Olson/Boies Prove Religious Involvement in Prop 8

Very big news in the federal Prop 8 trial today: the plaintiffs were able to produce and enter into evidence documents that reveal that the Mormon and Catholic churches were both intimately involved in ProtectMarriage.com's activities to enact Proposition 8.

An e-mail from the executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to the bishops and a cardinal said Catholics were crucial in providing money and volunteers to qualify Proposition 8 for the ballot.

The e-mail also praised the Mormon Church, saying it had provided "financial, organizational and management contributions" for the measure.

A memo by a Mormon Church public affairs officer said the Proposition 8 campaign was "entirely under priesthood direction," and the minutes of a Mormon Church meeting said members should not take the lead in promoting Proposition 8 but should work through Protectmarriage.com.

The church document said a teleconference had been held in Salt Lake City with 159 of 161 Mormon leaders in California. The leaders were told to encourage members to contribute $30 each for Proposition 8, toward a projected goal of $5 million, in addition to general fundraising.

As Julia Rosen over at Prop8TrialTracker.com said, this is an "explosive" revelation:

This is perhaps the most explosive bit of all, from a document between the LDS Church and the campaign:

With respect to Prop. 8 campaign, key talking points will come from campaign, but cautious, strategic, not to take the lead so as to provide plausible deniability or respectable distance so as not to show that church is directly involved.

Get that? The LDS Church intentionally worked to hide behind the scenes to disguise their involvement in the public realm. The LDS Church is well aware that the general public does not have the most favorable opinion of them. Attention on their involvement could have hurt their cause, namely passing Prop 8.

The plaintiffs intend to rest on either late Thursday or early Friday and then the real fun will begin as the unapologetic heterosexual supremacists of ProtectMarriage.com defend Proposition 8 before a skeptical and sharply intelligent federal judge.