Someone else is now suing the Church and it's "fraudulent scheme" While I do not expect the case to go anywhere legally and most likely be dismissed at the first opportunity... It would be nice if it got some half decent press.

https://www.courthousenews.com/scathing-lawsuit-seeks-punitive-damages-from-mormon-church/?fbclid=IwAR1N2r1qbdiDyPIU_xCnV9DhDeE2ycJlsx2mWPU-idGR_b5cpuTJCtdmXEM

Yep pretty crazy huh!

Posted earlier by 2 posters...

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2247071

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2247187

I think since it's a class action it should be open to all disenfranchised ex-members or current members who feel like they were ripped off. The more the merrier!

Do you know where or how we sign up for this class action lawsuit?

One of the other posts in this forum has a link to a pdf document of the initial court filings. I read all 75 pages last night.

It looks like anyone who has had their name removed from church records after four years ago, or who now has their name removed, is eligable to become a member of the class action. It looks like the lawsuit is structured to allow tens of thousands of people to join-in. They're asking the courts to force the church to provide a list of everyone who has resigned in the last four years so that those people can be contacted and invited to join-in the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims up front that they are not suing over religious issues but for material mis-statements of historical fact. These mis-statements enticed church members to join the church under deceptive pretenses, and to pay tithing under deceptive pretenses. The truth of these historical events is verifiable. They claim that the "Mormon Corporate Empire" is worth $100 Billion and are also stating RICO violations.

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Mormons.pdf



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2019 12:23PM by azsteve.

Will go nowhere because you can't prove it's fraudulent or that they're purposely deceiving people for their own gain. Even with them constantly changing the narrative, hiding the few facts that they do own up to (the essays) and all the lawsuits, against them. Courts would never set that kind of precedent.

PROVE that JS and God didn't come down in all their glory and show themselves to a convicted treasure digging teenager or that said teenager didn't put a magic rock in his hat and read translated ancient writings off of it, or that an angel with a flaming sword didn't threaten him with death if he didn't fuck other men's wives and 14 year olds, or that God didn't say Masonic handshakes and secret passwords were needed to get into heaven.

You can't prove that anymore than any Christian or Jewish person or Muslim can prove that Adam and Eve weren't the first humans on the Earth. Oh, you THINK you can, you know, science and all that shit. But we're talking supernatural and that's the realm you can't touch cause you'll always be molesting someone's sacred cow.

Read the lawsuit. The pleadings say that "this is not a claim for propagating false religious beliefs". Joseph Smith never said a lot of what the church says that he said. I never realized until now that the brethren have lied to us about several key facts about recorded history that are legally capable of being proven to be false. Newspapers at the time published what JS did say. Win or lose, my only regret is that I resigned too long ago to take part in this lawsuit. Then again, I have had 22 years longer to recover. I want to support this lawsuit somehow. I would be happy to testify against the mormon corporate empire.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2019 12:37PM by azsteve.

All you have to do is convince your peers in a courtroom that a fraud has taken place and negligence in so doing. I can tell you first hand that I was lied to. I was frauded. And the 15 knew exactly what they were doing in keeping the truth from me. If that is not fraud I do not know what is.

Someone in the UK tried suing Profit Monson a few years ago for the same thing:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26666144
It got thrown out. Typical British “justice”, our system sucks; they even criticised the actual lawsuit. Perhaps the US will have more luck. My thought is that the only good that will come from this will be negative publicity for the cult.

Tom Phillips reads and posts here. He's a star.

I don't think there is any way these suits will succeed in places that defer to religion as much as the US and the UK, so I agree that what we are talking about will probably not extend beyond negative publicity. But every extra dollop increases the pressure on the church.

When you get a moment, search for Phillips on RfM. You'll see a lot not only about the suit but also about the second anointing, which he publicized when he left the church and his very high position in it. That revelation was one of the greatest blows anyone has landed on the church in recent decades.

I think a reasonable jury would agree that the LDS Church has and continues to intentionally misrepresent some of the key facts (not religious beliefs) in its history. The way the BOM was translated is just one misrepresentation of the facts when they continue to show pictures of Smith looking at gold plates rather than a stone in a hat. Just this one long standing misrepresentation alone would change history, not to mention the other misrepresentations of facts! Just think how different things would be if from day one the LDS Church taught that Smith translated the gold plates by looking at a stone in a hat and backed it up with paintings of the event.

If someone keeps changing their story, they might be lying.

Ha it is even on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBPCutglm14