A group of former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is suing the church for alleged misrepresentation about the way their tithe money was used. In Gaddy v. Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints <\/i>the former members are asking for the return of their donations, saying church leaders did not disclose that some tithe money would be invested in commercial ventures.<\/p>\n
The former members also claim the church fraudulently misrepresented its history to members and that LDS leaders did not have a \u201csincere religious belief\u201d in the story of the church\u2019s founding. According to the group, the LDS Church has taught that in 1823 an angel guided founder Joseph Smith to gold plates buried near his home in western New York and that Smith then translated the writing on the plates into what\u2019s now known as The Book of Mormon<\/i>. They claim that church leaders have recently adjusted this origin story and now say the gold plates were not directly translated.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for the LDS Church argue that these theological questions fall outside the authority of courts. \u201cIn effect, what they\u2019re asking for is a heresy trial,\u201d said an attorney for the church. \u201cChurches have the right to define, develop, and evolve their own history.\u201d The outcome of the case is still pending. In October, the church asked a Tenth Circuit appeals panel to uphold an earlier ruling by a district court that dismissed the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
In Brief<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A Sixty-Percent Increase in Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes. <\/strong>In 2023, anti-Jewish hate crimes topped the list of hate crimes motivated by religion, according to statistics recently released by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. There were 1,832 reported anti-Jewish hate crimes last year\u2014a 63-percent increase since 2022. Anti-Muslim hate crimes were the next-largest category, with 236 incidents. Sikhs reported 156 hate crimes, while Catholics reported 77. The FBI says that a total of 22 percent of all hate crimes last year were driven by religious hostility.<\/p>\n Will the Supreme Court Hear Fire Chief\u2019s Case? <\/strong>The First Liberty Institute has filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case of Fire Chief Ron Hittle, who was fired by the city of Stockton, California, because he attended a leadership conference that took place at a church. In August last year, a Ninth Circuit appeals panel sided with the City of Stockton.<\/p>\n Hittle, who has served as a firefighter for 24 years, says he attended the Willow Creek Church\u2019s Global Leadership Summit after the city encouraged him to attend leadership training. He and three other co-workers who shared Hittle\u2019s Christian faith attended the two-day seminar at no cost to the city. First Liberty attorneys say the evidence clearly shows that Hittle\u2019s subsequent termination was motivated by anti-religion bias.<\/p>\n Much-sued Cakemaker Wins Reprieve. <\/strong>The Colorado Supreme Court says a discrimination lawsuit against Christian cakemaker Jack Phillips cannot proceed. Phillips has spent more than a decade entangled in widely publicized legal proceedings for refusing to create cakes that express views running counter to his religious beliefs.<\/p>\n In the first Masterpiece Cakeshop case, Philips was sued for refusing to create a custom cake for a same-sex wedding. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Colorado public officials had displayed hostility toward Phillips\u2019 religious beliefs, and this hostility had factored into their handling of a complaint made by a same-sex couple under Colorado\u2019s antidiscrimination law. The Court did not decide whether the act of creating a custom wedding cake was a type of expressive activity that could be protected under the U.S. Constitution\u2019s First Amendment.<\/p>\n In 2017, Phillips was sued by a transgender attorney when he refused the attorney\u2019s request to bake a custom cake\u2014pink on the inside, blue on the outside\u2014to celebrate a gender transition. The attorney also requested a custom cake depicting Satan smoking a marijuana joint. In October, Colorado\u2019s Supreme Court dismissed this lawsuit on procedural grounds, leaving the substantive First Amendment questions untouched.<\/p>\n Congress Reauthorizes Religious Freedom Watchdog.<\/strong><\/span> <\/strong><\/span>Some 220 advocacy and faith groups banded together recently to urge Congress to continue funding the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). Their effort was successful, and USCIRF was reauthorized for another two-year period just days before funding was set to expire on September 30.<\/p>\n USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan body created under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. It issues yearly reports on religious freedom conditions around the world and makes recommendations to the U.S. president and the State Department about which countries should be named \u201ccountries of particular concern\u201d (CPC). A CPC designation means a country is subject to potential U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n Religious freedom advocates say USCIRF plays a crucial role in keeping global issues of religious persecution in the national spotlight and on the agenda of the international community.<\/p>\n Native Americans Make Final Plea to Save \u201cSacred Land.\u201d <\/strong><\/span>A broad faith-based coalition, including Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and Sikhs, is supporting a Native American group that wants the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve a decade-long religious freedom dispute.<\/p>\n According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the group, Oak Flat in Arizona\u2019s Tonto National Forest is a sacred site for Apaches, where they have gone to worship, pray, and conduct religious ceremonies since time immemorial. In 2014, a last-minute provision was added to a national defense bill, ordering Oak Flat to be transferred to a foreign-owned mining company, Resolution Copper. The mining company plans to permanently destroy the site by digging a nearly two-mile-wide, 1,100-foot-deep crater.<\/p>\n Attorneys for the group, known as Apache Stronghold, say the destruction of their sacred site violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). They also cite an 1852 treaty promising that the United States would protect their land and \u201csecure the permanent prosperity and happiness\u201d of the Apaches. Apache Stronghold is now waiting to hear whether the Court will consider its last-ditch appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A group of former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is suing the church for alleged misrepresentation about the way their tithe money was used. In Gaddy v. 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