The Church of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons) Found Guilty on 13 Counts of Political Malfeasance In Prop. 8 Campaign

California’s Fair Political Practices Commision (FPPC) made history on Thursday, finding The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints guilty on 13 counts of political malfeasance related to the Prop. 8 campaign in 2008. It became the first religious organization to be found guilty of the charge in California.

According to the FPPC’s findings, the church “failed to timely report” a total of $38,928 in support of the bill that passed November 4, 2008, prohibiting gay marriage in California. The penalty handed down was a fine of 15% of the unreported contributions, coming to $5,539.

“[The fine] seems a little light since [the FPPC] only looked at $36,000 of their contributions, but it’s also historic because no church has ever been fined for illegal political activity in California before,” said Fred Karger, the founder of Californians Against Hate (CAH), which filed the complaint against the church. “In fact, it’s unprecedented.”

The LDS church released a statement on its website claiming that they had “mistakenly overlooked the daily reporting requirements,” and that “Claims that the Church misrepresented its contributions to the Protect Marriage Coalition are false.”

The Mormon Church has been altering their version of the story ever since Prop. 8 passed. Initially, they only admitted to spending $2,078 in support of the bill and a representative of the church, Don Eaton, stated in a radio interview on KGO-TV(ABC-San Francisco), “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put zero money in this.” Then, three months after the election, the church filed a return admitting to $190,000 spent on the campaign.

“When we accused them of contributing more money [than was reported], they stated publicly that our claims were false, but that turned out to be a lie – one of many,” said Karger. “It’s unbelievable, their arrogance, blatantly violating California election laws and lying repeatedly about their involvement in Prop. 8.”

The CAH has also filed a complaint against an the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which is affiliated with the Mormon church. NOM was a heavy supporter of Maine’s Question 1 campaign which denied gay marriage rights within the state. The organization is also under investigation by the state for possible money laundering and failure to file campaign reports.

Thursday’s findings are hardly the end of this battle with the Mormon church though, according to Karger.

“They got off easy,” said Karger, “but this is only one state. They were involved in all 30 state [marriage] battles. This is just the beginning.”

written by Dan Kelley