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Loading ...New Figures: Catholics, Evangelical groups outspent Mormons on Prop 8
02.05.2009 9:00am EST
(San Francisco, California) Newly released figures from the California secretary of state’s office show that the biggest contributor to the campaign to approve a ban on same-sex marriage in the state was the Knights of Columbus, the political arm of the Roman Catholic Church, which gave $1.275 million.
The conservative evangelical Focus on the Family, which fights LGBT issues across the country, gave $657,000 in money and services.The amounts vastly surpass the $189,000 in direct cash and compensated staff time from the Mormon church.
The new figures were turned over to the state weeks into an investigation by California’s Fair Political Practices Commission that institutional donors to ProtectMarriage, the umbrella group behind Proposition 8, had not reported the value of workers salaries and other expenses.
In November, Californians Against Hate filed a complaint with the Commission accusing the Church of Latter Day Saints of failing to report the value of work it did to support Prop 8. An investigation began in late November into the Mormon contributions and those of other groups.
Proposition 8 was approved by 52 percent of voters. Following passage of the proposition the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the vote. They were joined by additional suits by the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, the California Supreme Court said it would hear oral arguments in the case on March 5.
The lawsuits charge that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution’s core commitment to equality for everyone, by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group – lesbian and gay Californians.
They also say that Proposition 8 improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. The suits say that under the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.
California Attorney General Jerry Brown is also asking the Court to invalidate Proposition 8 on the ground that certain fundamental rights, including the right to marry, are inalienable and can not be put up for a popular vote.
I’d be willing to be that the Mormons donated more money per capita.
Why does the US government need to fund faith-based initiatives when the religious groups obviously have so much money of their own? Or is this just another case of giving money to the wealthy?
There is an obvious misconception at play here. Officially, as an organization, the mor(m)on church may only have admitted to an amount somewhat smaller than that officially recorded from the knights of columbus, etc. But what we all know is that the church of jesus christ of latter day bigots acted as a bully pulpit, exhorting it’s members to donate money and time, which they did in record numbers, to the level that monetarily, mor(m)ons account for the largest group of contributors even if their church didn’t. And besides, if we have to pick one group to represent the problem of religious interference in civil law while under the umbrella of tax free status, then it hardly matters which one we choose, and the morbots are definitely ripe for the picking, since they also represent the hypocrisy of the christian reich, who despise the mormons, but love their money and votes.
Besides, it is vastly clear that even this stupid announcement that they spent 180,000 is a lie, they spent more than 18 million on just ads, ad time, and satellite broadcasts and phone banking. Not to mention canvassing. All done by volunteers and free of charge to the prop 8 campaign.
As Pauliji said, this is an extremely misleading article. The direct contributions by the tax-sheltered religious organizations pale in comparison to the power of these tax-sheltered to mobilize funding, volunteer help, and votes. The vast majority of the dollar contributions were solicited by the religious organizations but paid directly to the PAC’s by the church members.
So, essentially… all the usual cults are responsible… how NOT surprising. Hatred and division in “the name of God”. What a bunch of sick low-lifes.
This story is very misleading. No one said that the Mormon Church as an institution donated more than the Catholic Church. The charge is that Mormons (i.e., members of the Mormon Church) gave more than members of other religions. This seems to be borne out by the disproportionate number of donations from Utah, Idaho, and Nevada, and by large donations from prominent Mormons. I don’t think Catholics should get a pass, but the Mormons mobilized far more aggressively to get their members to donate money to pass Proposition 8 than any other group.
well the Catholics what a surprise stop gay marriage and pass the altar boy
This article SUCKS BIG TIME!
How about members of a church, not the church itself? That still leaves the mormons on top. They gave 25,000,000.00. Thats 70% of this damn initiative of hate. So before you start screaming bloody murder to the “knights” you need to check your facts and stop writing misleading posts. I bet you must have some mormon rea$on$ to post crap like this.
Awesome! When the Supreme Court of CA throws out Prop 8, all that money will have been a complete waste.
You are kidding right? After all the protests over the Mormon church , turns out the evangelicals and catholics hate us more?.I don’t know what to say anymore.
The headline is very misleading. It makes it sounds as if ‘Mormons’ were outspent when you’re really talking about investment by the church itself. It has been widely and repeatedly reported that members of the Mormon church contributed tens of millions – at the instruction of the church. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, but your lead should be clearer.
It is high time we end the religious tax exemption which forces all of us through our higher taxes to fund hate and bigotry. Write your representatives!
It is also time to EMBARRASS the sheeple into not giving money to these cults. Here in Mass there is a lively debate going on about whether or not to give to the annual catholic appeal (this state being almost completely catholic, another embarrassment). People are not giving out of fead their money is used to house and hide abusive priests. I plan to also point out their money is channeled to the Knights to fund bigotry.
Lastly we need to instruct Obama that conintuing the horrible office of faith based funding is ridiculous, illegal and not something we support. The groups receiving money are actually petitioning the administration to allow them to use the money to discriminate! We is my tax money going to these evil bigots?
The issue here is the STUPID people that give money to religion. I’m sorry if you think your religion isn’t bad…I still put you in the same category. Do not fund the lie that religion is!
We should all be speaking out against funding hate and it starts each sunday in the pews.
Give to a secular charity instead.
Let me get this straight. All the noise over mormons and they are in fact the lesser evil? Should we now go after the Catholics like we did mormons?. Just asking…….
Angelo & Jose: What are you missing here. Members of the Mormon church contributed 70% of the funding for Prop 8. Unlike the Catholics and other church groups, the Mormon Cult has a firm belief system that when their “prophet” tells them to do something they don’t question it – they just blindly follow…and their church told them (at risk to their standing in the church) to give all the money and time they could to pass this hate. Since they are not official representatives of the church, they don’t count that 70% as coming from the Mormon church but the reality is, that unlike some other cults (e.g. catholics, evangelicals..oh hell…all religions)..the Mormons are deeply driven fanatics of the worst kind. We shouldn’t let anyone off the hook, but the anger and protests towards one of the most powerful, rich, and GROWING churches aka – the Mormon (LDS) was rightfully directed and raises awareness about their hypocrisy, lies, and bigotry!
>Let me get this straight. All the noise over mormons and they are in fact the lesser evil? Should we now go after the Catholics like we did mormons?. Just asking…….
I don’t think we should “go after” anyone; it’s more about defending ourselves and doing what’s right/effective. Also, I agree with those folks who posted comments about these three being the “usual suspects” when it comes to fighting gay rights. We aren’t learning anything new, here.
Also, depending on where you are in the USA, one of these three will take the lead. For example, in MA, we did have a Mormon governor who was fighting us hard, but I’d bet it was the Catholics who spent the most time and money fighting us. In other parts of the country, I could see the evangelicals taking the lead.
But it’s the same story, just a different organization taking the point position. It’s also the same principle (a reasonable and fair separation of church and state).