Thou Shalt Not Lie

Come on, it's the ninth commandment. Practically the last one on the list. It can't be that important, right? If it was it would have been first, like "You shall have no other gods before me." What's a lie or two between friends? Or between California's Fair Political Practices Commission and the Church of Latter-Day Saints? The commandments are like one of those 100 Greatest Films Ever Made lists, by the time you're down to McCabe & Mrs. Miller, you pretty much stop giving a shit. Besides, there's really only three or four commandments that matter. But the ninth? Wevs. Why bother?

That is, apparently the Mormon Church's stance. They had been claiming they only ponied up $2,078 to support Prop 8. In light of an investigation by California's Fair Political Practices Commission, they've had to revise their figures to the tune of about $188,000. Among the previously unlisted expenses: "$96,849 for compensated staff time for church employees who worked on the campaign, $20,575 for the use of facilities and equipment at its Salt Lake City headquarters, $26,000 for audio-visual production and travel expenses for church leaders to go to California."

Also worth noting: "If the Commission finds the Church broke state election laws it could be fined up to $5,000 per violation. The Commission also could file an additional civil lawsuit." Not that the Mormon Church is short on cash or anything, as is evidenced by their willingness to throw a couple hundred grand at this issue, so I doubt such a ruling would hurt them all that much.

Still, I'd like to hear how they, and their cronies, will defend this.