Pointing Fingers, Drawing Connections

It turns out that the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Days Saints (the Mormons) didn’t just walk the line separating church and state by advocating that all of their members volunteer time and donate cash to Proposition 8 and the slime campaign against marriage equality.

I wrote earlier about the movement to report the Mormons to the IRS.  But there’s a new political action group, Californians Against Hate and they’ve started some legal action against the Mormons for the huge amount of non-monetary contributions given to underwrite Proposition 8 that they apparently have not reported:

Under California Election Law organizations such as the Mormon Church are not required to report activities if they strictly constitute “member communication.” We will explain why we feel that the activities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints went far beyond “member communication,” and were instead specifically targeted at California’s 17 million voters. By not reporting any of these non monetary contributions, the Mormon Church violated the Political Reform Act.

The only mention of compliance was a news story stating that the Mormon Church reported a single non monetary contribution of $2078.00 for Church Elder L. Whitney Clayton’s travel expenses for one trip to California. Was there only one trip? Were no other Church officials traveling to California for such an important campaign?

This sort of activity in political movements is common.  For instance, if a large corporation lets a political action group use its phone lines or meeting rooms, etc., reporting the non-monetary donations keeps things honest.

Similarly, in my working with non-profit organizations, fund-raisers that give away prizes or swag bags worth more than the cost of entry are heavily scrutinez by the IRS as well and annual reports must include in-kind donations amongst other items.

The Californians Against Hate don’t have a lot of special access, it looks like, but they’ve strung together from public knowledge and record many non-monetary contributions.

Let’s see what happens.

Although KipEsquire has written about the chances and likelihood of getting the Mormons on the IRS:

…the Internal Revenue Code only places limit on endorsing particular candidates and not issue advocacy. (The counterargument that LDS engaging in impermissible “lobbying” is also too much of a stretch.)

Court challenges are one thing. Public shaming is one thing. Invoking the tax code is another thing altogether — and doomed to fail. Those disgusted by the soulless cretins who run the Mormon cult should stick to what actually has a chance of working.

[emphasis mine]

I’m not so sure.  Granted, I don’t have his expertise in law or accounting, and I do realize there’s a bias from courts against frivolous lawsuits… I think making the Mormon Church scramble and account for itself and its leaders in the media, in the courts, and on the streets (non-violently, of course) can be what educators and trainers sometimes call multi-channel learning.

The movement for civil rights and marriage equality as a cultural movement with national focus and attention is really just starting.  Leaders will emerge, and so will a strategy and consistent messaging.  Clearly, what’s gone before has failed.  I’m excited by what is just now emerging.

[Image by Bob Boster via Flickr under a creative commons license.]

This is simply too cute not to repost.

[Hat tip: Box Turtle Bulletin ]

Mormon Missionaries on a Mission

Excellent post with links:

Send the IRS an official complaint about the LDS Church’s activities, either by email, fax or US Mail.

How to File an IRS 501(c)(3) Complaint « Revoke LDS Church 501(c)(3) Status.

Follow the directions on the site.

[Hat tip:  Daniel | Image by Aoife via Flickr under a creatice commons license.]