused the Baha'is to be completely suspecious of me, and, in one case in Salt Lake City, two Persian Baha'is insulted me, mocked me, called me a "LIAR" for over an hour until I had to physically leave!
And the false rumors and suspecion continue to this day: which is why I resigned from the Faith in 1998! I am still a Believer in Baha'u'llah. But HOW can I "fellowship" with the Friends who "believe" false rumors because they hear them alot? How?
In Conclusion
1) The Anti-Mormons (Ed Decker, Jerald Tanner, Walter Martin, Eric Pement, etc.) are DECEIVERS of the worst kind! They are in the "Jesus Business". They think Christians are ignorant dupes who need to be separated from their money! And the Evangelicals "believe" these men without question!
2) I DID NOT join the Baha'i Faith in order to "discover the secrets" in order to write a book against it! The Baha'i Faith HAS NO SECRETS! There are no secret rites or beliefs in the Faith that one must "infiltrate it" in order to "expose" it. The Anti-Baha'i Society in Iran sometimes infiltrates the Baha'i Faith in order to get copies of Baha'i membership lists--so they can persecute the Baha'is on the lists!
3) I joined the Baha'i Faith because I believe that Baha'u'llah is Who He says He is, the Spirit of Truth, and because I believe that Joseph Smith prophesied of Baha'u'llah in the capacity of a SEER! That is why I wrote: 1891: Did Joseph Smith Prophesy of Baha'u'llah? About 90% of the Mormon Seekers that have studied the Baha'i Faith in the last 10 years have been the result of my efforts; not those of the Baha'is of Utah. I say this NOT to boast, but to show you, Dear Reader, that Mormons have NO INTEREST in the Baha'i Faith as long as it is now presented to them: as a "way" to work for World Peace and Race Unity and Esperanto for all! Forget it!
4) Many "Baha'is"--including the Director of that Office in Evanston, as well as the two Persian Baha'is in Salt Lake City whose names were Talebreza and Saeed, as well as other Baha'is in Utah and elsewhere, have continued to spread LIES that originated by these evil Anti-Mormon men and groups! As long as that continues, and it it continuing, I cannot fellowship with the Friends. Because, if you spread LIES about me, you are NOT my friend!
5) I have sent literature off in the name of "Aenon E. Moss" (Anonymous) in the HOPE that it will help the Faith grow and prosper in this country. I did not use the name "Darrick Evenson" for the reasons I have given. The name "Darrick Evenson" is like shouting "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre; as soon as it is heard, the Baha'is go running...thanks to the lies ordinated by evil, atheistic, deceptive men, that many Baha'is accept as true and say: "Golly, these rumors MUST BE TRUE, or why would everybody be saying them?" And THAT is exactly what the Shi'ites say in Iran: "Golly, the Baha'is MUST BE spying for Israel, or why would everybody be saying that if it wasn't true?"
Friends, please...GROW UP! Have you learned nothing. To end this I will quote ........., the Baha'i UN representative:
Darrick Evenson
Volume One/Second Edition
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As long as the false rumors and lies continue to be spread, by Baha'is themselves include Auxilary Board members (yes...they have spread them in the name of "protecting" the Faith), I cannot fellowship with the Friends. However, I remain a Believer. Thank you for your time.
darrickevenson@gmail.com
