The satellite teleconference was aired to mormon centers in several states, exhorting all their members to donate money and volunteer to help pass 8. They then bussed in over 7,000 out-of-state church members into California for door-to-door canvassing, distributing the Yes on 8 propaganda literature which propagated the outrageous lies the Yes on 8 campaign was spewing
Lies: 1) If prop 8 doesn't pass, your children will be forced to be taught about gay sex in public schools, even kids in kindergarten will have to "learn" about gay sex; 2) If prop 8 doesn't pass, churches will be forced to marry same sex couples in their church and if the church refuses they will lose their tax exempt status; 3) Obama and Biden are both against same sex marriage (they used Obama's image and his words "I'm against same-sex marriage on the home page of their website, in highly visible Internet ads--thanks to Google--in literature that was mass mailed to CA residents and left on doorsteps, and in robocalls that were set up to specifically target largely black communities (while it is true Obama and Biden oppose ssm on a personal level, both vehemently OPPOSED prop 8, which was never disclosed on any of the inflammatory "yes on 8" literature, website, ads or robocalls, which is intentionally misleading; 4) if prop 8 doesn't pass, their freedom of speech will be lost (to talk in churches, etc. about the sins/evils of homosexuality) and that they could be arrest for "hate speech."; 5) they used the images of young children who attended their lesbian teacher's wedding on their website, in tv ads and in their literature -- without the children's parents consent. Even after the parents' demanded they stop using their childrens' images, the Yes on 8 people refused.
These lies were not exclusive to the mormons, but rather to the "yes on 8" campaign organizers as a whole. The mormons were a large contributing factor, however, in helping to propagate these lies and half-truths, both through their disproportionately large donations and via volunteering in such large numbers.
At a glbt community meeting here in San Jose on Sunday, one lesbian couple related the story of their neighbors, a mormon family who, prior to prop 8, they had been very close friends with -- helping care for their children, teaching them how to garden, etc. When prop 8 hit, these same "close" neighbors put up their "yes on 8" signs in their yard. When the lesbian couple asked them "why?" and how could you do this to us, people you know and (they thought) cared about? The mormon parents said they hated to have to do it but they were COMMANDED to do so by their church leaders; they were also told they HAD to donate money to support prop 8 or else they could face recrimination from the church.
This isn't the first time mormons have actively campaigned against glbt Americans. In 2004, the LDS church in Utah played a significant role in passing Amendment 3, an initiative which changed the Utah constitution to accomplish the following:
Supporters of Amendment 3 said that the amendment would do three things:
1. Prevent state courts from making a ruling that current Utah marriage legislation unconstitutional.
2. Prevent state courts from forcing recognition of out-of-state marriages.
3. Prevent the creation of "counterfeit marriages", such as civil unions.
Amendment 3 passed by a 65.8% majority.
(the above is from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Constitutional_Amendment_3)
And apparently it's not just glbts the mormons have offended. Jewish survivors of the holocaust are not so happy with the LDS either. Apparently the LDS church has, since 1995, been adding the names of hundreds of thousands of dead Jewish holocaust victims to their official church membership list and geneological database and baptizing these dead Jews "by proxy":
Holocaust survivors halt talks with LDSChurch surprised at 'unilateral' end to baptism negotiations
By Elaine Jarvik
Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008 12:38 a.m. MST
snip: The survivors have complained that the church's practice of offering church membership to the deceased has allowed members to forward the names of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps for baptism by proxy, a practice that Michel believes alters their Jewishness.
"They tell me that my parents' Jewishness has not been altered, but ... 100 years from now, how will they be able to guarantee that my mother and father of blessed memory who lived as Jews and were slaughtered by Hitler for no other reason than they were Jews, will someday not be identified as Mormon victims of the Holocaust?" Michel said Monday.
Link:
http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705262108,00.html?pg=1
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