Box Turtle Bulletin

Marriage Amendments Tearing LDS Congregations Apart

According to a recent Salt Lake Tribune article, the church’s marriage campaigns are taking a heavy toll on local congregations.

The Mormon Church’s campaign to pass so-called “marriage amendments” in California and Arizona is the most vigorous political campaign they have ever waged. LDS leaders have tapped into every resource: their member’s income data from tithing rolls, phone trees, e-mail lists, and other appeals. With continued urging from among the highest prophets of the church, many LDS members consider their calls a directive from God and a test of their faith.

Those who disagree with the church’s stance on these propositions say that they are made to feel unwelcome in their wards. Some have avoided church services during the election campaign, and some have resigned, while others face excommunication. Others still are actively opposing their church’s activities because they believe the church’s active campaign mocks their church’s theology.

Even some of those who favor the ballot measures are put off by their church’s zeal:

“I do expect the church to face a high cost – both externally and internally – for its prominent part in the campaign,” said LDS sociologist and Proposition 8 supporter Armand Mauss of Irvine, Calif. He believes church leaders feel a “prophetic imperative” to speak out against gay marriage.

“The internal cost will consist of ruptured relationships between and among LDS members of opposing positions, sometimes by friends of long standing and equally strong records of church activity,” Mauss said. “In some cases, it will result in disaffection and disaffiliation from the church because of the ways in which their dissent has been handled by local leaders.”

Mormon Church Calls Off Out-of-State Phone Banking

Per the Salt Lake Tribune

On Sunday, leaders in several Mormon wards in Provo and Springville read a letter from Elder Donald J. Butler, an LDS Seventy over Utah South Area, saying that all those who were “called” to help with the initiative were “released” immediately.

LDS spokesman Kim Farah said the Coalition to Protect Marriage’s request for help prompted the initial plea for volunteers in California and later in Utah, but “the church has since determined that such phone calls are best handled by those who are registered California voters.”

LDS Elder: “Central Doctrine of Eternal Marriage” At Heart of Political Activities

Do you want any more evidence that a powerful religious minority is bent on imposing its theological doctrines on the state constitutions of Arizona and California? Look no further than the words of LDS Elder M. Russell Ballard.

Ballard is a member of the Mormon Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which means that the church accepts him as a prophet, seer, and revelator. This gives his words special meaning among church members. In a special satellite broadcast to the church faithful, Ballard was clear about what they were really trying to do:

“We know that it is not without controversy, yet let me be clear that at the heart of this issue is the central doctrine of eternal marriage and it’s place in our Father’s plan,” Ballard said.

The doctrine of Eternal Marriage is unique to Mormonism. An Eternal Marriage is one that is “sealed” in secret ceremonies in an LDS temple (a sealing, by the way, which can occur by proxy on behalf of deceased non-Mormon couples as well). Once sealed, the couple are permanently married on earth and in the afterlife in the Celestial Kingdom. The Celestial Kingdom itself is subdivided into three “heavens or degrees”, and only those who are sealed in eternal marriage in a temple while alive (or after death by proxy) will be permitted to enter into the highest degree of celestial kingdom. Once there, they will eventually become “exalted” and live “the kind of life God lives” — and some will even become gods themselves.

In yesterday’s hour long broadcast to churches in California, Utah, Hawaii and Idaho, church elders exhorted members to embark on a week-by-week strategy before the Nov. 4 election. In speaking of the church’s efforts to impose its theology onto state constitutions, Ballard reiterated, “What we’re about is the work of the Lord, and he will bless you for your involvement.”

Californians Against Hate: LDS Bankrolling CA, AZ Marriage Amendments

Californians Against Hate released figures yesterday that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS, aka the Mormons) have contributed $17.67 million (77%) to support passage of Proposition 8 in California. Additionally, the group reports that Mormons have contributed almost all of the $6.9 million to pass Proposition 102 in Arizona. The group did not give an exact figure for Arizona.

According to the Advocate:

[Fred] Karger said Californians Against Hate came up with the figures by cross-referencing donor information from the California secretary of state with Brigham Young University alumni lists, church memberships, and other personal documentation that could identify Mormon Church members. He said the surge in support has been an attempt to boost the church’s social standing among the greater religious community.

“For whatever reason, they’re trying to get some respect from other religions,” he told The Advocate Tuesday. “They’ve always been looked down upon by the Christians, the Catholics, and evangelicals.”

Success with the marriage amendment would give the church credibility, Karger said.

We are in a very tough fight against a formidable opponent. Please give as generously as you can today.

To the Woman Who Lives Across the Street and Watched Me Grow Up

I grew up across the street from a soft-hearted Mormon woman (and her late husband) in Ventura, CA. Back during the Prop 22 election she confessed to my mother her guilt and conflict because she felt a “yes” vote was a vote against a gay man down the street she knew personally.

Today I received a text message from my mom (she’s so hip) alerting me to a “yes on prop 8” sign that had appeared on the soft-hearted Mormon’s lawn.

I’ve never formally come out to her but I think the time has come to mail her a hand-written card:

With the upcoming vote on prop 8 I’m sending letters to people in my life who may not be aware people that I, and other people they care about are gay or lesbian. Under prop 8, I would no longer be treated as a full and equal citizen in the place I call home.

BYU Yanks Ex-Mormon Calendar Maker’s Diploma

Chad Hardy, the Las Vegas man who was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints because of his role as creator of a the calendar that featured shirtless Mormon missionaries, has now had his diploma yanked by Mormon-owned Brigham Young University.

Chad Hady had completed his last four units  for graduation in June, and he participated in graduation ceremonies on August 15. Now BYU is reneging:

A letter from BYU’s director of student academic and advisement services says Hardy’s graduation application is on “hold” and that he can reapply if he is “reinstated as a member of the church in good standing.”

I find it incredible that a major accredited university could withhold a diploma over church membership. How is this possible?

Mormon Leadership: You (and not I) Should Sacrifice

The Sacramento Bee has an article today about the sacrifices that members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have made so that they can take away the right to marry from same-sex couples.

Rick and Pam Patterson gave $50,000.

He drives a 10-year-old Honda Civic to his job at Intel. She is a stay-at home mom who makes most of the family meals and bakes her own bread. The couple, who have five sons between the ages of 3 and 12, live in a comfortable but modest three-bedroom home in Folsom.

David and Susan Nielson gave $35,000.

The couple will forgo a vacation for the next two years and make other sacrifices to pay for their donation, he said.

Yes, they are faithful members of their church. And while the couples deny that they were pressured to contribute, both couples did so after the June 29 letter came out from the First Presidency and the church leadership requesting that Mormons “do what you can”.

However, this sacrifice seems not to have extended to the leaders actually contributing from their own personal funds. A search of the contribution database listing all contributors of $100 or more yields:

• President and Prophet Thomas Monson – $0.00
• 1st Counselor Henry Eyring – $0.00
• 2nd Counselor Dieter Uchtdorf – $0.00
• Apostle Boyd Packer – $0.00
• Apostle L. Tom Perry – $0.00
• Apostle Russell Nelson – $0.00
• Apostle Dallin Oaks – $0.00
• Apostle M. Russell Ballard – $0.00
• Apostle Joseph Wirthlin – $0.00
• Apostle Richard Scott – $0.00
• Apostle Robert D. Hales – $0.00
• Apostle Jeffery Holland – $0.00
• Apostle David Bednar – $0.00
• Apostle Quentin Cook – $0.00
• Apostle C. Todd Christofferson – $0.00

Perhaps “our best efforts” means something different to the leaders than it does to the followers.

The Mormon Church’s Official Prop 8 Website

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has set up a website to provide inspiration to their members in their efforts to change the California State Constitution – through Proposition 8 – to be more in alignment with Mormon theology. Because Mormons have a unique understanding of The Divine Institution, their talking points are different than those for, say, an evangelical Christian or a Catholic.

At preservingmarriage.org, you can read a letter from the Prophet, check out an interview with Elders, listen to an Elder threaten young Mormons with a “decreasingly tolerant environment” from gays who “push at the edges of what is legally allowable”, read about the Divine Instition of Marriage and how the “course charted by Church leaders” is “the only course of safety for the Church and for the nation”.

The primary purpose of the site, though, is to provide young Mormons with a video to download to their personal websites or networking sites. It’s full of young faces repeating endlessly that they support Proposition 8 (though not much substance as to why).

What’s missing, however, is any reference to this being a Mormon video or that the pretty young people are all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Nor do they admit that their support for the amendment is based in their church’s theology and unique beliefs about the nature of marriage. As apostle M. Russell Ballard said in a church broadcast this week:

We know that it is not without controversy, yet let me be clear that at the heart of this issue is the central doctrine of eternal marriage and it’s place in our Father’s plan.

Nope, they just slap this on their MySpace without explanation.

How very sad that a church has to specialize in secrecy and deception in order to try and influence the voters of California. I’ve lost a lot of respect for that denomination for their dishonesty in this campaign.

Utah Mormons Ratchet Up Pro-8 Student Phone Banking

The Salt Lake Tribune reports on increased organized efforts to get students at Brigham Young to influence the vote in California.

But during a special satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City tonight to LDS chapels in Utah County as well as in California, LDS authorities are expected to ask Brigham Young University students and other Californians living in Utah to participate in phone trees in support of Proposition 8, which would define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.

A supporter of the initiative made a statement that reveals not only that this amendment is an attempt by the Mormon Church to influence elections but also that it seeks to do so deceptively.

“This is going to set a precedent,” said Kuder, who is in favor of the initiative. “The church has not been involved with politics in this way for a very long time. The church doesn’t want to make a statement in favor of Prop 8 but it wants members to be in favor.”

Mormons provide at least 40% of Prop 8 Funding

Mormons for Proposition 8 have analyzed the donations to Yes on 8 over $1,000 and found that the largest contributing group is members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

• Individual Donors, Mormon – 40.40% ($7,615,842.43)
• Individual Donors, Other* – 29.94% ($5,643,497.71)
  *Includes “probable” Mormons not yet confirmed.
• Non-Mormon Organizations – 29.66% ($5,592,015.24)

In other words, at least 57% of individual donations greater that $1,000 are from members of one denomination.

Yes on 8 has also selected as the face of the campaign one Richard Petersen, a Mormon law professor teaching at Pepperdine University.

(hat tip to Utah Reader and johnson)

Mormon Youth Group Mans Utah Phone Bank for Proposition 8

Students at Brigham Young University are being encouraged to campaign for California’s anti-gay marriage amendment, Proposition 8. (BYU News)

The International Voice for Youth club sponsored an assembly Thursday night to educate students about the possible effects of not passing Proposition 8 in November. After a speech by Lynn Wardle, a BYU law professor, the students got on their cell phones and started calling fellow students from California.

The Mormon youth group will continue to seek to influence the election in California.

The International Voice for Youth will host phone banks each week leading up to the election on Nov. 4. They will also be giving out information on voter registration, absentee voting and Proposition 8 at a booth in the Wilkinson Student Center each Monday and Thursday just outside the BYU Bookstore.

If the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continues their public activism, they run the risk of Proposition 8 becoming known as the Mormon Marriage Amendment. I think that is likely not to be advantageous to their marketing strategy.

LDS Member: “Church’s Stance Mocks Our Belief In Free Agency”

A website run by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, a.k.a. “Mormons”) opposed to anti-marriage initiatives has posted an interesting letter from the wife of a bishop’s first counselor condemning the church for “mingl[ing] religious influence with civil government.”

Amy Cox, of Payson, Utah, posted a letter to the website “Signing for Something,” in which she claims that the LDS church’s actions to impose its doctrinal beliefs on non-Mormons represents an interference on individuals’ “free agency.” According to LDS beliefs, infringing on an individual’s agency to determine the difference between good or evil (and to thus reap the benefits or consequences of those choices) can interfere with that individual’s “trial of faith,” which is an integral part of his or her “plan of salvation.”

(Caveat: This is how I read Wikipedia’s entry on the subject. I encourage hose who are more knowledgeable about LDS theology to clarify as necessary in the comments.)

Mrs. Cox, who describes herself as certified in “alternative Christ-centered emotional release therapy,” came to her current position after having worked with a lesbian LDS church member who had undergone counseling to change her sexual orientation at the behest of church leaders:

As I listened to her relate her experiences with these leaders, for which she was faithfully looking to for spiritual guidance, I became absolutely appalled at the abusive treatment that she was receiving in the name of God’s love. Their repeated promises given by the power of the priesthood, that if she would just prove faithful enough and abstain from acting on any of her natural inclinations, she would be blessed to overcome this “trial of her faith” and be able to marry a man and raise a family, have not been fulfilled.

As a result of this priesthood counsel which follows the teachings of the Church, her psyche has been severely damaged, and she has become more and more depressed with each failed effort. She was led to believe that what she was doing was not accepted as enough, that God’s love was conditional and He was withholding blessing her with her righteous desires because of her unworthiness.

This led Mrs. Cox to re-examine the Church’s stance on homosexuality as it relates to psychology, and she sought out more opportunities to talk with gays and lesbians. In doing so, she saw parallels to another dark chapter of LDS history — its now-renounced beliefs which once held that people with darker skins “were cursed and had been less valiant in the pre-existence”:

The teachings even went so far as the prophet Brigham Young stating that those who would mix seed with these people should be killed. It was also taught in the scriptures that their skins would become “white and delightsome” when they turned from their sinful ways, but I’ve yet to see that happen. Now thankfully, we distance ourselves from this bigotry and receive people of all races in full membership. These persecutions and teachings were false — the persecution and teachings regarding homosexuality are equally false, and the Church’s attempts to claim that homosexuality can be cured is as ridiculous as the possibility of a black man’s skin turning white.

Then Mrs. Cox turned to the Church’s stance toward LDS members who oppose the anti-marriage amendments now proposed for Florida, Arizona and California. Mrs. Cox described her husband as first counselor to their local bishop, and in that capacity he attends the Stake Bishopric Council each month:

Last week as my husband arrived, our Stake President (whose own brother is gay) referred to a letter signed by the First Presidency which stated the church’s position on Proposition 8. It was passed out to each bishop with instruction that if they hear of any member of their wards opposing the Church’s stance, they are to be reported to him. Our Stake President went on to state how there were people in our area who were collecting money to oppose the Proposition, and this was unacceptable.

Mrs. Cox also condemned the church’s action as it relates to non-LDS members who do not believe as they do, while recognizing the risk she is taking in speaking out:

I do not understand how the Brethren can justify taking such an active stance in government when it violates our own doctrine to not “mingle religious influence with civil government” (D&C 134:9). What sickens me the most is that the Church would use its power to not only influence members to vote for something that would take away the basic rights of those who most of which are not even affiliated with the Church nor believe as we do, but that in doing so they are now also infringing upon the rights of their own members by enforcing their stance on us with threats to those who in good conscience, do not approve. I am one of these latter members who is willing to take the risk of speaking out on something that mocks the Church’s claim of belief in free agency, and in doing so, may very well put my own membership in jeopardy.

[Hat tip: Nick Litersky]

Prop 8 Opponent Faces Possible Excommunication from LDS

Andrew Callahan, a member of the LDS Church in Hastings, Nebraska is facing excommunication over his web site opposing California’s Prop 8.

Callahan’s blog at Signing for Something features a statement that he says that all members of the LDS church have been taught: “We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government …” (Doctrine and Covenants 134:9).” But it appears that acting on that message may get Callahan in trouble with church leadership.

Callahan says he got a letter from his church stake leaders Monday night, which says, “…you are reported to have participated in conduct unbecoming a member of the church and have been in apostasy.” The LDS disciplinary hearing is tomorrow.

Update: The disciplinary hearing has now been put off until at least November, a move likely intended to keep this controversial issue out of limelight until after the elections.

Pro-Prop 8 LDS Leaders: “The Work Depends On Us”

Amid continuing reports of heavy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ involvement in anti-marriage campaigns in California, and Arizona, a Wiki website has released a document which provides further evidence that the nuts and bolts of the Prop 8 campaign in California is almost exclusively an LDS-driven effort.

The brief document, which was on document posted on Wikileaks earlier this week, appears to be brief notes for a meeting of LDS officials working to defeat California’s Prop 8. According to the document:

The brethren emphasized that there wasn’t much participation from non-LDS people. The work depends on us.

The document goes on to describe their strategy for placing yard signs — a strategy which experienced a serious hickup when LDS campaign leaders decided to outsource their signs to China. Those signs were due last Monday, but now won’t be expected for another couple of weeks.

According to the leaked document, the next phase in the campaign is the “Persuasion Phase”, which appears to include phone-banking:

We need about 20 people per zip code to call the “mushy middle” people. That will take about 5 hours per person. There will be two surges, one the end of Sept. or early Oct. and the other at the end of Oct. to the first of Nov.

The plan also describes poll monitoring to ensure their members show up to vote, and a voter registration drive using ward lists maintained by individual LDS churches.

The poster at Wikileaks describes the document as a handout to a small group of local LDS church leaders. It was emailed to at least two other people that the poster was aware of. The poster also notes that “producing the document publicly online could result in ecclesiastical punishment for the publisher.”

When marriage amendment battles started appearing in California and Arizona, it was assumed that evangelical churches would be carrying the load. While many of those churches continue to support these so-called “marriage amendments,” the real surprise has been the extent to which one single denomination has placed so much of its resources and financial muscle — as well as the direct involvement of that denomination’s leadership and organizational structure —  to impose its theological positions on the state.

As I said before, this should concern everyone who cherishes religious liberty in this country.

“Yes on Prop 8” Signs On A Slow Boat From China

The economy is sinking and people are losing their jobs across the country. What better time than now for proponents for California’s Prop 8 to outsource their one million “Yes on Prop 8” yard signs to China?

Those “Yes On Prop 8” signs were intended to miraculously appear on lawns all across California at 7:00 am on September 22 to give the appearance of a sudden “blossoming of support” (their words, oft repeated) for the initiative, according to plans devised by LDS backers of California’s “Yes on Prop 8” campaign. But a serious glitch in that plan means that those signs weren’t ready for last Monday’s launch.

Julia Rosen Calitics blog contacted Gena Downey, producer of the cult Mormon film “God’s Army,” who works on the “Yes on Prop 8” campaign. Downey responded with an email confirming that those million signs are “still in route from China” and aren’t expected for another couple of weeks. Rosen concludes:

So, the Yes campaign, rather than purchasing some good old fashioned union made in America lawn signs, they went to some cut rate producer in China who blew the delivery date by at least three weeks. What, they couldn’t afford traditional American signs?

That seems to have worked out well. Why does the Yes on 8 campaign hate America?

Outsourcing jobs to China seems like a very strange way to “protect families” in America.

[Hat tip: Nick Literski]