Who are the Donors NOM is Trying to Keep Hidden?

Self-enriching Christianist whore, Maggie Gallagher's NOM has a track record around the country of believing itself above the campaign finance laws applicable to everyone else. Maine and NOM's fund raising effort that sank same sex marriage in that state is a case in point. As the Portland Press Herald is reporting, NOM is appealing the decision that it must disclose its donors - like every other political campaign organization operating in the state. I always operate on the premise that if one has nothing to hide, then one doesn't try to hide things. Thus, I can only conclude that (1) it would discredit NOM if the names of certain donors were revealed or (2) some of the donors may be in violation of campaign finance laws or IRS rules and don't want the proverbial shit to hit the fan if their names come out. Jeremy Hooper at Good As You suspects - and probably correctly so - that NOM might be hiding large contributions made by the Roman Catholic Church. To remain a tax-exempt church, 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code states in part that entities will remain tax exempt only if:

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operated exclusively for religious, . . . . no substantial part of the activities of which is carrying on propaganda, or otherwise attempting, to influence legislation (except as otherwise provided in subsection (h)), and which does not participate in, or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements), any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.
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Obviously, everything NOM does is aimed at attempting to influence legislation to deny LGBT Americans equal civil rights and civil marriage rights in particular. Obviously, if it were to turn out that the Catholic Church - or other denominations such as the Mormon Church - has been largely bank rolling NOM, the tax consequences could be huge. Here are some story highlights:
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A national group that opposes gay marriage is appealing a federal judge's decision to uphold Maine's campaign finance disclosure law that could force it to reveal its list of donors.
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Lawyers for the National Organization for Marriage filed their notice of appeal with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which already is considering another constitutional challenge of Maine's campaign finance law by the Virginia-based organization.
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Maine law says groups that raise or spend more than $5,000 to influence elections must register with the state and disclose their donors. NOM donated $1.9 million to Stand for Marriage Maine, a political action committee that helped repeal Maine's same sex marriage law.
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Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the ethics commission, said he was pleased that the state's disclosure laws pertaining to ballot committees stood up to scrutiny. "It lets the public know who's influencing them when the vote on ballot questions," he said.
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Already pending before the Boston appeals court is a separate appeal brought by NOM of election law governing political action committees, independent campaign contributions and other attribution and disclaimer elements required by Maine's election laws.

Bangor Daily News Takes on Stand for Marriage Maine and Catholic Church Lies and Untruths

As was the case in California with Proposition 8, the Roman Catholic Church is taking an active role in seeking to over turn gay marriage in Maine - something I wish the IRS would investigate since 501(c)(3) charities such as churches are NOT supposed to get involved with advocating for specific pieces of legislation. In this effort, the Church is firmly in bed with the Stand for Marriage Maine crowd of homophobes. As is almost always the case with the Catholic Church of late, the Church fathers close their eyes to lies and the dissemination of deliberate falsehoods are part of the Church's efforts to keep gay and lesbian couples second class citizens and to marginalize their families. Meanwhile, of course, the dottering hypocrites within the Church hierarchy ignore the growing rot within their own ranks and do nothing to punish those who enabled or covered up for predator priests. Fortunately, the Bangor Daily News is calling the Stand for Marriage on the dishonest anti-same sex marriage campaign. Here are some highlights on the falsehoods the Stand for Marriage and Catholic Church are pushing in Maine:

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The debate about the Nov. 3 ballot’s Question 1, the effort to repeal Maine’s newly minted same-sex marriage law, will heat up in the coming weeks. Heat is one thing. Falsehoods re another. Opponents of the law are bringing children into the fray, suggesting their innocence would be sullied if the repeal fails. It’s a ploy that has been used effectively before; any candidate for elected office who supports sex education is said to favor handing out condoms to kindergarten children. This time, the claim by repeal proponents is that schools would be forced to teach “gay sex education.” It is baseless and betrays an ignorance about education. The claim was made by the Stand for Marriage Maine group in a recent mass e-mail message soliciting donations.

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The same-sex marriage law does not address anything in state education law. And, further, there are no state mandates to teach sex education, let alone explicit “gay sex education,” as the repeal group’s e-mail stated. Sexuality is discussed in most Maine high schools, and has been for decades, but locally elected school boards oversee those curriculums and parents are able to exempt their children from those discussions.

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So, the question that remains about the repeal proponents is: Are they knowingly misleading people by claiming schools will be forced to teach the details of gay sex, or are they genuinely ignorant that same-sex couples are among us, and that their children are in our schools? Neither speaks well of their argument supporting a yes vote.

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Again, I have to ask why is it apparently just fine for self-proclaimed Christians to lie, cheat and engage in other nasty actions to further their theocratic agenda? In my view, honesty and telling the truth should be among the hallmarks of Christians. Nowadays, lying and dishonesty seem to be the norm.