Courage Campaign Issues Committee Urges Mormon Church to Cease Funding "Yes on 8" Campaign
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2008
Courage Campaign Issues Committee Urges Mormon Church to Cease Funding “Yes on 8” Campaign
Online Organizing Network To Deliver Letter Urging LDS President Thomas Monson to Stop Imposing Religious Doctrine and Dictating Public Policy to Californians, Other Churches
LOS ANGELES – The Courage Campaign Issues Committee, an online organizing network of over 100,000 members in California, today launched an online petition urging Church of Latter Day Saints President Thomas Monson to cease funding the campaign for “Yes on 8,” a ballot measure that would, according to the ballot description, “eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry.”
The online petition urges the Mormon Church not to impose its religious doctrine on other churches, on the rest of society, or to dictate public policy to Californians. The petition can be viewed here and the text is below:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopTheLies
“We are troubled the church is funding television and radio ads that are lying to Californians about the effects of a ‘No’ vote on Proposition 8,” said Rick Jacobs, chair of the Courage Campaign Issues Committee. “We are especially disappointed the Mormon Church has chosen to break the Ninth Commandment – ‘thou shalt not bear false witness.’ The ads funded as a result of an edict from Prophet-President Monson to his followers lie, breaking the ninth commandment, by telling Californians parents that they do not have the right to remove their children from sex education classes, unlike in Massachusetts.”
According to an Associated Press article dated October 8, Mormons, under pressure from the church, have been the chief financial contributors to the “Yes on 8” campaign, giving an estimated 43 percent — approximately $8.4 million — of the total funds contributed as of that date. Earlier this year, LDS President Thomas S. Monson wrote a widely circulated letter to California Mormons to give their time and money to pass Proposition 8. Since that time, millions of dollars have flowed from Mormons in Utah and other states funding a deceptive campaign.
“The Mormon Church has been chased around this country, wrongly persecuted for their beliefs. We celebrate the equal protection provided to the Mormon Church that has allowed the church to become perhaps the richest religious institution in America. Given that background of persecution, how do the Elders of the Mormon Church justify breaking the ten commandments and gathering millions of dollars to persecute another minority? This is simply un-American,” added Jacobs.
NOTE: A Media Advisory will be distributed soon by the Courage Campaign Issues Committee regarding Tuesday’s delivery of signatures to the Los Angeles Mormon Temple of the following petition to President-Prophet Thomas Monson.
PETITION TEXT:
Dear President-Prophet Thomas Monson,
One of the most cherished freedoms granted to Americans in our Constitution is the freedom to choose our own religious beliefs. It is a freedom we firmly support. But that freedom also brings an obligation on the part of churches to not impose their religious beliefs on other churches, on the rest of society, or to dictate public policy. Under your leadership your church is now actively doing all of the above by supporting the campaign to pass Proposition 8 here in California.
We are particularly troubled that your church is funding television and radio ads that are lying to Californians about the effects of a “No” vote against Proposition 8. We are disappointed that you have chosen to break the Ninth Commandment – “thou shalt not bear false witness.” The ads that you have funded bear false witness by not telling Californians that parents actually have absolute rights to remove their children from sex education classes, unlike in Massachusetts.
We ask you to recognize that every education authority in the state has rejected the lies and distortions of the Prop 8 campaign, including the California Teachers Association and the California School Boards Association. We also ask you to listen to a member of your church, Brigham Young University adjunct law professor Morris Thurston, who has called on the Mormon Church to “instruct its members that reliance on misleading and false ‘consequences’ is not worthy of our basic values of honesty and fair dealing.”
We are especially saddened to see your church, which has suffered discrimination and the loss of basic legal rights based on lifestyle and belief in the past, now attempting to do the same thing and take away Californians’ rights. We had hoped your church had moved beyond its discriminatory past when you rescinded the ban on African Americans entering the priesthood in 1978. We fully respect your religious freedoms – but your freedoms do not include the ability to take away rights from anyone.
We, the undersigned, call upon you to direct your church to cease funding the “Yes on 8” campaign and to cease all forms of advocacy for Proposition 8. We ask you to stay out of our state’s governance. We ask you to respect the religious freedoms of those churches that choose to conduct same sex weddings, just as we respect your church’s right to refuse to do so. We ask you to uphold both the spirit and the letter of the California and United States Constitutions and not attempt to eliminate the fundamental rights of Californians.
###