8: THE MORMON PROPOSITION

If you're looking for the Reed Cowan interview about his documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition please CLICK HERE.

Feel free to watch a few video clips of local Utah TV news reports about 8: The Mormon Proposition before clicking through to the interview.







Below is the original post from March, 2009, which was about LDS meddling in the Illinois civil union debate ...

Otherwise, take a gander at this latest email:

------ Forwarded Message
From: (redacted)
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009
To: (redacted)
Subject: Nauvoo Ward Spreading Lies/Fear to Oppose Civil Unions

The following official email was just sent out (via the LDS Church
website) to all the members of the Nauvoo 3rd Ward, as approved by
Kristy Combs, ward website administrator, and by Bishop Chris Church
of the Nauvoo 3rd Ward. (Because it was sent through the LDS
website, it required the authorization of a bishop or higher.)

I am stunned and angered by the misinformation being spread in such
an official church communication through the LDS Church website.
Once again, "our children" are the reason for spreading hatred,
hysteria, and lies.

And did they not get the memo that the LDS Church is not opposed to
civil unions?

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY. And if you live in Illinois, contact your
legislators to support this bill!
________

From: Kristy Combs <kristyc@mchsi.com>
Date: March 3, 2009
Subject: Civil Union bill scheduled for a hearing Thursday - calls
needed

This message has been authorized for sending by Bishop Church.

The Civil Union Bill (HB 2234) has been scheduled for a hearing in
the Youth and Family Committee this week on Thursday, March 5, 2009
at 9:00 a.m. in Springfield. If the bill is voted out of committee,
it becomes eligible for a vote before the full Illinois House of
Representatives. This bill will legalize civil unions in the state
of Illinois, and will treat such civil unions with the same legal
obligations, responsibilities, protections and benefits as are
afforded within marriage. In other words, civil unions will be
different in name only from marriage. As has already been seen in
Massachusetts, this will empower the public schools to begin teaching
this lifestyle to our young children regardless of parental requests
otherwise. It will also create grounds for rewriting all social
mores; the current push in Massachusetts is to recognize and legalize
all transgender rights (An individual in Massachusetts can now change
their drivers license to the gender they believe themselves to be,
regardless of actual gender, which means that confused men and women
are now legally entering one another's bathrooms and locker rooms.
What kind of a safety issue is this for our children?). Furthermore,
while the bill legalizes civil unions, it will be used in the courts
to show discrimination and will ultimately lead to court mandated
same-sex marriages.

To help defeat this bill, please call your state representative and
state senator and ask that they support traditional marriage and vote
against the civil unions bill. If you are unsure who your
legislators are, please see the link at the end of this email.

Also, please take a moment and call the following members of the
Youth and Family Committee to encourage them to vote no on this
bill. We need 4 votes to keep it from passing out of the committee.
And - as always, please pass this on to all who believe in protecting
our families and our children. If you are interested in attending
the hearing, it will be held on Thursday, March 5th at 9:00 a.m. in
Springfield in Room 122B of the Capitol Building (I can give you
directions to the Capitol Building if needed).

Members of the Youth and Family Committee:

Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) (Greg Harris is also the sponsor of
this bill, but he needs to hear your opposition to this bill)
Chairperson
217-782-3835

Rep. LaShawn K. Ford (D-Chicago)
Vice-Chairperson
217-782-5962

Rep. Mike Fortner (R-West Chicago)
Republican Spokesperson
217-782-1653

Rep. William D. Burns (D-Chicago)
217-782-2023

Rep. Michael P. McAuliffe (R-Chicago)
217-782-8182

Rep. Al Riley (D-Matteson)
217-558-1007

Rep. Dave Winters (R-Rockford)
217-782-0455

Directions for identifying your legislators:

You can use the following link to identify your state legislators and
their contact information: http://www.elections.il.gov/
DistrictLocator/SelectSearchType.aspx?NavLink=1 (and enter your 9
digit zip code). If this link doesn't work, you can use the general
link www.ilga.gov and then click on " legislator lookup" near the
bottom of the page, then click on "by zip+4". Type in your zip code,
and you'll see a list of your legislators. You want your state
senator and state representative as they will be the ones voting on
the bill.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sister Combs

------------

Update: I just noticed that Jim Burroway over at Box Turtle Bulletin posted this earlier as EXCLUSIVE: Mormon Machine Cranking Up Against Illinois Civil Unions Bill

And now I see that Rainey beat me to the punch over at dKos as well with her LDS now wants to shut down civil unions in IL diary.

Good. Glad to see it. Because this is just crazy. I'm pleading here: can someone - anyone - from LDS Church HQ please clarify your organization's position on civil unions?

Is it the position that Utah Gov. Huntsman recently staked out (he's for 'em)? Or does it more closely resemble that of Bishop Church and the Nauvoo 3rd Ward (they're apparently against 'em)?

Civil Unions? Yes? No? Maybe so?

Memo to Salt Lake: How are the rest of us supposed to have any kind of civil dialogue with a church that refuses to make its own position known? Enough with the guessing games already. You've got your own members running around telling everyone who will listen that their church is not anti-gay, that civil unions sound like a reasonable compromise, and then you pull a stunt like this. Pathetic.