Well, it isn't much of a surprise to most of us...
However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons)admitted in filings with the California Secretary of State's Office that it had spent a minimum of $190,000 in support of Proposition 8, California's initiate to ban gay marriage.
Does anyone remember that just a short time ago, the Mormon Church denied, vehemently, they had not contributed gobs of money in any form to the Prop. 8 campaign and that they only encouraged their members to donate time and money?
More after the flip...
It is an interesting confluence of events that the Mormon Church had no choice but to admit they were financially in bed with Prop. 8 supporters. After all, the LDS Church is under an investigation from the California Fair Political Practices Commission and a U.S. Court ruled last week that the donor list for Prop. 8 could not be kept private.
But in the recent filing, the Mormon Church all but admitted that it had been lying to everyone all long:
Up until Friday, the Mormon church had denied any direct financial support for the campaign beyond a reported $2,078 spent for bringing church Elder L. Whitney Clayton to California.
...
The report filed Friday contained few details about how the money was spent. It did list $26,000 for audio-visual production and travel expenses for a number of Mormon leaders other than Clayton.
It also reported a number of expenses in the Bay Area, including $122 for a meal at Nonna Rose Restaurant in San Francisco, and $133 spent at the 3-Zero Cafe in Half Moon Bay.
So, it wasn't just pulpits filled with Mormon ministers encouraging the local folk to send their dollars to California to stop those nasty gays, but the LDS Church flew Elder Clayton from Utah to California to lobby for Prop. 8's passage, all the while lying through its teeth that it had done anything more than breathe fire and brimstone about how Prop. 8 would be the end of the world.
Indeed, the Mormons maintained the Church didn't need to file anything because it hadn't contributed a dime to the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign. They were falling back on the "payment in kind" and swearing that since it wasn't cash, it didn't matter.
Additionally not surprising, the rank and file members of the Mormon Church are already in defense mode (see comments). Since it wasn't pure cash and it was only $200,000, well, nothing to see here.
But the heart of the issue is the bold-faced lie the leadership of the LDS Church permeated upon its church members and the public. The LDS Elders categorically said the church was not involved with the proposition.
Fred Karger over at Huffington Post makes a very important point:
If the voters of California were aware of the massive expenditures by the Mormon Church prior to voting on November 4th, the results of the close Prop 8 election might have been very different.
Indeed.