In Kay Burningham's initial filing against the Mormon Church, the Plaintiff's claims were prefaced with the statement that "This is not a lawsuit against the church for teaching false religious beliefs". The filing went on to claim how in several real instances, demonstratably false historical events were claimed as facts by the church, to create false inducements to faith based on real life provable lies, for the purpose of committing fraud to get money. An example is that you're free to teach or to believe that the moon is made of green cheese, if you want to teach or believe that, and that no one can fault you either way. But if you teach that the Apollo astronauts actually retrieved green cheese from the moon as proof that the moon is made of green cheese, and that someone gave you money as a result of that false information, that such fraud could be a valid reason to sue for damages.

The church countered by saying that they were being persecuted for teaching religious beliefs that could not be disproven. The church responded to what they wanted the lawsuit to be about and not to what the lawsuit was actually about. Then the Utah court tossed the case out based on what the church said the lawsuit was about and not based on what the case was actually about.

Kay Burningham preducted that this might happen and that if it does, that she would re-file or appeal. Does anyone know the current status of this case? Has she re-filed or appealed, or is the case dead for good?

I have yet to see a breach in the legal armor of ChurchCo, I tried.

After the case was filed, the church filed a motion to dismiss. Ms Burning ham filed an opposition to the request. This was back in October, 2019.

I have not seen anything regarding the court's decision on this issue, which was that the lawsuit was a direct attack on religious beliefs.

Ms Burningham's response was a reiteration that she was attacking the church's modus operandi, not the beliefs the church was pretending to believe.

If I hear anything new from her office, I will probably keep it to myself. She appears to want to play things close to the vest.

John Dehlin interviewed Radio Free Mormon on January 14, 2021.

Kay Burningham phoned in and joined the conversation.

https://www.mormonstories.org/podcast/class-action-lawsuit-against-the-lds-church-for-false-truth-claims-gaddy-vs-lds-church-featuring-radio-free-mormon/

Attorney Kay explained her workaround to get past the Church Autonomy Doctrine aka First Amendment immunity is to argue that only SINCERELY held religious beliefs are protected. She alleges the correlated Church history pitched to members and investigators is either an outright misrepresentation or omission of critically relevant disclosure resulting in fraud in the inducement to join the Church or remain a member.

A belief cannot be SINCERELY held ... when you are known to be intentionally lying and misrepresenting the alleged belief.

Check the reddit/r/exmormon thread for more info:

https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/kyy4x5/fraud_in_the_inducement_class_action_lawsuit/

https://clients.kayburningham.com/?q=alt&i=1582905078&Qnum=1

It is not over yet.

Thanks for the update Subaemnotlogedin. I read both the Amended complaint and the Church's recent motion to dismiss. It looks like Kay Burningham is just a much better attorney than the attorneys for the church. The church just keeps trying to recycle the same lame claims of religious persecution and first amendment rights, while Kay nails the issue down pretty hard that her lawsuit is not about any of those things.

But fraud is fraud. No one intends to try to get the court to adjudicate whether or not God and Jesus did in fact visit Joseph Smith or not. There is proof that the church was not sincere and didn't believe what they were teaching. The church had the evidence that what they were teaching was not true and there is proof that the church leaders knew they were teaching things that they did not believe themselves. There are no protections for the church when they do that. The church's late attempts at inoculation (the Essays) only adds to the mountains of evidence that the church was committing fraud and they knew it and did it on purpose.

The best part is yet to come. I want to see a few General Authorities like Elder Oaks on the stand under oath, trying to explain away the church's blatent and knowing fraud. Instead of saying "I know...." (followed by the so-called faith-based "testimony"), these GA criminals are going to be fumbling nervously with a lot of "I don't know" and "I can't recall" type of (real and legal) testimonies in disgrace. Hopefully a big chunk of that $100 Billion dollars will have to be paid out to the legal class action members. I won't get any of the money. But I'll enjoy seeing the church have to publicly pay out to the class members for their institutionalized fraud.

I wonder if this is why they stopped promoting the BoA. The church’s own investigation of the found papyrus in 1969 told them the bad news. Did they still pass it off as a bona fide translation by Joseph? Where is the line between belief and denial?

Beliefs are actually lies, but they are functional lies. They are mind hacks that can be useful. So I think religion falls under caveat emptor. The church is copying George Costanza: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”

America is unique that way. You get to believe anything you want, no matter how crazy or stupid. It’s not always good, but it provides diversity in an otherwise overly ordered world.

But, to the point of the lawsuit. If you don't really believe what you say and you just promote falsehoods to bilk people out of their money, that's fraud and you can be sued for doing that.

I'm wondering why ghawd hasn't unleashed a mighty smite on those who should be smitten so that the faithful can say, "What a smote!!"

I think that the Mormon church leaders in Salt Lake would rather deny that Joseph Smith was a prophet if that is what it took to keep from loosing their 500 Billion dollars in net worth. It'll be interesting to see where this lawsuit goes.

If 100,000 people join the class-action and if the church loses the case and then has to pay each class member a million dollars (including punitive damages), that'll cost the church $100 Billion. Poof ! There goes the entire Ensign Peak fund all in one court case. As a consolation prize for the rest of us, maybe all of the church's finances will be made completely public (no financial secrets of any kind). On top of that, if this happens large numbers of people will stop paying tithing and leave the church. The humiliation would drive them in to having the same reputation as the Moonies or Scientologists. If enough bad stuff comes out during the lawsuit, the church might even lose their tax-exempt status. Just because this has never happened before, doesn't mean that it can't happen.

If such a fate were in the offing, the COB would move to whatever African country gave them (and their money) the best deal.

When you've got more money than God does, leaving the US and taking that money with you can be a risky proposition. If the hurch moves to a banana Republic, maybe the government there will decide to take away all of the church's money, simply because they have the power to do so and because they want that money. If the church moves to a country that doesn't respect religion much, maybe that country will allow them to be sued and won't let the money leave the country until the trial is over, and only then if the church wins. That is a lose-all situation too. Many countries have less money all together in their entire country, than the mormon church has. I can see a scenario where the church moves all of their money to an African country, only to be sued by every citizen there for teaching that black skin is a curse from God. The only thing a person would need to qualify to take part in the class action lawsuit is that their skin has to be black. Once again, the church loses. Their safest place -win or lose on the lawsuit- might always be in the US.