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Loading ...California to investigate Mormon Prop 8 donations
11.25.2008 10:26am EST
(San Francisco, California) California officials have begun an investigation into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to see if it broke the law during the campaign for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission said it wants to determine if the Church accurately described its role in the battle over Proposition 8.The Commission’s executive director, Roman Porter, said the investigation follows a complaint by Californians Against Hate which accuses the Mormon Church of failing to report the value of work it did to support Proposition 8.
Porter said that while the complaint merits further inquiry, it does not mean any wrongdoing by the Church has been determined.
The Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church was heavily involved in the campaign to pass Prop. 8. It encouraged its members to work to pass California’s Proposition 8 by volunteering their time and money for the campaign. Thousands of Mormons from across the country worked as grassroots volunteers.
The Church put an estimated $25 million into the battle to end gay marriage in California.
If the Commission finds the Church broke state election laws, it could be fined up to $5,000 per violation. The Commission also could file an additional civil lawsuit. Porter said, seeking remedies up to three times the amount that was misrepresented or misreported.
Since the November election, the Mormon Church has become a prime target of LGBT civil rights groups. There have been protests at Mormon churches in California; in Utah, a number of churches were vandalized; and hoax mailings containing a white powder were sent to church leaders in Salt Lake City.
Meanwhile, the California Supreme Court last week accepted three lawsuits seeking to nullify Proposition 8, which overruled the court’s decision in May legalizing gay marriage.
All three cases claim the measure abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change.
As is its custom when it takes up cases, the court elaborated little. However, the justices did say they want to address what effect, if any, a ruling upholding the amendment would have on the estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages that were sanctioned in California before Election Day.
The initiative’s opponents had also asked the court to grant a stay of the measure, which would have allowed gay marriages to begin again while the justices considered the cases. The court denied that request.
The justices directed Attorney General Jerry Brown and lawyers for the Yes on 8 campaign to submit arguments by Dec. 19 on why the ballot initiative should not be nullified. It said lawyers for the plaintiffs, who include same-sex couples who did not wed before the election, must respond before Jan. 5.
Oral arguments could be scheduled as early as March, but a ruling would not be likely for months after that.
YES! I thought that filing had merit. So glad to hear they will be investigating. Let the truth come out.
I do feel sorry for the cultish followers of Mormonism who allow themselves to blithely use their money and time to perpetrate the bigotry of the aged leadership…but they are doing it…just follow along.
Perhaps a few more will wake up and see they need to be thinking for themselves now.
The GLBT community should keep the pressure on to continue to investigate the LDS church. Everyone should file a complaint with the IRS until the truth is known. You can get everything you need at: http://lds501c3.wordpress.com/ If they want tax-exempt status they should stay the hell out of civil politics which we all know they did not!!!
The more I learn about the Mormon “religion” the more it seems like a freaky religious cult. Magic Underwear? Baptizing dead people and “conversions” of the dead?! WTF?! Not to mention the Big Love style polygamy. And doesn’t it strike other Christians as odd that they worship Joe Smith as a divine prophet of God (Correct me if I’m wrong but since they love to use the Bible to defend their discrimination against gays, doesn’t the Bible say that worshiping false idols before God is a big no no?). And thier views on African Americans could curl your toes. It’s all way FREAKY!
There has to be an investigation into this whole fiasco. However you want to look at it, it does smell of rotten underhandedness at the hands of the Church, whether it be Mormon or any other religious institution. This was a civil rights issue, the ruling to grant same-sex couples equal marriage rights was to correct an injustice in law. For the church to step in, with a bundle of cash to boot, to sway the masses against a minority has re-instated that injustice. It should be held then, that if the church wishes to participate in political issues, then the church should and must be held accountable for and forced to ante up civil taxes like every individual or business does now. With all the billions and billions of dollars churches have accumulated over the years by not paying taxes, no wonder they have money to blow by inciting hatred instead spending the money wisely on feeding starving people, contributing and working more to eliminate poverty by building homes for the poor.
Investigate all you want. The church did not “blow” any money or spend any for that matter. The only thing I read was that they reported making an in-kind donation of $2,078.97 to the coalition of faith organizations and conservative groups that sponsored Proposition 8. This consisted of travel costs for meetings.
I just read another article stating that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints “put an estimated $25 million into the battle to end gay marriage in California.”
Not true. The MEMBERS of the church voluntarily chose to donate money. I keep reading talk of the church having its tax exempt status revoked. Nonsense. Opponents may wish this to be the case, but it is not based on fact.
Let’s keep the arguments accurate.
One writer has said the Mormons “voluntarily” donated to the hate campaign against gays in CA. Voluntary when directives came from Salt Lake City to give money and time??? If anybody really believes all the money that poured into CA from the Mormon church was “voluntary” I’d like to offer that person a bargain on a couple of like new bridges! With food pantry shelves half empty across the country, let’s hope this same group will “voluntarily” come up with the cash to buy food to fill those shelves—THAT would be real evidence of Christianity!
Tolerant, legal semantics aside, for all practical purposes the members ARE the church. Sure they might hide like cowards behind the legality of a corporation, but without the members, they are just sitting in an empty room preaching to themselves. Get a clue.
Wayne,
The Mormons did not have polygamy for some time now and polygamy is against the law anyway.
As a former Mormon, I want people to understand that Mormons do in fact continue to believe in and practice polygamy, only not in this life. What does this mean? Mormons believe that marriages, when “sealed” in their temples, last for “time and all eternity,” to use the LDS phrase. This means that a temple marriage continues after death. While Mormons stopped marrying more than one woman to a man while they both live, they continue to allow one man to marry more than one woman in the temple, when the preceding wife has died. So a faithful Mormon who has been “sealed” to his wife, upon her death, is currently allowed to marry a new wife in the temple. In fact and for all theological and practical purposes, this man has two (or more) wives. Mormons pretend to be opposed to polygamy - and they are - if the spouses are all living. But they fervently believe it to be the higher order of marriage and suspended it only because it was against the law. They do allow it where the law can’t reach them, viz., in the afterlife. So for Mormons to claim they don’t believe in polygamy is disingenuous at best. If they didn’t believe in it, they would not allow second and more temple marriages. And they do.
the morons don’t practice polygamy PUBLICLY just as Elliot”No raincoat BJ” Sptizer PUBLICLY prosecuted prostitution as NY Attorney General. What u see isn’t always true or real. Lets not forget those child abuse protectors and enablers the Roman Catholic Bishops of CA who had their pedophiles er, priests(or whoever was running the gay butchershops they call churches)read their letter urging the faithful(ignorant sheep) to vote yes on prop 8.
No more Mr. Nice Gay!
I expect so many of you to use your anger and supposed bigotry against yourselves and direct it toward the Mormon church. How typical.
Mormons are now cooler in my book.
Yeah, and every other religion believes in the bible, too, and polygamy. What’s your point? You going to sit there and pretend like most christian churches believe the OT prophets to be immoral because they had more than one wife?
Thought not.