Source: Jasmin Rappleye & How John Dehlin Found Out He Was Being Sued by LDS Church w/ Evan Sharley Channel: Mormon Book Reviews Published: April 19, 2026 | Archived: May 24, 2026

Video: Jasmin Rappleye & How John Dehlin Found Out He Was Being Sued by LDS Church w/ Evan Sharley
Channel: Mormon Book Reviews
Published: April 19, 2026
Duration: 28:50
Views: 4,611
Category: People & Blogs
Video ID: eOsvuycV8qE

Description

Evan Sharley returns to Mormon Book Reviews to talk with Steven Pynakker about her latest article that details the story of John Dehlin’s Mormon Stories being sued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We also discuss about how Dehlin found out that he was being sued by the Church from Latter Day Saint social influencer Jasmin Rappleye.

#mormonstories #johndehlin #jasminrappleye #churchofjesuschristoflatterdaysaints #bookofmormon #mormontabernaclechoir #mormonbookreviews #evangelical

Link to Evan’s Article: https://gileriodekel.com/2026/04/the-lds-church-is-suing-mormon-stories/

Reform Mormonism Website: https://reformmormon.com/

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Transcript — YouTube panel (human-authored)

0:02 Welcome to Mormon Book Reviews, where an evangelical encounters the restoration. I’m your host, Stephen Pinecker, and as many of you know, um, breaking news occurred this weekend when it was announced that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was going to sue the Open Stories Foundations, the people who put out Mormon stories, and of course, uh, is hosted by my friend John Dyn. And a lot of people have been talking about this and I’ve been in contact with John. But more importantly, I’ve actually been in contact with a very good friend, Evan Charlie, who I think has written some of the best uh actually, let me just put it this way.

0:37 Let me let me just say a little bit about Evan here. Evan Charlie’s been a friend since the early days of this channel. And we first had our encounters on Reddit. Uh and I got to know you as a person when we first, I believe, met at Sunstone. And I want to tell you that I feel that there’s a lot of people that are given short shrift in this field and in that and they’re not acknowledged for the work they do. And I think that includes Evan. Evan has produced some of the finest stuff out there in breaking news stories, but also doing deep dives, deep dives, not these so-called deep dives that some uh academics like to claim that they’re doing, but we see that they’re actually not. Um, and so I I want to point people to a really important article that just came out this morning. I think you said you were up till like 4:00 in the morning during your research and writing this article.

1:28 The LDS church is suing Mormon stories. And you know what? I’m going to have you get a bet you can’t pronounce it. I want you to pronounce it for me real quick. And welcome to the program, Evan. Hi. It is good to be back. I want to hear you try to pronounce it first. \[laughter\] You you don’t do this to me. So I say Gild Gilder. Giller. Forget it. Okay. Tell me what a house. You are so close. It’s Giller Rio Deel.

1:54 Okay. Giller Dell, which actually sounds pretty cool. Um, folks, I just want to let people know that Evan did some really kick butt work here and I think this is probably one of the most important articles written on the subject. And I wanted to include you in this conversation because unfortunately we live in times of right partisanship. So, you’re either on team so and so or team whatever and there’s no in between.

2:22 And I feel that Evan and I kind of occupy that space in between where we genuinely try to build bridges but also do our due diligence and try to get to the bottom and try to uncover the truth. And I think that this article is probably one of the fairest um treatments on this subject that I think whether you are projin or anti-Jondelin member of the church of Jesus Christ or Latterday Saints exmo or a nevermo I think most people would agree that this is probably the most balanced reporting on the story. So Evan I just wanted you to kind of give us a uh and we’re going to get in some details. Matter of fact, I got a statement from John Delin. I’m going to read to people shortly because John has weighed in on a few things as well. But before we do that, Evan, I just wanted to get your thoughts on what made you decide to write this article and what did you what did you learn from the from from once you decided to enter into this space and cover this story?

3:14 What did you learn from it? So I am a part of a a group called Reform Mormons. Um, and my knee-jerk reaction to hearing about this lawsuit was they the LDS church is coming after uh Mormon stories for using the word Mormon. And since my group is called the Reformed Mormons, I was scared that maybe we were next. And so I wanted to make sure that my community could remain intact. And so I dove into um you know I followed the breadcrumbs of what happened over the last six or so months um to really kind of find out for myself, not necessarily um hear what other podcasters or the comments on Reddit were saying. I wanted to have my sources and citations and be able to point to clear instances of what was happening. And what did you uncover?

4:29 Um, I uncovered a lot. I my uh my chief goal was really to bring nuance to this discussion. Um, I am a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Um, I’m not quite an ex Mormon anymore. Um, but I kind of see everybody as different cousins of the same family tree. Um, and I didn’t want to take sides in a family feud, so to speak. Um, and I can definitely see uh throughout this how Mormon stories was at fault in some regards.

5:18 But I also kind of have a feeling that the LDS church may have started making some demands that weren’t reasonable. Um, and nevertheless, in the LDS church’s press release regarding this lawsuit, I don’t feel like they fairly portrayed how Mormon stories engaged in good faith. Okay. Well, before we get into that, because I think it’s important, you you did say that you felt that there were some things that Mormon stories did that you kind of called out. Can you just get an example of what that looks like?

5:53 Yeah, I I kind of go into it in the article, but uh the Mormon Stories logo starting in 2022 um very much looks like the branding that the LDS church started implementing in 2020. Um it they make a compelling case that it’s uh brand confusion. Um, and I’m going I just pulled that up. So, and yeah, continue. Uh, that line of logos right there with Mormon stories in the middle is something that the LDS church actually made to illustrate like this fits in just fine with our branding. Um, you’re using our visual identity.

6:43 Um, additionally, um, Mormon Stories has been using copyrighted images, um, in their thumbnails and promo materials and stuff like that, including the LDS church’s logo in their YouTube banner, which you shouldn’t be doing. \[laughter\] Okay. So you’re saying that there there could be an argument made that perhaps there would be some confusion if you’re just a person who is doesn’t know much about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and they happen upon this YouTube uh podcast and you think that you know just somebody who kind of engages it might actually think this could potentially be a church channel.

7:27 Not only that, I think it could be somebody who is a member of the LDS church could confuse it as an official church source. um because it is so similar visually. Um since November when Mormon Stories got the email from the LDS church, they have been making active steps to change their visual identity. They’re no longer using their blue logo in their promo materials. And in fact, they retroactively uh changed their thumbnails uh since 2022.

8:04 um to not include that logo anymore. So, they are making active steps to do that. They’re removing the copyrighted images that are owned by the LDS church and they also removed the LDS church’s logo from their YouTube banner. So, of course, it sounds to me that you in your mind this appears to be a good faith effort of Mormon Stories to try to comply with some of the requests that were made by the church. And I’ve been in communication with John from the beginning of this just because of course this could affect Mormon book reviews because of course we have Mormon in the title of our channel as well.

8:39 And so uh so I I’ve been he’s kept me up to pace of what’s going on while this whole thing happened. Um I’ve been looking at it with great curiosity. Um understanding that look the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints has a right to protect its brand and its uh its reputation. And so I understand like that’s any good corporation or organization or church is going to want to make sure that their product or what they do, their ministry is not maybe uh done in that it people may misunderstand it if they’re going to Mormon stories thinking that that’s an official like church channel. So it’s understandable, but at the same time once these things are pointed out it appears and and again John even told me he said we’re going to go back and we’re going to scrub things.

9:24 are going to take out any copyrighted material. But then at the same time, while this is going on, unfortunately, there was copyrighted material that was posted on one of their u on one of their thumbnails. Now, I did get clarification that that was by mistake, but you had commented to me that it still has the same effect that they might perceive it as being not maybe doing their fair share or trying, you know, playing ball, if you will. So, maybe talk a little bit about that. Yeah, I think it’s really really good that Mormon stories went back through their past material to take out the copyrighted information, but during mediation, posting copyrighted information, copyrighted images um from the person that you’re in mediation with um is not a good look. It could very easily be taken as a we’re just playing ball right now, but we have intention to keep doing things as we’ve been doing it for years, which Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. And again, I want people, this is really important.

10:28 This interview is just a taste of this really important article. So, as soon as you’re done watching this, I want you to click on the link that I’m going to have in the description to talk so you can read the full full article because I really think it’s it’s timely, it’s pertinent, and I think it’s fair and balanced, which is what we so desperately need uh in this time and space. So, now the question I have for you now is now where is your critiques of the of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where maybe you feel they may have overstepped themselves in this? So, with the uh press release, the thing that they really focused on was that Mormon stories would not add disclaimers.

11:10 Uh now, starting in early February, Mormon stories started adding the disclaimers that the LDS church was asking for um on their social media platforms, on their websites. um they were they were working with the LDS church. Uh however, it seems as if as I understand it is materials that I’ve read um and I link it and have videos of it in my article. I think that the LDS church wanted Mormon stories to uh do one of two things. either put a description, the disclaimer in the description of every episode, and they have over 2,000 episodes now. Um, or they wanted every episode to be modified to include an audio or visual disclaimer, which for 2,000 episodes, I can’t imagine how many gigabytes or terabytes of video that would be to modify and then re-upload. It would be, I think, unreasonable to do that. I do think it would be reasonable to put a description or put the disclaimer in the description of the episodes. It would be laborious, but I considering how Mormon

12:37 stories used the visual identity of the LDS church, I think it would be a somewhat reasonable ask. So, I wanted to actually uh I I’ve been in communication with John this afternoon and he sent me some information. Um, one of the things he did and I asked got permission to uh make this statement that is in a document that he sent me to sent me and it is uh he phrases it coordinated media and disformation smear campaign. It was somewhat disturbing to see that Jasmine Rapidly and others had already released statements and videos about the lawsuit lawsuit literally before I even knew I was being sued. We were unable to even locate the lawsuit until we found the case number on Jasmine’s video. So the question then is I think that’s that’s a really important thing about this breaking story is that apparently John Delin found out about it from a social media influencer who apparently does receive funding from the church whether it’s directly or indirectly. And again, Jasmine, actually I’ I’ve reached out to

13:41 you a few times. I’d invite you to come on the program to maybe talk about your relationship with the church and how this works. And also I would like to know Jasmine is how is it that you were able to be made aware of this lawsuit before even John Delin did? Um what kind of coordination was going on? I find that to be a very interesting story that I would love to get to the bottom of.

13:59 But I think that it’s it it’s and that also kind of speaks to what’s happening in this podcast space is that I get this sense that and I see this on all sides. This isn’t just one side, but I almost feel like there’s very few channels now that actually have editorial control of their content or that they’re being influenced by their donors or they’re being influenced by the church. And I sometimes wonder and when somebody turns on the camera and talks, is it their own opinion or is it are they reading off a press release? Are they reading off some an official statement? We don’t know.

14:30 And I think it’s really important, full disclosure, folks, that if you are getting information, you should probably disclose what the source of that information is. Um, just some thoughts on my end. What What are your thoughts on this, Evan? Yeah, I I mentioned it in my article. I feel like Jasmine is really going to be That’s my roommate Nathan. Hi, Nathan. Um, I feel like Jasmine’s video is going to set the tone for how people approach this lawsuit because she put it out so early. Um, and it was so long as well. Um, I would also be very interested in knowing how Jasmine heard about it so quick. Um, yeah.

15:25 Yeah, I would I would be too because again to produce a 30 minute or whatever video that she posted with all this information and John Dyn’s not even aware of it. That’s really a fascinating dynamic to see developing in the space. And the reason why I’m commenting on this is because folks, we literally have social influencers in this space that are beginning information and apparently coordinating with the church to release this information, which is a development that we’re just I’m not being descriptive or pres I’m being descriptive, not prescriptive. If you’re fine with this, fine. If you think it’s great that Jasmine’s doing this, wonderful. What I’m trying to say is that this is a development we all need to be aware of that social media influencers in this space are be are be getting information ahead of time before even somebody like John Delin even knows about it. I think that’s an important story that we need to continue to cover as well because that’s a fascinating development to say the least.

16:21 Another way of putting it is the defendant in a lawsuit heard about this lawsuit from social media instead of their lawyers or from the LDS church, from the plaintiff. That is a fascinating way of looking at this. It’s not just John Delin, it’s the defendant in a lawsuit. Correct. That’s that’s a great point, too. That’s a great point, Evan. you know, and and again, you know, we try to be a neutral space here at MDR. Um, for those of you who are faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, um, you’re probably excited about this that maybe you feel like maybe somebody that you perceive as a bully in this space is being uh, uh, corrected. I don’t know. That’s or and then there’s other people who are free speech advocates who are very concerned about this idea that a a corporation and institution can actually silence voices or could actually take ownership of a particular name. Imagine if the Southern Baptist Convention decided we’re going to own the term Christian

17:24 um and and we can sue people who use Christian in their name. I mean, that’s kind of what we’re seeing here is is is this and and what makes it so interesting to me, of course, is um President Nelson uh did everything he could to remove Mormon from the name of the church, including renaming it’s no longer the and just so people know, uh the information’s been put out there that’s referred to as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. That is not true. It no longer is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There’s nothing uh attached to Mormon with the church. They’ve made an effort for years now to distance themselves from Mormon. So, it just seems odd that now is the time that they decided they’re going to start uh they’re going to after 20 years, they’re going to go after a podcast that’s used that name for over 20 years. Your thoughts on that, Evan?

18:12 Yeah, I lost my train of thought. My apologies. No, not a problem. So, real quick, Evan, before we let you go, because there’s a couple thing more things I wanted to uh bring to people’s attention here. Um, first of all, again, the article we’re going to have in the uh description, the LDS church is suing Mormon stories. I also wanted to uh point out to folks that when I first started my channel, I actually wrote this in the description, and this is before I taped my very first video, and I just wanted to read you the final sentence. It is not it is being MBR is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Community of Christ, Church of Jesus Christ or any restoration or remnant movement or expression. All the voices of the restoration will be heard on Mormon Book Reviews. So, I just wanted to say that for me personally, I felt it was important to actually put a disclaimer on my channel before I even released my first video. Um, do you

19:16 think John should have maybe put a disclaimer in? This should This is something he should have done maybe sooner than he did. I think it would have been wise to do so. Um, especially with their 2022 rebrand to more closely align with the LDS church’s visual identity. Um, I think it would have saved them some problems. Um, but I I think it’s wise, but it shouldn’t be necessary. Um, I actually remembered what I lost my train of thought on. uh back in I think it was 2002 and again I write this in my article uh the LDS church tried to copyright the term Mormon broadly and the US trademark and patent office said you can’t trademark it broadly because you can’t trademark the term Baptist or Lutheran or Christian. Um that’s what the federal government said. Um, and so the LDS church came back and copyright or trademarked it in a more limited scope. Um, and there could be a case made that that’s what the LDS church is upset

20:35 about in regards to Mormon stories, but I don’t think that’s the likely thing at this point. What’s so interesting when you stop and think about it is that this is could be a watershed first amendment case for a couple reasons. One, obviously we’re dealing with religion and we’re dealing with freedom of the press. Those are the two most important guarantees that are in the first amendment. And now you have a situation where maybe the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints looking at the makeup of the Supreme Court today as opposed to 2002. And we have seen that over the case with the course of the Roberts court, they have been siding with religious institutions more and more so. So, it makes you wonder if maybe the church realizing that they’re going to have a court that’s going to be very favorable to religious institutions that this might be their opportunity to maybe reclaim the name Mormon. Uh, and also maybe give them that empower churches to be able to

21:38 enforce things maybe that they thought they wouldn’t be able to. So, this could be a very interesting First Amendment test case. Uh, I I’ve talked to attorneys about this. They say that this could get thrown out immediately before because it violates the First Amendment. So that could be one possibility that could happen or because the land the the uh landscape has so shifted when it comes to how churches and you know with with the appointments that George W. Bush made and Donald Trump have made.

22:05 The court has so shifted in such a way that certainly makes it much more favorable to and much more sympathetic to religious institutions than they were a quarter century ago. So, it just makes you wonder if the changing dynamic, the the changing landscape of the courts might have played a role in this as well. It definitely could have. Um, I think it’s going to be interesting with this particular case because there are many Mormon groups that use the term Mormon.

22:36 Um, Sunstone’s motto is more than one way to Mormon. Uh, the Strangites use the term Mormon. The fundamentalist Bergamites use the term Yep. Mormon. Benjamin Schaefer has reformed Mormon. You’re reformed Mormons. Benjamin Schaefer used to have I’m a Mormon bumper sticker on his car and he’s a pretty well-known fundamentalist friend of mine. And so, yeah, a lot of people use Mormon. And not only that, but like and these are all religious groups, too. Religious.

23:03 And but then let’s look at Mormon History Association. And I should reach out to Benjamin to see, hey, has the church reached out to you guys? Let’s change the name. Um there’s there’s many groups and organizations that have Mormon uh in their uh in their in their and what about like the Book of Mormon Studies Association, you know, uh founded by my good friend Dr. Christopher Thomas. I mean, how far do we take this uh Book of Mormon musical? The Book of Mormon musical, right? Yeah.

23:29 So, how you know, so that’s what’s that’s why this is an important story. This is not going anywhere. I think this could be the potential of the court realizing that they might a very have a very sympathetic court that might be able to give them the decision that actually would give them more power over to use the term Mormon and perhaps even be able to have force John to change the name of his channel. These are potential things that could happen that we can’t just easily dismiss it in today’s atmosphere.

24:00 Yeah. My my final analysis of that is it’s definitely possible. I don’t think I personally don’t think that’s the chief angle that the LDS church is is going for. Okay. Um I I think they really want those disclaimers um on Mormon stories content. And to the degree of which um those disclaimers exist within the content, I think is where the the mediation talks probably broke down.

24:36 Yeah, that’s I think that’s probably right. And and and maybe the mediation talks were just something to be put out there with the intent that they were going to file this lawsuit all along. We just don’t know what the intent is, but it’s it’s it’s entirely plausible that this could have been something that happened. Um, you know, we’re just going to continue to report this story and with any further developments, stay tuned to Mormon Book Reviews where we do uh try to give you an unbiased as much of an unbiased look as we possibly can during these breaking news stories. So, again, here is the uh the article that I’m going to have in the uh description.

25:11 I also wanted to point out that uh we do have your group reformed Mormonism which recently had its general conference and many people uh were able to speak at it. I actually spoke at one oh yeah see yours is a year ago and uh and and so they’ve have this interesting group called reformed Mormonism which is the term reform Mormonism of course is patterned after the idea of reformed Judaism. Uh so that’s where the reform comes from. They’re not necessarily saying we’re going to reform the Mor the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. No, this is a branch of the restoration referred to as reform Mormonism. And if you are somebody who wants to be remain tethered to the restoration but perhaps feels that the main church is no longer serves your needs, there’s an option here. They have a Facebook group and they also have a Discord server where they’re very active in. So you can check it out. If you go

26:02 to the reformmonism.com website, there’s some resources for you there as well. So, Evan, um again, I really appreciate the work that you do. I would encourage people to not only read this article, but read many of the other articles that you’ve written throughout the years. Um you’re in a very important voice. Um I think you’ve probably come on this podcast more than any other. And I’ve always recognized from the beginning that you’re in a very important voice in this restoration and you represent um an underserved people uh a a a people that have been very much pushed to the margins and you are trying to find a space and a place where people within the restoration that are marginalized and and maybe not made to feel welcome at their local wards that they have a home in the restoration. and for them it for the organization that you you’re part of. Reformed Mormonism has been the home that you’ve been able to land in. So, uh I hope it’s been a good thing for you. And Evan, any final words before we wrap this up?

27:03 I love your content as well, John or John. Steve, my apologies. \[laughter\] I’ve been writing John Dylan’s name a lot the last couple of days, believe it or not. Um yeah, Steve, your your content is always so wonderful. you have done a phenomenal job of bringing the restoration together, getting all the cousins to talk to each other. Um, and as you know, a transgender Mormon, um, that goes a long way. Uh, just having people see me and see that I’m just kind of a normal person that is interested in Mormon things. \[laughter\] Um, love it.

27:46 Love it. and finding other people like me so that we can have community because community is what it’s all about. Amen to that, you know, and I have to say too, Evan, you know, uh, entering when I first entered in this space, it was actually a transgender individual that kind of really was welcoming to me. Um, early days and I will be honest, my knowledge of the subject is still not very well good. I’ve but you my relationship friendship with you has been very educational for me and very helpful for me to understand um the transgender community and it’s helped inform the interviews that I’ve done with transgender individuals including yourself on this channel. Um so I want to thank you for just kind of giving me that perspective but more importantly friendship. Evan, thank you so much for coming on the program. Thanks Steve.

28:33 Folks, we’re going to have links in the description to everything that we talked about. We also will have links in the description to those of you who’d like to financially support the channel. Couldn’t do it without you. But remember, the most important thing is this. All the voices of the restoration will be heard here on Mormon Book Reviews.