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In the aftermath of the passing of Proposition 8 in California, a group took it upon themselves to—as they put it—expose the “secret combinations” of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly called the Mormon Church, and their “sneaky” cover-ups allegedly used to get Proposition 8 passed. This group, including Dustin Lance Black, Bruce Bastian, and Reed Cowan, has created 8: The Mormon Proposition, a film which will be released at the Sundance Film Festival 2010. The film singles out The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the sole mastermind behind the passing of Proposition 8 and claims that the Church ruined “countless lives.”

Here are the facts:

1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ First Presidency issued a letter to all its leaders in California, requesting that the letter be read to all congregations on June 29, 2008. In the letter, the Church’s stance on the issue of same-sex marriage was reiterated. The First Presidency requested all members to donate of their personal time and money as they were able. The Church’s reported spending in funding, time, and other compensations totals $189,904. The total estimates for the Yes on 8 funding came to $39.9 million, while the No on 8 campaign estimates total $43.3 million. Clearly, the Church’s funding was not of significant weight to sway this vote, especially when the No on 8 campaign had more total assets. It is a fact that “as many as 1,025 people and businesses in Utah donated $3.8 million to Proposition 8 efforts, with 70 percent going to campaigns supporting the measure,” however, these were individual contributions, as evidenced by the fact that 30 percent of these funds went to No on 8.
2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was part of a coaltion which was active in getting Proposition 8 passed, which consisted of many religions and individuals. The total number of voters on this issue in California was 13,743,177. There are only about 250,000 Mormon adults in California, but assuming each one of them voted in favor of Proposition 8, they would only make up 1.8 percent of the total vote and only about 3.6 percent of the yes vote.
3. The majority of the U.S. population supports traditional marriage over same-sex marriage. Judges have already ignored the will of the people, as in California’s Proposition 22, by disregarding a vote which supported traditional marriage and legalizing same-sex marriage, only to have the will of the people win out again. People need to be informed of all of the consequences of the legalization of same-sex marriage in order to make an informed decision on the matter once and for all.

Who is being persecuted anyway?

Read more at TheMormonProposition.org and TheMormonProposition.net.