The Mormons are Coming, the Mormons are Coming

Californians Against Hate Kicks Off Ad Campaign in 6 Northeast States
"The Mormons are Coming, The Mormons are Coming!"

Designed to counter the commercial released 10 days ago by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) "A Gathering Storm," Californians Against Hate launched its own advertising campaign beginning over the weekend in: New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island and Maine.

"We believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) established the National Organization for Marriage as its front group in order to qualify Proposition 8 for ballot last year in California," said Fred Karger, Founder of Californians Against Hate. "After spending several million dollars in California, NOM recently moved into 7 Northeast States considering marriage equality.

They lost in Vermont on April 7th, when the Legislature voted to override Governor Jim Douglas' veto the very next day. Vermont became the 4th state in the nation to allow same-sex couples the right to marry.

NOM was very active in Vermont, paying for a massive advertising campaign, including radio, direct mail and robo-calling everyone in the state with a recorded message. Political experts think that their heavy--handed tactics backfired, and they lost because of it. Now NOM is charging into 6 more Northeast states.

On April 18th, on the 234th anniversary of Paul Revere's famous midnight ride from Boston to Lexington, we began our online advertising campaign. Our ad harkens back to 1775 when a brave Paul Revere rode his horse to warn of the attack by the British. We wrote our own version of Longfellow's famous poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," entitled, "The Mormons are Coming, The Mormons are Coming!" It's easy to find and enjoy. It's up on our web site: www.Mormongate.com

"Our modern day Paul Revere is warning of TV commercials (using bad actors trying to play real people), radio ads, and robo--calls -- all full of deceit and lies," said Fred Karger. "Their ads are fueled by millions of dollars, which we believe primarily come from the Mormon Church and its members. They set up NOM as a front group in California in the summer of 2007 to qualify Proposition 8 for the ballot, after 2 previous attempts to put a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage before the voters failed in 2006. I am very familiar with the National Organization for Marriage and its president, Maggie Gallagher. I sparred with them a lot last year in California."

"The ad that we are running is meant to be strong, but lighthearted, "added Karger. "We want all fair-minded people to know who is behind NOM's effort to stop equal rights. We will continue to pound away at this front group until everyone knows exactly who is behind the creation of the National Organization for Marriage."

The Mormon Church has been fighting same-sex marriage this way since 1995, when it set up Hawaii's Future Today to fight gay marriage in that state. Mormon Church documents that we received recently show just how the Church operates. To see these documents go to our web site.

For the full text of the banner ads and accompanying poem, please visit our web site: www.Mormongate.com.

Comments

[thebigbike]

To you mormons out there, how does it feel for the shoe to be on the other foot now? get a taste of what gay and lesbian people have to put up with from your funding of campaigns against our civil rights. Just like I would never marry a mormon, no mormon has to marry a person of their sex, or even has to allow their church to perform a religious ceremony "solemnizing" what is a civil contract. If same sex marriage is a slippery slope down the road to pplygamy you can bet that legal polygamous civil marriages will protect the rights of all involved a lot better than previous versons of religious polygamous marriages known to the earlier history of the United States.

[NABNYC]

There was no anti-Mormon sentiment that I ever saw until the Mormons decided to use anti-gay hatred as a fund-raising and recruiting tool. Which is exactly what they are doing. I know the local Mormon leadership. When I went out the night before the election with my pro-Obama signs to greet the commuters coming home, I was met with a sea of Mormons taking all four corners of each of the major intersections, with extremely slick profession­ally-creat­ed banners and signs: Yes on 8!

They had grandma, the babies, the little kids. To make things worse, when the pro-Obama group arrived and took one of the four corners, the Mormons sent 25 of their group over to get right in front of us with their banners to prevent us from cheering on our candidate. Yes folks, they acted just like right-wingers everywhere.

And remember: Jay Bybee is a BYU guy all the way: LDS Rocks according to Mr. Bybee, Torture-Guy. Exactly what is it about that white male-dominated money-sucking institution that calls itself a religion that would teach Mr. Bybee to cheer on torture, use his training to support barbarism against others. Is it because the "others" were not Mormons?

I think we need a ballot proposition to prohibit Mormons from marrying. Want to have some fun? Let's get that one going, then we can have a real debate.

[HoldUp]

Yeah, I'm a Mormon and I guess I am pretty scary. I'm coming to your town with my minivan filled with four kids and loads of snacks, too. Scaaarrrry!

[RoadTripper]

I think the new ad produced by 'Californians Against Hate' is clever, but inaccurate. There is no substantial evidence that the LDS Church created or funded NOM, despite all the ranting and screaming from Fred Karger. His blog was fun to read at first, but it's starting to sound like a crying child that can't get his way.

And here's a thought: is anti-Mormonism in American reminding anyone else of anti-Semitism in Europe? It's become acceptable among our society and media to mock, ridicule, frighten, vilify and fire Mormons, with a chuckle here and a snicker there. What if CAH had made their ad "The blacks are coming" or "The Jews are coming"? I'm not aware of any other minority group that is so regularly and vehemently attacked in our nation than the Mormon people. Sure, they voted for Prop 8 and ruffled a lot of feathers, though what they did was legal. But they are a generally quiet, non-confrontational folk. I just wonder where all this will go...

[meko]

Whenever a religion decides to put politics first, the leaders make a lot of money, there are a lot of scandals, and the focus moves from faith and serving all people to advancing the group. It's always ugly.

And that's why there is a lot of anti-Mormonism. There was a lot less before "Mormon family values" people decided that THEIR beliefs should be law for people who do not share their faiths.

Keep in mind that there are churches that were performing same-sex marriages long before any state legalized them.