SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Coveted space in the New York Times - the advertising pages. It is an expensive full page ad condemning the violence and intimidation directed recently at the LDS Church over its support of California's Prop 8 banning gay marriage.
It started with dozens of protests nationwide, some of which got violent. Then a white powder scare at temples in Salt Lake and Los Angeles. There’s even a new Jack Black video "Prop 8 – The Musical” mocking the LDS Church and their stance on Prop 8. There has been no shortage of negative attention on The Church, but Friday, we saw something positive. A full page ad in the New York Times backed by Jews, Catholics, and civil rights activists to name a few.
Part of the message says, "The violence and intimidation being directed against the LDS or "Mormon" Church, and other religious organizations - and even against individual believers - simply because they supported Proposition 8 is an outrage that must be stopped."
Local religious leaders from different faiths are supporting the ad. Rabbi Benny Zippel says violence masked as freedom of speech should never be tolerated, “We've come to a point of our history and of our lives that we have to stop using violence as a way to make our statements.”
Bishop John Wester with the Catholic Church says some of the acts towards the LDS Church jeopardize the rights of everyone, “Even the signatories say we disagree with each other on a lot of things but we do agree on this that we have to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other to protect our right to be able to express our opinion in the public square.”
The Church has called the ad a thoughtful and generous gesture and says in a statement, "We join with those of all religious faiths and political persuasions who have called for reasoned and civil discourse on matters that affect our nation."
