Posted on 09/18/2008 1:53:40 PM PDT by TheDon
When the LDS Church called upon its members to ''do all you can'' to back California's proposed gay-marriage ban, it inspired Orem entrepreneur Bruce Bastian.
He donated $1 million - to the opposition.
In one fell swoop of his pen, the WordPerfect co-founder outspent all Utah donors - 37 of them - who have pitched in $120,550 to push Proposition 8, a ballot measure seeking to eliminate Caifornia's current recognition of same-sex couples marriages. The outcome could wind up framing the issue for other states.
Bastian, a former Mormon who is openly gay, made a smaller donation of $5,000 to the Human Rights Campaign's ''No on Prop 8'' committee earlier, in May, but he was "upset" when the LDS Church issued its statement in June urging members to back the proposed constitutional amendment. So he upped the ante with a seven-figure check.
"The LDS Church has no business [sticking] their big nose in something that's a legal matter, not a religious matter," Bastian said. "Constitutions are meant to protect minorities, not to take rights away from people."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on its Web site, directs members who want to support Prop 8 to visit ProtectMarriage.com, which operates from Sacramento, Calif. Utahns have kicked in $120,550 to the Prop 8 backer, according to public finance records. Mormonsfor8. com, a Web site tracking LDS donors through Internet research and word of mouth, pegs overall Mormon support as much higher.
The group has identified about a third of donors backing Prop 8 as Mormon, with their contributions reaching close to $5 million.
"If we could identify every Mormon, I think that probably 85 to 90 percent of the donors [to ProtectMarriage.com] would be Mormon," said Cedar City resident Nadine Hansen, creator of Mormonsfor8.com. A member of the church and a former Californian, she considers the site to be informational and neutral on Prop. 8.
ProtectMarriage.com spokeswoman Jennifer Kerns acknowledged that a large number of the group's 25,000 volunteers, who spend weekends canvassing neighborhoods and making phone calls, are LDS.
"We have had a great amount of support from the LDS Church," she said, "just as we have from the Catholic Church, the evangelical Christian community and other faiths."
"Californians are sick and tired of the court system sticking it to the voters," she said, noting that voters passed a law banning gay marriage in 2000 that, earlier this year, was overturned by the California Supreme Court.
Marriage between a man and a woman, she added, "is the definition that is healthiest for our society and that is the definition that is healthiest for our children."
In its June 30 statement, the LDS Church said its position on the "moral issue" of marriage is "unequivocal."
"Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and the formation of families is central to the creator's plan for his children."
What a spiteful dweeb.
Wow, he outspent Brad Pitt.
My guess is, in so doing, and in doing so so publically, that now many more will donate the other way.
Either way, it will be the voters of California who decide this and though a moral constitutional republic's constitution is indeed meant to protect its citizens, it was never meant to protect evil and perversion against nature and nature's God.
The people will decide and my prayers and money are going to suppor those who would defend marriage as defined traditionally.
Protecting minorities?
WTF
“Bastian, a former Mormon who is openly gay”
Explains now why WordPerfect took in the rear from Word.
All religions require marriage between one man and one woman...that’s it! The only reason the gays want to be married is to tear apart the moral fabric of society and cripple the Church....that’s it...period!
BTW, 98% of civil unions end in separation...Mice.
I am crushed. WordPerfect was the best by far (except maybe Nota Bene) in the ‘80’s. There are still some things that the old version executed better than any graphical OS word processor does (especially its search and replace).
I was going to say it explains why WordPerfect sucked so much.
well then SOOOOOO glad wordperfect is dead.
my check is bigger than your check?
perhaps he was trying to impress the hollyweird crowd and get invited the coooooool homosexual parties...
Good for the LDS Church in backing the California marriage proposition. Let the moron waste his $1 million, it won’t do any good. Righteousness will always prevail in the end.
Amen to that.
Hopefully the d*****t who developed that piece of crap WordPerfect software, and sold it for 500 dollars a copy, will lose this million.
What is Bastian’s Freeper name? I swear his statements sound a lot like the “We hate Mormons” derangement crowd who would show up regularly on any thread having to deal with Mitt Romney or Mormon topics.
For everyone?
Newsflash! This is about a government standardized contract program that happens to be called “marriage.” It’s not religious in any way. It would be illegal for government to establish a religion. If you want a religious government, I think you can still find Sharia law in the Middle East. I’ll even help you pack.
Newsflash! Marriage was legitimized by churches under religious purview as a sacrament long before most of the governments on the planet existed. Who is raiding whose turf, here? Get the government out of religion.
The smallest minority on earth is the individual. — Ayn Rand
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