Sued earlier this year by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for alleged copyright and trademark infringement, the creator of the long-running “Mormon Stories” podcast that helped expose child sex abuse and cover-ups in a Chicago area congregation is pushing back in new court filing s with this message to the faith group:“No single source, including the Church, has the legal right to control the use” of the word “Mormon.”Filed in federal court in April, the lawsuit accuses podcaster John Dehlin and his show and web site of using words and images that essentially belong to the church, which church officials insist has proved confusing for some who wondered if “Mormon Stories” was church-sanctioned.The church says it’s not trying to curb Dehlin’s content, or get back at him for his often-critical exploration of the denomination, which included hosting a former resident of the far northwest suburbs earlier this year who detailed long-ago child sex abuse accusations at a Crystal Lake congregation by Wade Christofferson. He’s a brother of Mormon leader D. Todd Christofferson.Filed in Utah where the Latter-day Saints and Dehlin are based, the lawsuit focuses in part on his podcast’s use of the word “Mormon,” which the church claims some rights over.“As Defendants 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,” the lawsuit says.The church’s web site adds: “The Church holds trademarks covering certain uses of the term ‘Mormon,’ including in connection with educational services. Not every use of the word requires permission. But when it is used as part of organizational branding in ways that create confusion about affiliation, the Church has a responsibility to address it.”Recent court filings by Dehlin’s lawyers seek to get the lawsuit, or at least elements of it, thrown out on free speech and other grounds — including that the church waited too long to make a claim when it’s known for two decades about the podcast. It launched in 2005.In 2015, church leaders held a meeting at which they “addressed reasons that people leave the Church,” and Dehlin was cited as one of the factors, according to his filings.That’s “effectively an admission that his MORMON STORIES podcast did not create confusion about the podcast being affiliated with or sponsored by the Church,” the filings say. A slide said to be from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that’s included in court filings from podcaster John Dehlin.U.S. District Court Dehlin’s court documents assert: “‘Mormon’ is a vast and complex term that millions of people use, and have used for over 200 years, to identify themselves or others, their upbringings, genealogical roots, cultures, religious beliefs, and traditions — regardless of their affiliation with the corporate institution of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”“‘Mormon’ belongs to the public — including members of the over 400 different Mormon sects currently existing nationwide that trace their heritage back to the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, and those with varied connections to Mormon history, genealogy, beliefs, and culture.”Dehlin’s filings also portray the church’s claim over “Mormon” as hypocritical, as church leaders have tried to distance the institution from the word in recent years.In 2018, “the Church publicly and expressly abandoned (to the extent it owned any rights in ‘Mormon,’ which Defendants do not concede) the very word ‘Mormon’ that it now claims ownership and control of and sues to protect.”“Church President at the time, Russell M. Nelson, declared that the Church would no longer use ‘Mormon’ as an identifier, declared that ‘Mormon’ was simply an ‘adjective,’ and condemned its use as antithetical to the Church’s religious teachings and beliefs.” Podcaster John Dehlin.Mormon Stories podcast “Following this mandate, the Church took dramatic measures for a period of years to omit all signs of ‘Mormon’ from its official branding and trademark uses,” including by renaming the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir “to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square,” the filing alleges.“This explicit and sweeping abandonment, however, did not extend to its averments made to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) to speciously maintain federal registrations for the abandoned marks.”Dehlin has raised questions about whether the church is trying to silence him because his content often challenges church teachings and practices. Related Latter-day Saints sues podcaster who exposed alleged child sex abuse by ex-Mormon leader in Chicago region “Because the Church is a multi-billion-dollar religious institution with unlimited resources to wield in its enforcement efforts, the very existence of the present lawsuit alone (despite the merits thereof) has the potential to ultimately silence Defendants through attrition (which may possibly be by design) and thereby create a chilling effect for other Church critics and questioners who, like Defendants, engage in constitutionally protected speech about Mormonism,” according to his filings.The church’s unusual legal assault came months after “Mormon Stories” hosted Edward Nachel, who revealed he’d been part of the excommunication process of former McHenry County church leader Wade Christofferson in the 1990s after it came to light he molested one or more children. Mormon leader D. Todd Christofferson (left) and his brother, accused child molester Wade Christofferson, in a mug shot after his arrest.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Butler County Jail As the Chicago Sun-Times has since reported, a number of church leaders knew about Wade Christofferson’s misconduct but let him back into the church, and into leadership, and apparently told nobody.Wade Christofferson has since allegedly molested more children out-of-state, according to prosecutors who lodged charges against him in November in a case that’s pending in Ohio where he moved from the Chicago area.D. Todd Christofferson has since acknowledged he knew in or about 2020 that his brother may be a child molester and didn’t call police or child welfare authorities or, it appears, tell other church leaders.Church officials haven’t said what if any involvement D. Todd Christofferson, as one of three members of the faith system’s powerful “first presidency,” had in filing or guiding the lawsuit.Recent court filing in lawsuit Related Mystery shrouds ex-Mormon figure’s death in northern Illinois plane crash amid child sexual abuse lawsuit Related Top Mormon leader D. Todd Christofferson knew around 2020 that his brother was an alleged child molester ...read more read less