8: The Mormon Proposition

8:THE MORMON PROPOSITION provides a blue print as to how Big Money in one state orchestrated the outcome of a propositional ballot in two other states. Out of state Mormon influence and money flooded two state campaigns, Hawaii and California, and managed to sway the election to their political and religious agenda. This film emphatically demonstrates how this type of foreign influence strikes at the heart of the American democratic process. Regardless of your personal beliefs on the Gay Rights Issue, this film is really more about how our system of elections can be subverted by deceptively diabolical political marketing practices. Clearly, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is acting as a political action committee, and this form of ethical extortion by a rich and powerful tax exempt organization needs to be stopped. Supreme Court, where are you?

Frightening documentary on how the Mormons got Proposition 8 (making same-sex marriages illegal) passed. It shows a church secretly getting out the message to all Mormons that gays and lesbians are evil and don't deserve to be married. It covers this with interviews with people involved in the battle and shows how much Mormons hate gays and lesbians. Also they interview a happily married gay couple. Their love for each other comes flying through...and also their sadness when Prop. 8 was passed. Seeing these two men fighting back tears while explaining how the proposition almost destroyed them was heart-wrenching. I broke down crying (and quite a few of the other people in the theatre lost it too). It also made me furious showing how these monsters got their hateful agenda passed. In a way this WAS uplifting too. We now KNOW how they did it--and will make sure it never happens. Powerful and moving.

The time for good men and women to stand up and be counted in the fight for humans rights has been heard over and over again throughout the world. The fight for Jews in Nazi Germany, for African Americans in the United States, and for women here and throughout the world goes on. The front lines of the battle now in this country is for full and complete rights for gays and lesbians.

The church, in all it's various names and forms, have been seen throughout history as one of the largest groups either ignoring those whose rights were being violated, or have been complicit in the violations. Here, in this film, we see the Mormon Church joining with the Catholic Church to raise millions to fight against human rights for gays and lesbians in California.

This spectacular documentary shows how these churches hid behind a shell group to fight Proposition 8.

The hate messages of the Mormon faithful was obvious. The church spread their lies, and the sheep just followed.

The worst abuses by the Mormon Church are too horrific to comment on. You have to see the film to understand the cruelty of this so-called religion. They are no different today as the Catholic Church was in the 16th Century.

The bottom line is that the Mormon Church will see that their $22 million spent to spread hate will be money wasted.

I saw this film at a screening in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2010. Admittedly, I am LDS and I identify as a gay man. Obviously, this is a movie that I wanted to see because I had these two elements of my life fighting with each other, both in private (in my own mind) and in public (LDS Church vs. the anti-Proposition 8 movement). First of all, the movie definitely has an agenda. However, the title does not lie; sometimes the truth hurts. Being involved in both of these communities fairly actively, I can tell you that this movie brings the truth about Proposition 8 to light. Where the film crosses the line is in its sometimes sensationalistic portrayal, in how the facts are presented to the audience. The truth is presented, but not in the best way or method. Reed Cowan (director) did try to interview LDS Church officials and spokespeople, but his requests were either denied or ignored. Can people really blame him for this? Criticisms of his film being "too biased" are without knowledge of this fact. A lot has to be said for the documents from the 1990's proving that the anti-gay marriage group in Hawaii was created, staffed, and funded through Mormon means. It may all have been done legally, but that doesn't mean that it was right or moral. A lot of criticism of the film points to the "picking-and-choosing" of which phrases from these documents were highlighted on screen and pointed out to the viewer. This is easily remedied: to see the documents, simply go to "Mormon Gate dot com" and read them. The documents speak for themselves.

I rarely take the time to actually write a review for a movie, but seeing as there are few, it is necessary. First of all, I wouldn't consider this a "hate" film, as previously stated. This is a film about denial of basic human rights and the out-of-state religious organization that donated millions of dollars to put an end to those rights. In fact, more than getting a sense of hatred towards Mormons, the documentary gave me a sense of sadness for the many gay Mormon teens that were driven to suicide or the Mormon families that were forced to donate upwards of $50,000- their whole livelihood- to a campaign so that they would not lose their membership to their church.

But more than anything, this film gave me a strange sense of hope. Sure, Proposition 8 passed. But seeing all of the happy marriages and learning that basically the only reason it did pass was because of the LDS Church gives me hope for a future of equality. I'm happy to live in a state that believes in human rights (MA) and I hope that movement will spread. Nothing will make you believe in gay marriage like Tyler Barrick and Spencer Jones (interviewed in the film). Like Tyler said, "it's simple- this is just love." This film will make you want to fight for that.