Source: Should the LDS Church be filing a LAWSUIT against Mormon Stories Podcast? Channel: Mormonism with the Murph Published: April 18, 2026 | Archived: May 24, 2026

Video: Should the LDS Church be filing a LAWSUIT against Mormon Stories Podcast?
Channel: Mormonism with the Murph
Published: April 18, 2026
Duration: 22:17
Views: 4,232
Category: People & Blogs
Video ID: oXmDtG1cYRY

Description

#jesuschrist #mormon #lds #trademark #lds #legal #churchofjesuschristofflatterdaysaints

In this episode I discuss my thoughts on the lawsuit filed by the church against Mormon Stories and the Open Stories Foundation and whether or not I think the church’s requests and claims are reasonable. Was Mormon Stories branding similar & confusing and could be easily confused with the LDS Church, should they lose the name Mormon? Does the church have a legal right to the name?

Check out the church’s statement on this

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/getting-it-right-clarifying-trademark-branding-concerns

Check out Jasmine Rapplye’s video on this

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Tags

mormon stories church of jesus christ of latter day saints mormon

Transcript — YouTube panel (human-authored)

0:00 Hello everyone. So in this episode, we’re going to talk about the recent events which are happening with the church filing a lawsuit against the Open Stories Foundation because of the the name of the podcast, the branding, uh the some of the copyright material as well as the logo being similar to the church’s logo. I’m just going to give my sort of take on this. And the church has very recently released a public statement about this whole scenario. So I believe there there was a cease and desist letter uh sent by the church to the open stories foundation basically saying that their branding the the background the what do you call that the trademark was very similar to the churches with the blue as well as referencing copyrighted material uh and wanting them to change the name of their podcast for Mormon stories because of some branding confusion and technically the church owns I think the copyright for the name Mormon. There was a

0:57 mediation that apparently happened with the open stories and their lawyers with the church’s lawyers I guess trying to come to some sort of compromise or solution. John did change the branding from the the blue background to an orange color but kept the name but they walked away from the mediation without any solution. It seems that the conflict centers around the church’s demand for uh Mormon stories to remove the name Mormon and to try to update the visual branding. so that there’s not confusion among people that are listening or come across his platform. John Delin put up mediation talks with the LDS church have ended with no agreement being reached.

1:37 We cooperatively address every one of their reasonable requests even prior to mediation. In the end, the church’s demands were just too unreasonable and we walked away. I don’t know if the church will act actually pursue any formal legal action. We don’t think they have any legitimate claims and we are prepared to fight if that ends up being the case. We’re not willing to be bullied into allowing the church to micromanage our organization and interfere with our mission. So the mediation was unsuccessful and he felt like the church’s demands were too unreasonable and that they’re trying to micromanage, you know, the podcast and the branding. So basic timeline, November 2025 were the emails sent, basically the cease and desist letters from the church’s lawyers. I believe it was March, it was either February or March, they had the mediation. And then just recently here in April, has the lawsuit been filed by the church? No, I

2:33 couldn’t help but think, you know, it’s very curious, very curious that this legal action against Mormon Stories podcast has come like now in November 2025, a couple of months after President Nelson’s death, even though it’s been even though his podcast and name has been going for over 20 years and that, you know, the current president of the church, you know, was a former lawyer and judge. I couldn’t help but think, I wonder if there’s a correlation there.

2:57 And I’m most curious about, you know, why now? So, in this video, I’m going to try to be as neutral and as unbiased as I can be because if you are a believer and a member of the church, you’re going to probably take the church’s side. And if you’re a former member, if you are an ex Mormon, or if you are a fan of the Mormon Stories podcast, you will probably be on their side. And I’m just going to try to pretend here, you know, looking at this from my limited understanding, there might be more going on, but I don’t claim to have all the facts. cuz I don’t really know exactly what was going on in the mediation, but I’m going to share where I sort of agree with the church, where I see where the open stories foundation is coming from and what I wish could be a solution.

3:40 Okay, so getting it right, clarifying trademark and branding concerns. And I also recommend a video that Jasmine Rapley has recently put out as well where she’s given her take and she’s gone through this in more depth, but I’m just going to go through this and give my thoughts as my opinion might be slightly different. So, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Saints has filed a trademark and copyright complaint involving the Open Stories Foundation and its Mormon Stories podcast. The issue is not the podcast viewpoint. It is the use of church protected names, images, and design elements in ways that are causing confusion about whether the content is official or affiliated with the church.

4:18 So, what happened in November 2025? The church contacted Open Stories Foundation privately about concerns with its branding. The goal was to resolve the matter privately and amic amicably. And I believe John was the one that put up uh some of the emails that the church sents as well. I’ll include them here so you can look through them. The church then engaged in good faith mediation and proposed several options to reduce confusion while minimizing disruption.

4:43 When those efforts did not result in solution, the church filed a complaint in federal court to protect its intellectual property. So John Delin is saying that, you know, when the church said for them to change, you know, the the background of their logo for Mormon stories, and I will agree, looking at it, it did look quite similar. The the dark blue call logo or trademark, whatever it’s called, did look very similar to the church’s other media. So I could understand that branding being very confusing. So I think that was a very reasonable request. And again, when it comes to copyrighted images, when it comes to copyrighted, you know, design elements, I I can understand that. And I guess you do need to be careful with uh copyright. And that’s something I need to be more careful about as well, particularly with thumbnails. But John is saying that, look, we tried to meet all of their requests that were

5:33 reasonable, but they’re just demanding too much. And the church is saying, well, we’re trying to be reasonable with them and try to compromise. So they say, why does this matter? The church holds registered trademarks and copyright so people can clearly identify what is and is not official church communication. Names, logos, and visual design elements help people know when content represents the church. This case concerns branding choices that incorporate church protected names and design elements in ways that may lead people to believe the podcast is produced by or affiliated with the church when it is not. So again, totally understand. Uh, you know, they don’t want the branding, they don’t want their logo, they don’t want the trademarks to be similar and for people to think this is a church affiliated site or platform or podcast when it is not. Why was mediation unsuccessful? The primary issue is ongoing confusion about whether Mormon Stories is affiliated with the church. To address that, the

6:28 church proposed a simple solution. A brief disclaimer that the podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. This is a common and straightforward way to help audiences understand the source of content. That step was not adopted. As a result, the likelihood of confusion remains and the church move forward to protect its trademarks. Now, I actually think that’s quite a reasonable request. You even see it on a lot of faithful channels where they’ll have like something written like this is does not represent the official views or is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

7:01 There’s lots of different faithful platforms or podcasts that do that. And if there is, you know, people who are coming across Mormon stories thinking it’s by mistake, something affiliated with the church, they, you know, they have a list here of different people who have, I’m sure, have gone on to Mormon stories thinking it was, uh, something, you know, faithful or something to do with the church and feel like, oh, I’ve come across a critical podcast. So, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request by the church. And John talks a lot about, you know, informed consent.

7:30 So, even some sort of uh whether or not it be a visual or something said at the beginning, just outlining that this podcast is not endorsed or affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Maybe even something that says that on this podcast we might talk about some difficult or challenging issues related to church history, related to the institutional church or people sharing faith crises or doubts or or negative experiences which have led them out of Mormonism. I’m not saying that that would have to be the intro, but I think something like that would be reasonable or even something like written just so people are aware. This is not a church affiliated or endorsed by the church. And again, I don’t know if the church is saying they are proposing this as a solution so they can still keep the name Mormon Stories or if they’re saying that they want you to do this and change the name Mormon. But I I think some sort of small disclaimer. I

8:24 don’t know whether or not it have to be verbal and spoken like at the beginning of every podcast episode or just something visual but I don’t think that is an unreasonable request and again as John often points out that people should be informed you know about the church. I suppose somebody who’s coming across his podcast should maybe you know be informed in case they think it is something filly with the church just to let them know okay this is not endorsed by the church and the vast majority of the content is not intended to be faith promoting but more critical to the article why was mediation unsuccessful the primary issue is ongoing confusion about whether Mormon stories I read that oops is the church trying to silence criticism no people are free to express support for or criticism of the church and its teaching. This case does not concern the content of the podcast.

9:13 It concerns preventing confusion about source and affiliation. Okay. So, I understand the branding issues. So, you know, changing the logo uh and maybe even some of the copyright images. I get that. The only concern I have is with the name Mormon Stories. One, that’s been the name of the podcast for like over 20 years. I think it’s been since 2005 they began. John Delim was excommunicated in 2015 and it was during I believe from 2010 to like 2018 was the big I’m a Mormon campaign. So I feel like if there was a time because the church had it in its I’m a Mormon campaign in a lot more of its sites and its affiliated church affiliated you know channels and logos and such. I could have maybe understood then because the church was using the word Mormon a lot more why they would have wanted to say you need to change the name of your podcast because it’s critical and people might be confused. And they have a section here why now they say public

10:08 questions and ongoing confusion about whether Mormon stories is official church content made it necessary to act. And yeah there there probably are people who have stumbled across the podcast thinking that oh maybe this is something faithful and and they’ve got examples of people. So I have no doubt about that. At the same time, the church really since President Nelson has distanced itself from the word Mormon in that 2018 conference talk where President Nelson emphasized that we are to use the the full and correct name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and to not use the word Mormon, even going so far as, you know, using the word Mormon instead of the name of Jesus Christ being a victory for Satan. And we saw in a lot of church media and also in a lot of other apologetic channels changing from having the word Mormon in their title to something to do with Latterday Saints and Mormon seems to be a named used a lot more from either critics or

11:04 former members or becoming more of this cultural term and we’ve even seen you know like fair Mormon changed their name to Farity Saints Saint uh saints unscripted used to be three Mormons midnight Mormons changed to word radio. Now, people have point out to me like, “Hey, you’re called Mormonism with the Murf.” Isn’t that going against President Nelson’s council? Well, my loophole is he said Mormon, not Mormonism.

11:28 So, I’m all good. Mormonism with the Murf. It’s just catchy. Could you imagine if it was the Church of Jesus Christ saints with the Murf? What a mouthful. It’s not catchy at all. So, mine’s catchy. It’s got alliteration, so it’s all good. But the vast majority of church media or faithful content has moved away from having the name Mormon in its title. So I would say a lot of members would probably associate the word Mormon with not being faithful or LDS. But I absolutely validate there are probably some people who have stumbled across Mormon stories or other podcasts with the name Mormon in it thinking it is something faithful. And look, I would totally agree with the church if the name of the podcast was Latter-day Stories or Church of Jesus Christ stories. I think that would be a lot more misleading and that would cause a lot more people to stumble across it.

12:21 And the fact that there’s there’s lots of other channels that have the name Mormon in it. And the church says, okay, privately it does send out emails to different people, so maybe it has. But for example, I’ve got a good friend, Steve Pinecker, who’s got a channel, Mormon Book Reviews. That’s his brand. Now, his channel isn’t really critical of the church. It’s really more neutral and very fair. He has people on from both sides and all branches of the restoration. But if the church is going to be consistent, why aren’t they also going after Steve Pineer for the name Mormon? Again, I understand it could be the branding issues, and I’m I do agree with the church when it comes to the logo, when it came to the background, the the blue. It did look very similar to other churches media, and I think that was very fair. and Mormon stories did change that which was good. Does the church enforce trademarks consistency consistently? Yes, the church reviews hundreds of potential trademark issues each year, including matters involving church members and supportive creators.

13:20 The first step is always privately outreach. Most situations are resolved amicably. The same standards apply here. That’s just the one I have questions about because I know there’s other podcasts or platforms that have the name Mormon and I just wonder why they haven’t gone after those ones or reached out to them. I I’m aware maybe one other that they’ve reached out to and if they do hundreds each year, why is it taken 21 years for them to finally go after the Open Stories Foundation?

13:54 And again, this would have made more sense in that 2015 to 2018 window with the I’m a Mormon campaign. It makes a little bit less sense to me now since the church has distanced itself away from Mormon. And last section, what about the term Mormon? 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 an organizational branding in ways that create confusion about affiliation, the church has a responsibility to address it. The church’s goal is simple. Ensure people can clearly distinguish official church materials from independent commentary. Okay, so this might be where there might be Okay, so this is where there might be a little bit of a distinction. So, they’re saying it’s not so much the word Mormon in their branding or them using the name Mormon, but that it is causing confusion for

14:48 people stumbling across their podcast thinking this is potentially a church affiliated site or platform when it is not. So, I’m just going to share to summarize where I agree with the church, where I can see where the Open Stories Foundation is coming from and a possible solution or compromise. So, I think the blue Mormon stories logo did look very similar to the other church media and church affiliated channels. So, I totally agree with the church on that one. The branding looks similar. People could easily confuse it and be mistaken.

15:21 And I think they are right to email them to ask them to change it. And to their credit, they did. And I also tend to agree. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the church to ask if because it’s a really large platform and if people have confused it with um being a faithful or podcast affiliated with the church coming across it and causing some brand confusion for there to be some sort of disclaimer whether written or something verbal at the beginning and that wouldn’t really have to take away anything from John’s brand where I tend to sort of agree and side a little bit with the open stories foundation is This has been the name of their podcast for over 20 years. This is the brand that they built. If the church cared so much about the word and the copyright of Mormon, why wasn’t it done from 2015 to 2018 at the height of the I’m a Mormon campaign and then when the church distanced itself from the word Mormon with President Nelson in 2018 and so

16:19 much of church media with from Mormon.org or to church apologetic to faithful apologetic platforms changing the name of their channels. And even if the church technically owns the copyright of the word Mormon, I just feel like why why now go after John Dolan’s podcasts? And and if they’re being fair, shouldn’t they be going after other podcasts with the name Mormon in it? And maybe it’s more about the brand confusion versus them actually having the word Mormon. But then if they change the branding to have it more in line with what the church is requesting so that there’s not going to be that branding confusion and especially if they were to do a disclaimer, wouldn’t that satisfy the church’s request and they could still keep the name Mormon Stories? Now, I know some critics or ex-members might say, well, this is the church just trying to use the copyright to force Mormon stories to change the name because then less people will come across the podcast if they are forced to change the name of their podcast from

17:16 Mormon and thus there will be less people to be exposed to and potentially lose their faith. But the brand confusion and right of different images and things, okay, that’s fair, fair enough. But this case reminds me a little bit of the Fair View, Texas temple scenario with the the temple and the steeple they wanted to build in the the Fairview uh country town. And the lawyers sort of went in saying like we want this size of a temple and with this size of a steeple and if you don’t give it to us there’s going to be a lawsuit and they were like this is way above like the the zoning codes. I remember at the time thinking like hey like can’t we just find a compromise so this doesn’t have to go to court so we don’t bankrupt this town? Isn’t there a way that you can meet somewhere in the middle where you can still have your temple and a steeple but maybe reduce the size so you’re not putting out this town that want to maintain the country feel and not have a massive building and and

18:13 steeple in their town. And even if legally the church could have won that lawsuit or even this if the church owned the copyright of Mormon and I don’t know what would happen in court. But even if they legally could win it, I just think the image it would give for the church wouldn’t look good. And I know like most believers will see it as like, oh well, it’s one of the biggest critical anti- Mormon podcasts, so the church is just going to take it down and the church legally can because it owns the the copyright. But if you just like step back and if you’re just being like neutral here, like it seems like why are they just going after this podcast and not other podcast or channels with the name Mormon in it? And if they remove, you know, they’ve changed the logo, remove the copyrighted photographs from thumbnails and such, how is the the name of the Mormon Stories podcast much different to any other YouTube channel that has the word Mormon in it? I think it’s fair to say

19:06 because the church has moved away from the word Mormon and Mormon is quite a broad cultural identifier. It could be used not just for people who consider themselves as cultural Mormons, but even people who aren’t members of the Church of Jesus Christ saints, but are part of the broader restoration movement and a different branch of the restoration. But look, I’m not a lawyer. I’m a primary school teacher. So, I’ve had to deal with my fair share of squables and fights, verbal and physical, over the years. and I’ve had my fair share of scars and tears, most of them mine, but trying to find a solution. And similar to the Fair View Taxes thing, can can we just try to find a compromise? And just in my personal opinion, if this goes to court and the church wins and that they’re forced to change the name of the Mormon Stories podcast, I still feel like it doesn’t it’s not the best image for the church, especially because the church has moved away from using the word Mormon. And if they’re going to be consistent, I think they should be going

20:03 after other platforms, other podcasts and YouTubes with the same name. Well, heck, please don’t go after me. But I have a loophole. It’s Mormonism with the Murf. Nah. If I think the request of some sort of disclaimer that this is not affiliated with with the church, maybe even something indicating that, you know, controversial or tough issues can be spoken about in this podcast that may feel uncomfortable to certain believers.

20:31 I don’t know. I think I think that might be a reasonable request because I’m sure people have stumbled across the channel, the podcast even since the church’s distance away from the the word Mormon and been mistaken. And I I totally understand the brand confusion part of things. I also feel like, you know, that’s that’s sort of the name of their brand, their podcast. They’ve had it for over 20 years. Worm stories. Why all of a sudden now do they have to change it? And if the church is going to be consistent, shouldn’t they be going after other channels and podcasts as well with that same name? And if it’s brand confusion, then some sort of disclaimer might be the solution. Again, I don’t know. I wasn’t in the mediation. I don’t know if there is any more unreasonable requests. But, you know, if it goes to court, then so be it. But I wish a compromise could be found. Those are my thoughts. Let me know if you disagree with me. Fine. If the church sends me an email, cease and desist and change my name. What do you think I should do? Do

21:34 you have a bar name I could change it to? Or should be like, flip you. No, it’s Mormonism, not Mormon. You’ve got no copyright of Mormonism. But anyway, those are my thoughts. Thanks everyone for watching this episode. If you’ve enjoyed it, please give it a like, share it with others who might benefit, and don’t forget to \[music\] subscribe so you don’t miss any future content. You can also listen to these episodes on podcast form on Anchor Spotify. \[music\] And you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok. Check out my website \[music\] for more content, personal blog, and more. And if you care to donate to support me, you can via my PayPal or Patreon or through the website. And you can also give donations \[music\] via YouTube through super chats.

22:12 Thank you for watching Morism with the Mr. Take care. Bye-bye.