{"id":1830,"date":"2009-04-08T14:44:59","date_gmt":"2009-04-08T21:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?p=1830"},"modified":"2010-06-16T11:02:48","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T18:02:48","slug":"church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Church Admits Financial Support of Prop 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update: See below.<\/ins><\/p>\n

When I heard rumours of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints financial involvement to pass Proposition 8, last November’s ballot measure that banned gay marriage in California, I assumed they were lies spread because of malice toward the institution. Though I felt repulsed by the Church’s aggressive position, I thought it acted within its rights to encourage members in voting to strip away the rights of same-sex couples.<\/p>\n

I also thought that the church was wise enough to respect the separation of church and state and refrain from actively funding the campaign. It turns out, I was wrong<\/del>.<\/p>\n

In a campaign filing, amid an investigation by Fair Political Practices Commission—a California state campaign watchdog agency, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has revealed it spent nearly $190,000<\/a> since September to help pass Proposition 8.<\/p>\n

While many church members had donated directly to the Yes on 8 campaign—some estimates of Mormon giving range as high as $20 million—the church itself had previously reported little direct campaign activity.<\/p>\n

But in the filing made Friday [January 30, 2009], the Mormon church reported thousands in travel expenses, such as airline tickets, hotel rooms and car rentals for the campaign. The church also reported $96,849.31 worth of “compensated staff time”—hours that church employees spent working to pass the same-sex marriage ban.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For all the crying about how the church has been unjustifiably targeted it’s incredible that it would have opened itself up to such a huge legal blunder and a public relations nightmare. I don’t know what the implications for class action suits by the 18,000 people who had their marriages annulled by the passing of Proposition 8 might be, but I hope it is a wake up call to those that think the church is legitimate in the way it went about robbing the rights of same-sex couples.<\/p>\n

Correction: It turns out I was just a little confused about the implications of this report. As pointed out by JKS<\/a> the filing was posted on time and the church did not break any laws with its involvement in Prop 8.<\/p>\n

To be clear, all same-sex marriage rights were stripped using legal means.<\/del><\/ins><\/p>\n

Update: According to a few sources, it looks like, the Church has been convicted of 13 counts of late campaign reporting<\/a>.<\/ins><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: See below. When I heard rumours of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints financial involvement to pass … Continue reading Church Admits Financial Support of Prop 8<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10,5],"tags":[167],"class_list":["post-1830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gay","category-marriage","category-politics","tag-prop-8"],"yoast_head":"\nChurch Admits Financial Support of Prop 8<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Church Admits Financial Support of Prop 8\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Update: See below. When I heard rumours of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints financial involvement to pass …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Our Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-04-08T21:44:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-06-16T18:02:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff Milner\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff Milner\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/\",\"name\":\"Church Admits Financial Support of Prop 8\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-04-08T21:44:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-06-16T18:02:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/025ff7ef99625765714bb2875aa800db\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/\",\"name\":\"Our Thoughts\",\"description\":\"Thought-provoking commentary on life, politics, religion and social issues.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/025ff7ef99625765714bb2875aa800db\",\"name\":\"Jeff Milner\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1875071dd98e71b97ad9f600d118a1e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1875071dd98e71b97ad9f600d118a1e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeff Milner\"},\"description\":\"I'm a thirty-something year old guy from Southern Alberta. My family has been in the church since 4 February 1844. I'm disillusioned and \\\"less-active\\\" since 2002.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/jeffmilner.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/author\/jeff-milner\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Church Admits Financial Support of Prop 8","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Church Admits Financial Support of Prop 8","og_description":"Update: See below. When I heard rumours of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints financial involvement to pass …","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/","og_site_name":"Our Thoughts","article_published_time":"2009-04-08T21:44:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-06-16T18:02:48+00:00","author":"Jeff Milner","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeff Milner","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/","name":"Church Admits Financial Support of Prop 8","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-04-08T21:44:59+00:00","dateModified":"2010-06-16T18:02:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/025ff7ef99625765714bb2875aa800db"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/2009\/04\/08\/church-admits-financial-support-of-prop-8\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/","name":"Our Thoughts","description":"Thought-provoking commentary on life, politics, religion and social issues.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/025ff7ef99625765714bb2875aa800db","name":"Jeff Milner","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1875071dd98e71b97ad9f600d118a1e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1875071dd98e71b97ad9f600d118a1e5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeff Milner"},"description":"I'm a thirty-something year old guy from Southern Alberta. My family has been in the church since 4 February 1844. I'm disillusioned and \"less-active\" since 2002.","sameAs":["http:\/\/jeffmilner.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/author\/jeff-milner\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1838,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions\/1838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourthoughts.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}