Mormons Losing Members Over Anti-Gay Campaigns

Posted by Lisa Derrick, Firedoglake at 9:33 AM on November 30, 2008.

While the Mormon Church hierarchy  was responsible for organizing millions of dollars and thousands of hours of manpower to pass California's Proposition 8 and Arizona's Prop. 102, the church's tactics haven't sat so well with some of its members -- including families, members with Mormon heritage going back 150 years, and gay members -- who began speaking out in July on the Web site signingforsomething.org. 

Many have public resigned from the church, citing reasons such as these:

*I think the church has no right to assume the inner thinkings of its members and take such an open stand of any political issue.

*The church's involvement in the effort to rescind a basic constitutional right from California citizens is shameful and misguided.

*The position the church took on this particular issue went against everything I learned from the church. Not only was the church's position discriminatory, but it was also hateful. 

*The leadership fights for bigotry and hate. The God I grew up with was perfect in His Love and Justice. Shame on the men who act so disgracefully in His name.

Since July, almost 600 LDS church members have expressed their disapproval and/or resigned. In October, a copy of the site's petition and e-mails were delivered to the Mormon Church headquarters, but the site is still accepting signatures and letters, since this is an issue that won't go away.

Tagged as: gay marriage, california, utah, mormons, anger, lgbt rights, prop 8, mormon church