Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

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Bought Yahoo
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by Bought Yahoo »

jpatterson wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 9:23 pm
One of the more salient parts is around 30 minutes when Matt goes off on the whole "swingers and drug users" part of John's infamous 2013 "faith reconstruction" podcast in which he claimed there was all this debauchery going on at MSP conferences including swinging and drug use and that's why he had to shut the communities down -- when in actuality we now know that he shut them down because of the Rosebud saga.

Matt was one of the organizers of a MSP community in Arizona and took that particular Dehlin lie rather personally.
Somehow I don't believe all these slurs against Mr. Dehlin.
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

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pistolero wrote:
Mon Jun 07, 2021 11:31 pm

In my hotel room at least, I made all participants sign a NDA.
???
The 3 ex-employees seem to only make an issue of the toxic working environment at Open Stories Foundation, but Glenn relays really quite positive feedback in general about their experiences, other than the toxicity.
I've had conversations with two of the three ex-employees. The "quite positive feedback" was in reference to their enjoyment at getting to work on a cause that really helped people in need, which they enjoyed despite having to work with/for John Dehlin. Both the employees described an incredibly toxic work environment caused by John that was primarily focused on the two women. We also know that Roger McOmber, board chair at the time of the resignations, also resigned because of what he called John's "behavior."
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by jpatterson »

Atlantic wrote:
Tue Jun 08, 2021 1:06 am
I've listened to both MS and I O T but don't remember ever hearing this particular episode. Thanks for sharing. Did John ever respond anywhere to the questions asked of him in the aforementioned open letter?
John put out a podcast episode with one of his board members shortly after in which they discussed Open Stories Foundation finances, but in his usual fashion he failed to answer any of the specific questions raised in the open letter and in the smackdown episode. I also heard that somewhere he issued an apology to the employees who resigned but I haven't been able to find it.

John loves to brag about how transparent he is about Open Stories Foundation finances, when in reality he does the bare minimum which is required by law -- publicly posting the org's 990 forms. Anyone can do that because every non-profit of his size is required to do that.

In his latest state of the union podcast, for example, he talked all about how great his current board is to work with, but completely failed to mention that the board chair (Jeremy Macdonald) recently resigned. Kind of seems like important information to share when you're giving an update about the organization, no?

Now he's down to just 2 other board members, who he describes as "dear friends." Not a good look.
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by drumdude »

Is Mormon Stories growing? It seems to me that it peaked some years ago and is running out of gas. I wouldn't be surprised if the board had shrunk even without the Rosebud scandal.

Exmormonism as a whole seems to have peaked, so there aren't many juicy interviews left for Mormon Stories.
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by pistolero »

drumdude wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 4:35 pm
Exmormonism as a whole seems to have peaked, so there aren't many juicy interviews left for Mormon Stories.
I think he said it was his best year ever in his state of the union address. Is there any way to validate his claims?

Just regarding exmormonism dynamics, is this a function of church policy, behaviour, etc... with some lag? Anecdotally, the 2015 policy change seemed to cause a rush to the exit? Prop 8 too?

It's my feeling that things drifted (negative trend) with Pres. Monson. Haven't been able to gauge seats on pews and Russell M. Nelson?

Anyway, I would assume that John Dehlin and exmormonism factors are dominated by external factors, largely out of John Dehlin's control. Happy to be corrected though?

I reckon he may have tapped into something by getting on Tiktok... eventhough I still don't really understand it.
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by jpatterson »

pistolero wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 7:28 pm
drumdude wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 4:35 pm
Exmormonism as a whole seems to have peaked, so there aren't many juicy interviews left for Mormon Stories.
I think he said it was his best year ever in his state of the union address. Is there any way to validate his claims?

Just regarding exmormonism dynamics, is this a function of church policy, behaviour, etc... with some lag? Anecdotally, the 2015 policy change seemed to cause a rush to the exit? Prop 8 too?

It's my feeling that things drifted (negative trend) with Pres. Monson. Haven't been able to gauge seats on pews and Russell M. Nelson?

Anyway, I would assume that John Dehlin and exmormonism factors are dominated by external factors, largely out of John Dehlin's control. Happy to be corrected though?

I reckon he may have tapped into something by getting on Tiktok... eventhough I still don't really understand it.
Open Stories Foundation/John released podcast stats and donation stats back in 2019 but I haven't seen anything similar since then. If podcast downloads are up/down that would be the best indication of how things are going.
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by pistolero »

jpatterson wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 9:13 pm
Open Stories Foundation/John released podcast stats and donation stats back in 2019 but I haven't seen anything similar since then. If podcast downloads are up/down that would be the best indication of how things are going.
In his recent State of the Union 2021 podcast at about 15mins in he says that they've had over 9 million views and downloads.

The 2019 data says 6.6 million downloads and views. [https://www.openstoriesfoundation.org/2 ... or-update/]

A decent increase? What I'd be interested in seeing is average downloads per episodes for the year. Also, it seems to be the case that some people only listen to the eye-catching episodes, you know like Tom Phillips Grant Palmer, Sandra Tanner, etc... so maybe the number of downloads for the most popular episode for that year.

No idea if there is any fudging or jiggery-pokery with these numbers. If I had a podcast, I know I'd look for ways to make me look more popular than I actually am - it's human nature.

He says at 23m10s that either 2019 or 2020 were his best year financially, he couldn't seem to remember - which is a bit bizarre. But I think the point that he wants to make is that the pandemic didn't shaft him completely.

Anyway, if you believe his own hype, Open Stories Foundation/MS is not going anywhere any time soon.
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by drumdude »

pistolero wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 10:58 pm
either 2019 or 2020 were his best year financially, he couldn't seem to remember
Yeah if you think he can't remember, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.
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Re: Long-lost Infants on Thrones smackdown of John Dehlin unearthed

Post by pistolero »

drumdude wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 11:21 pm
pistolero wrote:
Wed Jun 09, 2021 10:58 pm
either 2019 or 2020 were his best year financially, he couldn't seem to remember
Yeah if you think he can't remember, I've got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell you.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Check out the clip at the time code 23m10s(ish) - see if my interpretation of him being unclear reflects reality. Not sure why he's so flippant and seemingly vague. He should definitely pace himself during these videos, he speaks so fast. He makes me breathless... not in the same way that RFM makes me breathless, but that's another story.
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