Following any religion does in fact require a leap of faith.
You know, whether it's Christianity or whether it's Mormonism or whether it's any of the
other religions out there, you have to believe in order to really be a part of that faith.
But according to a new lawsuit, some of the things being peddled by the LDS church really
require a leap of faith that is just simply not possible and in fact, the belief system
was described as a scheme of lies.
Joining me now to talk about this lawsuit is Scott Hardy with Top Class Actions.
Scott, this is a very interesting one here against the Mormon church for again, operating
with what they're describing as a scheme of lies.
Tell us about this one.
Yeah, this was a, as you said, it's quite interesting as you read through it and how
the plaintiff, Laura Gaddy, says that the LDS church influenced through misrepresentation
and concealment to engineer and attraction to faith and the core beliefs of Mormonism.
And she's, she's going ahead and making a number of allegations.
But what this, the Mormon church right now is trying to get the class action dismissed
because the Mormon church is saying it's not up to a court to determine whether a religion
is true or not.
The Mormon church has come up and said, listen, if you're, if you're saying that this is a
valid lawsuit, then you know, you need to go ahead and take a look at all the other
religions.
But I don't know if that will actually really hold water here because she doesn't just say
that what the Mormon church is teaching is false.
She specifically says how the Mormon church goes about their business is illegal.
I mean just like a lot of churches out there, they depend on their members to do a lot of
work and that way they can put more of their money instead of paying staff into, you know,
doing Mormon mission work and that kind of thing.
And so that's one of the allegations within this class action that she states is that
they are telling people and giving their members promises and filling their heads with the,
the, the, the beliefs of Mormonism and they're making their members, they're mandating their
members acts of service.
And these acts of service could be cleaning the bathrooms at the church, mopping, vacuuming,
that kind of thing and it's, it's mandated volunteerism, which of course isn't volunteerism
at all.
If you're being scheduled by the church to do tasks around the church, then you're, you
are an employee.
This isn't saying go ahead and pay all of the, give the parishioners back wages, but
it is stating that there, there is a lot of, of deeper accusations within the class action
itself.
Not specifically stating that Mormonism isn't true, but how the church is teaching its core
doctrine may be false and that they may be teaching in a way that is driven just to drive
revenue to the church and free labor.
Right, so it's not, it's not saying that, you know, the, the core principles of the
Mormon faith, it's not, it's not challenging those whatsoever.
More challenging the fact that, hey, you're telling me that in order to be a good Mormon,
I've got to show up and cut your grass, you know, when I'm scheduled to do it or I'm scheduled
to go out and be it be a missionary here?
That, that doesn't really square up.
It sounds like you're just trying to get some free labor out of all your followers here.
So that's what the suits about.
Just so everybody's clear on that.
This has really nothing to do with what the faith itself is teaching.
Just the manner in which they're, I guess, using their parishioners here.
Right.
I mean, because you gotta think that if you take a look at it from a corporate perspective,
the Mormon church has their Mormon missionaries, which go all around the world trying to spread
the world, spread the word.
And those folks are essentially salesmen.
They're selling the church.
Once they get somebody to convert, that person starts working at their local church for free
and starts contributing and tithing to that church.
And so you have these salespeople that are going all over the world selling that religion
and ,you know, they're not compensated for it, they're volunteering, right.
And you take a look at exactly how this church and others work from that perspective and
a lawsuit like this makes more sense because it's all about the money that's coming in
and how they are getting that money.
They're making their people work, they're mandating volunteering, and then the church
itself is profiting for, on the backs of that labor.
And if they're profiting off the backs of their members by not being forthright in all
of their teachings or by having specific contradictions within their teachings, then that could be
a problem.
You know, the way you describe it there, it almost sounds kind of like a pyramid scheme.
I mean, I don't want to say that it is a pyramid scheme, but wow.
I mean, the definition based on what you're describing here kind of seems to fit a little
bit.
You know, you go out, you do this work for free for us and part of that work includes
recruiting others who then are going to go out and do work for their local LDS church
and, and so on and so forth.
But you got to recruit others to do this too.
I mean that, you know, let's not split hairs here.
That really sounds like a bit of a pyramid scheme.
Right, and, and you can take a look at the Church of Latter Day, as this class action
states, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints states that the Mormon corporate
empire is made up of four levels, paid general authorities at the top, unpaid local leadership,
relevant business entities that support all of those churches and then the Mormon educational
empire.
And, you know, so these are, you've got different pieces of there, three of those making a lot
of money.
One of them doesn't and that's the unpaid local leadership and the unpaid members.
Absolutely.
For more information on this issue, please check out the link in the description of this
video and head over to Top Class Actions.
And while you're there, make sure you sign up for their weekly newsletter.
Scott Hardy with Top Class Actions.
Always a pleasure talking to you.
Great talking to you too, Farron.