Estimates of donations by Mormons to Prop 8 are now up to $10 million, funding all of those lies and distortions on our airwaves. They have been fueling their volunteer base from here in California and across the country, using their church organizing networks to turn out volunteers to phone bank and knock doors. And Mark Jansson, a "Yes on 8" Executive Committee member and self-described LDS member, was one of four signers to the blackmail letter sent to Equality California donors. The Mormon Church is heart of the Prop 8 campaign, but for a long time the scope of their involvement was not known.
Well, now that it is out in the open and attention is being paid to it, the Mormon Church is squirming and at least in one case, backing down. They are simply not enjoying this attention. From today's SacBee:
The Mormon church, whose members have emerged as the leading backers of a ballot measure to end same-sex marriage in California, is scaling back its Utah campaign operation but will continue to support the initiative.
Church members will no longer be making phone calls from Utah to California voters, Kim Farah, a spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a prepared statement Friday.
Good. They shouldn't be doing it in the first place. Pressure on the Mormon Church to cease their funding of the lying, blackmailing Prop 8 campaign is working.
The Courage Campaign has been keeping the heat on with our petition to LDS President-Prophet Thomas Monson demanding that his church cease funding the Prop 8 campaign and all forms of advocacy for the ballot measure, which was referenced in the SacBee article. Flip it:
(oh and full disclosure: if you didn't know it already, I work for the Courage Campaign)
Opponents of the measure have criticized the church's involvement in the campaign.
The Courage Campaign, a liberal advocacy group, plans to deliver a petition to a Mormon church in Los Angeles next week demanding the church stop funding the Yes on 8 campaign.
But a spokesman for the church, which holds traditional marriage is a sacred institution ordained by God, said the church continues to support the measure despite curtailing its Utah phone bank operation.
We are not the only ones ruffling their feathers. Dante sure got under their skin with his Daily Kos post suggesting kossacks work on a distributed research project to look into the Mormon donors to Prop 8 and see if there is any dirt. The info is all out in the public domain and he was not doing anything illegal and unethical, but when the blackmail story broke the Prop 8 campaign tried to use it as an excuse.
His post was the subject of a story by the Salt Lake City ABC affiliate. It's really funny to watch the newscaster emphasize "damn" and "hell" as in Hell to Pay, the competition on Daily Kos that netted $150,000 for the No on Prop 8 campaign.
The lesson we should take from all of this is to keep it up. Keep up the focus on the Mormons. Keep exposing their lies and blackmail. Keep pointing out the hypocrisy of a religion funding lies and distortions. We can respect their freedom to choose not to conduct same-sex marriages, we only ask that they respect Californians to make up our own minds on whether we should take away the rights of loving couples to marry.
And if you haven't already, go sign the letter to the President-Prophet. We are going to deliver it on Tuesday and invite the press. The more names we have with us the better.
