Source: LDS Church Sues “Mormon Stories” Podcast Host John Dehlin Channel: Friendly Atheist Published: April 24, 2026 | Archived: May 4, 2026

Video: LDS Church Sues “Mormon Stories” Podcast Host John Dehlin
Channel: Friendly Atheist
Published: April 24, 2026
Duration: 18:58
Views: 19,236
Category: News & Politics
Video ID: NEYTpNeimx8

Description

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is suing John Dehlin, the creator of the “Mormon Stories” podcast, in a trademark and copyright dispute that critics say looks a lot like an attempt to intimidate a longtime voice of dissent. The church claims Dehlin’s podcast uses protected branding, images, and the word “Mormon” in ways that could confuse people into thinking the show is officially affiliated with the church.

But Dehlin—who was excommunicated in 2015 and has spent years platforming former members and critics—says that argument doesn’t hold up, especially given how openly critical the podcast is. He also says he already made changes, including removing images and adding disclaimers, while rejecting demands he viewed as excessive.

This is a clip from my recent livestream: https://youtube.com/live/KNXTFBwUYqM

The article this is based on is here:

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/mormon-church-sues-critic-john-dehlin

Join my channel to get access to special perks! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsgjnUBCB9xbUXQfMg0pd8A/join

✔ Please support what I do: https://www.patreon.com/hemant ✔ You can also make a one-time donation here: https://paypal.me/FriendlyAtheist

✔ Website: http://www.friendlyatheist.com/ ✔ Contact: Mpromptu@gmail.com ✔ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@friendly.atheist ✔ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HemantMehta ✔ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/friendlyatheist.com ✔ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/friendly-atheist-podcast/id888637335 ✔ Instagram: https://instagram.com/friendly.atheist/ ✔ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/friendlyatheist/ ✔ Amazon: https://amzn.to/2mMNzNs (My affiliate link) ✔ Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mpromptu ✔ Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/FriendlyAtheist

Tags

Church State Atheist Atheism Humanist Humanism Religion Politics Christian Christianity

Transcript — YouTube panel (human-authored)

0:00 Let’s talk about the drama that’s happening in the world of Mormonism. Very fascinating story here. And it involves a guy named Jean Delin. And I will just tell you a quick story. Every now and then when I actually leave my house and if I’m at some atheist event or something, I will occasionally meet people who are ex Mormons, former Mormons, foremans, whatever we’re calling them. And inevitably when we’re talking about like what prompted you to leave the religion, uh how did you how did you do it? I always ask them, are you familiar with John Delin and his podcast, Mormon Stories podcast? And like 100% of the time they’re like, of course I I’ve listened to John. I love John’s podcast. Um like it’s happened all the time, every time for many years now. And the reason is the Mormon Stories podcast has been for like 20 plus years a podcast where they talk about what the Mormon church is doing wrong. Like it’s an anti-LGBTQ church.

1:06 They have taken a lot of bad positions on a lot of political issues. They are hoarding billions and billions of dollars that are meant to be spent on like missionary work and things like that and improving people’s lives and they’re just hoarding it. So, there’s a lot of reason to be critical of the LDS church and they talk about it. Not only that, if there’s a prominent Mormon in the news who’s critical of the church or the church’s beliefs, you can you better believe they’re going to be a guest on Mormon stories. So, it’s really the hub for people who are fed up with Mormonism. And can you even imagine if you grew up in a Mormon family and you thought like everyone around you is Mormon and like what happens if you have doubts and what happens if you want to leave and how do you do that and discovering the Mormon stories podcast and listening to episodes where they talk they spoke to people who left and

2:02 the hurdles they had to overcome it. It it’s a huge deal. I’ve heard that about atheist podcast too. People might listen to something I do or maybe a Dillah Hunty show or the Scathing Atheist and it’s like, “Oh my god, I didn’t know there were people who thought this way. Um, I thought I was the only one.” Right? So, really, really interesting podcast. And if you’re on my YouTube channel right now, you can see an interview I did with John Delin many, many years ago. I think it was 2015 or something. Anyway, I also want to show you that in 2015, this article appeared in the New York Times because the Mormon church kicked John Delin out of their religion. They excommunicated him for real. And this is the beginning of the article. John P.

2:48 Lynn, the founder and host of a popular podcast for Mormons who questioned their faith, announced on Tuesday that a 15 member church disciplinary council had unanimously decided to excommunicate him for apostasy. How dare he, which by the way, just I mean, may we all strive for that level of notoriety. So, John began the Mormon Stories podcast in 2005. He was not out of the church at the time. He just had doubts.

3:18 He had concerns about what the church was doing. But once it became known as a place where you go if you’re trying to leave and you want advice on how to leave, um the Mormon church was not happy and they kicked him out of the church. He was leading people away from the church. We got to get rid of this guy. Though John would tell you the reason he got kicked out of the church is because he supported same-sex marriage. He also supported the ordination of female priests.

3:48 So interesting. I will also tell you that the Mormon Stories podcast got popular enough that John formed a nonprofit group to basically oversee the podcast and expand the work they’re doing. It’s called the Open Stories Foundation. And he started that in 2010, but it’s grown ever since. And if you look at their uh nonprofit paperwork, they actually are doing really well. They made over a million dollars in 2024. That’s just proof that like people are donating. They want to see the work John is doing like go further and and they want to see even more of it. Now, $1 million compared to the Mormon churches, tens of billions of dollars, just to give you an idea of comparison there. So, what’s going on here? Well, what just happened in court this week is that the Mormon Church decided to sue John Delin.

4:47 They sued him. You could see this right here. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and like the lawyer group they work with, Intellectual Reserve, Inc., they are suing Open Stories Foundation and John Delin. And the reason they are suing him is basically trademark and copyright infringement. They’re basically arguing you can’t use the word Mormon. You can’t use any logos that resemble ours and things like this.

5:18 Here’s the you could see this right in the introduction. Let me show you this. The defendants, Open Stories Foundation and John Delin operate a podcast under the name and mark Mormon Stories. As defendants are well aware, as they are well aware, the public associates the term Mormon with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has used the mark Mormon and other names and marks incorporating the term Mormon since its founding nearly 200 years ago.

5:50 ancient times defendants use of church trademarks and copyrighted materials has caused and will continue to cause individuals to be confused and access his content mistakenly believing it comes from or is affiliated with or endorsed by the church. This is not by accident. And then look at this. The defendants adopted a blue, you could see it right there, a blue Mormon stories logo with light rays, a light rays design prominently used by the church. So all of these logos that you are seeing here are the Mormon church’s logos except for the one in the middle. That’s John’s with the red box around it. And they’re saying he’s just trying to copy us. He used blue. We’re the Mormon church. We own blue.

6:44 Okay, so that’s one reason they’re very very upset with him. I mean, look, in no sane world is anybody actually listening to John’s podcast and confusing it with official church propaganda. It’s not happening. The closest I imagine that could happen is that someone was like, “Podcast Mormons.” and they looked it up and they came across John’s because it’s really popular and they started listening to it and then two minutes in they’re like wait a minute I don’t think you guys like the church very much and then they would stop listening so what that’s not that big of a deal right um also why would the banner this is also funny if you look at the um banner for the Lynn’s YouTube channel.

7:37 It has his picture on it, John Dyn’s picture. That’s the banner of the YouTube page. Why would you use the picture of the excommunicated Mormon? And yet the church is saying people are going to get confused. You need to show guys who are like a hundred years old and who run the church apparently. Um, but the Mormon church insists there is confusion. And to try and prove that point, I want to show you what they found. Um, they dug through the social media comments on a lot of the Lind’s uh social media outlets. Here we go.

8:16 Look at this. Oh, this is just the funniest bit. They said, “We found these comments on Facebook and YouTube.” And they redacted the people who said it. But for example, I stumbled upon the Mormon Stories podcast thinking it was church affiliated. It was quickly evident how anti- it was. And then what’s another one here? I’ve been watching the videos to do with uh with Teal by this channel, but I don’t understand. Is this channel run by Mormons or ex Mormons or people who are Mormons but against radical Mormons or they don’t like Mormons? I don’t mean to sound rude if it does. I just don’t understand.

9:03 And then just one more here. I was searching for LDS content not too long ago and ran across this and was deceived. I listened to half of one podcast and realized what it was. Never listened again. And the Mormon church is including many, many examples of this as if it shows that there is confusion between Delin’s podcast and the Mormon church. But if anything, I’m reading these comments and it sounds like people stumbled upon Mormon stories and then immediately realized this isn’t from the church, so I’m not going to listen to it. It sounds like they’re proving John’s point, which is that no one’s going to get this confused with actual church doctrine. You know what comment is not listed in any of those in the lawsuit? There is not a single person who says, “I was listening to Mormon stories and I guess the church’s position is that women should be religious leaders.”

10:03 No one is saying that. No one is saying that the Mormon church’s positions are whatever John Delin or his guests say because no one’s actually getting this stuff confused. And yet this is the argument made by the church. Um there’s also another thing that they do here. By the way, let me just point out for a podcast this popular, it is ridiculous for the church to go digging into the comment threads on YouTube and Facebook.

10:34 suggesting that that’s going to prove your point because anyone can comment. No one’s moderating comments when you’re that big. I mean, and the nature of popular comment threads is that you can always find anything you’re looking for in there, right? It’s also likely there are people in those threads who said slurs against Mormons because they’re just really mad at what the church did to them. And none of it means John approved of any of it. You know what I mean? It’s absurd to blame the host of a popular podcast for their social media following. Um, so what I I will also point out they were mad that he used the word Mormon for Mormon Stories podcast, but there are a lot of pro- Mormon podcasts that use that word in their titles. They are not affiliated with the church. Has the church sued any of them for using those titles? Of course not, because they’re not really mad about the copyright stuff. They’re just trying to shut up their biggest critic. Here’s another thing they went after John for.

11:36 Uh they pointed out that this is from the lawsuit. Look at this. On the far left is a copyrighted church image, like a glamour shot of one of their hundred-year-old leaders that the church released. And this right here is a thumbnail that Delin used for one of his episodes and it looks very much like a fair use concept there. Like yeah, you’re talking about this guy, but clearly this is not a church approved video. What to do if you have doubts.

12:11 That to me seems perfectly fair. Same thing. The far left here you see an image of three church leaders and right here is a recap by John and his guests of a Mormon general conference and they use the image but no one’s getting it confused with church propaganda but this is what the church is going with. So what did the church want John Delin to do? Well they made a few demands. They said your logo looks like Mormon blue. You can’t do that. So John said, “Fine, I’ll change my logo to a different color.” He changed it to like orange.

12:48 They said, “You you got to stop using the pictures that we put out in the thumbnails for your videos.” So he said, “Fine, I will replace those thumbnails and put up something else.” And he did that. Uh, by and large, I think he did that. Though I think the LDS church complained that he used an image of a temple in a more recent video. So, he’s violating the rules. Whatever. Um, the other thing they said is, “We want you to put a disclaimer in your podcast right up front that says you are not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Like, they want him to open every podcast episode saying something like, “Hi, I’m John and this podcast is not affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now, let me bring on my guest and talk about how crappy the church is.

13:40 And John said, “I am not doing that. I’m not doing that because I am not gonna start my episodes by telling people what I’m not after, especially after 20 years of trying to tell people what he stands for.” So, he refused to do that. But he did make one concession, which is that on his social media pages, he did change the description. So, there’s the Mormon Stories podcast on Facebook, and you could see in the description, it now says Mormon Stories is brought to you by the Open Stories Foundation and is not affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He did it in the iTunes description right there. He also did it uh on the website. This is the disclaimer at the bottom of the podcast’s website. So, he did put the disclaimer there, but he’s not going to open his show by telling people what he’s not. I don’t open this show or my podcast by saying this is the Friendly

14:42 Atheist podcast. By the way, just so you’re not confused, we’re not affiliated with American Atheists or any atheist group out there because why why would I tell you what I’m not representing? You know what I mean? So, ridiculous stuff all around. The other thing that made me laugh in the lawsuit is they’re really mad that he uses the word Mormon, but the LDS church has spent years telling people not to use the word Mormon. They want to like distance themselves from that word.

15:14 Remember the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? It’s not called that anymore. The church changed the name to the Tabernacle Choir at Mormon Square. And yet they’re like, “Excuse me, John. Are you using Mormon in your podcast title? you can’t do that. That’s our word and we’re proud of it. It’s like, no, you’re not. You don’t even like the word. And at the end of this lawsuit, uh, this is what they say nearing the end of it. Look at line 57.

15:46 Unless these acts of Mormon stories are restrained by this court, they will continue and they will continue to cause irreparable injury to plaintiffs and to the public for which there is no adequate remedy at law. This dude and his podcast apparently have the power to destroy the multi multibillion Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Apparently, one man in his podcast can level all of Salt Lake City. So ridiculous.

16:23 You know what is more confusing than Mormon Stories podcast? The Book of Mormon musical. Do you think the church sued the Book of Mormon musical for the title? Because maybe someone walked into the Broadway theater that night thinking, “Oh, I will hear a lovely story about Joseph Smith.” And then they were in for a very rude surprise. No, of course they didn’t. In fact, in one of the best PR campaigns you will ever see, the Mormon church advertised in the play bill for the Book of Mormon saying like, “You saw the play, now read the book.” Clever. Very clever. They did not sue. Also, one of the most popular shows these days is uh The Hulu Show, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. If I didn’t know any better, I might say, “I would like to know more about what happens in that church. Let me go watch this show and find out what Mormon lives, what Mormon wives are actually up to.” And then within two seconds, you’ll be like, “Oh my god.

17:25 Did they sue Hulu and that popular show? No, of course they didn’t.“ But you could make the argument that those two titles, which use the word Mormon, are way more confusing to someone who doesn’t know better than the Mormon Stories podcast, where right away, you know, this is not pro- Mormon church. So, I don’t know. I I I don’t to me this all feels like the Strand effect. Like, if they just let the podcast do its thing, no one in the Mormon church is ever really going to pay much attention to it. But now they’re very much trying to shut their biggest critic up and they’re trying to shut him down through a lawsuit. And I feel like that’s gonna backfire because now more Mormons are going to be like, “What’s this podcast all about? Let me listen.” And who knows what’ll happen after that. So, this is how you know that podcast makes a difference in people’s lives because that podcast shows that when you escape the Mormon church, your life can still

18:23 be meaningful and fulfilling and you can be happy and you can have the family you want and you don’t have to believe weird stuff. And for people to come to that realization is a hard thing to do when you’ve been raised in this religious environment. And the church knows it, which is why the best thing they could do is try to shield their members from any outside criticism. So they want to shut this guy up. Um, honestly, by picking this fight, the Mormon church is only confirming the criticisms that they are now so desperate to suppress.