Several Mormon churches and Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church are taking heat for California’s decision to ban gay marriage.
About 1,000 people protested in front of Saddleback, according to the Associated Press. Warren had endorsed Proposition 8 before it was passed with 52 percent of the votes cast last week.
The Mormon church has already been targeted after it contributed an estimated 40 percent of the individual donations made to the Yes on 8’s $30 million-plus campaign, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Here are numbers from Matthai Kuruvila:
– 84 percent of those who attend church weekly voted yes.
– 81 percent of white evangelicals voted yes.
– 65 percent of white Protestants voted yes.
– 64 percent of Catholics voted yes. Catholics accounted for 30 percent of all voters.
A poll showed that weekly churchgoers increased their support in the final week from 72 percent to 84 percent, with Catholic support increasing from 44 percent to 64 percent. Kuruvila writes writes that the jump that accounted for 6 percent of the total California electorate, equivalent to the state’s entire African American population combined and more than accounted for Prop. 8’s 5 percent margin of victory.
