Understanding the Gaddy Case
On the Questions of Fraud and Accountability
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On the Questions of Fraud and Accountability
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Notice: This page has been significantly updated (11/1/2021).
If you have already read it, you will want to read it again.
Note new case downloads below.
We believe there is no reasonable question about the fact that Mormonism is fundamentally a fraud, rooted in claims of divine origins that have been completely, conclusively, and irrefutably demonstrated to be false. Very real questions about the sincerity of the LDS Leadership have been well understood by close observers at least since the testimony of Ann Eliza, a former wife of Brigham Young and the final words of John D. Lee, spoken before his execution for the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Compounding what we believe to be the fraud of Mormonism, is the insidious falsehood that this particular "fraud" is benign (harmless) and should be overlooked in view of the "greater good" that the faith contributes to the lives of its members and the society and culture that tolerates it.
It is difficult to argue which of the forgoing notions is the greater evil or the greater folly. It is not difficult to argue which of the two falsehoods is more obvious and generally understood.
That Mormonism is a ridiculous fraud is widely accepted by most moderately educated individuals familiar with the controversies. It has been argued that only the ignorant, or self deluded or otherwise afflicted with cognitive dissonance cling to the childish notion that Mormonism might still, somehow, be "true" amidst the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The simple truth of the matter is broadly accepted that to be a true believing Mormon (TBM) in the modern age of the internet, is to be either inexcusably ignorant or mentally ill, afflicted with self delusion and cognitive dissonance. It follows that to advocate Mormonism is to advocate mental illness. Similarly, it follows that to advocate the insidious falsehood that Mormonism is benign (harmless) is to advocate that mental illness manifesting itself in the forms of self delusion, cognitive dissonance, and a self destructive epistemology is an acceptable quality of life and an acceptable objective or goal for the nurturing of children, the qualifications for public service, the rationality employed by key members of the intelligence community, and the psychological and philosophical competence of licensed (self delusional?) therapists who staff the LDS Social Services agency offering (for a fee) "counseling" (gas lighting) to the victims of Mormonism's own abuse.
That the powers that be in Washington can no longer reasonably be trusted to consistently represent the common good of the average American in a responsible and constitutional manner is not in reasonable dispute at this time. That the American intelligence community has involved itself in reprehensible unconstitutional activities in support of special interests that are adverse to the common good of the average American is no longer in reasonable dispute. That the Department of Justice has involved itself in indefensible activities that are adverse to the constitutional principles it is expected to protect and support is no longer in reasonable dispute.
Self serving self delusion, widely accepted as the philosophical mainstay of Mormonism, topical shunning, coverups, and obfuscation, and the utter falsehood that a contrived "greater good" is somehow being served as a justification for abuses of the American constitution and the reasonable constitutional expectations of the American people are now a rampant part of the culture we have come to tolerate in American society.
All of the forgoing abuses, injustices, and the loss of international respect and the looming economic and social fallout from them are attributable to the grotesque measures of indifference that the self serving elite elements of society (that have seized control of American institutions) have for the common good and the constitutional principles that were established to protect the interests of average Americans and place limits on the very corruptions and usurpations that have now overwhelmed our culture with impunity.
The United States of America, once the bastion of hope for the world, now struggles to be taken seriously in a world that recognizes what it will not face up to about itself. That the American government has lost the trust and respect of the more enlightened of its own citizenry all too many of whom now viewing it as only tolerable by comparison to other more abusive totalitarian alternatives. Increasingly, Americans who can afford it, retire outside the country.
Mormonism is elitism. Mormonism exports the gospel of elitism upon which justification for the trampling of the common good, in the pursuit of special interests is rooted. We do not buy that the Mormon Corporate Empire pursues charitable service or philosophical truth. Rather we believe that it pursues its own power and control, and uses its accumulated $100 billion dollar economic war chest to pressure, manipulate, bully, and buy loyalty, subservience, and the avoidance of accountability even at the highest levels of American institutions, rewarding those who look the other way and promote indifference to its abuses with positions of power and respect and economic spoils sheered from its gullible stable of subservient sheep.
We further believe that the self serving elite elements of American society absolutely include and are often led by the Mormon Corporate Empire and the Mormon Mafia negotiating and orchestrating illegitimate control, illegitimate secret influence, and illegitimate obfuscation and suppression of factual information relevant to these abuses and usurpations. The contrived notion of a "greater good" that justifies such abuses and usurpations is a myth widely promoted, even among certain infiltrated self serving interests within the ex-Mormon community, in exchange for favors, contracts, appointments, and other concessions. The personal, social and economic fallout for those deemed "unworthy" by the Mormon Corporate Empire is very real.
The state of Utah consistently reports significantly higher than average suicides. The LDS Faith Crisis Report, published in 2013, finds that Mormonism contributes to extreme emotional distress resulting in "suicidal ideation" among other serious impacts. Gas Lighting, (the particular form of abuse, widely acknowledged to be commonly employed by Mormons against Mormon dissidents who have the intellectual wherewithal to grasp the absurdity of the inconsistencies between Mormonism's claims of divine origins, and the historical facts that contradict those claims), is well known to contribute to extreme psychological trauma that can and does contribute to suicide.
The social abuses of character assassination and topical shunning, commonly employed by Mormons against dissidents, destroy families and contribute to unwarranted distrust, emotional distress, and real psychological damage.
Somehow, when the department of Justice deemed it politically feasible to pursue Warren Jeffs for child abuse, the United States Judiciary looked upon the First Amendment defense for Jeffs forced Fundamental LDS marriages to minors to be inadequate weight in the balance as compared to the compelling state interest in upholding laws against sexual abuse of a minor. The Fundamental LDS group, is an inconsequential offshoot of Mainstream Mormonism. It has no political clout and comparatively little economic might. Mainstream Mormonism's interests, which include inordinate influence with the Department of Justice, were in publicly (albeit disingenuously) distancing itself from the practice of polygamy, embraced by Jeffs Fundamentalist Mormon cult.
Now, as Mainstream Mormonism is confronted with the prospect of being held accountable for outright fraud and the willful infliction of emotional distress commonly associated with what many ex-mormons believe to be its campaign of abuse against dissidents, we watch carefully as the true value system and perceptions of what qualifies as "compelling state interest" to the United State Judiciary reveals itself.
Shall we conclude that protection against the sexual abuse of a child is a compelling state interest that trumps the first amendment protections of freedom of religion, while theft by fraud and deceit, followed up with the relatively quiet brutality of economic discrimination, gas lighting, topical shunning, and character assassination giving rise to emotional trauma, intellectual breakdown, and suicide get's a pass? What contrived path of reason gets us to that conclusion? Certainly not the goal of the mental health and wellbeing of the American constituency, capable of rational assessment of the conduct of its own government.
Is the intellectual breakdown commonly associated with Mormon epistemology where blind, unquestioning obedience, no matter the absurdity of the imposition, the actual "compelling state interest" the Judiciary hopes to "support"?
With very serious questions about the United States' involvement in the development of the underlying bio-technology now unleashed upon the world in the form of Corona Virus, and the threat of mandatory vaccinations in the absence of sound science to support the safety of the same vaccinations, we have good reason to wonder whose interests the United States Government actually now serves. Some have argured that the delivery of the United States government into the hands of the highest corporate bidder by the controversial Citizen's United decision was a frightful clue.
It remains attorney Kay Burningham's position that no case law supports outright fraud to be exempt from scrutiny under the First Amendment. Contrary to what the Mormon Corporate Empire's attorneys would have the world believe, Kay Burningham is not alone in her view.
On March 31, 2020, Burningham filed the first motion to amend the Gaddy complaint with clarifications of the issues. The Court immediately responded by dismissing the original Gaddy complaint "without prejudice" and indicating willingness to entertain a subsequent motion to amend the complaint. In the subsequent motion to amend the complaint, filed on April 28, 2020, Burningham pointed out that the court's order to dismiss the original complaint included a case law citation with a glaring omission of a substantive part of the case ruling, giving rise to an unjustifiable interpretation of the "supportiveness" of the court's decision. Our confidence in the objectivity of the court is shaken. The order and omission would likely have been prepared by Judge Shelby's clerk, a graduate of BYU's law school.
(Motion to Amend was granted. Amended complaint was filed and can be downloaded here.)
Subsequently, a motion to file a 2nd Amended Complaint has been filed and was (surprisingly) unopposed. The 2nd Amended complaint has been filed. Copies of the filed documents can be downloaded here:
Documents:
• Motion to file 2nd Amended Complaint
• 2nd Amended Complaint
Complaint Exhibits:
• Exhibit 1 (LDS Personal Faith Crisis Report)
• Exhibit 2 (1826 Judge Neely Docket)
• Exhibit 3 (New York Times article from 1912, examining the 'fraud' of Joseph Smith)
• Exhibit 4 (Grammar and Alphabet guide to Egyptian language circa 1835)
• Exhibit 5 (Declaration of David Nielsen formerly of Ensign Peak Advisors)
• Exhibit 6 (Excerpt from Deseret News 2010 article Use Proper Sources)
• Exhibit 7 (Decades Table of Art depicting direct translation of Golden Plates)
Ms. Burningham has argued that two June 2021 decisions, one by the Supreme Court of Utah (SCOUT) and another by SCOTUS, are favorable to the Gaddy case.
The 2nd Amended complaint is profoundly significant on multiple levels. Shortly we will post a detailed analysis of the highlights.
Meanwhile, two significant aspects of the 2nd amended complaint involve the direct assertions (as opposed to implied by fraud allegations) that the Mormon leadership do not sincerely believe their own teachings, (See testimony of Ann Eliza) posing an additional significant challenge, rooted in what experts believe to be well established case law cited by Burningham, to the notion professed by the Church's legal counsel that their fraud is exempt from judicial scrutiny on constitutional grounds.
From Hansen v Purnell (1924) a court reasoned...
...the Israelite House of David is not a religious association organized in good faith for religious purposes, but, on the contrary, it was organized by its founders, Benjamin and Mary, and Benjamin in particular, for fraudulent, unlawful and immoral purposes, and in so far as it proclaims a definite religious doctrine, and purports to teach publicly a moral code, it is for the fraudulent and corrupt purpose of borrowing the cloak of religion to disguise its true purposes and corrupt motives, and particularly for Benjamin’s private gain, to afford him opportunities for the gratification of his lust, and to shield and protect him in criminal and licentious practices with the young girls and young women members of this organization.
This action is not and does not purport to be an attack upon a religious faith, but, on the contrary, an attack upon an attempt to prostitute that faith to irreligious and base purposes through the instrumentality of a so-called religious society, ostensibly organized for the furtherance of the faith, but in fact organized under guise of religion for wicked, lewd, licentious, and unlawful purposes. This, of course, does not mean that any individual may be deprived of his constitutional right to worship God in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience, nor that a court will assume to determine the truth or error of any religious creed or dogma; but it does mean that no individual, or group of individuals, will be permitted to deceive and defraud others through and by false and fraudulent representations made under color of religion, no matter what that religion may be or under color of any other lawful purpose. It is undoubtedly true that the criminal or indecent conduct of one or more members of a religious organization is not sufficient cause for another member to withdraw therefrom and demand a restoration of the property he has contributed, for there are hypocrites and criminally disposed individuals in every religion; but it is alleged in this bill of complaint, and the evidence tends to prove, that Benjamin was not only the founder and expounder of this faith, but that he organized this society; that he is the absolute master of its activities and dominates both its spiritual and temporal affairs.
*271 If, therefore, this society was not in fact organized by Benjamin for religious purposes; if it was clothed with a religious garb merely to conceal a sinister motive; if it was organized by Benjamin for private gain, or fraudulent, corrupt, and criminal purposes; if Benjamin did not and does not believe, in good faith, that he is the Seventh Messenger in the line of succession, of which line he claimed Johanna Southcote, of England, was the first, and John Wroe was the fifth; if his pretensions to piety and righteousness are but sham and hypocrisy, to deceive and defraud others in joining this society and contributing their means and their labor thereto—then, notwithstanding the alleged fraud and fraudulent representations upon which plaintiffs rely for recovery occurred many years after the society was organized, and many people had, in good faith and for proper purposes, become members thereof, the initial fraud permeates the entire structure, and is perpetuated by Benjamin’s continuing fraudulent misrepresentations, either in person or by his agents and representatives, and by his continuing control and dominance of its affairs. That other members of this society, and the officers through whom Benjamin exercises control of its affairs, may be in good faith and entirely honest in their acceptance of the religion proposed and publicly taught by Benjamin, can avail nothing, if these officers and members alike are subject to the unquestioned authority and autocratic control of Benjamin. Under such a state of facts the officers and members of this society, though they be ignorant thereof, are nevertheless part and parcel of the plan and machinery by which and through which it is claimed Benjamin accomplishes his corrupt, criminal, and fraudulent purposes.
It follows, therefore, that their good faith and honest purpose cannot shield Benjamin or the society he has organized and controls from civil liability to those who have been so defrauded of property or the fruits of their labor. If the other members have likewise been defrauded, they are entitled to like redress. They could have intervened in this case for the equal and equitable protection of their rights, but they have not intervened, and therefore must abide the result, even though the payment of the amount found due to plaintiffs should exhaust the property of Benjamin, Mary, and the House of David.
Is no such wisdom in jurisprudence to be found in the United States Judiciary today? If not, why not? Because the Mormon Corporate Empire wields so much power, wealth, and influence in today's world that appointments and career advancement in the United States Judiciary depends on their approval? Does the United States Judiciary now need to re-define corruption to exclude their own subservience?
The 2nd Amended complaint goes on to present, in its 200 plus pages, multiple glaring evidences to the effect that the Church had actual knowledge of the misrepresentations they were making and further demonstrated by their conduct that they do not believe their own doctrines. (See testimony of Ann Eliza) Not the least of which being evidence found in the possession of the Church that the plate from which a Book of Abraham facsimile was printed was intentionally altered from its original state to correspond with the contrived representation of the identity of a significant character in the facsimile.
It would seem Burningham remains confident and committed to take the case to the wall. We believe that the moral and legal right is on Gaddy's side. We are not so confident that what is right matters so much, in today's unfortunate world. With that in mind, we continue to applaud the courage of attorney Kay Burningham, her client Laura Gaddy, and any prospective intervenors (additional plaintiffs) standing by, but not now known to the public.
In the end of the day, it is our commitment that, win or lose, the whole truth will be told; all of the arguments will be considered and scrutinized; and those who care enough to read, will have before them the basis of reassurance, or reconsideration of their confidence in American institutions.
See also: Thumbnail Sketch of Case Issues
See also: Practical Considerations
See also: Gaddy vs COP (LDS) Case Background
See also: Understanding the Elements of Fraud
See also: Mormonism and Blasphemy - Questions for the Christian Clergy
See also: Strengthening Church Members Committee
Notice: This page has been significantly updated (11/1/2021).
If you have already read it, you will want to read it again.
Note new case downloads below.
We believe there is no reasonable question about the fact that Mormonism is fundamentally a fraud, rooted in claims of divine origins that have been completely, conclusively, and irrefutably demonstrated to be false. Very real questions about the sincerity of the LDS Leadership have been well understood by close observers at least since the testimony of Ann Eliza, a former wife of Brigham Young and the final words of John D. Lee, spoken before his execution for the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Compounding what we believe to be the fraud of Mormonism, is the insidious falsehood that this particular "fraud" is benign (harmless) and should be overlooked in view of the "greater good" that the faith contributes to the lives of its members and the society and culture that tolerates it.
It is difficult to argue which of the forgoing notions is the greater evil or the greater folly. It is not difficult to argue which of the two falsehoods is more obvious and generally understood.
That Mormonism is a ridiculous fraud is widely accepted by most moderately educated individuals familiar with the controversies. It has been argued that only the ignorant, or self deluded or otherwise afflicted with cognitive dissonance cling to the childish notion that Mormonism might still, somehow, be "true" amidst the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The simple truth of the matter is broadly accepted that to be a true believing Mormon (TBM) in the modern age of the internet, is to be either inexcusably ignorant or mentally ill, afflicted with self delusion and cognitive dissonance. It follows that to advocate Mormonism is to advocate mental illness. Similarly, it follows that to advocate the insidious falsehood that Mormonism is benign (harmless) is to advocate that mental illness manifesting itself in the forms of self delusion, cognitive dissonance, and a self destructive epistemology is an acceptable quality of life and an acceptable objective or goal for the nurturing of children, the qualifications for public service, the rationality employed by key members of the intelligence community, and the psychological and philosophical competence of licensed (self delusional?) therapists who staff the LDS Social Services agency offering (for a fee) "counseling" (gas lighting) to the victims of Mormonism's own abuse.
That the powers that be in Washington can no longer reasonably be trusted to consistently represent the common good of the average American in a responsible and constitutional manner is not in reasonable dispute at this time. That the American intelligence community has involved itself in reprehensible unconstitutional activities in support of special interests that are adverse to the common good of the average American is no longer in reasonable dispute. That the Department of Justice has involved itself in indefensible activities that are adverse to the constitutional principles it is expected to protect and support is no longer in reasonable dispute.
Self serving self delusion, widely accepted as the philosophical mainstay of Mormonism, topical shunning, coverups, and obfuscation, and the utter falsehood that a contrived "greater good" is somehow being served as a justification for abuses of the American constitution and the reasonable constitutional expectations of the American people are now a rampant part of the culture we have come to tolerate in American society.
All of the forgoing abuses, injustices, and the loss of international respect and the looming economic and social fallout from them are attributable to the grotesque measures of indifference that the self serving elite elements of society (that have seized control of American institutions) have for the common good and the constitutional principles that were established to protect the interests of average Americans and place limits on the very corruptions and usurpations that have now overwhelmed our culture with impunity.
The United States of America, once the bastion of hope for the world, now struggles to be taken seriously in a world that recognizes what it will not face up to about itself. That the American government has lost the trust and respect of the more enlightened of its own citizenry all too many of whom now viewing it as only tolerable by comparison to other more abusive totalitarian alternatives. Increasingly, Americans who can afford it, retire outside the country.
Mormonism is elitism. Mormonism exports the gospel of elitism upon which justification for the trampling of the common good, in the pursuit of special interests is rooted. We do not buy that the Mormon Corporate Empire pursues charitable service or philosophical truth. Rather we believe that it pursues its own power and control, and uses its accumulated $100 billion dollar economic war chest to pressure, manipulate, bully, and buy loyalty, subservience, and the avoidance of accountability even at the highest levels of American institutions, rewarding those who look the other way and promote indifference to its abuses with positions of power and respect and economic spoils sheered from its gullible stable of subservient sheep.
We further believe that the self serving elite elements of American society absolutely include and are often led by the Mormon Corporate Empire and the Mormon Mafia negotiating and orchestrating illegitimate control, illegitimate secret influence, and illegitimate obfuscation and suppression of factual information relevant to these abuses and usurpations. The contrived notion of a "greater good" that justifies such abuses and usurpations is a myth widely promoted, even among certain infiltrated self serving interests within the ex-Mormon community, in exchange for favors, contracts, appointments, and other concessions. The personal, social and economic fallout for those deemed "unworthy" by the Mormon Corporate Empire is very real.
The state of Utah consistently reports significantly higher than average suicides. The LDS Faith Crisis Report, published in 2013, finds that Mormonism contributes to extreme emotional distress resulting in "suicidal ideation" among other serious impacts. Gas Lighting, (the particular form of abuse, widely acknowledged to be commonly employed by Mormons against Mormon dissidents who have the intellectual wherewithal to grasp the absurdity of the inconsistencies between Mormonism's claims of divine origins, and the historical facts that contradict those claims), is well known to contribute to extreme psychological trauma that can and does contribute to suicide.
The social abuses of character assassination and topical shunning, commonly employed by Mormons against dissidents, destroy families and contribute to unwarranted distrust, emotional distress, and real psychological damage.
Somehow, when the department of Justice deemed it politically feasible to pursue Warren Jeffs for child abuse, the United States Judiciary looked upon the First Amendment defense for Jeffs forced Fundamental LDS marriages to minors to be inadequate weight in the balance as compared to the compelling state interest in upholding laws against sexual abuse of a minor. The Fundamental LDS group, is an inconsequential offshoot of Mainstream Mormonism. It has no political clout and comparatively little economic might. Mainstream Mormonism's interests, which include inordinate influence with the Department of Justice, were in publicly (albeit disingenuously) distancing itself from the practice of polygamy, embraced by Jeffs Fundamentalist Mormon cult.
Now, as Mainstream Mormonism is confronted with the prospect of being held accountable for outright fraud and the willful infliction of emotional distress commonly associated with what many ex-mormons believe to be its campaign of abuse against dissidents, we watch carefully as the true value system and perceptions of what qualifies as "compelling state interest" to the United State Judiciary reveals itself.
Shall we conclude that protection against the sexual abuse of a child is a compelling state interest that trumps the first amendment protections of freedom of religion, while theft by fraud and deceit, followed up with the relatively quiet brutality of economic discrimination, gas lighting, topical shunning, and character assassination giving rise to emotional trauma, intellectual breakdown, and suicide get's a pass? What contrived path of reason gets us to that conclusion? Certainly not the goal of the mental health and wellbeing of the American constituency, capable of rational assessment of the conduct of its own government.
Is the intellectual breakdown commonly associated with Mormon epistemology where blind, unquestioning obedience, no matter the absurdity of the imposition, the actual "compelling state interest" the Judiciary hopes to "support"?
With very serious questions about the United States' involvement in the development of the underlying bio-technology now unleashed upon the world in the form of Corona Virus, and the threat of mandatory vaccinations in the absence of sound science to support the safety of the same vaccinations, we have good reason to wonder whose interests the United States Government actually now serves. Some have argured that the delivery of the United States government into the hands of the highest corporate bidder by the controversial Citizen's United decision was a frightful clue.
It remains attorney Kay Burningham's position that no case law supports outright fraud to be exempt from scrutiny under the First Amendment. Contrary to what the Mormon Corporate Empire's attorneys would have the world believe, Kay Burningham is not alone in her view.
On March 31, 2020, Burningham filed the first motion to amend the Gaddy complaint with clarifications of the issues. The Court immediately responded by dismissing the original Gaddy complaint "without prejudice" and indicating willingness to entertain a subsequent motion to amend the complaint. In the subsequent motion to amend the complaint, filed on April 28, 2020, Burningham pointed out that the court's order to dismiss the original complaint included a case law citation with a glaring omission of a substantive part of the case ruling, giving rise to an unjustifiable interpretation of the "supportiveness" of the court's decision. Our confidence in the objectivity of the court is shaken. The order and omission would likely have been prepared by Judge Shelby's clerk, a graduate of BYU's law school.
(Motion to Amend was granted. Amended complaint was filed and can be downloaded here.)
Subsequently, a motion to file a 2nd Amended Complaint has been filed and was (surprisingly) unopposed. The 2nd Amended complaint has been filed. Copies of the filed documents can be downloaded here:
Documents:
• Motion to file 2nd Amended Complaint
• 2nd Amended Complaint
Complaint Exhibits:
• Exhibit 1 (LDS Personal Faith Crisis Report)
• Exhibit 2 (1826 Judge Neely Docket)
• Exhibit 3 (New York Times article from 1912, examining the 'fraud' of Joseph Smith)
• Exhibit 4 (Grammar and Alphabet guide to Egyptian language circa 1835)
• Exhibit 5 (Declaration of David Nielsen formerly of Ensign Peak Advisors)
• Exhibit 6 (Excerpt from Deseret News 2010 article Use Proper Sources)
• Exhibit 7 (Decades Table of Art depicting direct translation of Golden Plates)
Ms. Burningham has argued that two June 2021 decisions, one by the Supreme Court of Utah (SCOUT) and another by SCOTUS, are favorable to the Gaddy case.
The 2nd Amended complaint is profoundly significant on multiple levels. Shortly we will post a detailed analysis of the highlights.
Meanwhile, two significant aspects of the 2nd amended complaint involve the direct assertions (as opposed to implied by fraud allegations) that the Mormon leadership do not sincerely believe their own teachings, (See testimony of Ann Eliza) posing an additional significant challenge, rooted in what experts believe to be well established case law cited by Burningham, to the notion professed by the Church's legal counsel that their fraud is exempt from judicial scrutiny on constitutional grounds.
From Hansen v Purnell (1924) a court reasoned...
...the Israelite House of David is not a religious association organized in good faith for religious purposes, but, on the contrary, it was organized by its founders, Benjamin and Mary, and Benjamin in particular, for fraudulent, unlawful and immoral purposes, and in so far as it proclaims a definite religious doctrine, and purports to teach publicly a moral code, it is for the fraudulent and corrupt purpose of borrowing the cloak of religion to disguise its true purposes and corrupt motives, and particularly for Benjamin’s private gain, to afford him opportunities for the gratification of his lust, and to shield and protect him in criminal and licentious practices with the young girls and young women members of this organization.
This action is not and does not purport to be an attack upon a religious faith, but, on the contrary, an attack upon an attempt to prostitute that faith to irreligious and base purposes through the instrumentality of a so-called religious society, ostensibly organized for the furtherance of the faith, but in fact organized under guise of religion for wicked, lewd, licentious, and unlawful purposes. This, of course, does not mean that any individual may be deprived of his constitutional right to worship God in accordance with the dictates of his own conscience, nor that a court will assume to determine the truth or error of any religious creed or dogma; but it does mean that no individual, or group of individuals, will be permitted to deceive and defraud others through and by false and fraudulent representations made under color of religion, no matter what that religion may be or under color of any other lawful purpose. It is undoubtedly true that the criminal or indecent conduct of one or more members of a religious organization is not sufficient cause for another member to withdraw therefrom and demand a restoration of the property he has contributed, for there are hypocrites and criminally disposed individuals in every religion; but it is alleged in this bill of complaint, and the evidence tends to prove, that Benjamin was not only the founder and expounder of this faith, but that he organized this society; that he is the absolute master of its activities and dominates both its spiritual and temporal affairs.
*271 If, therefore, this society was not in fact organized by Benjamin for religious purposes; if it was clothed with a religious garb merely to conceal a sinister motive; if it was organized by Benjamin for private gain, or fraudulent, corrupt, and criminal purposes; if Benjamin did not and does not believe, in good faith, that he is the Seventh Messenger in the line of succession, of which line he claimed Johanna Southcote, of England, was the first, and John Wroe was the fifth; if his pretensions to piety and righteousness are but sham and hypocrisy, to deceive and defraud others in joining this society and contributing their means and their labor thereto—then, notwithstanding the alleged fraud and fraudulent representations upon which plaintiffs rely for recovery occurred many years after the society was organized, and many people had, in good faith and for proper purposes, become members thereof, the initial fraud permeates the entire structure, and is perpetuated by Benjamin’s continuing fraudulent misrepresentations, either in person or by his agents and representatives, and by his continuing control and dominance of its affairs. That other members of this society, and the officers through whom Benjamin exercises control of its affairs, may be in good faith and entirely honest in their acceptance of the religion proposed and publicly taught by Benjamin, can avail nothing, if these officers and members alike are subject to the unquestioned authority and autocratic control of Benjamin. Under such a state of facts the officers and members of this society, though they be ignorant thereof, are nevertheless part and parcel of the plan and machinery by which and through which it is claimed Benjamin accomplishes his corrupt, criminal, and fraudulent purposes.
It follows, therefore, that their good faith and honest purpose cannot shield Benjamin or the society he has organized and controls from civil liability to those who have been so defrauded of property or the fruits of their labor. If the other members have likewise been defrauded, they are entitled to like redress. They could have intervened in this case for the equal and equitable protection of their rights, but they have not intervened, and therefore must abide the result, even though the payment of the amount found due to plaintiffs should exhaust the property of Benjamin, Mary, and the House of David.
Is no such wisdom in jurisprudence to be found in the United States Judiciary today? If not, why not? Because the Mormon Corporate Empire wields so much power, wealth, and influence in today's world that appointments and career advancement in the United States Judiciary depends on their approval? Does the United States Judiciary now need to re-define corruption to exclude their own subservience?
The 2nd Amended complaint goes on to present, in its 200 plus pages, multiple glaring evidences to the effect that the Church had actual knowledge of the misrepresentations they were making and further demonstrated by their conduct that they do not believe their own doctrines. (See testimony of Ann Eliza) Not the least of which being evidence found in the possession of the Church that the plate from which a Book of Abraham facsimile was printed was intentionally altered from its original state to correspond with the contrived representation of the identity of a significant character in the facsimile.
It would seem Burningham remains confident and committed to take the case to the wall. We believe that the moral and legal right is on Gaddy's side. We are not so confident that what is right matters so much, in today's unfortunate world. With that in mind, we continue to applaud the courage of attorney Kay Burningham, her client Laura Gaddy, and any prospective intervenors (additional plaintiffs) standing by, but not now known to the public.
In the end of the day, it is our commitment that, win or lose, the whole truth will be told; all of the arguments will be considered and scrutinized; and those who care enough to read, will have before them the basis of reassurance, or reconsideration of their confidence in American institutions.
See also: Thumbnail Sketch of Case Issues
See also: Practical Considerations
See also: Gaddy vs COP (LDS) Case Background
See also: Understanding the Elements of Fraud
See also: Mormonism and Blasphemy - Questions for the Christian Clergy
See also: Strengthening Church Members Committee
continue >>>
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