Like Lowell Said, “Hmmmmm…..”
Monday we looked briefly at LDS spending related to the Prop 8 campaign: Big headlines, if misreported, accusing the CJCLDS of spending more than claimed on the campaign. The church responded by pointing out that they were simply disclosing last period expenditures on the necessary regulatory timetables. Now appears this story:
A Colorado Springs-based evangelical group spent more than three times the amount spent by the Mormon church to support a California ballot initiative that outlawed gay marriage.Data released this week by the California secretary of state’s office show Focus on the Family donated $657,000 in money and services to ProtectMarriage.com, a California coalition that supported Proposition 8.A September report indicated Focus on the Family had contributed $448,406. Focus vice president of media relations Gary Schneeberger says the most recent figure includes the value of non-cash contributions such as mailing costs and time on radio programs.
OK, first of all, where were these numbers before? Is FoF trying to deceive? Of course not, they are making the same regulatory disclosures the CJCLDS was, its just that there is no anti-Mormon bias to suggest that this was deceptive in any fashion.
Secondly, in light of the proportions of these figures why has so much of the left-wing ire continued towards the CJCLDS when it was we good-old-fashioned Evangelicals that did so much heavy lifting? Well, this too is simply answered. The bias against Mormons makes them a soft target, whereas the Evangelical establishment is a hard one.
What is sad is that it was Evangelical reticence to embrace Mitt Romney and the accompanying rhetoric in the primaries that softened the target. We made a target of one of our strongest allies in the Prop 8 fight (the Catholics being the other strong ally). Simply put, Evangelicals have got to get a lot smarter about this stuff.
Post-script from Lowell: I don’t like to play the victim. It does seem, however, that Mormons are a convenient target. We are perceived as very white, strange and secretive. We’re also seen by many as cultish, thanks in large part to so many people who, atlhough they were our ideological allies on issues like Prop 8, have been throwing the “cult” label at Mormons for years now, and most intensely during the last presidential election cycle. It is easy to make scapegoats of such a group: “Those odd, cultish Mormons are very well-organized and have lots of money, and they were the secret force behind the Yes On 8 campaign.”
Yes, it is cynical for the No On 8 side to use Mormons that way, but they are doing it. I would think that fact would give pause to at least some Evangelical leaders and thinkers, other than my friend John.
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K.G. on 05 Feb 2009 at 2:19 pm #
And that, of course, is the game plan of many in the “evangelical” movement: Make Mormonism a target from all sides.
Even though Latter-day Saints might make common cause on social and political issues, the cost for that help is too high if it lends any credibility to Mormonism. Some Mormons I know believe that making a significant contribution will finally earn us some respect; we will be allowed into the club.
I say nay; the stronger and more effective the Mormons become, the more they will become a target of evangelicals. One evangelical was quoted as saying: If, by my voting for a Mormon POTUS, one person were to become a Mormon, that person’s damnation would be on my head. God would hold me accountable.
For such people, the current situation is a win/win. The cause received Mormon money and support, but Mormons are publicly demonized for their efforts.
CarlH on 09 Feb 2009 at 8:38 am #
GetReligion.org took a look at reporting about spending on Proposition 8 from some other angles. As if anyone needed any additional proof that for most reporters, it much less about reporting than about furthering an agenda. Interestingly enough, NPR of all places actually noted that California teachers, despite their union’s opposition spending on Prop 8, individually contributed 2-to-1 in favor of Prop 8.
CarlH on 10 Feb 2009 at 5:56 pm #
Last Sunday’s New York Times, of all places–but in the business section [!]–took a look at the fallout from public disclosure laws as applied to foment “intimidation” (yes, the Times actually used that word in this context!) of individual Proposition 8 donors–and their employers, as an example of the law of unintended consequences as applied to public campaign disclosure statutes, including the extreme irony of the fact that the sponsors of at least one website promoting the intimidation manage to remain anonymous. Terry Mattingly at GetReligion.org looks at the piece for its curious lack of media discussion of the ethical issues of such tactics.