Mormon Church GOTV for Prop 8: “Do All You Can”

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Another night in Oakland, another round of Prop 8 picketing. This time a couple dozen people spread out on each of the four corners at MacArthur and High Sts. in east Oakland, California leading the fight against gay marriage. The scene was, oddly enough, jumping. Lots of teenagers, some grandmas, cheering, each with a sign. The most popular were “Prop 8 = Free Speech” (that ‘equal’ is making it into the anti-gay marriage push holds its own irony), and “Honk if you Support Prop 8” (the intersection was as loud as a a Manhattan thoroughfare). Detractors, those with No on Prop 8 signs and vocal drivers provoked screaming (“God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!”), middle fingers out of car windows, lots of pointing against windshields, a real show of humanity.

I talked to a few picketers and found out they’re all from area Mormon churches. They’ve been picketing every night at various spots across the Bay Area. One young woman, Patricia, who’s 18, said she and her church go to a different intersection most every night. I asked if she was going to vote. “Yeah, I’m voting, yes on Prop 8.” Who are you voting for for president? Her response might be what surprised me the most, after the jump.

“I’m not,” she said. “I’m only voting for Prop 8, nothing else, that’s the only thing that’s important.” Seriously? She said it’s so important because without it “there will be gay marriage in my church.”

While it’s safe to say that the Mormon Church isn’t going to start blessing same-sex unions in their temples, the message she’s sending is a strategic one. The Church of Latter Day Saints has all but ordered its congregants to campaign for, and donate to (the church has raised at least $10 million from its members), Prop 8’s passage. From High Country News:

In June, the church’s top prophets commanded Mormons “to do all you can” to work for Proposition 8 and donate money to the campaign. Mormon leaders throughout California read the instructions to their congregations, which have more than 750,000 members. Word spread everywhere in the Mormon realm. In August, the prophets added pages of elaboration: “The Church has a single, undeviating standard of sexual morality: intimate relations are proper only between a husband and a wife united in bonds of matrimony. … Any dilution of the traditional definition of marriage will further erode the already weakened stability of marriages and family generally…with harmful consequences for society.”

At least in Oakland its congregants are out in force, and there’s no sign they’re slowing down. “We’ve seen a bunch of haters,” said Patricia, “but also a lot of supporters.”

UPDATE: Kevin Drum looks at the latest Prop 8 poll numbers out today. “It’s gonna be close, folks.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate