Shit, mormons are the new catholics. I am so baffled though, I would have 95% expected this from the cathoholics, but not really from these guys. This one came out of left field for me.

Nonprofits exist to serve a community, to serve the public good. They are granted tax exempt status because of this. They are supposed to have boards which (as a legal rule) serve as stewards of the community, preserving transparency and maintaining accountability. It chills me and frustrates me to my very core that this has gone on, and continues to go on. While civil rights are being violated left and right and other nonprofits struggle to find cures for aids, raise money for cancer, etc etc - churches run rampant with greed and corruption. Do they not understand that their stance on these types of civil-rights-vs-morality issues undermines the very system that allows them to exist? Remember the freedom of religion that at one point was a core component of our structure? (of course many of the cloth will argue that too.)

It makes me so very, very frustrated.

It all reminds me of The Village. And on a day when some of us are remembering Patrick McGoohan and his amazing work, it is appropriate that The Prisoner still speaks so clearly to our time.

Here's an anecdote that will put a burr under Norm's saddle blanket. My father-in-law Sam is a mildly prosperous Mormon in good standing in California. His bishop visited with him and asked him to donate a specific amount to the Prop-8 campaign (the amount was based on what the bishop thought he could afford to pay), which Sam did.

After I gave Sam a hard time about this, he admitted that if HE were the prosecuting attorney it wouldn't be too hard to prove the Church overstepped its political bounds on this one.

The problem is that there's not much of a distinction between the Church and the members of the Church. Except for a very few guys at the top, there is no professional clergy. Does a bishop, who is not a paid official of the church but who is just a civic-minded volunteer, have a right to ask his friends to donate to the cause? Instead of a bishop, how about a Sunday school teacher? Or the guy who sets out the hymnbooks?

Individual Mormons (at the request of their leaders) donated enormous amounts of money to the campaign. I'm curious to see if fellow OGM readers feel that this level of involvement was illegal.

Although no legal expert, I would have to say YES.

If your company donates X amount of money to a campaign, and it's employees also donate a large amount of money, the powers that be see that money as coming from the company and not individuals.

Thus, if another organized body of people individually gave because leaders of that organization asked them to, then their donations represent the whole.

Frankly, this is bullshit on several levels and the Mormons need to get right fucked for it.

Or we could make a deal. You let our consenting adults commit to a life long love and we'll let you marry and fuck seveal 12 year old girls.

Morality my ass.