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Ed Decker

Historical Figures in the Christian Countercult Movement - J. Edward Decker
The Turth about Ed Decker by Darrick T. Evenson

John Edward Decker (known as Ed Decker) is responsible for the movie Godmakers.

The GOD MAKERS, which was first shown in 1983, was produced largely through the efforts of Edward Decker, who is currently international director of Saints Alive in Jesus. The film took three years to make at a cost of approximately $250,000. To pay for the film, Decker personally borrowed $65,000, obtained $50,000 from a group of investors and raised the remaining amount from donations" (Brown 1995, 3)
Ed Decker's life of deceit was evident in his marriage to his first wife. They were married for 13 years and his wife indicates, "Ed had affairs for seven of those years and I was continually advised by the LDS Church to forgive him. I loved him and wanted more than anything to have a happy home. I did everything I could think of to make him happy." Also commenting on the movie The Godmakers and Ed's lectures, his first wife says, "I understand he often blames me and the Church for the breakup of our marriage in 1969. Nothing could be further from the truth. He left the marriage, not me. It was the LDS Church that kept counselling me to forgive him. They tried to help us stay together and resolve our problems. I have also heard several times that Ed tells people he has been a Bishop in the LDS Chruch. THIS IS NOT TRUE. He never was a Bishop. He was a teacher once in a small Sunday School class, and was Sunday School President once." (Brown 1995, 9)

We can learn a lot about Ed Decker if we just listen to him tell about what brought him to the decision to leave the Mormon Church. I sat in the audience in Mesa Arizona and listened to him tell about how he considered himself an active elder in the Mormon church. However, he had the mistaken belief that his activity in the church would somehow shield him from difficulties. When a challenge came to his life he felt angry at God. He told about how he raised his fist to heaven and cursed God. Maybe God was offended, but surely Ed must have been ashamed.

Ed has included information about his life in and out of the Church on his web site. He tells us:

In the beginning I felt that being a Mormon was really something special! I believed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints possessed the divine priesthood of God, and that it was the "only true church" because it was headed by prophets and apostles as was the church in the days of Peter and Paul.
But then he shows how he didn't really understand the gospel. He had the mistaken notion that his works make him righteous and eliminate problems from his life. He reports the following experience about the birth of his son from his second marriage.
I was standing next to the doctor as our son, Jason, was born. As he emerged into the world, the doctor turned to the nurse and casually said, "We have some congenital deformity here." The nurse carried the baby to a nearby table and I practically climbed over her to see the child and this deformity. The doctor showed me that our son was born without normal outer ears and ear canals. He shook his head and sadly remarked that this was some indication that the baby probably had serious internal problems, as well.

I don't remember leaving the hospital that night. I am sure I ran out and left my wife alone. I raced home and threw myself upon the floor of our family room and began to sob. It was a curse from God for my unworthiness, for my failure to live the highest level of my priesthood, for not attending my meetings and for the thousands of sins uncovered by righteous works. I knew I was at fault because I had taught that very doctrine myself as an active LDS teacher.

I pulled out the reference book, Mormon Doctrine, By LDS Apostle and key theologian, Bruce R. McConkie. There under the heading, CURSINGS, was the pronouncement:

Cursings are the opposite of blessings, and the greater the opportunity given a people to earn blessings, the more severe will be the cursings heaped upon them, if they do not measure up and gain the proffered rewards.

No one had to tell me I had failed to measure up. Not only was God exercising his wrath upon me for my failures, but he was doing it through this little baby, whose sin was being my son. I was guilty, not only of failing God again, but the guilt of causing God's wrath to fall upon my son was more than I could bear. I screamed curses back at God that night! I cursed him until my voice was gone and I slept with clenched fists, exhausted upon the floor.

He said that he was influenced by the friendship of other Christians and decided to leave the Mormon church. However, he was never really in the church. He didn't understand that salvation came not from his good works but only through Jesus Christ. He didn't understand that we can live very good lives, but we will still have challenges. Challenges are opportunites for growth, not evidences of being cursed. However, he had turned his back on truth and built myths that he could attack. He found others were willing to support him as he preached his falsehoods and deceptions. He opened a new chanel by creating a deceptive movie, The Godmakers. He used deception to twist unique beliefs and painted them without their true background to make the Mormon beliefs into a cartoon of reality.