How the well-oiled Mormon machine helped pass Prop 8

by: Pam Spaulding

Sat Nov 15, 2008 at 06:30:00 AM EST

In the end, Protect Marriage estimates, as much as half of the nearly $40 million raised on behalf of the measure was contributed by Mormons.

The extent to which this church felt the need to involve itself, not only with cash from its faithful, but by marshalling an army of Mormon volunteers to participate in phone banking, canvassing and disseminating propaganda and lies to remove a civil right from a group of citizens in California is beyond disturbing.

In the NYT article, "Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage," the details emerge about the win-at-all-costs strategy that seems less about pure belief and faith than political activism and bullying.

First approached by the Roman Catholic archbishop of San Francisco a few weeks after the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in May, the Mormons were the last major religious group to join the campaign, and the final spice in an unusual stew that included Catholics, evangelical Christians, conservative black and Latino pastors, and myriad smaller ethnic groups with strong religious ties.

Jeff Flint, another strategist with Protect Marriage, estimated that Mormons made up 80 percent to 90 percent of the early volunteers who walked door-to-door in election precincts.

The canvass work could be exacting and highly detailed. Many Mormon wards in California, not unlike Roman Catholic parishes, were assigned two ZIP codes to cover. Volunteers in one ward, according to training documents written by a Protect Marriage volunteer, obtained by people opposed to Proposition 8 and shown to The New York Times, had tasks ranging from "walkers," assigned to knock on doors; to "sellers," who would work with undecided voters later on; and to "closers," who would get people to the polls on Election Day.

Suggested talking points were equally precise. If initial contact indicated a prospective voter believed God created marriage, the church volunteers were instructed to emphasize that Proposition 8 would restore the definition of marriage God intended.

But if a voter indicated human beings created marriage, Script B would roll instead, emphasizing that Proposition 8 was about marriage, not about attacking gay people, and about restoring into law an earlier ban struck down by the State Supreme Court in May.

"It is not our goal in this campaign to attack the homosexual lifestyle or to convince gays and lesbians that their behavior is wrong - the less we refer to homosexuality, the better," one of the ward training documents said. "We are pro-marriage, not anti-gay."

..."No work will take place at the church, including no meeting there to hand out precinct walking assignments so as to not even give the appearance of politicking at the church," one of the documents said.

* In response to a huge anti-8 fundraiser at billionaire Ron Burkle's house in Beverly Hills, an e-blast to 92K went out to save marriage from "cardiac arrest."

* There was a concerted effort not to associate with fringe elements that wanted domestic partnerships rolled back or to protest when same-sex marriages began in June.

* The flat-out lie campaign was prepared specifically to target voters on the fence, with ads claiming marriage equality would result in churches losing tax exempt status, or lawsuits slapped on people for their personal beliefs, and, of course, that positive views of same-sex marriage will be forced upon children.

The justification for this devastating blow to equality is still not seen as discrimination by these people; in fact, Frank Schubert of Protect Marriage is gloating:

For his part, Mr. Schubert said he is neither anti-gay - his sister is a lesbian - nor happy that some same-sex couples' marriages are now in question. But, he said, he has no regrets about his campaign.

"They had a lot going for them," Mr. Schubert said of his opponents. "And they couldn't get it done."

Hat tip, Rex.