Testing one, two, three, testing one, two, three, this is radio free Mormon on the air broadcasting behind enemy lines.

We have some late breaking news courtesy of vice news agency regarding Tim Ballard and the reason that he had to step down as the president of Operation Underground Railroad a few months ago.

And maybe at least part of the reason that Elder Ballard saw fit last Friday in an unprecedented move to issue a news release, a statement by the church, two vice news denouncing Tim Ballard as morally unacceptable.

His behavior is morally unacceptable and alleging that Tim Ballard had in some way betrayed Elder Ballard by using his name in order to advance Tim Ballard's own purposes.

Now, today's date is September 18, 2023. There has been a new article that has been released by vice news with reporters Anna Marion and Tim Marchman, or is it Merlin? I'm sorry.

Anna Merlin and Tim Marchman and their headline is Tim Ballard's departure from Operation Underground Railroad followed sexual misconduct investigation.

And as you know, it's been a crazy weekend here at radio free Mormon and in Mormonism generally, because things have been appearing and disappearing.

First off, the first thing that appeared was a series of tweets, I had said on a prior podcast that it was Instagram was actually Glenn Beck's Twitter account where he made a very critical comment to the LDS church.

And that has since been taken down and replaced with a much softer and more generalized kind of tweet by Glenn Beck.

The second thing is that there was an article on the church's website a few years ago, very favorable, very glowing about Tim Ballard and Operation Underground Railroad that got taken down on Friday.

The same day as that public statement was issued. Now, that seems quite the coincidence. It seems a little bit too much coincidence to believe it's entirely coincidence.

The strange thing is that apparently on Saturday at one point, at least according to my sources, the article was put back up on the church website.

And now I'm finding that it's not there anymore again. So I'm not sure if it has been taken down, then put back up, then taken down again, or maybe it was never put up in the meantime.

But at any rate, as of 3 30 p.m. West Coast time on Monday, September 18, 2023, my best information is that article is gone from the church's website.

Now, I had mentioned in a prior podcast that the statement issued on behalf of Elder Ballard seemed very rushed, very thrown together. It wasn't very well crafted.

And in fact, I mean, that's probably an understatement. But in thinking about it, it occurred to me that in the vice news article itself, it said that vice news had sent a detailed request for comment to the LDS church.

So if it's a detailed request for comment, it's going to have bullet points, please respond to this, this, this, this, and this.

And I've got a feeling that some of those bullet points had to do with the allegations of sexual harassment against various women who were associated with Operation Underground Railroad.

I've got a feeling another one of those bullet points had to do with whether Elder Ballard knew that Tim Ballard was using the services of a female psychic named Janet Russ, and I think her name was

to contact the spirit of the long dead prophet Nephi who lived and maybe breathed around 600 BCE, and who's the first book of the Book of Mormon is even named after.

I think that was probably in there too, and I think there was too much in there and to make Elder Ballard and the church comfortable with being associated with Tim Ballard anymore.

So they rushed to put this statement together, slapped it together and gave it to vice news, because they knew vice news was going to be publishing their story on Friday, last Friday, which they get.

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