Results tagged “mormon”

Machine Project is hosting a “Farewell to Analog TV” lecture and mixer tonight at 10 pm. Jason Torchinsky will talk about mechanical televisions, which will be followed by a countdown to the demise of analog TV. At midnight, all the old analog television broadcasts will stop, replaced by digital signals so all the TVs without converter boxes won’t work anymore. Machine Project will be gathering a pyramid of old TVs together for a countdown as they go to static, all at once.

A report filed yesterday with the California Secretary of State reveals that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "spent $190,000 more supporting the Proposition 8 gay marriage ban than they previously reported," according to the Daily News. The amount previous given was only $2,078. The money was spent on travel for church leaders based in Utah, use of facilities and equipment at their Salt Lake City headquarters, and to pay employees to work on passing the controversial proposition banning same-sex marriage. The Mormon church is now "being investigated by the state Fair Political Practices Commission." Donations to the Prop 8 campaign have attracted much attention from the media and from groups who opposed Prop 8; a recent motion to keep private the names of donors was denied on Thursday. A full list of Mormons for 8 donors is available online.

"The Los Angeles Mormon Temple in Westwood, which was the target of recent protests by opponents of Proposition 8, has been closed because temple employees received an envelope filled with an unidentified white powdery substance, according to a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," reports ABC7 who says a similar letter was sent to the Salt Lake City Mormon temple. UPDATE, 5:32 pm: NBC4 says this is an FBI investigation and people are sheltered in place inside the temple. UPDATE #2, 6:00 p.m.: NBC4 reports that the situation is over and the powder is not harmful.

       

After seven straight days of protests, two planned events last night had a comparatively low turnout. At least seven news vans were parked at the Mormon Church on Santa Monica Blvd. last night, but protesters were few and far between. Later in West Hollywood, a planned protest at Santa Monica and San Vicente Boulevards had turned out about 50 people, who are seen below.

But Marjorie Chrisoffersen, who is also a Mormon, is not feeling good about her actions. She wants to speak to people about it tomorrow before lunch at the restaurant on Beverly Blvd. near La Brea:

The protests of California have spread to the East Coast. Tomorrow, "New Yorkers are planning a protest on the Upper West Side, outside the Church of Latter Day Saints at Columbus Avenue and West 65th," says Gothamist. But that won't be the end of it. Protests are planned in every state this Saturday with one (of many in California) in Los Angeles at City Hall at 10:30 a.m.

                     

Thursday's protest and march against the passing of Proposition 8 stirred many emotions and reactions from those involved, those in agreement, and those who are happy to have seen the controversial proposition--which amends the state Constitution to define marriage as limited to being between a man and a woman--pass, even by a slim margin. While the discussion continues about the ramifications of this proposition passing, the next steps for those who oppose the measure, how the voting population arrived at their choice on the issue, and what will become of the marriages of those same-sex couples who were married between May and November, the current movement has been concentrated on rallies, marches, and protests.

A fight that broke out between opponents and proponents of Prop 8, the November 4th ballot initiative that sought to ban gay marriage in California, ended with two people apparently being sent to the hospital. Leah Murphy of Westwood said she was walking with a group of ten friends at Thursday's protest outside the Mormon Temple on Santa Monica Blvd. when two women who were said to have come from within church grounds began to call them derogatory names.

Rick Jacobs, Chair of the Courage Campaign, accompanied by Reverend Eric Lee, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Council of California, held a press conference outside the Los Angeles Mormon Temple this week. They attempted to peacefully deliver a petition with nearly 17,000 names of Californians opposed to the Mormon Church's funding and tactics in support of Proposition 8. They simply asked that the LA Mormon Church pass on these petitions to Utah. This video literally captures the runaround that the church gave them, and in the end, they were denied an opportunity to talk to a representative of the church or to even deliver the signature-laden pieces of cardboard.

There's nothing particularly scathing in this letter asking for Prop 8 support, but as blogger John Remy at Mind on Fire points out, he was only sent this letter because he's on the Mormon Church's official ward roster.