At the official behest of the church leadership, thousands of Mormons are making very large contributions to propositions to amend the constitutions or Arizona and California to prohibit the right of gays and lesbians to marry.
To be very clear - if a gay couple weds in the United Church of Christ it does not affect Mormon doctrine in any way.
But they are determined to use our state constitutions to prevent the UCC from following their beliefs.
From the Wall Street Journal
The Mormon Church decision to enlist members on behalf of the same-sex marriage ban has given supporters of Proposition 8 a fund-raising lead. The campaign to defeat the initiative has collected around $13 million so far, said Steve Smith, a top campaign consultant for No on 8, Equality for All. Both sides raised roughly equal amounts in the early stages, said Mr. Smith, but "all of a sudden in the last few weeks they are out-raising us, and it appears to be Mormon money."
The top leadership of the Mormon Church, known as the First Presidency, issued a letter in June calling on Mormons to "do all you can" to support Proposition 8.
Mormon donors said they weren't coerced. "Nobody twisted my arm," said Richard Piquet, a Southern California accountant who gave $25,000 in support of Proposition 8. He said Mormon Church leaders called donating "a matter of personal conscience." Some Mormons who declined to donate said their local church leaders had made highly charged appeals, such as saying that their souls would be in jeopardy if they didn't give. Church spokesmen said any such incident wouldn't reflect Mormon Church policy.
Accounting of Mormon contributions in CA is going on at Mormons For Proposition 8
What the church is doing is within the law, but I think that it also shows how vulnerable we have become to a theocracy as oppressive as those Islamic Republics we claim to deplore and how little regard we have for human rights when religions enter the mix.
They actually are not ashamed, but are proud of what they are doing.
