I wonder if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) will keep funneling millions and millions of dollars to Brain Brown and his National Organization for Marriage (NOM) after their huge loss in Utah yesterday? Will the LDS Church keep throwing good money after bad?
The Mormon Church ran and its members funded every anti-gay marriage vote in over 30 states since 1998. Take a look at these secret Mormon Church documents courtesy of Mother Jones Magazine.
Last year it appeared that the LDS Church pulled the plug and bowed out of the gay marriage fight to avoid becoming an issue in the Romney campaign. This year after Romney was no longer a factor, the Mormon Church jumped right back in to the fray in Hawaii where it all began 15 years ago. The LDS Church unsuccessfully tried to block the gay marriage law from passing there during a recent special legislative secession called by Governor Abercrombie.
Gay Weddings Start in Utah
Utah has to be the line in the sand as far as the Mormon Church is concerned. It must really irk Church leaders like President Thomas S. Monson and the 12 Apostles to watch all the same-sex couples waiting in lines to get married throughout Utah. It is dominating the news cycle all over the state.
Did Mormon Church Divorce NOM?
The Mormon Church has had some tense moments with NOM, which it created in 2008 to qualify and pass California's Proposition 8. Four years later NOM founder's Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown turned on Mormon candidate Mitt Romney and went all out for Rick Santorum who was nipping at Romney's heels at the time. That put a big strain in their relationship.
There were always three prominent Mormon Church members on NOM's seven member Board. Apparently over the summer Orson Scott Card resigned because of the terrible backlash and boycott of his new movie "Enders Game," because of Card and his homophobic rants. That still leaves Broc Hiatt and Craig D. Cardon as the Mormon representatives on the NOM Board.
Pope Francis Time Magazine's Man of the Year
Time will only tell on how much longer the Mormon Church stays in the losing battle to stop the freedom to marry and deny loving couples the same rights to marry and raise a family that they have fought for.
Will Mormon Church leaders now send a softer, kinder message regarding gay marriage to help stop losing members and money since this issue divides the Church? It seems to be working for the Roman Catholic Church. I hope that seeing so much happiness and love in Utah in the last 24 hours will only encourage the Mormon Church change its ways. Only Time will tell.
PS I would like to congratulate my good friend Jim Dabakis who married his partner of 27 years Steven Justesen yesterday. They were one of the first couples to get married by Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker.