"Anti-Mormon" and Creator of “The God Makers” - Ed Decker Pt. 1 | Ep. 1332

Ed Decker and "The God Makers": Understanding a Prominent Critic's Journey from Believer to Apostate

When John Delin interviewed Ed Decker on the Mormon Stories Podcast in May 2020, few listeners realized they were witnessing a rare conversation with one of modern Mormonism's most polarizing figures. At 85 years old, Decker represented a unique intersection of LDS history: he had been a committed member, temple attendee, and teacher of Mormon doctrine before becoming perhaps the most visible evangelical critic of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To understand Ed Decker and "The God Makers", his infamous 1982 film that shocked Mormon communities, requires examining both his personal spiritual journey and the documented historical record surrounding his life, conversion, and eventual excommunication.

The question many Latter-day Saints have asked for decades is straightforward: what transformed a seemingly devoted Mormon into a leading voice in the anti-Mormon movement? The answer, according to Decker's own account, involves theological awakening, family hardship, and what he perceived as irreconcilable contradictions within LDS doctrine itself.

Background: From Convert to Committed Member

Ed Decker was born in 1935 into a German-American family with unexpected religious complexity. His mother, he discovered only after joining the LDS Church and conducting genealogy research, was Jewish, a detail kept as a family secret. Raised in relative spiritual ambiguity, Decker gravitated toward Christianity as a young man. When a Protestant minister rejected his sincere inquiry about Jesus with hostility, Decker found himself vulnerable to the message that LDS missionaries delivered with practiced warmth and theological sophistication.

Decker converted to the LDS Church in the mid-1950s and, by his own account, became deeply invested in Mormon doctrine. He attended Utah State Agricultural College in Logan, Utah, married a woman from his hometown, and eventually worked various jobs while maintaining active church participation. The timeline matters here: Decker remained a believing, practicing member for roughly twenty years before his faith unraveled.