Tony Anthony’s well-known book, Taming the Tiger, and DVD based on his testimony were withdrawn from sale in July after factual inaccuracies were found which compromised the integrity of the publication.
A review was held by Authentic Media, the publisher, and the Evangelical Alliance was asked to undertake an independent inquiry. When both stages of the review were completed, the conclusion was reached, and released in a statement by Authentic Media, that ‘sections of the book are not true’. It emerged that some of the material was copied from a martial arts website. One passage was lifted from a book about Bruce Lee.
Concerns over claims
Although the inquiry began last year, an online search found that, as far back as 2008, those interested in martial arts who had heard of Tony Anthony’s story had had concerns over his claims. Those who had read the book were questioning his knowledge of the area, his training, and commenting that his story did not seem to be plausible.
Others were concerned by his involvement with the Saudi ambassador. The timescales and locations did not correlate with an obituary published in The Times newspaper in 2007.
Reading Chinese?
One person, who was part of the inquiry group, after meeting Mr. Anthony, was concerned by his apparent inability to read Chinese characters. Mr. Anthony had claimed in his book that he had been writing these while in prison as an adult. Yet when handed a message written in Chinese characters he had not shown any ability to read it, but rather had hidden it away and even when prompted did not appear to want to even try to read it.
Naivety
Over 1.5 million copies of the book were sold, and Mr. Anthony took part in the ‘Passion for Life’ evangelism campaign in 2010. The secular media has reported the book’s withdrawal from sale, and much comment has been made about the naivety of Christians in two regards. Firstly, for publishing a book about which not enough research had been done to check the facts in an area where few are knowledgeable, and far fewer within the Christian community. And, secondly, criticism has been made for being ‘sucked in’ by a ‘bad boy meets God’ story and how that is inevitable for ‘people who believe in Satan and virgin births’. It is clear that much damage has been done to the Christian community.
