Dismissed!

Mormon fraud case:
Dismissed.

Told ya.

Per Judge Howard Riddle, chief magistrate in Westminster Magistrates’ Court: “To convict, a jury would need to be sure that the religious teachings of the Mormon church are untrue or misleading. No judge in a secular court in England and Wales would allow that issue to be put to a jury.”

We understand why a judge would shrink from that can of worms. Really we do. But we find it regrettable. Not just the Mormon Church, but most churches make myriad allegations of fact that evidence contradicts. When any organization, even a church, persists in making demonstrably false statements and uses those statements to take money from followers, there are no two ways about it. It is FRAUD. And FRAUD is very much an issue to bring before a jury.

As we noted in our prior post, if Monson, the Pope, Pat Robertson, or any of a host of others were lone fortune-tellers using “beliefs” to take a mark’s money, no judge would hesitate to haul them before a jury, and no jury would hesitate to convict them. For that matter, any secular organization doing the same would be summarily indicted and convicted. When it comes to using fraudulent claims to take people’s money, religion deserves no pass.

Click here to read more in The Salt Lake Tribune.