New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

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Mormon 8
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New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by Mormon 8 » Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:27 pm

Doubt she'll win the case given how the church has some of the best lawyers money can buy, but it's the exposure I'd love to see this get...

https://www.courthousenews.com/scathing ... on-church/

Scathing Lawsuit Seeks Punitive Damages From Mormon Church

August 6, 2019

SALT LAKE CITY (CN) — A federal lawsuit sure to get attention in Utah claims that the “Mormon Corporate Empire” has driven worshipers to existential crises, suicide, anxiety and depression by peddling a “scheme of lies” centered on the  religion’s creation and its scriptures, a onetime member claims.

Laura Gaddy on Monday filed a scathing, 75-page class action against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Represented by Salt Lake City attorney Kay Burningham, Gaddy claims the church, which claimed 16 million members worldwide in 2018, twisted “the foundational history of Mormonism” in a “fraudulent scheme perpetrated for generations.”

“The material facts upon which Mormonism is based have been manipulated through intentional concealment, misrepresentation, distortion and or obfuscation by the [LDS] to contrive an inducement to faith in Mormonism’s core beliefs,” the complaint states.

The defendant is The Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which Gaddy describes as a holding company, “which owns and/or controls several for-profit businesses.”

The complaint cites official, “whitewashed” teachings of Mormonism claiming to be the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in which a divine authority essential to that gospel was taken from Earth after Christ’s crucifixion and purportedly restored hundreds of years later to church founder Joseph Smith.

According to Mormon history, an angel guided Smith to buried gold plates near his home in Upstate New York in 1823. Smith allegedly collected the plates, which were inscribed in reformed Egyptian by ancient Americans with Hebraic DNA, and translated them into the church’s signature text, the Book of Mormon, which he published in 1830.

Mormons migrated to Ohio in 1831 due to persecution for their beliefs, which included polygamy, and Smith was killed by an angry mob while jailed in Missouri in 1844. Mormon settlers arrived in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847.

Gaddy claims that LDS leaders have recently and partially admitted, “albeit in an intentionally limited and ever changing manner,” that Smith did not directly use gold plates to create the Book of Mormon, contradicting orthodox narrative.

“Those individuals close to Smith during the period of Book of Mormon creation concede that Smith dictated the Book of Mormon while having his head in a hat which contained a seer stone, the same type stone he had previously used to look for buried treasure,” the complaint states.

Smith spent part of his early career in New York as a hidden treasure hunter, and was arrested and tried as a “disorderly person” in 1926, Fraser’s Magazine reported in 1873.

Gaddy claims that historically accurate accounts successfully challenge bogus LDS Church narratives of Smith’s first vision of “two personages whom he believed to be God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ” in 1820, his translation of Egyptian papyri into the Book of Abraham in 1880, and representations of Smith as a monogamist.

“When the true facts are substituted for the longstanding false orthodox narrative, the story that emerges has shocked devoted Mormons who have made life-altering decisions based upon a scheme of lies,” the complaint states.

From 2013 to 2019, the LDS Church published a series of essays via LDS.org that addressed controversial aspects of its history and theology, including Smith’s first vision accounts, his translations, and Book of Mormon-related geography.

LDS historian Steven Snow said a soft launch of that information was intended to “inoculate” members about the “church’s controversial history,” the complaint states.

LDS leadership, however, did not alert followers to the existence of the essays during annual general conferences, Gaddy says, at which its highest-ranking authorities “warned that the Internet has no truth filter and that sifting through the Internet for information is akin to roaming through garbage.”

In 2015, the LDS Church removed what it claimed to be Smith’s seer stone from a vault and allowed it to be photographed.

That act “was the first in over a century where [LDS] openly admitted that its founding prophet used a seer stone to create the Book of Mormon,” the complaint states.

It continues: “Nevertheless, to this day, neither the actual seer stone nor a photo of it has been referenced or shown in General Conference or, upon information and belief, to those attending weekly services in wards or branches.”

Gaddy attended an LDS ward in North Carolina in her youth, where she “sang children’s tunes about Smith’s golden plates being a record made by [the ancient prophet] Nephi and the first vision in the sacred grove where Smith claimed to see two personages, God the Father and his Son.”

She and the proposed class dedicated their “spiritual, educational, cultural and social life to the Mormon Corporate Empire,” which is composed of distinct participation levels: paid general authorities, unpaid local leadership, relevant business entities and the “Mormon Educational Empire,” the complaint states.

The LDS Church did not respond to a request for comment.

Gaddy seeks punitive damages on seven counts, including RICO, fraud, breach of fiduciary duties and emotional distress.

She claims the LDS Church’s false narratives and continuing misrepresentations “caused immeasurable emotional harm in the form of existential crises, suicides, broken families, insomnia, anxiety, and depression, of which [LDS] and members of the Mormon hierarchy are acutely aware.”

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Palerider
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by Palerider » Wed Aug 07, 2019 6:18 pm

If this ever gets to a point where she can get a class action suit together please let me know. Or if large numbers of people start donating to aid in the lawsuit I'd like to join in.
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."

"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light."

George Washington

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wtfluff
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by wtfluff » Wed Aug 07, 2019 7:21 pm

Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. -Frater Ravus

IDKSAF -RubinHighlander

You can surrender without a prayer...

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Corsair
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by Corsair » Thu Aug 08, 2019 12:38 pm

I cannot conceive of any actual money that ever gets paid to the plaintiff. Kirton-McConkie is way too good at their job for that to happen. A more likely outcome is that delays, dismissals, and gag orders get put in place to keep this from getting any traction.

The most likely course for "success" against the church would only come from getting widespread media coverage of the assertions of the case. Having the disputed truth claims on CNN Headline News would be amazing, although the "liberal media" would be claimed by our favorite believing family members. I wish this claimant well, but I have little faith that anything useful will come from this.

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moksha
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by moksha » Thu Aug 08, 2019 5:41 pm

As soon as the exhibit of the "All-Seeing Eye" to illustrate the pyramid scheme was shown in the Powerpoint presentation, Judge Sterling R. McConkie was banging his gavel.

There will be no Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act convictions against Even the Church of Jesus Christ coming from Salt Lake. The defense will argue that it couldn't possibly be them since the indictment used the word Mormon.
Good faith does not require evidence, but it also does not turn a blind eye to that evidence. Otherwise, it becomes misplaced faith.
-- Moksha

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FiveFingerMnemonic
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by FiveFingerMnemonic » Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:22 pm

I think this is where the essays' real purpose will come into play. An attempt to reduce damages in lawsuits like these.

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1smartdodog
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by 1smartdodog » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:41 pm

Normally I would say any church can claim whatever it wants. You get to decide whether you like it or not.

In the Mormon churches case all that money they sit on makes me queasy. I can not believe it does not cause a fair amount of corruption.

So if you are going to take boatloads of cash from people you had better get your story straight and weed out the fraudulent aspects.

So yes in this case I feel like there is fraud to maintain an empire.


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Palerider
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by Palerider » Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:10 pm

This same topic came up for discussion on the "Mormon dialogue" website.

The first thing that stood out to me like a huge sore thumb was how many of the apologists over there turned out to be lawyers!!! They were all saying that in their legal opinion the suit doesn't stand a chance.

I wondered if any of them realized the impact it has on the average questioning member to know that many of the persons they thought were just regular members like themselves are actually lawyers who are taught to win their arguments at all costs....

Now let me ask....do you think that's a coincidence that there are that many lawyers hanging out over there..... :|
"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily."

"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light."

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FiveFingerMnemonic
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Re: New lawsuit filed against church for deceptive foundational claims

Post by FiveFingerMnemonic » Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:34 pm

Palerider wrote:This same topic came up for discussion on the "Mormon dialogue" website.

The first thing that stood out to me like a huge sore thumb was how many of the apologists over there turned out to be lawyers!!! They were all saying that in their legal opinion the suit doesn't stand a chance.

I wondered if any of them realized the impact it has on the average questioning member to know that many of the persons they thought were just regular members like themselves are actually lawyers who are taught to win their arguments at all costs....

Now let me ask....do you think that's a coincidence that there are that many lawyers hanging out over there..... :|
The LDS church, where all the historians are actually lawyers.

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