British Court Issues Summons To Mormon Church Head Alleging Teachings Violate Fraud Act

In Britain last week, a Magistrate's Court issued two nearly identical summonses  (full text 1, 2) to Thomas S. Monson, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ordering him to appear before the court to answer to charges that seven specified teachings of the Mormon church violated Britain's Fraud Act 2006.  The Telegraph reported yesterday that the summonses stem from a little used procedure in which a private citizen who claims to have evidence that someone has committed a crime can ask a magistrate to summons the alleged violator to respond to charges. Here the private prosecution was filed by Thomas Phillips, a former Mormon who runs MormonThink, a website highly critical of the LDS Church. The summonses allege that Stephen Bloor, a former Mormon bishop, and Christopher Denis Ralph, a former convert, were misled by Mormon teachings to pay an annual tithe to the Church. Volokh Conspiracy discusses the case further.