Tony Anthony, founding director of evangelism charity Avanti Ministries, claims in his best-selling autobiography Taming the Tiger that he was three times a world Kung Fu champion and a bodyguard, and later went to prison where he became a Christian.
Anthony’s book, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide, is published in the UK by Authentic Media.
A group of church leaders, including two former Avanti directors, investigated Anthony following suspicions about the validity of his testimony. They made an 80 page submission of evidence they gathered to the Evangelical Alliance in November 2012.
Journalist Gavin Drake published the allegations of false testimony, including claims that he lied about his age and that he was never a Kung Fu champion, at crosswire.org.uk.
In early 2013, Avanti conducted a three month inquiry into the allegations, chaired by three Evangelical Alliance board members, which concluded in late June. The EA is due to make a public statement in the middle of July.
Earlier this year, Avanti’s trustees posted a statement online saying they had looked at the issues raised and understand that his personal testimony is as accurate as he could have made it at the time of writing.
There will be a fuller report of these findings in the next issue of Christianity magazine.
