Ed Decker is the Founder of "Saints Alive" and Author of the Highly Controversial book "The Godmakers"

Who is Ed Decker?
Wow - the controversial comments and writings by and about Ed Decker are voluminous.  We could dedicate an entire site to them.  To be short, we will only cover who he is and key pieces of history here.

History
J. Edward Decker joined the LDS Church, of which his wife Phillis Danielson Decker was a member, in the late 1950's.  Mr. Decker was married to his wife until their divorce approximately 1968.  Ed blames the LDS Church for what he calls "ruining his family".  A fair-thinking person would arrive at a different conclusion by a careful study of the facts.

According to his wife's account, "it was a series of affairs Ed had that led to our divorce". Ed had 5 children with his wife, and according to Phillis' written history of the events, Ed's many affairs were scattered all throughout their relationship.  The most damaging was with her best friend.  It was so bad that he even "left the hospital after she had his baby to be with his girlfriend". According to his wife's legal Divorce Decree (which was UNCONTESTED by Mr. Decker) "...the defendant, John [Edward] Decker, Jr. not regarding his marriage vows and obligations, has, since his marriage to the plaintiff, in this manner has been guilty of extreme and repeated cruelty towards the plaintiff, in that he on many occasions had the company and companionship of other women."

Many times his wife would consult with her LDS Church leaders about his affairs.  In speaking with their leaders, "Ed would repent and apologize and claim he would never do it again", even though it continued.  So his wife and the Church would forgive him.

Finally Ed left Phillis for good with their 5 kids (ages 4,5,7,9, and 11) and demanded a divorce settlement in his favor which she agreed to, otherwise he would "disappear and she would have to raise the children herself without ANY help from him".  Later he, because of being better-equipped financially, was able to take her children and gain custody.  In 1976, Ed was excommunicated from the LDS Church (of which his previous acts made him a candidate multiple times).

His Ministry
At that point Ed began his mission to take down the Mormon Church.  He founded the "Saints Alive" (www.saintsalive.com) movement who's mission it is to expose the LDS Church as a fraud.  His first big hit was a book and  independent film called "The Godmakers", which he has successfully sold to many mainstream Christian Churches as the gospel against the Mormons.  Anyone who has any background about the LDS Church and objectively looks at this tabloid reporting piece (at best) agrees that it is anything but accurate.  The links below show some of the responses from objective, non-Mormon organizations.

Even Dick Baer, his partner in this movie endeavor, said of Ed Decker "Ed has a penchant to sensationalize, embellish on facts and center on bizarre issues to try to shock people" (February 25th 1993, Salt Lake Tribune).  Dick Baer is one of the most outspoken anti-Mormons to date.  There's no reason he would ever side with the LDS Church.  Ed's own words even make his motivations clear: "When you are fighting the Devil's Church, anything goes".

One of the most prominent anti-Mormon groups is the Jerald and Sandra Tanner family.  The Tanners released formal statements to distance themselves from the erroneous and false claims about Mormons made by Ed Decker.  See their statements here.

Saints Alive
The following is a quote from Ed Decker's “Saints Alive” Web Site home page where he promotes his Anti-Mormon material for sale.

"During some hard times this summer, we sold my pickup truck to help get our son, Josh, back into college. I could barely walk then, let alone drive a stick shift and it was a blessing to have it there to use in that way.  The Lord responded to that vacuum by having one of His saints give us a Plymouth van just in time for me to use when I could drive again. Isn’t He faithful and wasn’t that brother faithful, too. Praise God!"

 "This gift reminded me to remind you that gifts in kind are deeply appreciated. We have had recent gifts of computer equipment/software and printing services that have literally kept the ministry alive."

 "If you have something like an RV, automobile, computer, boat, stock, or other property that you can donate to Saints Alive, consider doing that. If we can’t use it, we can sell it and use the proceeds to advance the work of the ministry. The gift will go to your account in heaven and even give you some tax relief on earth."
Ed Decker - Saints Alive