When MormonLeaks first launched, I worked under the psuedonym “Privacy P. Pratt”, a play off influential Mormon Pioneer, Parley P. Pratt. These posts were originally published on a blog I kept at privacyppratt.com. The last post in this series was published here and revealed my involvement in the project.
The Back Story I am not the master mind behind MormonWikiLeaks. In fact, the idea was very far from being original. When the “November Policy” was made public by means of a leak, thousands began resigning in realization that they weren’t as privy to their religion’s policies and decisions as they had thought. Many leaks followed. Most weren’t incredibly noteworthy, but a few people began promoting themselves as a safe destination for leaked Mormon policy.
Recently an article entitled The Alarming Truth Behind Anti-Mormonism has made it’s way around the bloggernacle. It’s packed with jewel phrases such as “It is simply impossible to leave the Restored Gospel for another version of Christianity…” and “…most Atheists are unaware of where their belief system will lead society” (the author provides no data to support either claim). But I think the damage that is done by such an article be plainly seen in its title in the words “Anti-Mormonism”.
On January 13, 2017 Infants on Thrones released an interview with myself and Ryan McKnight, which you can find and listen to here. In this interview, when talking about WikiLeaks and responding to comparisons between them and MormonLeaks, I said at about 36:15 “WikiLeaks is dealing with information that is putting peoples' lives in danger”. What I wish I would have said is that WikiLeaks deals with information that could potentially put peoples' lives in danger.
Last week, Mike Norton, also known as NewNameNoah, released a video of 12 year old Savannah speaking in front of her Mormon congregation claiming that God loves her even though she is a lesbian and that he “did not mess up” by making her that way. After expressing these beautiful sentiments, the microphone was turned off and she was asked to sit down by the leaders of the congregation sitting behind her.
I’ve already written a bit about how Ryan McKnight and myself came in contact, and how MormonLeaks, as it is known today, came to be. In this post, I hope to provide a little more context. I knew in order to get credibility, MormonLeaks was going to have to set up their submission process correctly in a way they could guarantee the anonymity of their sources. I felt confident in my ability to do this, so I reached out to McKnight via Reddit with this message:
Privacy P. Pratt is a pseudonym which I assumed in October of 2016 to mask my involvement with the non-profit, pro-transparency media organization called MormonLeaks.1 The name comes from Parley P. Pratt one of the early leaders of the Mormon Church. As Privacy P. Pratt, I have handled the technical operations of MormonLeaks, as well as participated in the executive and administrative operations. I am here to address my anonymity and why I have decided to reveal my involvement now.