Mormon Church Should Lose Its Tax Exempt Status

The Mormon Church contributed roughly HALF of the funding for the Yes on Proposition 8 Campaign to ban gay marriage in California. Volunteers poured in from Utah as the church felt this was a "moral imperative". The Church basically gave marching orders to members to flood into our state and involve themselves in our political process, which they did. The $5 MILLION influx of cash in the last two weeks of the campaign enabled all of those deceptive, fear-mongering TV ads featuring little kids being "taught" gay marriage in school.

Where is the separation of Church and State?? The Yes Campaign says that they were very careful NOT to distribute leaflets or talking points on church property to avoid the APPEARANCE of church involvement in politics, but come on......that is the slimmest of slim technicalities. We all know this was a church based initiative; we're not willing to let them off the hook with an "oh, okay then..." Now the Mormon Church is upset that people are well..upset. After all of the fear and deception, lies, mean-spirited bigotry they are crying "foul" when gays, lesbians and their supporters are protesting on behalf of Civil Rights. It boggles the mind!

From today's NYT article (linked below) :

Mr. Otterson said it was too early to tell what the long-term implications might be for the church, but in any case, he added, none of that factored into the decision by church leaders to order a march into battle. “They felt there was only one way we could stand on such a fundamental moral issue, and they took that stand,” he said. “It was a matter of standing up for what the church believes is right.”

That said, the extent of the protests has taken many Mormons by surprise. On Friday, the church’s leadership took the unusual step of issuing a statement calling for “respect” and “civility” in the aftermath of the vote.

“Attacks on churches and intimidation of people of faith have no place in civil discourse over controversial issues,” the statement said. “People of faith have a democratic right to express their views in the public square without fear of reprisal.”

Except that you didn't just EXPRESS YOUR VIEWS, you pulled out all the stops and placed your church members and their ideologies smack in the middle of our political process. Your missionaries, flush with cash, proselytized our electorate with your religious dogma and doctrine to directly influence the outcome of the vote. Now you want people, whose Civil Rights have been abridged by YOUR efforts, to simply "play nice" and walk away saying "oh okay, guess we lost then....bye bye now..." ????

I hope there is such a brouhaha following this smackdown of Civil and HUMAN rights that there will be AT LAST a serious reexamination of the Tax status of many of the religious organizations (AND cults, let's get real) who are entwining themselves like Poison Ivy into so many of our public and secular institutions.

LINK to NYT article: