Why Trifle with Mormonism? Because Religious Fraud is Serious.
by P. Brannock Romney. May 2, 2013

P. Brannock Romney explains his motivation for calling out the Mormon fraud and makes the case for holding the perpetrators of religious fraud accountable. He calls out institutional resistance to the prosecution of Mormon fraud and invites grass roots support to overcome that resistance.

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The question arises on occasion, "Why trifle with Mormonism? Why not just move on? Wouldn't that be healthier?"

The simple answer is that the Mormonism-related discussions and posts that you now see on parkromney.com are there by request and my sense of responsibility to the interests they represent is increasing. Here's how that has evolved...

Once having left the Mormon Church, I never intended to dedicate any meaningful portion of my life to the ills and foibles of Mormonism. I did feel obliged to reduce to writing a fairly simple and straightforward account of the philosophical journey that led me to the decision that I had to leave. I felt morally obligated because I had converted quite a number of people to the Church. I owed an explanation and acknowledgment of my error to these people, to my family, and to the universe; and I felt some restitution was in order. The publication of my book, I hoped, would satisfy the demands of karmic justice.

Not everybody shares the view that this is necessary. I get that. For me it was. It seemed to me that it would have been dishonorable, after having incorrectly declared the "truth" of the Church to so many people, to simply abandon my faith, while leaving those whose lives I affected by bringing them into the Church wondering what happened. This was my primary motivation. I really didn't think the world, at large, was in need of my particular account or point of view to round out the subject matter. Rather, my account was intended for the relatively few parties to whom I had a personal responsibility. I was aware of the volumes of books already written by Mormon critics. The attention that my book has received was unexpected.

Sometime after my book was published, the American press found me. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post did his bit on me. Then the BBC came along, as a result of the recommendation of Kay Burningham, author of An American Fraud: One Lawyer's Case against Mormonism, that they should interview me for their documentary, "The Mormon Candidate". Then the Dutch, the Danish, the Brazilian, the German press and others followed. In each case, where I agreed to an interview, it was with some measure of ambivalence. I don't particularly like the attention of the media, but I have felt morally and spiritually obliged to respond to what I see as the need to expose the lies and get the truth about Mormonism more fully exposed.

At the peak of the Mitt Romney campaign for the presidency, the collective web pages comprising parkromney.com and related adjunct sites were taking over five hundred thousand page views per month and in excess of five thousand unique visits per day. I thought that would evaporate after the campaign. To my continuing surprise, the page views in April 2013 exceeded one million, four-hundred thousand and unique site visits exceeded ninety-five thousand. Along with this exposure has come a significant outpouring of supportive messages from former Mormons and others.

I have received notes of appreciation, often for articulating what many people feel, but hadn't put into words on their own, for fear of retaliation. I have also received requests for more discussion on specific topics, and general encouragement that seems to be ad hoc grass roots support from within the general community of ex-Mormons or others offended by Mormon fraud and manipulation.

This encouragement and supportiveness is not necessarily representative of what I sense coming from the more formally organized communities of ex-Mormons and disaffected members of the church.

As near as I can tell, those organizations seem to have certain elements within them that reflect promotional biases favoring the voices and publications of their favorite ex-Mormon heroes, while discouraging attention that might otherwise be attracted by those not tacitly "sanctioned" by these communities. Private confidential reports seem to validate that conclusion.

At least one of these organizations (perhaps more) has had a board member who is also a representative of a well known publishing company that specializes in scholarly works that challenge Mormon history and deal with other Mormon topics and which dominates the distribution channels for their particular niche. Certain self- published criticisms of Mormonism have taken fairly pointed criticism that is widely rumored, and in one particular case, well known, to have originated with such sources, who are motivated to discourage self- publication.

Established critics of Mormonism, organizations who receive meaningful support that is attached to particular business interests in conflict with other critics, and organizations whose leadership is dominated by certain philosophically conflicting attitudes have a tendency to have their own biases. Such is the natural course of the sociology of groups and associations generally.

An organization whose leadership is dominated by atheists will not necessarily be enthusiastic about a book or blog post that gives specific attention to the dogmatism of atheism or the legitimacy of faith. That wouldn't feel good for people, having abandoned Mormonism in favor of atheism, to now find their Mormon families' criticisms of their most recent philosophical alliances partially validated by another well known critic of Mormonism.

An organization whose foundational roots are closely aligned with an ex-Mormon attorney who, for years, went on record making a point of his opinion that Mormonism, while a fraud, could not be successfully held to accountability in the court system, might be a bit slow to embrace a book by another attorney that presents a very different position on that question.

Organizations of ex-Mormons who have embraced Christianity have a tendency to undermine the works and contributions of Mormon critics whose criticisms are presumed to equally apply to Christianity or religion in general.

Organizations of Mormon critics that are institutionally dominated or heavily influenced by groups of "Mormon Intellectuals," "Mormon Psychologists," "Mormon Sociologists," or "Mormon Secular Humanists," will have their own biases, often found to be based on positions they have publically taken or the particular thesis they find themselves socially, emotionally, or professionally invested in and that they are uncomfortable with seeing challenged. For example, those who subscribe to the notion that it is preferable and "healthier" to retain one's membership and/or soft pedal one's criticisms of Mormonism, to avoid the ire of one's true-believing family members or business associations, are not quick to embrace the positions of those who tacitly suggest that this attitude might be representative of a philosophically flawed social element that enables and supports the continuity of the Mormon fraud in order to serve narrow individual self interests.

Discovering that Mormonism is a fraud is not complicated. Millions continue to find their way to this conclusion. It is, after all, patently obvious.

The awakening required to rise above a lifetime of indoctrination that supports ego warped epistemology, self serving circular reasoning, and fear of challenging intellectual discourse and debate is another matter. My theory is that most ex-Mormons will never come to grips with the worst legacy of their indoctrination, which amounts to serious damage to their view of, and comfort with, the process of intellectually disciplined reasoning and the related principles of objectivity and critical self reflection.

In a rush to find comfortable association, validation, and social acceptance to fill the hole left by being disaffected from the Mormon community, many ex-Mormons often find themselves embracing other philosophies espoused by welcoming groups for the same social reasons that contributed to naivete' or intellectual sloppiness that was a prerequisite for embracing the Mormon delusion. Others allow the embarrassment of discovering the personal fallibility that gave rise to their former Mormon delusions to dominate the rest of their lives with self doubt and a crippling reluctance to take a definitive position on anything again. Often they reach for popularly promoted misunderstandings of quantum physics or obscure philosophies to justify the denial of reality itself, and therefore any notion of right, wrong, or evil, beyond social expediency and personal opinion.

Other challenges to exposing the truth about Mormonism range from practical business considerations, to perceived issues of personal safety, amidst the fear of a "Mormon Mafia" believed by some to be "called and set apart" to act on the blood oaths taken by Mormon leadership to protect and defend the Mormon empire as directed by this leadership.

While the current leadership of the Church will vehemently deny participation with or direction of any such activity, certain actual conspiracies, and their resulting atrocities, are an established fact of Mormon history, as is the practice of "lying for the Lord". Some believe that this is what makes Mormons excellent candidates for recruitment into the CIA.

Ex-Mormon publishers of advertising supported alternative news publications in Mormon dominated communities can find themselves maneuvered into difficult tactical dilemmas. Once becoming dependent on advertising revenues from Mormon controlled enterprises, the hook is set. Then they are threatened with the loss of the revenue as a negotiating chip for more lenient treatment of the controversy of the Mormon fraud and abuses of the Mormon Church.

Many former Mormons and Mormon critics report that they have been illegitimately censored by Facebook, YouTube, and other web based forums, and subjected to illegitimate reverse religious discrimination by publishers and advertising brokers including Google, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and others.

Some of these allegations with supporting facts and investigative research evidence have been brought to my attention. While I will not comment on these matters in detail, there seems to be little question that probable cause for suspicion of the legitimacy of such concerns exceeds the quality of basis upon which numerous individuals "accused" of their "crimes" are being held in captivity by the American military and intelligence community, on recommendation, in part, from Mormon High Priests.

It is widely rumored that the careers of journalists whose assignments include the Mormon beat are routinely threatened through denial of access to the Mormon Church's publicity department's releases if the resulting stories are not sufficiently palatable to the PR interests of the Mormon corporate empire. More than one confidential report that we deem to be highly credible disclosed that refraining from certain alternative interviews with named specific personalities was suggested as a condition of interviews granted by officials of the Mormon Church.

Even more disturbingly, a very recent and very confidential report from an investigative reporting source deemed to be credible by thousands of subscribers revealed that a journalist associated with a major media news agency and involved in a significant recent story about Mormon ethics in a municipal government received an anonymous direct personal threat of bodily harm. A notable blogger, who interviewed some of the people involved, confided in me that she was adjusting her coverage of the story on that basis for fear of contributing to such risks.

Many reports, including confidential reports from insiders of ex-Mormon communities, represent that true believing Mormon "moles" presumed to be on assignment from the Mormon Church, have infiltrated their discussion boards and, in some cases their actual boards and/or "staffs." Reports allege that aliases and/or misrepresentations as to one's actual attitudes, beliefs, and alliances are used to join discussion groups for the purpose of engaging in the activity of influencing the discussion, tone and perceived consensus of the target forums, boards and discussion groups away from meaningful action or disclosures.

The objective would be to assuage the ex-Mormon sentiments while discouraging any meaningful activism or widespread exposure of legitimate concerns.

We have no way of verifying these reports specifically, but find the credibility of some of the sources and the consistency of this type of activity with the known practices of the heavily Mormon influenced intelligence community to be concerning. The consistency of these suggestions with some actual discussions observed in forums, that would be hard to explain in other ways, are a bit hard to ignore or pass off as the non-credible rants of extremists.

Others have pointed out that organizations with significant influence and representation from the Mormon community have their own interests now, in discouraging public awareness of Mormon fraud and disparaging and discriminating against those who call it out, simply because of the institutional embarrassment for such organizations that broad public exposure of Mormon fraud would give rise to.

Certain completely indefensible, morally ambiguous and hypocritical decisions and positions of the military, intelligence and defense communities have had strong support from Mormon High Priests within those communities. Exposing Mormon fraud raises questions about Mormon motivations and recommendations.

The Mormon corporate conglomerate and its economic allies with their well placed political and judicial contacts have vital economic interests to protect from heightened public awareness of Mormon fraud. The eventuality of a cohesive collaboration of disaffected Mormons who have very legitimate interests and complaints, that credible attorneys believe to be actionable, would be a serious problem.

Countless rice bowls of very well placed Mormon business, political, and judicial operatives are at risk if the cohesiveness of the ex-Mormon community is established and united around the objective of meaningful accountability for the Mormon fraud. The lack of prosecution of the Mormon fraud is a shameful indictment on a significant number of officials sworn to uphold and enforce the laws of the land.

If I were a member of the Mormon Quorum of Twelve Apostles, or an advisor with no philosophical scruples beyond the veneer that I am required to represent to the public, I would aggressively recommend that the clandestine and euphemistically named "Strengthening the Members Committee" partially exposed in the BBC documentary, The Mormon Candidate, engage in, support and/or finance through surrogates (similar to what the Church did in the illegitimate California Proposition 8 Campaign) all of the above mentioned tactics of obfuscation on all levels possible. I would recommend the objective of discouraging continuity within the ranks of the ex-Mormons, who vastly outnumber the actual Church membership, and the promotion and expansion of the idea within the mainstream media that serious Mormon critics are a non-representative, fringe group of extremists.

I think the formally organized ex-Mormon communities seem to either reflect some of these attitudes in varying degrees, or contribute subtle obstacles in other ways to cohesive support for the meaningful accountability of Mormon fraud. This is more likely a reflection of a lack of focus and political will to pursue Mormon accountability than calculated obstruction, but diffusing the effort, whatever the reason, has the same effect.

We note that postmormon.org officials released a video announcement of the engagement of the services of attorney Kay Burningham to pursue the idea of holding the Mormon Church accountable for fraud. Once having made the announcement, they seem to have taken no meaningful action to date toward the stated goal while extremely significant calendar time passes.

The video appears to have been replaced with an edited version that does not include any mention of the engagement. Ms. Burningham has confirmed that she has not been formally retained by the postmormon.org group as of the publication of this post. We find no evidence of any meaningful effort to raise the money for such a retainer by this or any other organization of former Mormons.

If I represented the interests of the Mormon Church I would have recommended that if they could pay a significant sum to arrange for such confusing, tactical delays, they would have been well worth it. Some argue that the publication of Burningham's book started the "ticker" on the statute of limitations for civil prosecution of the Mormon fraud.

In short, the formally organized ex-Mormon communities do not seem highly motivated to contribute meaningfully to Mormon accountability. Some speculate that the leadership of these communities simply lacks the social palate for taking risks beyond the relatively benign discussions and conferences that they sponsor. One prominent member of an ex-Mormon community confided, "I am seriously handicapped," and went on to describe the social repercussions and isolation already experienced as a result of speaking out about Mormonism. Another contributing factor to ambivalence about Mormon accountability may have to do with concerns over what their organizational charters will permit and what their sponsors will support.

In contrast, the private messages sent through parkromney.com and sent in other ways from independent ex-Mormons are quite a different matter. I pay considerably more attention to ad-hoc messages than to the input of known representatives or associates with established ex-Mormon communities for this very reason.

I believe that the actual interests of millions of defrauded and defamed ex-Mormons are not particularly well represented by the formally organized ex-Mormon communities who encourage discussion, collect contributions, sponsor conferences, hire relatively impotent billboard ads, but tend to discourage meaningful action as "unhealthy," "unwise" or "unlikely to produce a meaningful result." I disagree with those positions. I think they are influenced by special interests and I have come to feel a responsibility to do what I can to serve and promote the interests of former Mormons who share the view that something meaningful should be done about the fraud of Mormonism.

I am not an attorney. I have, however, been engaged in litigation-related research and support involving complex multi-million dollar business organizations accused of interstate criminal fraud. I have spoken at length with legal experts about this particular situation. I am a former High Priest of the Mormon Church and have specific personal knowledge of what I believe to be conclusive evidence of willful fraud. I know something about these matters. On that basis, it is my sincere belief and conviction that the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormon Church), are co-conspirators to civil fraud, criminal fraud and violation of both civil and criminal statutes dealing with racketeering influenced and corrupt organizations (RICO).

I am convinced that the Presidency of the first and various "Quorums of Seventy" of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as "Especial Witnesses to Jesus Christ" are absolutely morally deficient human beings as accomplices to the fraud of the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church due to their specific neglect of a moral duty to appraise themselves of the irrefutable evidence within the possession of the Church itself and in the public record that belies their testimonies on behalf of the Church.

The fraudulent claim that Joseph Smith ever had a legitimate claim to any unique authority from God, or that they, or the First Presidency, or the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Church have a legitimate claim to any unique authority from God is a patently obvious lie exposed by a preponderance of evidence.

A Church "General Authority's" retirement fund and their family's financial continuity does not justify being a party to lies and misrepresentation. When self delusion serves a personal financial end, no claim of integrity is warranted on the basis of a "lack of awareness."

These men have acquiesced to the their own reduction to the role of minions of liars and thieves, and by proclaiming themselves to be "Especial Witnesses to Jesus Christ," they should expect to be held accountable, by Jesus Christ, in the end, for the blasphemous use of his name in the aiding and abetting of an exploitive fraud.

It is my further position that every state Governor, every state Attorney General and the US Attorney General are all guilty of abuse of judicial and prosecutorial discretion, negligence of duty and abandonment of their oath of office for failure to properly investigate and prosecute the Mormon fraud and bring the perpetrators to justice.

I recognize that the statutes and regulations governing their offices are written in such a way as to exempt them from prosecution for this negligence as a crime. However, that which may be legal by some narrow construct does not become morally correct or ethical by legitimate standards that reflect the actual interests of the public they serve.

The notion that the "good of Mormonism" outweighs the fraud and exploitation of its adherents who have been deceived into enormous personal sacrifices that millions of them would never have justified on the basis of the truth about Mormonism is an offensive, self-serving insult to the public by people whose integrity and qualifications for public service should be called into question for even being associated with such a claim.

I believe that this lack of prosecution evidences the philosophical corruption of the FBI, the Justice Department and the legislatures of each and every state and the United States. This is why there is extreme reluctance to pursue the proper and appropriate prosecution of the Mormon fraud. It is why the corporate controlled American media won't support it and why it will never happen until there is an overwhelming outpouring of grass roots support for such. It absolutely cannot be prosecuted without broad exposure to so many layers and levels of the corruption of American ideals and the embarrassment of so many corporate boards, political parties, political action committees, private foundations, private trusts, university staffs, security and intelligence staffs, gubernatorial and presidential administrations and cabinets, CIA operations and reports, and military staffs and budgets that it would be an historic endeavor.

The institutional resistance to prosecution of the Mormon fraud would predictably be almost overwhelming until grass roots support for it hits critical mass. Then resistance to prosecution of the Mormon fraud will cave and no one will want to risk their careers further by obstructing it.

This is exactly why I think there should be grass roots support for accountability for Mormon fraud, beginning with the ex-Mormon community which consists of literally millions of former Mormons who are absolutely aware of the fraud, deception, defamation and manipulation.

Rooting out the Mormon fraud will, if the grass roots support for it can be achieved, necessarily constitute such a huge wake up call to the corrupt attitudes in American institutions, that it will have enormous benefits for the general public that will necessarily transcend Mormonism and go to the core of the relationship between the government and the governed in America and elsewhere.

The Mormon fraud is surprisingly and profoundly simple.

The First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do now and have for over a century, maintained that they have a unique relationship with God and with Jesus Christ, by which they are His (Christ's) uniquely authorized representatives on the Earth. They maintain that their unique authority, as delegated throughout the ranks of the Mormon priesthood, is absolutely required to perform the necessary ordinances preparatory for "exaltation in the Kingdom of God."

They maintain that this authority was "restored" to the Earth through the "prophet" Joseph Smith and that they are legitimate successors, having been duly ordained, set apart, and endowed with this same priesthood authority that was taken from the Earth and restored to the Earth through Joseph Smith.

They maintain that "obedience to the commandments of God" is essential for "exaltation in the Kingdom of God" and they maintain that they are unique representatives of God and are uniquely authorized to communicate and interpret God's commandments as his sole and exclusive agents in the world.

They maintain that the God that they represent does not lie, cannot lie and that their own authority to represent Him becomes null and void when they violate the laws of God to cover their own sin.

It is my sincere belief and conviction that each and every member of the First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Church either knows, or if he claims he doesn't know, is grossly negligent for willful disregard for the facts exposing the truth that Joseph Smith was a fraud and an imposter.

Significant evidence that compellingly supports this conclusion has been willfully concealed from the membership at the direction of the Church leadership.

The Church was trapped into conclusive proof of the fact of Joseph Smith's fraud as a result of the Book of Abraham fiasco. The contradictions that exposed the fraud are irrefutable, incontestable and frankly, ridiculous.

The childishness, ignorance or self delusion required to overlook the inescapable ramifications of the Book of Abraham fiasco alone, are utterly astounding and damning. It is just a fraction of the evidence of the Mormon fraud.

The evidence of the fraud of the Mormon Church is significantly and, by far, more compelling than the evidence deemed to be sufficient probable cause upon which Mormon High priests in national security, judicial posts, law enforcement, FBI, CIA, various government offices and military leadership positions, have justified the secret audits, secret investigations, wire tapping, denial of personal property, illegitimate incarceration, torture, search and seizure, declaration of war and execution of accused and untried enemy combatants, accused and untried terrorists, and accused criminals.

I am convinced that certain specific claims at the root of the representation of divine authority of the First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles are absolutely known to be false, by some, if not all members of said Quorum.

It is for this precise reason that the so-called temple ordinance of the "second anointing" exonerates them from responsibility to refrain from the sins that they hold others accountable for, as a condition of exaltation.

I believe this ordinance is administered to assuage the psyche of the newly inducted members to the Quorum and potential candidates for membership in preparation for the inevitability of their exposure to the glaring facts and evidences of the fraud.

I am equally convinced that those members who maintain that they do not know are legally liable for willful disregard of compelling factual evidence within their purview and control that belies their testimonies as to their own divine authority.

I am convinced, on the basis of evidence that I consider to be compelling, including my own personal knowledge of certain facts, that the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles call upon representatives and agents to their "ministry" and cause them to be instructed to testify to the world in public meetings and to individuals in private discussions that things known to the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles to be false, are true.

It is my conviction, on the basis of personal knowledge and research, that it is their objective to create an inducement in the minds and hearts of their proselytes to join the ranks of their Church and make substantial contributions of time and money to the Church as requirements of God for "exaltation in the Kingdom of God" in the life after death.

I am convinced that these requirements are known to be false by the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve Apostles of the Church.

I believe that it can be demonstrated that evidence of the knowledge of this fraud is compelling, conclusive, indisputable, overwhelming and currently available. Expert witnesses competent to testify as to personal knowledge of specific evidence of this fraud are alive and within the reach of the arm of subpoena today.

The Church has recently professed, in the last General Conference of the Church, to have approximately 65,000 missionaries in the field. Each one of those missionaries will have received a written call, signed either by or on behalf of the First Presidency of the Church and, unless changed since I was called, delivered via US mail, qualifying those "calls" as mail fraud. I am convinced that each and every written missionary call is evidence of criminal fraud and subject to seizure as such.

There is no doubt whatsoever, in my mind, on the basis of my personal knowledge of the Mormon scriptures, that if I were authorized to interrogate any member of the First Presidency or Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, under oath where they are legally compelled to testify by a judicial officer, that they would be contradicting and conclusively impeaching themselves within an hour. Of course, I am not an attorney and so that will never happen. But I am quite sure that there are attorneys well enough informed as to what they need to know to accomplish the same thing.

I am absolutely convinced that the only thing that stands between the successful prosecution of the leadership of the Mormon Church for fraud and their exposure for blasphemy, is the simple collective united grass roots will of a relatively modest representative number the American people and, particularly of the ex-Mormon community, to support this cause and demand that their public officials attend to this matter.

It is highly unlikely that this representative critical mass of support will be accomplished until after such time as a smaller group demonstrates their intent and resolve through a civil action against the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I support such a civil action, as a starting point and invite ex-Mormons everywhere to join me in speaking up in support of Mormon accountability and the prosecution of religious fraud.

See also: Intent to Deceive
See also, Mormon Fraud: A Reflection of American Naivite





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See also: Other Interview Responses and Articles