Mormons Mark Pride with Attack on Rights

By: ANDY HUMM
06/26/2008

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On Sunday, June 29, a letter will be read at all Mormon worship services worldwide calling on all members to contribute financially and with their time to pass the California initiative this November that would limit marriage different-sex couples.

The letter, from the Office of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, said, "The Church's teaching and position on this moral issue are unequivocal. Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God.

"Mormon teaching against black people serving in the Church's priesthood was also unequivocal until it became politically untenable for it to maintain. As with polygamy, which was dropped so Utah could become a state in 1896, Church elders received a revelation from God on June 8, 1978 that it was okay to elevate black people to leadership positions.

Dave Melson of Affirmation, the LGBT Mormon group, told the Salt Lake Tribune, "We had hoped the Church would back off and stay on the sidelines on this one." As if!

The Mormon Church provided significant financial resources for the successful campaign to pass a constitutional amendment in Hawaii in 1998 allowing the Legislature to regulate marriage there when state court rulings were moving toward an embrace of marriage equality. They also heavily backed anti-gay marriage campaigns in Alaska in 1998 and in California in 2000.

Despite this direct involvement in political campaigns, no serious challenge to the Church's tax-exempt status has been mounted.