Box Turtle Bulletin

One-Third of “Yes for Prop 102” Contributions Come from Mesa, Arizona

That’s right. As an update to our earlier report, further analysis of the contributors of at least $10,000 to the “yes” campain for Arizona’s Prop 102 shows that 70 out of 190 — more than a third — come from Mesa, Arizona. This includes three of the four $100,000 individual contributions.

Mesa just happens to be the home of Arizona’s oldest LDS temple.

Mormons and California’s Prop 8

We noted that a significant percentage of the supporters of Arizona’s Prop 102 are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons).

Well, according to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, that is also the case with California’s anti-marriage proposition.

The Web site, Mormonsfor8.com, tracks contributions to ProtectMarriage.com daily and tries to determine whether donors are LDS by scouring the Internet and asking visitors to the site to help identify any Mormon donors.

So far, the Web site has determined that about a third of ProtectMarriage.com’s donors are LDS, with their contributions totaling close to $5 million.

“If we could identify every Mormon, I think that probably 85 to 90 percent of the donors would be Mormon,” said Cedar City resident Nadine Hansen, creator of Mormonsfor8.com. A member of the church herself and a former Californian, she considers the site to be informational and neutral on the issue of Prop. 8.

Hansen may think that it is a selling point that Mormons are bankrolling Prop 8. But I believe that anti-Mormon sentiment in California is strong – especially among those inclined to support the amendment – and tying the campaign too closely to the church could result in a strong rejection of the proposition by the voters.

Mormons and Arizona’s Prop 102

A huge dust-up exploded on the front page of the Arizona Daily Star this morning. According to the Star, Kyrsten Sinema, campaign chair for Arizona Together, characterized Proposition 102 as a “mostly Mormon-backed attempt to rectify what it calls a ‘polygamy problem’ in the eyes of voters”:

The opponents’ argument against the ballot measure also rests on convincing voters that Mormons and other religious groups are seeking to “impose their views on people.”
…

Sinema said the ballot measure is a reflection of the Mormon church “working hard to convince the public that they are mainstream.” She said her background, being raised Mormon in Tucson, gives her the credibility to make the charge.

“I don’t think Arizonans are interested in having the Mormon religion dictate public policy to them,” Sinema said.

Sinema contends that at least three-quarters of the individual donors to the campaign are with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based on her group having Googled donor names along with “LDS” or “Mormon.”

While that method of verifying the religion of donors may be questionable, Sinema points to top backers with ties to the Mormon church: $100,000 from philanthropists Rex and Ruth Maughan, and $40,000 from Kristen Cowley, an organizer of the LDS Easter pageant.

Last June, just as the Arizona Legislature voted to place Prop 102 on the ballot, the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) sent a letter to California churchesto be read during Sunday services which asked its members to “do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time.” I have it on good authority from Mormon colleagues that a similar campaign has been underway in Arizona since July.

Proponents of Prop 102 charge that questioning the LDS’s heavy involvement in the marriage battle in Arizona amounts to bigotry:

Michele Baer, spokeswoman for the campaign pushing the amendment, calls the focus on
Mormons a “political scare tactic from the opposition.”

But Baer — herself a Mormon singer — could not explain why voters would be scared of such involvement by Mormons.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m just saying that there is such broad-based support across all political, religious and ethnic backgrounds that support this proposition.”

And Baer wouldn’t comment on where the bulk of the funding is coming from, calling that “campaign strategy.”

“I can’t share,” she said. “They can look at public records.”

It certainly is a matter of public record. A look at the Arizona Secretary of State’s web site reveals that “Yes For Marriage” collected some 190 contributions of $10,000 or higher. Four individuals contributed $100,000, 6 contributed $50,000, and 25 contributed between $20,000 and $50,000. The site, of course, does not list religious affiliation, so it’s difficult to know how many of these contributors are LDS members.

Does anyone have time to google 191 names?

But there is this interesting fact: of the 190 contributions of $10,000 or higher, 70 came from Mesa Arizona — home to Arizona’s oldest LDS Temple and a very significant Mormon population. Mesa contributors include three of the four $100,000 contributors. In fact, the temple is located on a street named for the family of one of those $100,000 contributors — David and Nancy LeSueur.

I fully expect this line of questioning to be very controversial. My email inbox is already full about this. But I do think it is newsworthy that one religious denomination appears to be bankrolling a serious public policy initiative under the guise of a broad-based grass-roots organization. If that doesn’t send a chill down the spines of everyone who cherishes religious liberty, I don’t know what does.

The campaign to defeat Prop 102 is desparately outfunded. We’re struggling to afford radio ads, while the “Yes” side already has ads on television. Please give today, whatever you can.

[Updated at 7:20 PM PDT to include additional information about Mesa, Arizona contributors]

LDS Members to Phone and Walk For California’s Prop 8

The following letter will be read to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, a.k.a Mormons) in San Francisco this morning. We don’t know if it will be read in wards and stakes elsewhere in California.

DO NOT READ, COMMENT ON IN SACRAMENT MEETINGS, OR PRINT IN WEEKLY PROGRAMS:

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING POINTS IN RELIEF SOCIETY AND PRIESTHOOD OPENING EXERCISES THIS SUNDAY, AUGUST 10, ONLY.

1. The First Presidency’s letter dated June 20, 2008, to all Church members in California states, “we ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time…”

2. In connection with the Proposition 8 campaign’s grassroots efforts, the supporting coalition, of which the Church is a member, will hold three walk/phone days to help generate voter support on August 16, 23 and September 6. We invite everyone who can do so to please participate either by “walking” that is, visiting homes door to door in assigned neighborhoods, or by phoning neighbors in specific assigned neighborhoods, for three hours each of these three days.

3. Church members who have been asked to help with the campaign will be calling you at your homes to officially ask you to help and give you further information about where and what time to meet this Saturday

4. They will also ask you to bring a friend from another faith to assist.

We, as a Bishopric, ask you to please participate in this important endeavor. The First Presidency also stated that “our best efforts are required to preserve the sacred institution of marriage.”

Family: It’s about time!

Sci-Fi Writer Advocates Overthrow of Government If Prop 8 Fails

Do you think shootings in Knoxville are a one-time thing? Science fiction author Orson Scott Card wants to take it up several notches if California’s Proposition 8 fails.

In an astonishingly paranoid and incoherent op-ed appearing in the July 24 Mormon Times, Card zig-zags from one point to the next, somehow drawing in property rights, the color of grey and the properties of asphalt before he’s finally is able to get around to his point, which apparently is this:

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Card is a very well-regarded science fiction writer. His novel Ender’s Game and its sequel Speaker for the Dead both won the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award, making Card the first author to win both of science fiction’s top prizes in two consecutive years. This makes this rambling screed all the more remarkable. It’s not only abysmally constructed logic, but it’s horribly written.

But at least he’s consistent. His manifesto from 2004 was much longer and even more rambling. And that one is a mere reflection of what he wrote in 1990:

Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.

Since I’m not much of a science fiction fan, I’ve never read his books. I don’t know what kind of world he conjures in his works of fiction. All I know is that what he’s trying to conjure in the real world is far darker than anything I’ve seen in quite a while.

[Hat tips: Nick Literski and Jody Wheeler]

Mission Impossible

Chad Hardy, the creator of a the calendar that featured shirtless Mormon missionaries was excommunicated following a disciplinary meeting with LDS church leaders in Las Vegas.

The “Men On A Mission” calendar includes pictures of 12 returned Mormon missionaries. The men also were photographed in traditional missionary garb, as well as in shirtless poses. Nearly 10,000 copies have been sold. Hardy, 31, described the project as an exercise of breaking down stereotypes:

“The project is about stepping outside the stereotypes and stepping outside of the image,” Hardy said. “Not everybody fits the image and I let them know we’re not trying to portray an image for the entire church.”

Some may argue that a calendar like this would be a good recruiting too, but the church didn’t see it that way. Some of the 12 models have also been called to disciplinary meetings, although none reportedly have punished.

Chad Hardy said he doesn’t hold a grudge against the church. “I felt like I spoke my truth. Bottom-line, they still felt the calendar is inappropriate and not the image that the church wants to have.”

LDS Battle Plan for California Anti-Marriage Amendment

The message below, by public relations leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, a.k.a “the Mormons”), was sent to Orange County LDS Public Affairs personnel and other church leaders in California.

A brief introduction of some the names mentioned below is in order. Elders Russell M. Ballard, Quentin L. Cook, and Dallin H. Oaks are members of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the second highest presiding group under the direction of the First Presidency. Elder Lance B. Wickman is a member of that church’s First Quorum of the Seventy, a leadership group beneath the Quorum of the Twelve. L. Whitney Clayton is also a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy as well as the Presidency of the Seventy.

To: All OC Public Affairs Personnel
Cc: Other Interested Persons

By now many of you serving in Public Affairs may have been invited by your Stake Presidency to join other stake priesthood and auxiliary leaders in attending a special meeting. That was to discuss points that originated last Sunday, June 29, with a historic live interactive telecast emanating from SLC among Elders Ballard, Cook, Wickman and Clayton with CA Stake Presidents.

We have been asked to study out the above issue -– starting with the First Presidency letter that was read in Church last Sunday and the Proclamation on the Family. [That letter is available here (PDF: 1,08KB/2 pages) — ed.] You should all have copies of these items. As the year goes on, Public Affairs is apt to get ever more involved, under proper Priesthood direction. This will be especially true after Labor Day, when getting out the vote will be crucial. Meanwhile we are asked to use “our best efforts” and to do “all we can” to support this initiative with both our “means and time.”

To help you get prepared, here are some pertinent materials I have gathered on this issue, for your summer reading.

1. In Re Marriage Cases. See attached PDF summary of these consolidated cases, as issued by the Cal Sup. Ct. on 5-15-08. The majority decision is 121 pages long plus concurring and dissenting opinions. Essentially, the court has determined that any classification based on sexual orientation is a “suspect classification” that requires “strict scrutiny” under the “equal protection” clause of the CA Constitution. It also found that the CA Constitution has granted a “fundamental right to marry.” In 1948, that enabled the court invalidate statutory restrictions on interracial marriage. On these grounds, the court then proceeded to invalidate the existing statutory restrictions on same-gender marriages that were passed as Proposition 22 in 2000.

2. The Protectmarriage.com website. This is the key website of the central coalition of churches and other organizations that have been promoting what is now Prop. 8 for over a year. You will first see a list of member organizations and sponsoring individuals belonging to this coalition. Also see links on the left-hand side for “FAQS” and some good talking points under “Why it is needed.”

3. LDS.org Website. See this long but exceptionally important and well articulated 2007 interview by Public Affairs with Elders Dallin H. Oaks and Lance B. Wickman on “Same-Gender Attraction.” It is at: http://newsroom.lds.org/ ldsnewsroom/ eng/ public-issues/ same-gender-attraction

4. Meridian Magazine. “What difference will same-gender marriage make to you?” See this link: http://www.ldsmag.com/ familyleadernetwork/ 080627marriage.html Also see http://www.ldsmag.com/ familyleadernetwork/ 080619ignore.html These articles explore some of the possibly unintended consequences of this recent Cal. Supreme Court decision.

5. NB Stake Talking Points. See attached PDF with some key talking points created by my own Newport Beach Stake President Weatherford Clayton. More official talking points will are being prepared and will be provided through proper channels by LDS Church HQ in Salt Lake City.

6. Church News Article. From 2004 issue on the benefits of families raised within male-female marriages

HISPANICS AGAINST PROP 8. See first email attached above.
HISPANICS WHO SUPPORT IT. See email #3 attached above.

As the June 20th First Presidency letter said, more information will be made available to you from time to time through local priesthood channels.

You may also be aware that the new Managing Director of LDS Public Affairs in SLC will be Michael Otterson. He has been serving as assistant to Bruce Olsen and is originally from Australia. Brother Olsen will be the new San Diego Temple President.

Most sincerely,
Joseph I. Bentley, Director
Orange County Public Affairs
[Personal contact information redacted — ed.]

[Hat tip: Nick Literski]

Mormons Being Given Political Advice From the Pulpit

The First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) sent a letter on Friday to all Mormon churches in California with instructions to read the leader during Sunday services on June 29. This letter (PDF: 1,08KB/2 pages) offers the church’s full support to amend the constitution to forcibly divorce more than 2,000 married California couples, and asks its members to “do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time.”

Meanwhile, Focus On the Family reportedly has already donated $250,000 to try to break up these families in November.

Mormon Leaders To Meet With Gay Group

Last summer we noted that the leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) had issued a statement which appeared to represent an small, incremental improvement on the church’s stance towards homosexuality. Now we learn that Mormon church officials have agreed to meet with leaders of Affirmation, a gay Mormon support group.

Affirmation had repeatedly tried to meet with church leaders. Their last invitation to meet was turned down last August. Then in February, just three days after Thomas S. Monson was named church president following Gordon B. Hinkley’s death, Affirmation invited Monson to meet. Monson accepted the invitation for an August meeting.

Among the specifics Affirmation wants to address: the historical treatment of gays by the church, including recommendations for aversion therapies to “cure” homosexuality; recommendations for more effective counseling methods; ways to avoid family break-ups; and a change in the honor code at church-owned Brigham Young University that can result in expulsion for sexually active gay students. The same standard applies to straight students.

“None of this requires a change in doctrine,” said [Affirmation assistant executive director Dave] Melson. “They’re good for both gays and the church.”

Melson added, “We would like to start a dialogue, even if it isn’t immediately fruitful.”

The church has come under fire as gay members have come forward with allegations that they were subjected to electric shock aversion therapy at the behest of their spiritual leaders. Playwright John Cameron used his own experience with electric shock aversion therapy as the basis for his play, “14” (for the number of men in an LDS study) which debuted at the University of Iowa in February:

His harrowing, powerful play, “14,” was inspired by his experience undergoing electric shock treatment in a 1976 research study at BYU. As a college student, Cameron volunteered for the experiment, conducted by then BYU-graduate student Max Ford McBride, hoping it would alter his same-sex attraction. Instead, the psychological and emotional wounds nearly crippled him, once leading him to contemplate suicide.

Church leaders acknowledge that abusive therapies were deployed by the church in the past, but contend that they have been discontinued. Leaders also say that they will accept no responsibility for these treatments, even though gay Mormons were “prescribed” these treatments by church leaders.

Affirmation was started by Stephan Zakharias in 1977 after two friends of his committed suicide after undergoing electric shock therapy experiments administered by BYU’s Psychology Department.

Father of Ex-Gay Rants NARTHisms in Utah

A while back, Belinda Jensen, the president of the American Fork High School PTSA in Utah became impressed with Standard of Liberty, an LDS-oriented anti-gay organization. So she invited the group to make a presentation.

Standard of Liberty, and it’s co-founder Stephen Graham, are passionate, but not particularly accurate or logical.

Q: You say homosexuality is physically harmful. How?

A: Homosexual sex (sodomy), causes chronic illnesses and life-threatening disease (HIV/AIDS), shortening life by an average of 20 years. The human body is simply not made for this behavior. In addition, adopting the “gay” identity often masks dangerous psychological problems that need attention.

Q: Doesn’t heterosexual sex carry the same physical risks as homosexual sex?

A: No, none, if there is abstinence before marriage, and fidelity and healthy, normal sexual intercourse in marriage.

Because, of course, he thinks fidelity is by definition missing from gay relationships.

And my favorites:

Q: Should even those privately struggling with SSA, who have not “acted out,” be chastened, offered help and correction, and held accountable by the church?

A: Yes. The church should be concerned with the person’s soul. People with this problem have become involved in perverse and sinful lust to the detriment of their eternal salvation.

and

Q: How many really change from unwanted homosexuality?

A: A new study reports a 38% success rate. An additional 29% had made progress and were committed to continuing their efforts. That’s a combined total of 77% experiencing success. (Jones and Yarhouse, 2007) In the mental heath profession, this rate of success is considered very high.

You may recall that the Jones and Yarhouse study revealed little to no statistically measurable change in orientation in the prospective sample. The much touted “successes” were either in recollection (which again were quite small) or were those who had decided to no longer call themselves “gay”. However, they still identified their orientation as homosexual (“I’m not gay but my attractions are”).

In short, the Jones and Yarhouse study was funded and fully supported by Exodus and conducted by two researchers who were avid supporters of ex-gay ministries. They wanted to study 300 participants, but after more than a year, they could only find 57 willing to participate. They then changed the rules for acceptance in order to increase the total to 98. After following this sample for 4 years, 25 dropped out. Of the remainder, only 11 reported “satisfactory, if not uncomplicated, heterosexual adjustment.” Another 17 decided that a lifetime of celibacy was good enough.

But for some reason Jensen thought that Stephen Graham had just the presentation that she wanted for the Parents, Teachers and Students Association. The principle of the High School was not so convinced and canceled Graham’s presentation.

Undeterred, Graham shifted the forum to a local library. In his speech his anti-gay activist motivations became clear.

Standard of Liberty co-founder Stephen Graham began with an account of how his son overcame gay tendencies after counseling, then screened individual film segments detailing the “gay agenda,” “gay demands” and “gay agenda in schools.”

Graham relied heavily on NARTH materials:

Graham presented statistics from www.narth.com, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. Some of the most common concerns for gay men, he said, include HIV/AIDS, marijuana, Ecstasy, amphetamines, sexually transmitted diseases, suicide, heart disease, anorexia, anal warts and anal cancers.

“These things do occur in normal population, but not nearly at the rate as in people troubled with homosexuality,” he said.

Along with some unidentified 1993 video, Julie Harren-Hamilton’s 2006 DVD, Homosexuality 101, starring Alan Chambers, Julie Harren, Mike Ensley, Christine Sneeringer, and Jack Harren, was featured both on his site and in his speech.

Various representatives from the Utah Pride Center were at the presentation to counter Graham’s propaganda.

The Utah Pride Center will hold another meeting to offer information on resources for parents and youths at the library at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9.

Not Anti-Gay Enough to be a Mormon

Peter Danzig isn’t gay – he’s a happily hetero husband and father of three. Nor is he an advocate for gay rights. And Danzig and his wife, Mary, were involved in their church, participating in the LDS Orchestra.

But Peter has been driven from the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints because of his position on homosexuality.

According to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, Danzig’s crime was writing a letter to the editor of the Tribune in support of Jeffrey Nielsen, a BYU adjunct professor who lost his job for publicly arguing that the LDS Church should not support an anti-gay marriage amendment.

In his letter, Danzig said that he was appalled at Neilson’s summary dismissal and at the Church’s efforts to have members write in support of an amendment that Danzig found “contrary to the Constitution and to the gospel of Christ.” He said:

I wish to express to Jeffrey Nielsen that I admire his courage and that I stand with him. I hope that rank-and-file members of the church as well as members of the lay clergy who also find this troubling will have the courage to step forward and let themselves be known. To do anything else would be to hide in the shadow of an injustice.

Peter and his wife were questioned and challenged and finally resigned the church rather than be excommunicated. Those not raised Mormon may not recognize the depth of anguish it can cause to be cut off from the church.

While the Church refuses to comment on the particulars of the story, they dispute Danzig’s tale.

“There is room in the [LDS] Church for honest disagreement regarding church positions,” LDS Spokesman Scott Trotter said. “Disagreement on doctrine only becomes an issue when a church member acts in open opposition to the church or its leaders.”

Disagreement on doctrine?

Support of civil legislation to deny the functions of the state to gay persons is a matter of doctrine?

Bill Keller’s Faulty Powers of Prognostication

I have to admit that I don’t now much about Rev. Bill Keller, but lately I’ve found him to be quite amusing. (Sometimes it does a soul better to be amused than constantly outraged.) Yesterday, we reported on an apparently retracted press release that Keller issued via Christian Newswire in which he pretended to know what Mitt Romney was going to say this morning.

Well imagine the déjà v I experienced today when this press release bounced into my inbox at 12:37 EST. Just in case that one disappears, here’s a screen capture (Click on the image to see it full-size):

And compare that to yesterday’s withdrawn press release:

It looks like all that Keller did was take yesterday’s press release and “corrected” it. It turns out he had to make quite a few corrections — so many that maybe his strikeout of his own self-description as an “expert” may have been a remarkable moment of candor. Anyway, I’m guessing his markups looked something like this, with italics representing his additions:

Expert Guest/Interview Opportunity: ‘Romney’s Speech Nothing but a Lie,’ Says Evangelical Leader Bill Keller, Who Coined the Infamous ‘A Vote for Romney is a Vote for Satan’ Slogan

ST. PETERSBURG, Fl., Dec. 5  6/Christian Newswire/ — Bill Keller, founder of www.liveprayer.com – the first national Christian leader to call into question Mitt Romney’s Mormon background with his now infamous “A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan” message – is predicting calling Romney’s upcoming speech on Thursday will be “Nothing but a big lie.” [sic – he forgot to strike out “will be”]

So certain is Keller, who sends out a daily devotional to over 2.4 million opt-in subscribers worldwide, that he has pre-written his devotional for Thursday morning critiquing critiqued Romney’s speech as deceptive and misleading.

Keller states that if Romney wanted to be honest, he would be giving have given his speech in at the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, rather than at the George Bush Presidential Library in Houston College Station, Texas. Keller says he is certain Romney will have his wife and five children with him while he gives his speach, and his delivery will be peppered said Romney continues to deceive and mislead people with a steady dose of words such as “God,” “Jesus,” and “The Bible,” even though the god and Jesus of Mormon theology is not the same as the God and Jesus of the Holy Bible. In fact, says Keller, Mormons believe the bible is a flawed and incomplete book.

In the speech, Romney stated that “he believed Jesus to be the Son of God,” failing to mention that according to his churches theology, Jesus is also the spirit brother of Lucifer and NOT and a created being, NOT DEITY, the key tenet of the Christian faith.

Keller concludes that this upcoming speech will simply be is simply Romney’s most recent attempt to try to deceive people into thinking he is a Christian, when in fact Mormon theology that he refused to address is totally inconsistent with biblical Christianity.

“In the end, Romney will try to demonize anyone who has the guts to hold him accountable for his deception, calling them religions bigots and other names,” says Keller. “But I refuse to be silenced since, for me, this is not – and never has been – about politics. It’s about the eternal souls of men who will be lost if they follow the false teachings of a Mormon cult.”

The Last Acceptable Bigotry?

Gary Cass used to be the Executive Director of D. James Kennedy’s Center for Reclaiming America. Now he has founded a new organization he calls the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. His latest press release from Christian Newswire touting his new book, Christian Bashing and the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, carries the title:

Christian Bashing: The Last Acceptable Bigotry

As you can imagine, I would beg to differ. I suspect that in this campaign season, GOP presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney might have a thing to say about it too. Here’s another press release from the Christian Newswire earlier today:

Expert Guest/ Interview Opportunity: ‘Romney’s Speech Nothing But a Lie,’ Says Evangelical Leader Bill Keller, Who Coined the Infamous ‘A Vote for Romney Is a Vote for Satan’ Slogan

I would normally link to that press release, but it appears to have gone missing from the Christian Newswire’s web site. Here’s a screen shot though in case anyone’s interested. Just click on the image to see it full size.

No, I’m afraid there’s plenty of bigotry to go around.

Here’s the text of the press release:

Expert Guest/ Interview Opportunity: ‘Romney’s Speech Nothing But a Lie,’ Says Evangelical Leader Bill Keller, Who Coined the Infamous ‘A Vote for Romney Is a Vote for Satan’ Slogan

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Dec. 5 /Christian Newswire/ — Bill Keller, founder of www.liveprayer.com – the first national Christian leader to call into question Mitt Romney’s Mormon background with his now infamous “A vote for Romney is a vote for Satan” message – is predicting Romney’s upcoming speech on Thursday will be “Nothing but a big lie.”

So certain is Keller, who sends out a daily devotional to over 2.4 million opt-in subscribers worldwide, that he has pre-written his devotional for Thursday morning critiquing Romney’s speech as deceptive and misleading.

Keller states that if Romney were planning to be honest, he would be giving his speech in the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, rather than at the George Bush Presidential Library in Houston, Texas. Keller says he is certain Romney will have his wife and five children with him while he gives the speech, and that his delivery will be peppered with a steady dose of words such as “God,” “Jesus,” and “The Bible,” even though the god and Jesus of Mormon theology is not the same as the God and Jesus of the Holy Bible. In fact, says Keller, Mormons believe the bible is a flawed and incomplete book.

Keller concludes that this upcoming speech will simply be Romney’s most recent attempt to try to deceive people into thinking he is a Christian, when in fact Mormon theology is totally inconsistent with biblical Christianity.

“In the end, Romney will try to demonize anyone who has the guts to hold him accountable for his deception, calling them religions bigots and other names,” says Keller. “But I refuse to be silenced since, for me, this is not – and never has been – about politics. It’s about the eternal souls of men who will be lost if they follow the false teachings of a Mormon cult.”

Availability: Immediate availability nationwide for radio and television

About Bill Keller:
In 1999, Keller launched LivePrayer.com, which has become the most successful online faith outreach in history. Since its inception, LivePrayer.com has responded personally to more than 60 million online requests for prayer. And Keller’s Live Prayer devotional is received daily by more than 2.5 million email subscribers. For information on where to watch Live Prayer in your area, visit www.liveprayer.com. The Live Prayer program is about to go on worldwide internet (live streaming broadcast). Visit the website for details.

Happy Valentine’s Day

A Valentine’s video from Wayne Besen and Truth Wins Out:

If you are gay and Mormon, you can find help and support at Affirmation. If you are a spouse in need of support, you can find it at the Straight Spouse Network or Straight Wives.