Mormon Stories Podcast

Mormon Stories Podcast - Exploiting Members of the Church  - For Money

How do we know?   The proof is right in front of us.....it's all in the numbers:

Mormon Stories Podcast (aka Open Stories Foundation) is the most prominent, and wealthy, LDS critic. They have produced over 1900 videos from that organization alone on YouTube, comprising over 90,000,000 views.  They have 255,900 followers on TikTok, 105,000 followers on Facebook, and 50,600 followers on Instagram.  Mormon Stories is a non-profit organization, and the US Government requires non-profit organizations to file an IRS Form 990 every year, which reveals their revenue and Executive Salaries.

Mormon Stories reported $738,478 in contributions for the year 2022.  This number is just slightly down from 2021. Over the previous 9 years, their average annual growth rate in total revenue was 22.9%. Applying this growth rate, their estimated revenue in 2023 is $907,589, and 2024 will be over $1 million.

The fact that they are making at least three-quarters of a million dollars (of which their CEO takes a large portion - see below) suggests there is a strong financial incentive for them to cause a faith crisis in you because the more people in faith crisis, the more people will donate to their nonprofit and want to purchase their services the services for exorbitant fees.

Mormon Stories' CEO Salary

Mormon Stories is making a lot of money in contributions.  But they are non-profit so no one is getting rich, right?   Not so much.  While the “nonprofit” label implies that no one is personally profiting from donations, the reality is the Board of Directors of a non-profit entity may set the CEO's salary at any amount the choose. In the case of Mormon Stories, the CEO received a raise in seven out of nine years between 2013 to 2022. And in 2018, his salary nearly doubled.  The fact is, this “non-profit” business has been EXTREMELY profitable for the CEO of Mormon Stories,  See his salary as reported to the IRS below, and a summary of his salary since 2013 further below:

Mormon Stories Provides Misleading Financial Data - Even To Their Own Followers

In their zeal to solicit their followers for money, Mormon Stories completely misrepresented their own financial status, using this misleading tactic on the people that mean most to them... their own followers.  

The Darker Side of Mormon Stories

As highlighted in the IRS Revenue page above, Mormon Stories' mission is to "Promote understanding, healing, growth, and community for people experiencing or impacted by religious transition."  However, the Mormon Stories video below shows them making physical threats of violence against Elder Dallin H Oaks, and trying to sneak an adult porn star into a temple.  It's unclear how this is promoting "understanding" or "healing"?

Mormon Stories Mocks Faithful Entities That Donate Their Time And Take No Salary

When responding to the fact that faithful organizations such as FAIR Latter-day Saint, Interpreter Foundation, and Scripture Central are completely voluntary and pay no salary, they simply mocked them:

Mormon Stories, Critical of the Church for Stance on LGBTQ Rights is Censured by Equality Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming for Their Treatment of Gay Individuals

It would be considered unethical for a doctor to intentionally infect a patient with a disease in order to provide treatment and collect a fee. Yet, LDS critics/anti-Mormons expose members to literally thousands of videos containing misinformation or assumptions about the LDS Church and its history, only to "come to the rescue" by offering activities that further increase their own revenue. It is the definition of unethical behavior.

In the words of Neal A. Maxwell, "Studying the church through the eyes of its defectors is like interviewing Judas to understand Jesus."  

The choice is yours.   You can spend months or years researching the hundreds of accusations of LDS critics/anti-Mormons to sort out fact from fiction, or you can examine the critics' motives and integrity, and then dismiss their accusations out of hand. 

This brings us back to where it has always been.  The most solid foundation we can gain about the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn’t come from critics or apologists.  It comes from God himself through the Holy Ghost.  He is, after all,  the source of all truth.