As I'm sure most of you know I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is also commonly referred to as the Mormon church; and for those of you that don‘t know this, there ya go. There has been a lot to do about the Yes decision on Prop 8 and blaming my religion on it. To start with I would like to say that I am not going to mention how I voted, that was my own personal decision but I will state the facts. My church leaders did encourage us to vote Yes on Prop 8, that cannot be denied. I also have a significant number of friends and co-workers who I love and admire that are homosexual. This was a very concerning issue for me, and for many of my fellow members of my church. This was not a black and white issue (as in bigotry vs. love). I know many people who struggled with what to mark on their ballot on Election Day. I know members of my church who live in the state of California that voted yes on the proposition and I know members of my church who voted no. Unlike some rumors out there, voting No on Prop 8 was not grounds for removal from my church nor were we forced to vote yes. One of my religion's primary teachings is that we all have the right to make decisions for ourselves, that we are free to choose what to do. Yes, our Church has encouraged us to make certain decisions because we believe it will lead to us living a better life, but in the end the decision is ours. That being said, yes members of my church did donate money to the Yes on Prop 8 campaign. But did my Church, did officially money from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints donate money to the campaign? No it did not. According the citations on Wikipedia (which yes I know can be incorrect, but I check citations and it's all from reputable sources), here is a breakdown of monetary support for Prop 8.Donors who support Prop. 8Some of the larger or better-known donors supporting Prop 8 are: Knights of Columbus, $1,400,000.Howard Ahmanson, $1,150,000. John Templeton, $900,000. National Organization for Marriage, $785,750.Elsa Prince, $650,000. Fieldstead & Company, $600,000. American Family Association, $500,000 Focus on the Family, $411,000. Doug Manchester, $125,000.Donations from individual Mormons account for about $6.4 million of the approximately $18 million raised through September 24. In the 72-hour period ending Friday, October 24, Proposition 8 supporters raised $661,000 in donations exceeding $1,000. Campaign manager Frank Schubert announced on October 25 that an undisclosed "Yes on 8" supporter had agreed to match any contributions made by others up to $1,000,000.Another thing people need to realize is that 52% of the state voted Yes on 8. I've tried to find exact data on how many residents of California are associated with my church, but I cannot. I have heard that 2-4% of CA residents are LDS, and from what I've seen in my everyday life, that sounds like a pretty realistic number. So even if every single Mormon in California was old enough to vote (they're not) and voted Yes on Prop 8 (they didn't) and to be fair we went with the 4% that still means that 48% of Californians voted Yes on Prop 8 without being a member of my church.Now I can give you a list a mile long of reasons why people felt strongly to vote Yes on 8, but I won't. Because I'm not trying to convince anyone of any stance they should take on this issue, but what I will say is that there is no reason to threaten my life, threaten my religion, threaten my religious institutions, damn me to Hell or place all the blame/credit on my religion and the people that are also members of my Church for why Prop 8 passed, because in the end it was the majority of ALL residents of California that decided that Prop 8 should pass.
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