HASTINGS, Neb. (ABC 4 News) - Andrew Callahan is a member of the LDS Church but he thinks not for much longer. Callahan has been speaking out against a gay marriage ban on the California ballot and Callahan now faces excommunication.
6 weeks from Tuesday, California voters will decide the fate of Proposition 8.
Prop 8, if passed, would ban gay marriages in California, and because Andrew Callahan opposes Prop 8, he now faces mounting opposition from the LDS Church.
Andrew Callahan of Hastings, Nebraska says he got a letter from his church stake leaders Monday night.
It says, “...you are reported to have participated in conduct unbecoming a member of the church and have been in apostasy."
Andrew Callahan responds by saying, "I am a member of a church that is oppressing people and that just seems wrong to me and I am trying to stop them."
Callahan may be in hot water with the LDS Church because of this website - Signing for Something.
He says it's a way for church members and friends of the church to speak out against California's prop 8 - a ballot measure which would ban gay marriage there.
Callahan says, "I can't believe there is a god who is a bigot and it just seems like the same sort of racial bigotry that the Mormon Church was known for in the 50's, 60's and 70's."
The LDS Church not only publicly backs Prop 8, LDS members have now reportedly given up to 40 percent of all money donated to support it.
But even a likely excommunication doesn't change Callahan's mind.
He says, "We're just wrong and we need to change that and I'm not going to stop when they excommunicate me and I am not going to apologize and beg them to keep me a member of the church."
And in his likely last few hours as a Mormon, Callahan wishes that...
"..Thomas S. Monson would stand up bravely - like Spencer W. Kimball did in the past - and say enough is enough."
Andrew Callahan - who, incidentally, is not gay - will appear before a LDS disciplinary hearing early Friday night.
He says by the end of that evening, he will be excommunicated and that saddens him.
Because of confidentiality concerns, the LDS Church declined ABC 4's invitation to comment.
