Anti-Gay LDS Activities     

August 4, 1999

In May the Mormon (LDS) church in California started an organized effort through church leaders to raise funds for the Knight Initiative, an initiative intended to keep California from recognizing same-sex marriages should such marriage end up being legalized elsewhere.

Rumors and reports about organized fundraising by Mormon leaders had been flying around the internet via email and on newslists since May, but church leaders and spokespeople had repeatedly denied any fundraising was happening. "If it is," they would say, "it is just spontaneous efforts by individuals, not organized efforts by the church." In two instances those denials were recorded by reporters, including one denial by Elder Douglas L Callister that was published in the Salt Lake Observer in late July. In that July telephone interview with reporter Maria Titze, Callister referred to a May 11 letter and "told the Observer that he is aware of only this one letter from his office being read at women's relief society and men's priesthood meetings on May 23 or 30 in California."

May 20 Letter from Callister

In late July, Kathy Worthington of Salt Lake received solid evidence that the fundraising had been started and was being superivised by California leaders of the church. The most decisive proof of the church fundraising was a May 20 letter, on official church stationary, from Callister to all Stake Presidents in California.

THAT'S RIGHT. It was mailed on May 20, two months before he claimed he had no knowledge of any letters except the May 11 one we'd all heard about in the media. The May 20 letter, written from the "North America West Area" of the church, outlined fundraising plans and announced that 'Elder' Callister would be supervising the raising of the funds, with the assistance of Elders Merrill Higham and Floyd Packard. That letter went out in May, yet in June and July Callister was denying any fundraising was being done "by the church."

Worthington, a gay activist and former Mormon, also received other evidence from California, including text copies of two letters from bishops to their ward members and a photocopy of a third bishop's letter, this one with signature and all. Worthington also obtained proof that at least one bishop is using his ward directory (a list of church members with their addresses and phone numbers) for his fundraising efforts. A photocopy of a page from that directory includes the bishops notes on who he has contacted and who will be sending donations etc. The page is clearly marked to indicate it is about donations to the Knight Initiative.

Also among the evidence gathered are several signed and sworn statements from members of the church in California about visits by ward members who are collecting funds and about conversations between bishops and other priesthood leaders regarding the fundraising efforts. Those converstations make it clear that bishops are using their positions as ward leaders to pressure those below them to do direct fundraising among members.

One of the statements Worthington obtained also indicates that one bishop said he been told by his Stake President that he was expected to raise $4000 for the initiative. The bishop said he'd been "assessed $4000". The statement about this $4000 amount includes the bishop's name, and the ward and Stake. It was the third or fourth time reports had come in about Stakes and Wards getting 'assessments' - but it was the first time someone was willing to reveal the details of who and where. The person who made the report also gave his/her name but asked for his/her identity to be protected. Worthington says she has stored all the important evidence in a "secure location."

Jenny Brundin of KUER radio in Salt Lake was the first to report the story of the church fundraising in California, in a story that aired on Wednesday Aug 4 on NPR (National Public Radio) After that story aired, just before this publication was due to go to print, the story was expected to hit all the major news outlets in Utah and California . . . and possibly across the nation. Worthington had given Brundin an exclusive on the story because Brundin and Kat Snow, also of KUER, had been able to obtain an hour long interview with a church spokesman in Salt Lake just before the best of the evidence came in. In that interview the church spokesperson was asked several times about the reports of church involvement in fundraising in California. He denied any such fundraising was being done.

On August 2, when Brundin told the PR department at the church that she had a copy of the May 20 letter from Callister, they reluctantly acknowledged that the church HAD been organizing some fundraising for the Knight Initiative. Their comment was that "it's a moral issue" and said there is nothing wrong with the church doing fundraising for it.

Worthington is a Salt Lake activist and former Mormon who edits an email news and information list that she calls "Kathy's List." On the list she had sent out information about the Mormon involvement in the same-sex battle in California, which reminded readers of the same kind of anti-gay efforts by the church in same-sex marriage battles in Hawaii and Alaska.

For a lot of Mormon list readers, the news about church efforts in California was 'the last straw' and they decided to get their names removed from church membership rolls. When Worthington discovered how many people were having the same thoughts about writing letters to get their names off the records of the church, she decided to make a formal campaign of it and by the end of July she had received letters or copies of letters from 50 people. About 30 other people had promised to write and send letters, too, and the letters had come in from Hawaii, New Jersey, California, New York City, Colorado,Tulsa, Oklahoma, Boise and Idaho Falls Idaho, Pullman Washington and Possum Trot, Kentucky. Most of the letters, however, were from people in Utah: Salt Lake City, Sandy, Draper, West Jordan, Provo, Ogden, Cedar City, Logan and Orem.