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23 July 2015

Statement on the republication of Taming the Tiger

In light of recent news that Tony Anthony's book Taming the Tiger has been republished as "essentially the same story" with minor edits by a second publisher - RoperPenberthy - the Evangelical Alliance would like to re-issue our statement from 12 July 2013.

We re-iterate the findings of the independent panel set up by Avanti – and chaired by barrister John Langlois - following discussions and nominations by the Evangelical Alliance: that Tony did not spend his childhood in China, he was never Kung Fu world champion and never worked in close protection:

"In October 2012, the Evangelical Alliance received a detailed complaint about the validity of the testimony of an Avanti Ministries' evangelist, Tony Anthony, and his bookTaming the Tiger.

Following discussions between Evangelical Alliance and Avanti Ministries, Avanti agreed to set up an independent panel nominated by the Alliance to investigate in a confidential manner the allegations against Tony Anthony.

The independent inquiry panel was made up of three respected members of the UK Council of the Evangelical Alliance: John Langlois (chair of panel), Keith Civval and Robert Amess.

The panel produced its report on 26 June 2013 and concluded, based on the evidence submitted to it, that large sections of the book Taming the Tiger, and associated materials, which claim to tell the true story of Tony Anthony's life, do not do so.

Both the Evangelical Alliance and Avanti Ministries take serious note of the findings of the report and as a result Avanti has concluded that it is not appropriate to continue to support Taming the Tiger.

The board of Avanti Ministries are now considering the ramifications for Avanti Ministries' future."

Avanti subsequently closed.

  • In July 2013, we also produced a Q&A regarding Evangelical Alliance and Avanti Ministries, which you can read here.

For more, read further articles on the re-publishing of Taming the Tiger by Christian Today and Premier