{"id":113,"date":"2009-01-15T11:34:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-15T11:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/01\/mormon-church-cant-operate-in.html"},"modified":"2009-01-15T11:34:12","modified_gmt":"2009-01-15T11:34:12","slug":"mormon-church-cant-operate-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/01\/mormon-church-cant-operate-in.html","title":{"rendered":"Mormon Church Can&#8217;t Operate In The Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta name=\"ProgId\" content=\"Word.Document\"><meta name=\"Generator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\"><meta name=\"Originator\" content=\"Microsoft Word 11\"><link rel=\"File-List\" href=\"file:\/\/\/C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cbathija%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml\"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"State\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"country-region\"><\/o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" name=\"place\"><\/o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument>  <w:View>Normal<\/w:View>  <w:Zoom>0<\/w:Zoom>  <w:PunctuationKerning\/>  <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas\/>  <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false<\/w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>  <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false<\/w:IgnoreMixedContent>  <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false<\/w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>  <w:Compatibility>   <w:BreakWrappedTables\/>   <w:SnapToGridInCell\/>   <w:WrapTextWithPunct\/>   <w:UseAsianBreakRules\/>   <w:DontGrowAutofit\/>  <\/w:Compatibility>  <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4<\/w:BrowserLevel> <\/w:WordDocument><\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState=\"false\" LatentStyleCount=\"156\"> <\/w:LatentStyles><\/xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid=\"clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D\" id=\"ieooui\"><\/object>\n\n<style>st1\\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }<\/style>\n\n<![endif]--><\/p>\n<style><!-- \/* Style Definitions *\/ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\t{mso-style-parent:\"\";\tmargin:0in;\tmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\tfont-size:12.0pt;\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\tmso-fareast-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";}@page Section1\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\tmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\tmso-header-margin:.5in;\tmso-footer-margin:.5in;\tmso-paper-source:0;}div.Section1\t{page:Section1;}--><\/style>\n<p><!--[if gte mso 10]>\n\n<style> \/* Style Definitions *\/ table.MsoNormalTable\t{mso-style-name:\"Table Normal\";\tmso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;\tmso-tstyle-colband-size:0;\tmso-style-noshow:yes;\tmso-style-parent:\"\";\tmso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;\tmso-para-margin:0in;\tmso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;\tmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\tfont-size:10.0pt;\tfont-family:\"Times New Roman\";\tmso-ansi-language:#0400;\tmso-fareast-language:#0400;\tmso-bidi-language:#0400;}<\/style>\n\n<![endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">You&#8217;re not the only one filing a brief before the CaliforniaSupreme Court in the Proposition 8 case this week, Jay. Americans United hasjoined with more than two dozen other civic groups to file our own brief. Notsurprisingly, our argument is quite a bit different than yours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p>This dispute revolves in part around some fairly esoteric questionsof <st1:state w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">California<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>law. I won&#8217;t get into all of that. Suffice to say, I do not believe a slimmajority of Californians (or Pennsylvanians, Mississippians, Oregonians, etc.)should be able to strip a minority group of its basic rights by any vote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p>Our brief makes this point. It reads in part, &#8220;IfProposition 8 were a proper subject for an initiative vote, then so would be ameasure seeking to amend the California Constitution to bar interracial orinterfaith marriages, to exclude women from certain occupations, to limitfreedom of speech only for certain racial or national groups, or to suspendprotections against unwarranted searches and seizures for members of certainnational groups. As this Court and its federal counterpart have recognized, noperson should have such fundamental rights &#8211; even one of them &#8211; subject to thevicissitudes of a bare majority of voters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p>As you know, Jay, there was a time in <st1:country-region w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region> whenmajorities were greatly offended by the idea of interracial marriage and soughtto curb it through laws. Had it been put to a vote as a constitutionalamendment in, say, <st1:state w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Alabama<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>,there&#8217;s no doubt it would have passed easily. That does not make it right. Itwas a grotesque violation of basic rights, and the U.S. Supreme Court was rightto nullify such bans in <i><a href=\"http:\/\/caselaw.lp.findlaw.com\/scripts\/getcase.pl?court=US&amp;vol=388&amp;invol=1\">Loving v. Virginia<\/a><\/i>. (I should point out that plenty of misguided clergysupported these bans, and even cited scripture in framing their argument.) <span style=\"\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p>In short, majority rule is great for determining who sits onthe school board; it&#8217;s less effective in determining basic rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p>There is another issue here that deserves a hard look: therole of the Mormon Church and other religious groups in passing Prop. 8. TheMormons say they donated only a few thousand to the effort, but now reports aresurfacing that it might have been a good deal more. The church sponsored Websites, ran phone banks and undertook other activities to promote Prop. 8. Itdoes not appear that this activity was reported to state officials, as <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:state w:st=\"on\">California<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> law requires.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p>When well-heeled religious groups spend mega-bucks to writetheir pet theological notions into law for everyone else to follow, we have achurch-state problem on our hands &#8211; whether you recognize that or not.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p>Religious groups have the right to speak out on the socialissues of the day, but I believe they have no right to skirt neutralcampaign-reporting laws that their secular counterparts must follow to the letter.These groups are trying to effect public policy, and the people who would beaffected by that policy have a right to know about it. I <a href=\"http:\/\/americannewsproject.com\/videos\/189\">discussed<\/a> this issuerecently with the American News Project. Our readers can see the video <a href=\"http:\/\/americannewsproject.com\/videos\/189\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p><br \/><\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You&#8217;re not the only one filing a brief before the CaliforniaSupreme Court in the Proposition 8 case this week, Jay. Americans United hasjoined with more than two dozen other civic groups to file our own brief. Notsurprisingly, our argument is quite a bit different than yours. &nbsp;This dispute revolves in part around some fairly esoteric&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,40],"tags":[43,46,45,42,44],"class_list":["post-113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-gay-marriage","category-religious-bigotry","tag-gay-marriage-2","tag-interracial-marriage","tag-loving-v-virgnia","tag-mormons","tag-proposition-8"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mormon Church Can&#039;t Operate In The Dark - Lynn v. Sekulow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/01\/mormon-church-cant-operate-in.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mormon Church Can&#039;t Operate In The Dark - Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You&#8217;re not the only one filing a brief before the CaliforniaSupreme Court in the Proposition 8 case this week, Jay. Americans United hasjoined with more than two dozen other civic groups to file our own brief. Notsurprisingly, our argument is quite a bit different than yours. &nbsp;This dispute revolves in part around some fairly esoteric&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/2009\/01\/mormon-church-cant-operate-in.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lynn v. Sekulow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-01-15T11:34:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rev. Barry W. Lynn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mormon Church Can't Operate In The Dark - Lynn v. 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Lynn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/32b\/32b0f12cad840c65bff61ad01e2664aax96.jpg","caption":"Rev. Barry W. Lynn"},"description":"Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution's religious liberty provisions (www.au.org). In addition to his work as a long-time activist and lawyer in the civil liberties field, Lynn is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, offering him a unique perspective on church-state issues. An accomplished speaker and lecturer, Lynn has appeared frequently on television and radio broadcasts to offer analysis of First Amendment issues. News programs on which Lynn has appeared include PBS's \"NewsHour,\" NBC's \"Today Show,\" Fox News Channel's \"O'Reilly Factor,\" ABC's \"Nightline,\" CNN's \"Crossfire,\" CBS's \"60 Minutes,\" MSNBC's \"Countdown with Keith Olbermann,\" Fox News Channel's \"Hannity & Colmes,\" ABC's \"Good Morning America,\" CNN's \"Larry King Live\" and the national nightly news on NBC, ABC and CBS. On the radio, Lynn serves as host of \"Culture Shocks,\" a daily look at various issues affecting society and the culture. In the 1990s he served for two years as regular co-host of \"Pat Buchanan and Company\" and after that did a weekly syndicated radio program, \"Review of the News,\" with Col. Oliver North. Lynn is a regular guest on nationally broadcast radio programs, including National Public Radio's \"All Things Considered,\" \"Morning Edition\" and \"Talk of the Nation,\" as well as having appeared on national networks such as CBS Radio, CNN Radio, ABC Radio and AP Radio. Lynn began his professional career working at the national office of the United Church of Christ, including a two-year stint as legislative counsel for the Church's Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C. From 1984 to 1991 he was legislative counsel for the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union. In 2006, Lynn authored Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault On Religious Freedom (Harmony Books). In 2008 he coauthored (with C. Welton Gaddy) First Freedom First: A Citizen's Guide to Protecting Religious Liberty and the Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press). Lynn writes frequently on religious liberty issues, and has had essays published in outlets such as USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Nation. Lynn also has op-eds published frequently by the McClatchy and Scripps-Howard newspaper chains. A member of the Washington, D.C. and U.S. Supreme Court bar, Lynn earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978. In addition, he received his theology degree from Boston University School of Theology in 1973. Lynn, who was born in Harrisburg, Pa., and raised in Bethlehem, Pa., lives in Chevy Chase, Md., with his family.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/author\/blynn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lynnvsekulow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}